Early 1970s OPC Six-Pack

I think this is my last post from one of my sportlots onslaughts, I have another onslaught or two but I don't think I'll blog about every single card like I have with this one. I don't feel like making one of them about 57 Baseball cards from 1972 Topps, maybe I'll hit some of the highlights from that group. Anyway these six Hockey cards from O-Pee-Chee are from the 1971-72 and 1972-73 sets. For team counters there are Two Sabres, Two Blues a Red Wing and a King.

1971-72 O-PEE-CHEE HOCKEY

1971-72 OPC Hockey 139 Bill Collins Red Wings

One of the things I like about OPC cards better than their Topps counterparts is the cleaner backs they have. Even though the designs are nearly identical the OPC cards are usually on white card stock or a lighter bleached card stock which makes reading their backs easier than on the Topps. (Sorry I don't have any back scans of these cards here, I do have an earlier back scan of my Topps vs. O-Pee-Chee post. Those cards are a bad example because both look awful in the back image scans. Sigh! Anyway Bill here I don't think is any relation to that musician guy Phil Collins. Just a typical upper body portrait shot with a color background here.

1971-72 OPC Hockey 162 Steve Atkinson Sabres

Here is Mr. Atkinson weighing in from his diet (sorry I wanted to make some kind of Atkinson Diet joke). We have a head and shoulders "bust" shot here with a plain color background. The cards with these pics look like mini portraits you might find in a family living room or hallway. I think that is what attracted me to this set at first. I really haven't paid much attention to the style trends of the jerseys (sweaters) over the years but the 70s did seem to have a few of these "swashbuckling" front laced jerseys instead of the full pullover heavy sweaters of old.

1971-72 OPC Hockey 225 Peter McDuffe Blues

Ah here we have a goalie almost in full gear, he doesn't have his face mask but if he did you wouldn't be able to tell who he was now would you? Man Mr. McDuffe (is the end "e" pronounced or not? McDuff or McDuff-ie?) looks like he's still a teenager in this photo even though he would have been 23/24 at the time. Part of the illusion is the big goalie knee/leg pads and the way he is crouched over a little.

Moving upward and onward to:

1972-73 O-PEE-CHEE HOCKEY

1972-73 OPC Hockey 35 Barclay Plager Blues

Growing up I had a few of the Topps version of these cards, my brother had a few more I think, but sadly most of those from "both collections" disappeared over the years. These OPC versions are a good example of the cleaner backs. For some reason I have always liked the design of this set even with the "off centering" of the border to allow the team name to run vertically down (or is it up?) the left-hand side. I could have sworn they alternated left/right but looking at a gallery of the set on Zistle.com. (hmm I think you need to register to see the "library") it appears they only have the team name on the left-side and top for the landscaped cards. We also have the solid color backgrounds which some colors work well others look blah.

1972-73 OPC Hockey 182 Rick Martin IA Sabres

 Speaking of landscaped cards here is one of them. It is one of the IA (In-Action) cards they also seem to have used the landscaping for the Stanley Cup and championship games cards and a few of the All-Star cards. Here we have Rick Martin of the Sabres no relation to the Latino singing heart-throb Ricky Martin.

 1972-73 OPC Hockey 193 Harry Howell Kings

As I said somewhere above these cards have the solid color backgrounds some which work, like the green here and some that don't. Also I think they work better with headshots and upper body shots than they do with the full body posed shots.I don't have enough of either set, or the time to study research to see how they determined which color to put with which player/card. It looks like it might have been a by team thing.

I need to concentrate on building these sets both in the OPC and Topps versions.

Curly W Cards Blog Update

I'm toying with the idea of starting a 2nd Card Blog (technically my 3rd since I have a blog at TCC). That will concentrate on Washington Baseball Nationals and Senators (and the players that have been on those teams). I did a little looking and didn't see any card blogs devoted to the Nationals. One or two bloggers may collect Nationals or one of their players, one blog I follow the guy seems to be a big Ryan Zimmerman fan, but the Nats are not his fave team. Many of the other more popular teams have several people blogging about their cards from those teams. I'm not sure how much I could keep up a blog like that but I might try. The big problem would be my big procrastination of scanning cards. I have many cards I was going to scan but haven't and I have a few series that I want to talk about in this blog that I haven't because I haven't done the scanning. (Footballs 2009 Philadelphia set comes to mind, I still need to finish that set among a million others). Another problem I have is I know I would accidentally cross-bleed posts about the Orioles and about my other Washington Teams.

Right now I'm thinking of titles for the blog some I'm thinking about are:

Curly W Cards

Washington Wax

DC Wax

Washington Natators

Washington SeNATors.

Nationals n Senators

DC Baseball Cards

Of course this might not even happen it is just a thought.

UPDATE: 27 Feb 2012 - "Curly W Cards" is launched. So far I have just set it up and posted a welcome post and page.

21FEB2012 - Well I didn't do the set up I was hoping to do over the weekend. I won't make any updates mentioning "future" stuff to do, just stuff I have done.

16FEB2012 - I plan on doing some of the initial set-up of the blog this weekend maybe. I already have a graphic logo for the blog, actually I have 3 logos ready, two use the same photographic scan I did a few years back with a bat and a couple of vintage hats. I also have a text intro I came up with to explain the scope of the blog. On a previous update I mentioned I had thought of "Curly W Cards" for the title which I am going to go with. I'm not sure of exactly when I made that update.

NOTE: on 24 November 2012 I decided to move this static page to a regular post and backdated it to 27 February 2012 which was the last update and the Launch of my Curly W. Cards blog.

Hockey Poker: A Pair

From the 11 FEB 2012 sportlots onslaught. We hit the ice and go back to 1969-70 Canada, sort of these are the O-Pee-Chee versions. One thing I've notice with this particular year is it seems that all the player's photos were taken in hallways or some corner of the locker room. The walls you can see are plain painted cinder block walls. I don't know much about the guys from this era of Hockey since I was just a little tyke at the time and it would be another 4 years or so before I became a hockey fan because the Capitals were not in existence yet. I think I was a semi Bruins fan because of Bobby Orr and the Phil and Tony Esposito Hockey game we had. I used to think both Esposito brothers played for the Bruins but it looks like that was only Phil. Back then I thought Tony was the one on the Bruins. On with the Cards:

1969-70 O-PEE-CHEE HOCKEY

1969-70 OPC Hockey 14 Ron Anderson Blues

 Here is a nice card of an Anderson. I tend to collect players with that name because it is similar to my last name Andersen. OK so technically its the same name but spelled different. The origin of the name means "Son of Ander" no matter how you spell it or where you come from even if you add a couple of "S"s.

1969-70 OPC Hockey 143 Jimmy Peters Kings

This card is almost a mirror image of the other card if you squint and are blue/red color blind. A typical posed photo of the player holding his stick down. I wonder if they were actually in their skates when these photos were taken? As I said the walls of the room are plain so they could have been taken while the players were suiting up. Yeah I'll keep thinking that.

1969-70 OPC Hockey 173 Dick Cherry Flyers

My first reaction to this card was Dick Cherry - I wonder if he is related to Don Cherry? (Player/Coach best known for coaching the Bruins) The answer is YES he is related they are brothers. Thank you Wikipedia. Again we have a player in a typical pose with his stick "on the ice". Only there is no ice here.

1969-70 OPC Hockey 197 Ken Broderick North Stars

This is why I kind of dig vintage cards of goalies. Check out the huge leather pads, OK so modern pads are still huge but they use foam and nylon and plastic and simulated leather now. This Mr. Broderick is no relation to the Actor Matthew.

1969-70 OPC Hockey 199 Tom Polonic North Stars

We got another North Star here and another faux "stick on the ice" pose. I bet he doesn't even have his skates on.

Bullets FourBall

From my sportlots onslaught part one which arrived on 11FEB2012. Here are four more of the Bullets cards I got. Brace yourselves folks because Thursday 16FEB2012 was a 10 package day and the results of some of that stuff will filter onto this blog sometime soon.

1979-80 TOPPS BASKETBALL

1979-80 Topps Basketball 18 Tom Henderson Bullets

Not much to say about this one. I don't recall Mr. Henderson.

1979-80 Topps Basketball 65 Wes Unseld Bullets

Looks like Mr. Unseld is swinging and getting some kind of groove on, maybe there is a Broadway musical there somewhere. Now the pose in this card is similar to the next card. I think I will do a separate post semi-in-depth comparison on these two cards sometime later.

1979-80 Topps Basketball 90 Elvin Hayes AS Bullets

As I said this card looks similar to Mr. Unseld's card from above. They both seem to be getting the rebound. Mr. Hayes seems to be fully planted where Mr. Unseld is in motion.

1979-80 Topps Basketball 103 Phil Chenier Bullets

My first reaction to this card was Mr. Chenier is waking funny. Upon further review it looks like he is actually running so it does sort of explain his weird walk.

Master Wantlist coming soon

Possibly later tonight Friday 24 FEB 2012 - I will be posting my Master Wantlist Page the link will show up on the right side-bar there under "My Checklists and Wantlists". Since it is a master list it includes some of the wantlists I already have listed there on the right giving me two things to update every time I get something on the lists. Some of those pages when I finish off their sets I will make a final regular post and remove it's "wantlist page". I plan on keeping this master list updated more frequently than my source lists at TCC that I used to initially compile this one, many of those were first posted 4 and 5 years ago and update once or twice about 3 years ago.

As usual if you have anything I am looking for please contact me, or just send the goodies my way.

Bullet to Rocket Early 80s Style

This is the other lonely card from my Basketball Bonanza on Saturday 11 February 2012.

1981-82 TOPPS BASKETBALL

1981-82 Topps Basketball - 42 Elvin Hayes Rockets

Here is a card of Elvin Hayes grabbing a rebound, and looking like he's going to slam-dunk the ball down on his team-mate's head. Topps obviously didn't have any time from when he was traded from the Bullets to the Rockets to take a new photo of him. They at least were able to announce he was traded.

Psyingle Psychedelic Psyeventies Basketball

On 11 February 2012 I got a dozen Bullets cards. I mentioned that on another post. Here is one of the two cards that were lonely for their year.

1974-75 TOPPS BASKETBALL

1974-75 Topps Basketball 143 Walt Wesley - Bullets

Will you check out the afro and the mutton-chop burns on that guy! Also check-out the Psychedelic Sixties/Seventies negative/color/mono-tint background. Sadly it is obvious he is in a photography studio standing in front of a green/blue screen (back then I think it was exclusively blue screen) but still it's a cool looking card.

1977-78 Bullets and a Rocket Boost

From the Ebay Bullets package I got on 11 Feb 2012. Here is a group of three cards from:

1977-78 TOPPS BASKETBALL

 

 1977-78 Topps Basketball - 40 Elvin Hayes - Bullets

OK so this card looks a little weird because Mr. Hayes appears to be slam dunking but his team-mate Mitch Kupchak appears to be walking on air? 

Bullets #25 Mitch Kupchak

Photo from Bullets/Wizards Alumni webpage

They must have lowered the basket or used a small kiddies basket that is only about 6 feet off the ground (Edit That can't be right either the players are 6 feet plus) instead of the standard 10 foot regulation height baskets in the arenas. I didn't notice that until I started commenting on this card in this post.

1977-78 Topps Basketball - 75 Wes Unseld - Bullets

The way Wes is leaning here it looks like he might end up on the floorboards. Anyway if I recall some of my childhood basketball memories correctly, despite starting to hate basketball sometime during the early 1980s, Mr Unseld was my favorite or one of my favorite Bullets players. I'm not sure where I have it but somewhere I have a mini poster circa 1976 from McDonalds of Wes and Coach 'K.C.' Jones from a series of mini posters they sold. The posters were one of the premiums that if you bought a certain sandwich (probably a Big Mac or Quarter Pounder) or "meal" you got the poster free, or you could buy the poster for $1.00 I think was the price. Each poster had 2 players pictured on them, there were 4 posters in the set. The "pictures" were caricatures of the players. I noticed someone on Ebay is selling the full set for $275.00 with $6 shipping.

1977-78 Topps Basketball - 124 Moses Malone - Rockets

OK so Mr. Malone is not a Bullet on this card, so why did I get a Non-Bullet card? It won't be until 1986 that he gets traded to DC. My collecting criteria for Basketball cards includes players that at one time in their careers played for the Bullets (Wizards not so much). If that wasn't the reason then the short easy excuse could be there are some Bullets pictured with him by sheer coincidence it happens to be the Two Bullets I have featured here and have their cards of Mr. Unseld and Mr. Hayes. How frackin' cool is that? It was totally unintended and again it wasn't until I was preparing this post that I even noticed the fact.

A Pair of Vintage Bruins

On Wednesday 08 February 2012, I got two vintage Bruins cards from a sportlots auction. Both cards have seen better days. If I had enough of these Hockey cards to talk about I'd start a "Poor Old Hockey Cards" blog. Unfortunately there are two big reasons I don't do that:

1. I don't have enough of vintage Hockey cards to talk about.
2. I don't have the time. I would have to get paid a nice salary that would replace my current job to be able to blog full time.

1961/62 Topps Hockey 6 Dick Meissner - Bruins

With this card I thought the whole thing was a drawing/sketch but it looks like the background with all the other players is actually a mono colored photograph. No matter what it is it is a very nice looking card, even it this particular specimen is in need of a whole lot of TLC.

1962/63 Topps Hockey 17 Irv Spencer - Bruins

This is a nice vintage Topps card, but why do I get the idea he looks like Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean?

Vintage Hoops 1973-74 Style

On 11 Feb 2012 I got a dozen Baltimore/Washington Bullets cards, well 8 were Bullets proper and 4 were Bullets players either Pre or Post-Bullets. Since I don't like posting too many cards at one time (I run into problems with the posting limit on the labels when I do that) I will divide this batch up by years which means two cards will be by their lonesome. So lets begin with the earliest a trio from 1973-74.

1973-74 Topps Basketball

 

 1973-74 Topps Basketball 95 Elvin Hayes - Bullets

1973-74 Topps Basketball 158 Assists Leaders

Nate Archibald - Kings/ Len Wilkens - Cavaliers/ Dave Bing - Pistons

1973-74 Topps Basketball 170 Dave Bing - Pistons

Stand-Ups 2003 Looks like 1964

Got this 2003 Topps Bazooka Stand-Up card (based on the 1964 Topps Stand-Ups) for a steal from sportlots for 25¢ plus shipping 95¢ Considering the player it is a super steal.

2003 Bazooka Stand-Up 9 Alex Rodriguez - Rangers

I do want to collect this set of 25 cards, plus probably the set of 4 red versions. I am also looking for the original 1964s in decent shape, preferably complete even if it was "folded".

Seattle Mariners 1982 Future Stars

 Why the seller was offering two of these I don't know. Anyway I've got two so one is for trade.

1982 Topps Baseball 711 Seattle Mariners Future Stars

Dave Edler - Dave Henderson - Reggie Walton

A Pair of 1969 Basemen

On Saturday 11 Feb 2012 I got several cards including two 1969 Topps Baseball. In looking at my pics on my hard-drive I couldn't believe that these are the only two 1969 Topps Baseball cards I had scanned.

From the defunct Houston Colt 45's here is 2nd baseman Joe Morgan. Correction: It is the ASTROS the 45s became the Astros in 1965. Why was I thinking they did it in 1970?

From the Cincinnati Reds 3rd baseman Tony Perez.

Mistress of Horror Sketch Set

On Friday 10 Feb 2012 I got my 5 card set of Elvira Sketch Cards for $3.99 FREE Shipping. The artist is Matthew Parmenter Ebay ID Monster-Art-World in Ohio. He seems to specialize in Horror.

The cards in in full color and are on photo stock/quality paper, the backs are clean and blank. The toploaders were taped at the top and two of them held two "cards" back to back. For all I know this guy could be just scanning his sketches and printing onto 2.5 x 3.5 photo stock cards in huge numbers. I don't care though I got this set because I really loved the look and the subject matter. When I first saw the auction for them there were only two maybe three of them I was really excited about now its more like 4 out of the 5.

Some internet searching lead me to some of the promo pictures that were used as a model for the sketches. This site snarkerati was a good source for some of them. When possible I have shown the original photo then the sketch, of course the image of her with her hands/nails up to her face in shock is a standard pose for Ms. Peterson so it might not be an exact match.

 

 

Charmed Autos

Went fishing on Ebay and got a few Charmed Autos from Inkworks. They are from a few different sets Charmed Destiny, Charmed Conversations, Charmed: Season One and Charmed:The Power Of Three set. They are supporting characters with the exception of Leo Wyatt played by Brian Krause that was the most expensive one. I got most of them for an average of a little under $3.00. I would love to get the autos of the Main stars the Halliwell Sisters but those are usually astronomical.

For the three I got from the same seller I thought I had been shilled. The opening bid for those three were just 99¢ (one of them might have been a little more). On all three of them the same bidder with a large feedback number had bid, but my max had them outbid. One of them a second person bid on it bringing the total number of bids up to 5. Now that I study the bid history and bid times it looks like that first bidder was trying to snipe me unsuccessfully. Probably a seller trying to get something for real cheap and then turn it around for an insanely inflated profit. They were 3 day auctions and the later bids were on the final day. Even if I was "shilled" I got them for nice prices so it is OK.

 All of them are the sealed uncirculated case hits. I had mentioned one of these type of cards way back with my Non-Sport Autos post with Mimi Rogers as Diana Fowley from The X-Files Connections series. I hadn't mentioned the problem it has that it shares with two of these. The problem is that the gold seal covers up the character info on the back. SIGH! I guess that means I'll have to find some "regular" versions of these things and very rarely get these sealed ones. I will show the back of the Mimi Rogers card at the end of this post. I also need to mention a card I had gotten almost two weeks after that card (it is from the same series as the card I had mentioned along with the Mimi Rogers card).

2000 Inkworks Charmed: Season One Auto A5 Brian Krause as Leo Wyatt. I got this one for $14.99 plus shipping $2.95.

Due to the Back card design the huge gold "Razor Authentic Uncirculated" seal covers half of the character info. For some cards it covers up the character photo and the card number.

 

2003 Inkworks Charmed: The Power Of Three Auto A20 Michael Bailey Smith as Belthazor. This is one of the ones I thought I had been jipped on at first. I got it for $3.28 (2 bids) plus $3.50 combined shipping for 3 cards.

Again the great golden seal blocks half of the character info on the back.

2005 Inkworks Charmed: Conversations Auto A8 Patrice Fisher as Avatar Beta. Got it for $1.51 with 2 bids plus the combined shipping.

2006 Inkworks Charmed: Destiny Auto A5 Rebecca Balding as Elise Rothman. Got this one for only $2.99 with 1 bid shipping was $2.00.

Auto A8 Gildart Jackson as Elder Gideon. Never been a huge fan of the character since he is a bit nasty. Anyway got this for $3.01 after 5 bids the combined shipping.

As mentioned above here is a card I had previously mentioned that has that back info being covered up by the giant gold seal problem.

2005 Inkworks The X-Files: Connections Auto A3 Mimi Rogers as Diana Fowley (back)

Now the card I failed to mention back when I got it - 2004 Catwoman Auto A4 Kim Smith as Drina