#108 Tony Taylor

Tony was a fan favorite in Philly during the 60's and 70's. He racked up just over 2,000 hits and still holds the Phillies records for most games played (1,003) at second base! He was only voted to the All-Star game once, in 1960. That's when he batted and incredible 1 for 1 with a single as you can see with the little cartoon on the back of the card.

1990 Baseball Cards Magazine Cards

A few days ago my Dad brought over the other half of his collection that he wanted to give me. No more '69 Topps except for a couple of commons I already had. I did come across something that really surprised me though...

1.3%!!

I awoke this morning with high hopes of getting a couple hours to myself at the Jantzen Beach card show today, but after getting there and quickly realizing there was no such card show this weekend, I almost shed one. I should have paid more attention to what I was reading on craigslist at 3 in the morning and maybe I would have realized it was not until next week. No worries, I already had some me-time backup plans and I headed down to Hoopla Sports Card Outlet with all my monies. Immediately I started searching through the boxes of vintage bargain cards on the counter and I found 9 more cards for my wantlist.

#11 Sam McDowell / Denny McLain / Luis Tiant SO Leaders (25¢)
#52 Mike Andrews (25¢)
#107 Bob Gibson checklist (25¢)
#111 Johnny Morris (25¢)
#154 Jim Britton (25¢)
#155 Pete Ward (25¢)
#174 Grant Jackson (25¢)
#189 Joe LaHoud / John Thibdeau RC (50¢)
#575 Bill Singer (25¢)

Most of these were in pretty bad shape, but that doesn't concern me. The rookie card was in great shape and it cost me all of 50 cents! Also, I found my first high numbered card with the Bill Singer! So that gives me another 1.3% and I am now looking at 37.2% complete.

#356 Frank Quilici

As I promised, here are some better scans of my newly acquired addition! It was shipped in a top loader, but without a penny sleeve and no tape to hold it in. It was sticking a good inch out of the top loader when I pulled it out of the envelope, I'm surprised it didn't arrive damaged.
Frank was a utility infielder for the Twins from 1965, 1967 to 1970. His career average was only .214 but in '69 he only managed a .174 avg. out of 144 at bats. After his short career, he went on to coach, manage and even radio broadcast for the Twins throughout the 70's and 80's.

#260 Reggie Jackson

Here we have Mr. October's rookie card. Lucky for me this one is already in my collection, so I don't have to go out and buy one. It's a little beat up and there's a stain in the top right corner, but I'm happy to have it!

When I was a kid, my Dad sent me into a couple of card shops around Portland to try and sell these cards, including this one. My Dad was thinking he could get half of top book value for this card or, about $150, and of course, the most we were offered was something like $30. I think we even tried selling it on eBay with a ridiculous reserve and didn't get any bids. Ha! Now we know better about real card values.

Reggie's 1969 season was explosive and arguably his best regular season of his career. He set career high marks in many areas including 123 runs, 47 home runs, 118 RBI's, 115 BB's and a .608 SLG percentage! He was ahead of Roger Maris' home run record pace for a bit and the press even started claiming he was dating a lady named "Ruth Maris". In the end he ended up getting beat out for the year by the Twins' Harmon Killebrew who had 49. The Twins also beat out the A's that year for a shot at the A.L. pennant. Reggie got voted into his first All Star game and he also got into the top 5 votes for MVP.

Later, in the off season, Reggie bargained for an increase in his salary, but A's owner Charlie Finley threatened to send Reggie back to the minors!

eBay Find: #356 Frank Quilici

Today I made my first purchase to start my journey to completing this set!

A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing through eBay at some random cards to see if anything caught my eye, but what did catch my eye was that eBay had, out of the blue, given me a $2 coupon to use toward any purchase! Sweet! I figured I'd just find myself a $2 card with free shipping and come away with something for nothing.

After sorting through about a dozen 1969 Topps cards on my want list, I decided on this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200318829807&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&viewitem=&salenotsupported#ebayphotohosting

Here's the seller's scan:

It had great centering and a clean face with fast shipping, so I went with it. A better 2 sided scan to be posted when it arrives...

Welcome

Welcome to my 1969 Topps blog! This blog will feature informative posts and hi-res scans featuring my current and future cards of this 40 year old star filled set! This should be a lot of fun!