Top 5 Cards; Fergie Jenkins

Greetings viewers. I hope you all had an enjoyable and relaxing Thanksgiving.

While I wasn't able to enjoy any of yesterday's football games, I had a great holiday, celebrating with family members whom I haven't seen in quite some time and food: lots of terrific food.

Nowadays, it's challenging to even mention Thanksgiving without talking about Black Friday at the same time. Whereas stores, even a few years back, opened around 9:00 or 10:00 pm on Thanksgiving, I've seen ads over the last few days for stores opening as early as 2:00 pm the same day.

Aside from buying a reduced price phone case from a store near me, that's going out of business, I didn't partake in Black Friday, not that I've done so significantly in the past.

That said, there's one part of this mega shopping day that might lure me in over the weekend. It shouldn't come as a surprise that I might end up purchasing Baseball cards over the next few days.

Currently, eBay, Amazon, and, most notably, COMC are all having sales along with all the major wax distributors like Blowout cards.

Because I was in the area, I tried the Walmart card aisle today in hopes of snagging the 2 Donruss Optic Basketball mega boxes that I saw while purchasing Topps Gallery last weekend.

Given how much the prices have risen on that stuff, particularly the Holo rookies, I'm kicking myself for not picking those up instead. Alas, you live and you learn.

While I contemplate what, if any, Black Friday Baseball card purchase I'd like to make, I have my first top 5 cards post in ~2 weeks to get to. Today's subject is Fergie Jenkins, a silver tier player collection with 81 cards; I chose my favorite 5.

#5 2000 Fleer Greats of the Game

Topps' monopoly in the Baseball card industry may have robbed us of glorious cards like the Fleer Greats of the Game set, but it's the company's laziness and lack of quality control that irritates me more.

Because they don't have any competition in terms of licensed cards, Topps can practically do whatever they want without any repercussions. Furthermore, their quality control is pretty poor because, as I mentioned before, there's no competition to force Topps to step up their game.

If only Fleer never had their licensed revoked or Panini was given the right to use MLB logos in the first place. Then, we'd have more cards like the one above.

#4 1975 Hostess

If I were to take part in COMC's annual Black Friday sale, I'd certainly take the opportunity to pick up some 70s Hostess singles for my player collections. I don't have a ton of these at the moment, but I'm always looking to rectify that, especially because of how much I love oddballs.

The '75 Hostess design isn't something to look twice at, but the powder blue Rangers uniform heavily enhances the otherwise ordinary card. Plus, there's just so much to love about these Hostess cards, despite how plain the set design might be.

#3 1971 Topps

Top 5 cards posts of legends from the 1960s and 1970s are both more enjoyable to write and better received by the viewers, so it's a no-brainer for me to choose a Hall of Famer for one of these posts when I'm out of ideas.

I originally intended to write about the Donruss Optic Basketball boxes today, but since I was unable to get my hands on them at Walmart, I turned to a trusty top 5 cards post.

Seeing this 1971 Topps card makes me all the more excited for the release of 2020 Topps Heritage. The following year, moreover, is when my favorite Topps set (1972) will be replicated.

#2 1973 Topps

For a very short time in the 1970s, the Chicago Cubs' jerseys featured the player's number on the front in addition to, I believe, the back. Though I've seen a few of these uniforms in the 1973 Topps set, I don't recall seeing any others.

I'm a lot more knowledgeable about the Red Sox than I am about the Cubs, so I'm not sure if these uniforms were just a 1-year thing or not. Regardless, I love the contribution to Fergie Jenkins' 1973 Topps card.

#1 2005 Fleer Tradition Club 3000

I recall that my Dad, back in 2005 upon the set's release, bought 2 of these Fleer Tradition Club 3000 inserts. One featured Bob Gibson, the other Fergie Jenkins.

As soon as my memory was refreshed surrounding these cards, I knew that the Jenkins insert had to earn the #1 spot on my list. I don't have any terrific vintage card to challenge it nor a modern one to dethrone it.

The border, color combination, photo, and background all contribute to a beautiful card overall, one that I'm proud to place at the top of this countdown.