1984 Topps Gallery of Immortals/Champions Bronze Set

In 1984 Topps released the first Gallery of Champions set of 12 metal cards under the title Gallery of Immortals. Though most years between 1984-1991 including an Aluminum, Bronze, and Silver set, the 1984 set did not include an aluminum set. Alongside the 12 card base set, there was also a single-card Bronze Premium card that was issued each year, which typically featured a vintage replica from the 1950's-1960's. Also, there was a single Pewter Bonus card issued each year based on one of the cards released in the 12-card base set. The Pewter cards actually started in 1983 before the first base set was released in 1984. This is the complete 1984 set.

 

51B Slow Countdown

     This isn't going to be a quick countdown where you'll need to hold your breath on or risk missing. The reason I'm calling this a countdown is because I'm now at 301 out of 324 cards to complete this set. This means I only need 23 cards, which I fully expect to complete all but 2 of them. Except for #88 Eddie Robinson, the rest of the 22 missing cards are all high numbers. So with 23 missing cards, the next milestone will be to reach within 20 cards of completion. Here's my contribution to the latest 51B acquisition. Ken Johnson of the Philadelphia Phillies would have joined the team just in time for the Whiz Kids to reach the 1950 World Series against a steamrolling Yankees team that was on their way to 5 consecutive.  

A 53T Milestone

My 53T set had been stagnant for quite some time prior to today. The Monte Irvin #62 aquisition represents a substantially completed low number set from #1-220--only Mickey Mantle is missing. The Bob Milliken #221 acquistion represents not only a substantially complete run through #227, but a 53T set total of 250 out of 274 cards (or 91% completion). Ignoring the Mickey Mantle #82 and the Willie Mays #244, I only have 22 more cards to substantially complete this set. There's nothing really to difficult left with the only other key cards being Jim Gilliam #258 and HOF'er Hal Newhouser #228. This should be something that can be accomplished before end of the '20s. Obviously, I'm not in any rush.   

Another Major Accomplishment: 53B Complete (-1)

     Billy Cox was the last missing card from my 53B B&W series, which substantially completes my entire 53B set. I started my 53B journey less than 10 years ago after discovering that the Color series cards could be purchased at less then 5% BV. At the same time, B&W series cards could not be found for less than 20% BV. With this range of price differences, it is probably obvious that I tended towards the Color series. I recently completely all 159 out of 160 of those cards minus the Mickey Mantle. The B&W series was a different story since even commons were more expensive than 1952 Topps cards. In fact, out of all 1940's-1950's Topps and Bowman commons, the 53B B&W commons were the most expensive and difficult to find cards that I have experienced. I never expected to complete these 64 cards, but today I did. My 53B set now rests at 223 out of 224 total cards where it will most likely remain.

300 Bowmans for 1951

     That's right. 300 different Bowmans are now part of my 1951 set with the following acquistions. The Campanella and Thomson represent the largest additions, but the rest are mostly high numbers, which is pretty much all I have left. 24 more cards to complete this set, though there are 2 untouchables for me: Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays. There's really nothing else in this set that should prevent me from one day reaching 322. Jackie Jensen, Carl Erskine, Gene Mauch RC, and Joe Adcock RC are the toughest other cards that we're talking about so it's not that tough. Again, another dream set at its final stages--and it all started one card at a time. 

 

Major Accomplishment: 64T Complete

Today I ordered the missing piece of my 1964 Topps set. Phil Niekro was the oldest player in my 1987 Topps set when I first started collecting baseball cards. I remembered 2 things about his 87T card. One, he was born in the 1930's, which seemed ancient to me back then. Two, he looked a lot like Rodney Dangerfield in his 87T card, which made me laugh. With today's acquisition of his RC, I can now move on from 1964-present and move back one to focusing on 1963. I'm actually only 8 cards away from that set, which I will consider substantially complete at -1 since Pete Rose RC is pretty much unaffordable. The only other 1960's cards I'm missing are 2 from 1967 and 37 from 1961 for a grand total of 47 missing cards from the 60's decade. Again, today's a really big day for my collection. 

 

1951 Bowman #232: Nellie Fox

Big acquisition in today's day and age. Nellie Fox's RC books for $250 in my outdated price guide. This means $25 for me, but it's more like $75 in reality today. I found this for $35.29 with shipping and taxes. Not too bad for me. This leaves only 3 cards left to complete the low-number set of 252 cards: #31 R.Campanella, #88 E.Robinson, and #126 B.Thomson. This also leaves only 30 cards total to complete the entire set of 324 cards. Just need 6 more cards to break 300. Not bad for the 2nd most prized Topps/Bowman set of all time.

 

1951 Bowman Additions

     Leading the pack for today's acquisition is HOF'er Early Wynn. Still feeling the impact of the modern boom era, I had to pay 20% BV for this one. As a point of reference, I would have looked for a 10% BV purchase previously. The other 2 acquisitions help to fill out my collection and bring it up to over 90% completion. My 1-year goal is to complete the low-number set (#1-252), which is missing only 4 more cards. After that, I'd like to complete over 300 of the 324 cards (only need 7 more).

 

Bunches of New 52T's

I recently acquired a bunch of 52T's. This is not a set that I've ever put much focus into. At 88 cards, I'm still only 21% into this set. All of the rest of my 1950's Topps sets are above 90% except 57T, which is at 52%. I think one of the big reasons I've lagged on this set is that 25% of the set is nearly unattainable as high numbers. That is without regard to whether they are stars or commons. For the rest of the 75% of the set there are also unattainable cards, but that wasn't as much of a deterrent since that's typical for any vintage set. Another factor was that commons for this set were priced much higher than 51T or 53T commons, so I was led in those directions. The premium probably came from people's beliefs that this was the first Topps set, but I never considered this to be true. Topps produced a 104-card set (106 w/ variations) in 1951. For me, that was enough to make the 52T premium unwarranted. Anyway, I'm running out of other cards to purchase so I found these cards as a decent price. Here they are.