it never hurts to ask

when i posted recently about my completed 1965 topps set (!) i mentioned that i really got serious about completing it in the near term last fall.  what i didn't mention was that i bought a huge lot of cards from a dealer in california.

the listing promised a near set with a total of approximately 1000 cards, and included photos of several of the key cards.  it turned out that i didn't need as many of those key cards as i thought. can you imagine that i forgot i already had willie mays and hank aaron for my set?  at any rate, i figured i would drastically reduce my want list, upgrade a few cards, and then flip the remainder.

at that time, i needed around 240 cards. after i went through the purchased lot, i found that my list had dwindled to about 80 cards.  however, there was a portion of the set that was pretty much completely missing from the lot.  i messaged the guy to let him know that there were not quite 1000 cards in the lot, and the portion of the set between numbers 387 and 524 was pretty much missing.  he was surprised to hear that and offered to send me another 125 cards, including many in that range.

i was very appreciative and offered to pay for the additional shipping. he noted it would be sent in a medium rate priority box, and he would include another miscellaneous lot of cards from the 1950's and 1960's that he had laying around.  cool.

sure enough, the cards arrived and i was able to cross off another 50 or so needs from my 1965 set pursuit.  however, i was able to also cross off about 15 cards from my 1957 set pursuit from the 40 or so cards that were included in the box, leaving a few duplicates.

plus, i found 190 cards from 1969 topps,

16 cards from 1953 topps,

about a dozen cards from 1956 topps,

and a whopping 75 cards from 1955 bowman!

the bowman cards were the biggest surprise, so let's take a closer look.  i obtained my first 1955 bowman card back in 1979, and it was this guy's card

that is a special card to me as a collector, so i am always happy to see it.

i had not previously owned any of the umpire cards from the set, and this lot had two of them - bill summers

and nestor chylak

summers there is oblivious to the fact that later in 1955, he will call jackie robinson safe on a steal of home in the world series, setting off yogi berra. unfortunately, summers was just out of the frame and missed an opportunity to be featured on numerous baseball cards that depict that play in the future.  chylak's last gig as a major league umpire was the 1977 world series. he was at first base in game 6, so isn't in all the cards showing one of reggie's three home runs.

there was the iconic gene baker card

with the large bandage. i thought that i had read the story behind the bandage somewhere, but i can't find it now.  even though he himself was a shortstop by trade, baker was moved to second base and became ernie banks' double play partner with the cubs (they debuted for the team within days of each other in 1953).  he later went on to become the first african-american manager in professional baseball when he took over one of the pirates' farm clubs in 1961.

and i found this murry dickson card to be amusing

someone forgot to give him a ball to hold for the photo

i needed this bob miller card like he needs a hole in the head

so i guess we're even.

i spent some time looking at the backs which covered a variety of topics.  this robin roberts card stood out to me

duke snider had a decent reputation as a wall climber, and it sounds like this was a great catch on his part. there is another catch by the duke that is immortalized on cardboard in the 1959 topps "baseball thrills" subset.

there were some heavy hitters in the lot, too.

minnie minoso 

showing an odd way to bunt

bob feller (!)

with a thumbtack hole, but still - it's a card of feller from his playing days! it is weird to me that he didn't make an appearance in the 1954 world series, but he was definitely on the downside of his career by then so maybe it made sense.

phil rizzuto

it was definitely surprising to find a yankee in the lot

and then there were the two 1955 mvp award winners - roy campanella

and yogi berra

with his uniform number helpfully scrawled on to the card.

just a crazy amount of cards featuring some great players, all because i asked.