The sports cards you need to make your life complete!

[Balticfox]

So which sports cards do you need to make your life complete? Now here I don't want remarks about chancing upon a super valuable T206 Honus Wagner card in a garage sale which you'd then quickly flip for the money. I'm talking about the sports cards that top your personal Want List. In other words the sports cards for which you'd most like to provide a forever home in your collection.

Here are mine in chronological order (and of course none of the cards I've pictured are my own):

1954 Blue Ribbon Jackie Parker



A classic tall-boy card set with Jackie Parker who was already a legend by the time I started first grade in 1958.

1954 Blue Ribbon Sam Etcheverry



A great pose and another name spoken with reverence in the schoolyard in 1958-59. I have a majority of the cards in this fabled set including the other big stars such as Jack Jacobs, Bud Grant, Gerry James, John Bright, Bernie Faloney and Eagle Keys.

1957 Topps Rocco Colavito



The rookie card of one of my favourite players from a set I like.

1958 Topps Roger Maris



Not just his rookie card but with the Cleveland Indians! I covet his 1959 card where he's with the Kansas City Athletics almost as much since I really like both the 1958 and 1959 Topps Baseball cards and I like Maris' pose on each of these cards.

1958-59 Topps Bobby Hull



This set is probably my favourite hockey card set of them all due to the classic design plus the fact that it was my introduction to sports cards. The Bobby Hull is not only his rookie card but is also the last card in the set which has made it even more difficult to find in grade. I bought a VG- one back in 1980 in an antique junk shop but traded it off about 25 years ago because it wasn't up to my quality standards when it came to condition. I'm looking for one now that's sharp and white but that's way off center to keep the price down to semi-reasonable levels.

1959 Topps Ernie Banks



A favourite player in a really nice pose from perhaps my favourite Topps Baseball card set.

1960 Topps Bob Clemente



Another one of my favourite players from a favourite set.

1960 Topps Wrapper



Perhaps the best looking Topps Baseball wrapper of them all!

1961-62 York Tim Horton



The only card I still need to complete this legendary food set.

1962 Canadian Post Cereal Baseball Panel with Willie Mays



I ate box after box of Sugar Crisp back in 1962 to get these panels. I currently have three other such panels in my collection. I had this panel up until eighteen months ago but traded it off to another Post collector for a Sugar Crisp panel featuring Ernie Banks that was in better condition plus a wad of cash. As a result the Willie Mays panel now tops my Want List. The other four 1962 Canadian Post Cereal Baseball Panels I need are those with Jim Bunning, Whitey Ford, Jim Gentile and Mickey Mantle and they're all really high on my Want List as well.

1963 CFL Gerry Patrick (Bilingual)



I bought Humpty Dumpty and Krun-Chee Potato Chips to get these coins as a kid. I traded off the bilingual back variant of the Gerry Patrick coin just over a year ago to a fellow collector who needed just this one coin to complete his set. Because of that it now tops my Want List.

1963 CFL Len Vella (English)



Once again I traded off my Len Vella coin earlier this year to another collector who needed just this one coin to complete his set. I'm working on separate English only and bilingual sets.

1964-65 Topps Pit Martin



The #1 card in this tough set. I had one that was marginally miscut top-to-bottom for a time but I traded it off in the expectation that I'd soon find a better one. Well that "soon" proved to be a much too optimistic expectation.

1964-65 Topps 2nd Series Checklist



I'm big on checklists and this one's a short print!

Plus any of the 1957-58 to 1962-63 plus 1964-65 Topps Hockey wrappers! Here's a 1959-60 one tracked down by Bobby Burrell: