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.