Strive For 65 Set Build

 

Updated 30 Jan 2024

Note: As I build this set I will update this post. I have now 377/598 63% (379/600 63.2%)

I don't usually set to many goals, and usually not very lofty ones at that. I don't do New Year's Resolutions either. I also don't like to mention my age much but... well next year 2015 will be the 50th Anniversary of the 1965 Topps Baseball set. One of my favorite sets of all-time.

And OH, it also happens to be my birth year. So yeah next year in April I will turn the BIG Five-0. Not really looking forward to that. I had the sudden realization that it would be very very cool to finally complete the flagship set for my birth year by My 50th and the 50th anniversary of said yadda yadda.

 This "card" of me is not a real card.

It is just a digital mock-up I photoshopped,

well MSPaint(ed) (or MS Photo Editor or both) a few years ago.

I used the Jim Hannan card as a key.

So maybe the blogiverse can help me out here by sending me some '65 Mojo preferably by trade or gift or some small $$ sales. Some of those big named Yankees and Dodgers and various other stars will probably be stumbling blocks. I hope not this is a very special achievement.

Believe it or not I've had this '65 Ernie Banks for as long as I can remember, actually I think it was originally my brother's and I traded something for it (a 1970 Fergie Jenkins or 1958 Willie Mays maybe?) Still one of my all-time fave cards in my collection.

Of course I would like to get them in as best condition as possible but I will accept the sort of poor conditioned ones to. One of the big criteria is the backs need to be relatively clean and all the info readable. They can have some off-centering but not too drastic and not any miscuts (unless an upgraded copy is with the said miscut). Checklist cards I'd prefer to be unmarked but will accept ones that are marked a bit. I just hope they aren't the super messed up ones. LOL. Even with some of the duds if I at least get one of each card in the set (even some very poor old beat up ones that went through the mud bath with the bike spokes it was attached to) my goal will have been met. Then I can upgrade later, but of course I would prefer not to have to do much upgrading.

Out of the 598 (well 600 with 2 checklist variants) cards in the set I only have a measly little 94. Not quite a sixth or a fifth even, I might need one of those soon. I have a LONG way to go.

Here are the ones I need:
1965 Topps:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 57, 58, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 76, 77, 78, 79a, 79b, 80, 81, 82, 83, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 102, 103, 104, 107, 108, 109, 110, 112, 113, 114, 115, 117, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 141, 142, 143, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 178, 179, 180, 182, 183, 185, 186, 187, 188, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 196, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 213, 214, 216, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 248, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 256, 257, 258, 259, 262, 263, 264, 265, 266, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275, 276, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 283 284, 285, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 307, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, 318, 319, 320, 322, 323, 324, 326, 327, 328, 329, 330, 333, 334, 335, 336, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 344, 346, 347, 348, 349, 350, 351, 352, 353, 354, 355, 356, 357, 358, 359, 360, 361, 362, 364, 365, 366, 367, 368, 369, 370, 371, 373, 374, 375, 376, 377, 378, 379, 380, 381, 382, 383, 384, 385, 386, 387, 389, 390, 392, 395, 396, 397, 398, 399, 400, 401, 402, 403, 405, 406, 407, 408, 409, 410, 411, 412, 414, 415, 416, 418, 419, 420, 421, 423, 424, 425, 426, 427, 228, 429, 430, 431, 433, 434, 435, 436, 437, 438, 439, 440, 442, 443, 444, 446, 447, 449, 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, 455, 456, 458, 459, 460, 461, 462, 463, 464, 465, 466, 468, 469, 471, 472, 474, 475, 476, 477, 478, 480, 481, 482, 483, 484, 487, 488, 489, 490, 491, 492, 493, 494, 495, 496, 498, 499, 500, 501, 503, 504, 506, 507, 508, 509, 511, 512, 513, 514, 515, 516, 517, 519, 520, 521, 522, 523, 524, 525, 526, 527, 528, 530, 531, 532, 534, 535, 536, 537, 538, 539, 540, 541, 542, 543, 544, 545, 546, 547, 548, 550, 551, 552, 553, 554, 555, 556, 557, 558, 559, 560, 561, 562, 563, 564, 565, 566, 567, 568, 569, 570, 571, 572, 573, 575, 579,  580, 581, 582, 583, 584, 585, 586, 587, 588, 589, 590, 591, 592, 594, 596, 597, 598

Checklist 79 Variation:
79a Checklist cards 1-88 - 61 is Cannizzaro
79b Checklist cards 1-88 - 61 is C.Cannizzaro

Card #21 Don Blasingame Senators - the copy I got (long story short) was in worse condition than the sportlots seller had originally stated they refunded me the .18¢ for it and sent it anyway the problem is the back has some paper glued to it (the opposite of paper loss). You can read some of the stuff but not all of it, and removing the extra paper and glue residue if even possible would ruin the card further than it is. So I need an Upgrade which is why it is still on the list and blue. I picked up a copy of this one at my LCS for $2 it is way off center almost a misscut. The front is off-center down and to the right. The back way off-center to the bottom, on the bottom the last of the white box is on the very edge of the card a hair's-width of blue is at the bottom in places.

Hmmm apparently there is a slight variation with card #508 7th Series Checklist Cards 507-598. There is an ever so slight font size variation a Large and a small. Not sure if I'm going to try for this variation or not. I am currently watching an Ebay listing that is selling the pair for about $20.

Notes:
26 Jan 2016: Card #10 NL Pitching Leaders.
23 Jan 2016: SF'65SS: Been Sportlotin'.
22 Jan 2016: 7 more cards including Tommy Harper
20 Jan 2016: Just Jim O'Toole
19 Jan 2016: Wow! Mega Mail Day! 13 Packages ties my all-time record for most packages in a single mailday. Not all PWEs/Bubble Mailers had '65 cards. I did get 13 new ones including League Leaders cards 4 and 9, and Team Cards of Braves, Phillies, Pirates and Tigers.
16 Jan 2016: Three cards came in two team cards plus 61 Chris Cannizzaro from checklist number one card 79. Started Saturday status update "Strive for '65 Status: Mid-January 2016".
13 Jan 2016: Updating from some cards received back in Oct or Nov last year.
07 May 2015: Recently got in 3 cards from another collector as a bonus with some cards from a group box break of newer cards and got #390 Bill Freehan from a Sportslot Auction.
27 Mar 2015: Got card #100 in a 3 card lot of Cardinals cards from an Ebay auction.
21 Mar 2015: Two more cards 200 Joe Torre and 415 Curt Flood
13 Mar 2015: One more card came in from sportlots #127
12 Mar 2015: Playing catch up with this post. In the last month or two I got about a dozen new cards for the set, a few from some auctions I think, a couple from another blogger sent in a PWE with that three pocket (cut from a 9 pocket sheet) filled with cards about 3 to 4 cards per pocket whatever comfortably fits, and some (including a dupe plus one graded) from a sale from a member on the SCF forum.
04 Aug 2014: Got 17 cards for this set from a Secret Santa in July package on Friday 01 Aug 2014. The cards fill up my first complete page, and had the final World Series card I needed for that subset.
18 May 2014: This past week I got about a dozen cards in including the Checklist variations I needed so now I have a full checklist sub-set. So actually the total number is 600 cards not just 598 or 599
25 Apr 2014: Got #170 Hank Aaron and Unmarked Checklists 104, 189, 273, 361
17 Apr 2014: From the Bay #400 Harmon Killebrew ($5.95 +$2 shipping)
31 Mar 2014: Got 4 "damn" Yankees for $25 from TCF forum sale.
29 Mar 2014: Picked up a replacement for card #21 as mentioned above.
24 Mar 2014: I put in an order at "Just Commons" for a bunch of the ones I need,  Not a huge amount aprox. 42 cards in total in either VG or EX/MT for $61.45 most in the $1 to $2 range, one I didn't notice until after I had placed the order that it was a whopping $7.50 one of the EX/MT ones (#559 Ed Bailey SP).

1960 Topps Les Richter Rams among others.

I recall the first time I saw a 1960 Topps Football card was an old Redskins card I've got. It was not the first card I recall ever owning, that might have been my 1965 Topps Baseball Ernie Banks (not sure though). I don't recall where it was dug up from, probably my oldest brother had it and I found it in our basement laundry room that doubled as a storage room for almost half (or more) of the 44 years my family owned the house I grew up in.

That first 1960 Football card was number 123 Ralph Guglielmi  in horrible shape with loads of creasing and rounded corners, it has some tape holding it together at one of the creases. The very epitome of a poor grade card it barely serves as a filler card in my collection. It apparently is also an uncorrected error card as the front has his last name misspelled as Gugliemi. I will probably never get rid of it though. I always remember it as being in horrible shape. I think at one time it was taped to a notebook or inside a binder. As a kid I did that frequently to some cards. I even marked my cards with a huge "K" sometimes on the front sometimes on the back. So this one might have had the "tape to the notebook cover" treatment.

The blogger at pooroldbaseballcards would be proud of this specimen. I wonder if someone is doing a Poor Old Football Cards blog? If so let me know so I can follow, I'd follow a Hockey one too I guess. For many years it served as the oldest card in my entire trading card collection (sports and non-sports). I am not sure what is the oldest card in my collection now.

123 Ralph Guglielmi Redskins
My Original card (front then back)

 

 

This copy of the card I do not own.

(Image from Checkoutmycards.com)

I like the 1960 Topps football for the simple colored football nameplate, and the "Football Funnies" cartoons on the back that Topps used to do back then. The downside to the cartoons though is they were coin scratch-off things that were only revealed when you rubbed the area with a coin. This made the picture appear but did damage to the back of the card.

68 les Richter Rams

30 Bob Gain Browns

 

Let's begin at the begining or at least 1965.

1965

What a year 1965 was. I happen to like it because it was the year I was born. It is also a pretty good year for cards especially baseball. I won't forget about football, but at that point American Football had the NFL and the AFL (American Football League - which later became the NFL's American Football Conference). The cards of the NFL were made by the now defunct Philadelphia Cards which was revived sort of with a new retro football set this year in 2009. The AFL cards were by Topps the most significant card of which is the Joe Namath Rookie Card (RC).

For me its the baseball cards from Topps of that year. The card at the top of Jim Hannan is a typical common card he happens to be of a player from the Washington Senators my fave baseball team as a kid. I would be sorely disappointed in the off season 0f 1971 when they were moved to Texas to become the Rangers. As a result my interest in baseball declined, but oddly enough not my interest in collecting baseball cards, as I also collected football and Non-Sports. I would not get really interested in baseball again until 2003 or '04 (probably 2004 due to the Red Sox World Series Win) just before the announcement that the Montreal Expos, who were owned at the time by the MLB, would move to Washington. They would then become the Washington Nationals.

My two fave cards follow; the first from a player that would be remembered for being a great Washington Senators player, even though he began his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

FRANK HOWARD

The second, and I think my absolute fave card, I think it may have been my "first card" (Since I have two older brothers who at one time collected baseball cards as kids I got many hand-me-downs before I really became involved in serious collecting so I can't remember having a "first card"), from this series is from Mr. Cubbie Himself:

ERNIE BANKS