Happy Halfiversary! Six Recent Pickups to Celebrate Six Months of Blogging

I started this blog exactly six months ago, on August 8, 2017, writing two posts, an introductory post and a post about my 1953 Topps Bill Bruton card.  Thanks to all of you who come to hear my stories and see my cards.  To celebrate these six months, I am showing today six great cards I bought recently and just received in the mail.

1960 Topps Frank Robinson.

This 1960 Topps Frank Robinson is both my first card from the 1960 Topps set, and also my first card of a young Frank Robinson.  I showed before the best other cards I have of Frank Robinson, his 1972 Topps and 1972 Topps Traded cards.  Robinson, of course, made a big mark with the Reds and with the Orioles, and afterwards also played with the Dodgers, Angels, and Indians.  The 1972 Topps card marks the end of his time with the Orioles, the 1972 Topps Traded is with the Dodgers, and I also have his 1973 card with the Angels.  It's great to add an early-career card of him like this with the Reds, before he won either of his MVP awards, the triple crown, or either of his two World Series.

1968 Topps Game Roberto Clemente.

I've posted about Roberto Clemente a few times, including how my copy of his 1973 Topps card is my all-time favorite card, and my recent acquisition of his 1969 Topps Deckle Edge card.  As a fan of both "The Great One" specifically and the Pirates more generally, you might think I would try to develop a deep collection of Clemente.  The drawback, though, is that I don't want most cards calling him Bob, but rather look only for cards that call him by his name, Roberto (at least on the front of the card).  This card from the 1968 Topps game fits the bill, as his name only appears as his signature.  I do have his 1971 Topps and 1972 topps cards in addition to the 1973, and will look to buy a 1970 as well.  Otherwise, I suppose a 1955 rookie card is on the long-term wishlist, but I don't expect to pick that up anytime soon.  This card also makes my second from the 1968 Topps Game; I showed my Jim Fregosi previously.

1959 Topps Robin Roberts.

I post a lot about Robin Roberts and Richie Ashburn, I think.  Dad grew up in Philly in the 50s, and they were the big stars of the Phils back then.  I'm planning to pick up the 1959 Richie Ashburn, soon, to go with this just-acquired 1959 Robin Roberts.  I previously posted about picking up the 1951 Bowman of Richie Ashburn, which I'm using to commemorate the 1950 NL pennant-winning Whiz Kids team, and I will work on getting the 1951 Bowman of Roberts, too. I have a long-term goal of putting together a 1959 Topps set, and I haven't really started yet, but that's why I picked 1959 when I was looking to get another pair of Roberts and Ashburn cards.

1977 Topps Rookie Outfielders, including Andre Dawson.

I've posted the occasional card of Andre Dawson before, but none of them have really been notable.  Perhaps the most interesting time I've shown Dawson was him on the cover of the first Beckett I ever owned, from September, 1987.  Buying his rookie card, this 1977 Topps Rookie Outfielders card, shared with Gene Richards, John Scott, and Denny Walling, falls under the category of things I probably couldn't afford around 1990.  The 1977 Topps set isn't one that means especially much to me, so I don't generally expect to go looking for many more 1977 cards.  I'm delighted to add the Hawk to those 1977 cards I do have in my main binder.

1978 Topps Eddie Murray.

Here we have another 1970s rookie card of a great slugger, Eddie Murray of the Orioles.  Again, I expect that this would have prohibitively expensive for me around 1990.  At today's prices, though, of course I was going to pick this up eventually.  Where I grew up in Newark, Delaware, we're close to both Philadelphia and Baltimore (just a bit closer to Philly).  Almost everyone was Phillies fans, but there were a few Orioles fans in town, and my Dad's company had season tickets to the Orioles.  He'd get them every now and then, and we saw about 5-10 games at the old Memorial Stadium.  I've still never been to the "new stadium," as I call it, Camden Yards, which opened just as I was graduating high school.  But, when my son is old enough to go to a major league game (maybe this year, maybe next year), we'll make the trip down.  

1978 Topps Mike Schmidt.

Eddie Murray and Mike Schmidt were the two local sluggers when I was growing up, but Schmidt was the bigger star -- like I said, just about everyone in town was a Phillies fan.  I never had any cards of Schmidt from the 70s, though, because they were just too expensive -- on top of the regular price, I feel sure that there was a local premium for them in the pre-internet age.  When I started collecting again last summer, I addressed this collecting gap immediately, acquiring a Schmidt rookie card.  I followed that up with the follow-up card, his 1974 Topps.  As a collector, I don't usually try to get all of anything, and I instead try to represent lots of different things in my collection.  I don't need every Schmidt card or even every Schmidt from the 70s, and I'm happy that I do now have some of those oldest cards of him in my collection.  I wanted to pick up this 1978 card in addition to the 1973 and 1974 for a couple of reasons: I think the card looks incredibly 70s, which I like, and, he didn't have his mustache in the 1973 or 1974 cards, so he didn't quite look like himself. 

As always, thanks for reading.  Six months have flown by, and I look forward to much more to come.