The Way We Were ......
 

and the way we are.

A while ago with the help of board members and a few purchases I put together my mutilated 1955 Topps set. I have finally gotten around to displaying this set and it looks great, despite the rounded or even absent corners, a few absent borders, a few tears, rubber band marks, evidence of tape and every other defect you can imagine. It worth a look, particularly if you were a card collector in the 50s.

Attachment 278156

A Preston Ward border is added to a previously trimmed Williams

Kaline folded into quadrants to fit in a smaller pocket.

Attachment 278157

Pendleton may have professionally rounded corners.

Attachment 278158

Carey has a bad case of road rash.

Attachment 278159

Ernie Banks has visited Jenny Craig.

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Kiely and Cunningham both have authentic period tape.

Attachment 278161

Hank is trying to divide into two cards and has nearly succeeded.

Attachment 278162

Jackie looks too good here, but there is a surface wrinkle.

Attachment 278163

Just the usual wear and tear.

This set will take several posts to complete, but already the message is evident. The set represents our youth. The chase for all the cards in the set, just as rewarding then and now. Greed is absent. No goal for resale here for profit. 0% Buyer's Premium would be offered gladly. Fraud ??? I dare say the entire set is authentic, but none of the cards warrant a TPG evaluation or letter of authenticity. No card doctors here, only butchers, and not very good butchers at that.

Talk about the ultimate trade up. This, my friend, is the ultimate starting point.

Stay tuned.

Just waiting for the bike spoke cards to come out. Great stuff...

That's neat Frank!

Thanks for sharing!!!!!!!

Cool thread Frank!

Round 2
 

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Koufax had a moustache. Who knew?

Killebrew - evidence of trim perhaps

This set is before my time so I don't have the same connection to it that those from an older demographic but I love what you have built there!

Round 3
 

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The Clemente was obtained during his RC hype. Any losses though will be tempered by his condition. It is a nice image though.

Astute observers will notice the absence of #166 Hank Bauer. I have a graded Hank though. Still looking for a suitable downgrade.

Attachment 278177

#175 was never issued, but a spot is reserved. You never know.

Attachment 278178

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#186 is identical to #175

Attachment 278180

I like the fact that Willie lost his New York Giants identity after heading to SF.
Surprised they didn't try to change the cap too. I'm not sure, but this could be the "die-cut" variation, very rare.

Attachment 278181

The last two nonexistent cards were not reserved a spot.

That's it. Complete. 206 cards. 62 years old. Putting it together in 1955-56 was fun. Putting it together in 2015-2016 was just as much fun.

A shout out to USPS as well for not damaging any of these beauties in transit.

A note of appreciation to Lucky Larry, who only collects this way to this day and should be an inspiration to more collectors (in addition to the OBC crowd), the way it was and the way it still can be.:D

Then let's some scans of your '89 Topps set! :D

Frank --- when are you starting on the variations/ variants ?

Isn't the one in my avatar impressive enough?:D

Awesome post Frank.

Good work Frank. That looks like it was a lot of fun.

My favorite set from the '50s. Some prefer '56 with the action scenes in the background, but I like the way the colors pop and contrast with the portraits in the '55s.

I don't collect cards anymore, but as I look back to my childhood, I always liked the flawed cards in my collection. Ones that were diamond-shaped or blurry or whatever. I'll never forget my 1980 Moose Haas that looked like only two colors printed.

I guess I've always been a little weird.:)

Now I feel a little better about the first 1929 R316 Ott rookie I bought--quite nicely centered for the card, but a corner missing, writing on the back, and a tack hole, making it an SGC Poor 10. It is a bit more interesting that I heard that it was originally owned by the seller's grandfather, who was a sportswriter covering the New York Giants during Ott's career, and he had it pinned up in the area of his seat in the Polo Grounds press box. Guess I'm personally not much of a beater type (The PSA 7 I won in one of the recent PWCC auctions softened my feelings about the "10" example a bit, though).

May your collecting bring you happiness in whatever form it takes!

Larry

Beautiful Collection Frank! Did you see the starter set of '64 Topps coins I recently picked up?

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...n/IMG_0813.jpg

I was wondering when you were going to post this up, Frank.

I warned you about my Aaron card. :D

Great set Frank. Those well loved cards are way better than those high graded ones trapped in a plastic holder.:) I am very close to a 55 Bowman set in the same well loved condition.

just very cool. Wish you had posted the original post before I gave away my taped-back-together Rizzuto. He would have enjoyed a home in that set.

Very Nice 'Personalities' :eek: on those cards, Frank.

While I appreciate a good 'conversationalists' :rolleyes: as well as the next guy, I'll always have a preference for the 'purdy' ones :p.

Jack Daniels or moonshine?

If cards could talk, this set would probably have some of the best stories.

Nice post, Frank.

Wow, those pages make the cards pop!

Great set, Frank!
I did notice that you had the rare #175 and #186 variations. The ones with the wrong front/back combination.

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Really cool Frank. I am 41 so I missed the post WWII golden years of my youth, but I did grow up working for trade in a shop buried in the heart of a historic district(when I wasn't working on the farm). We had Native American artifacts, vinyl records, cards of all sorts and random antiques. It was one of the best educational experiences of my life learning from the characters that came through those doors. We had a 1920's cash register and an old bank safe. It was still a time when people talked about baseball and searched through boxes of commons that I had spent hundreds of hours sorting for them to complete sets a few cards at a time. A 1957 sleeveless Ted Kluszewski, Luis Aparicio and All-Star cards of Herb Score were gems found in those boxes. No plastic encasing any of them. I picked at dry rotted rubber bands from thousands of 1950's cards and often times bought, sold and traded with their original collectors. Anyway, thanks for drumming up some fond memories and helping me remember that baseball cards used to be about the game/sport and relationship to the players.

Character, I say
 

Frank, those cards have character. And as Helen Keller said "Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet."

Great Stuff, Frank. And I wholeheartedly concur about Lucky Larry and the whole OBC crew.

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