Surprise Red Sox Cards + Set Needs For a Dime; Card Show Recap #18

With my want list in-hand and a few goals on my mind, my Dad and I, following a minor snowfall the night before, traveled roughly half an hour to the Mansfield Baseball card show, the 2nd time I've attended this show so far in 2019. 

After a trip to the Woburn show last Sunday and the release of Topps Heritage next week, February is set to be a major month for card collecting. Things are likely to die down come March, but I'll still need to make money off of eBay and Sportlots to make up for it. 

Going into today's President's Day show, I had specific tasks that I wanted to accomplish, something I usually stray away from when I head to a sports card show. 

The sheer unexpectedness of what you can find, especially at a larger show like Mansfield, usually makes it difficult to find certain cards that I'm looking for.

Yesterday's post revolved around a package of cards that I received last week from Night Owl. Among the many cards that he sent my way, Night Owl included some want list needs from 1976 and 1979 Topps. 

As I walked into the Baseball card show earlier today, these sets were still fresh in my mind. I was skeptical that I wouldn't be able to find much of either of these products at the show, but these doubts disappeared when I spotted one of the regulars from the Woburn show who had a bin filled to the brink with vintage dime cards, all for a dime each.

Admittedly, I only made it through 1 row of the box before I couldn't stand still and hover over the want list any longer, but the time I spent at his booth helped knock roughly 100 cards off the list, mainly from 1976 Topps. The row I searched through had stack after stack of cards from the '76 set, with each card being just as colorful as the last.

As expected, the 1979's weren't as plentiful as the 1976 cards. At least, not in the row that I searched through, for I only ended up with about 10 cards from the 726-card product. With that being said, I still landed some high-number cards like Rennie Stennett. However, 90% of the cards I found came from the '76 set, not that I'm complaining about that.

All of a sudden, while I was roughly halfway through the vintage dime card bin, I received a surprise visit from the always-generous Mark Hoyle, a frequent attendee of the Mansfield card show. We chatted for a few minutes, and before he went on his way, he kindly handed me a stack of Red Sox cards, including the Sale at the top of this post and the 2 cards from 1975 SSPC above.

He explained to me that it was getting harder to find new Red Sox cards for his collection due to how he prioritizes all things Red Sox. As someone whose primary focus is player collections, Red Sox cards aren't usually my primary focus.

That said, recent trips to the card show and packages from the team collectors have helped me boost my Red Sox collection in a major way. It helps, obviously, to live in the Boston area since I can't take 5 steps at the show without running into a vendor with oodles of Sox cards. 

Oh, and yes, this is an original 1952 Bowman card, my first card from this set and one of the 2 oldest Sox cards in my collection. Thank you so much for the cards, Mark. It's greatly appreciated.

Now, let's go back to the 1976 Topps cards, because where else am I going to find 3 of the greatest and most colorful uniforms of all-time together in one set? 

Not only does finding these cards in dime boxes help me towards completing the set, but the reasonable set checklist of 660 total cards makes my mission of finishing this product seem more achievable. I just can't wait to see what completed 9-card pages of this set will look like once it's all done.

The iconic floating heads Chicago Cubs team card, prominent throughout the 1970s, was one of the many cards from the want list that I tracked down through my search through the bin. 

Though I've certainly taken notice of how the Cubs and White Sox team cards looked across this decade, I never quite figured out why those 2 teams, and no one else, opted for the floating head team cards.

Out of the 90 or so cards that I purchased from the 1976 Topps set, around 15 of them are high-numbers, #600 or above, a big surprise given the cost of those same cards from the year before, 1975, where the high-numbered cards can end up costing a fair price. I guess the same can't be said for 1976, for there were high-numbers galore in this particular row of the dime bin.

And even with the blurry image, this J.R. Richard card is easily one of the best cards that I picked up at today's show. The pink and orange coloring, the Astros' jacket, his jersey number on his pants. Simply put, this card is everything that I love about the '76 set, and at last, I believe that completing this set is within my reach.

I'll just have to make it through more than 1 row of the box the next time I'm searching for these cards.