this is going to turn in to another installment of "quien es mas macho", i can already feel it. first though, i am pleased to report that i have finally obtained a copy of steve garvey's 1982 topps blackless variation.
there it is, in all it's glory.
when i first learned about these variations maybe 20 years ago, i assumed that they were available in greater numbers. the psa registry notes that "there are reportedly less than 100 of each of the blackless cards" in existence. i would have said "fewer" but that's just me. at any rate, trying to find a blackless garvey decades after the card was issued was tough. i missed one a year or two ago which was also the first one i had seen offered for sale in a long, long time. so, when another popped up at the end of the summer, i bought it. first, i waited to see if the price would drop (it did - by a whopping 5%), and then i bought it.
i really like it, and i wish that the original set were like this. i am not a fan of facsimile signatures on cards, plus i think the lack of the black border around the photo works better with the design of the card. here's the regular card, to refresh your memory:
clearly, the blackless version es mas macho. my acquisition of this blackless card reduces the number of "playing days" cards of garvey that i am missing, but the remainder are doozies. anyone have a 1972 topps venezuelan stamp of the garv to spare?
Pretty sweet! Congrats on the pickup.
ReplyDeleteVery cool pickup. I agree about leaving the facsimile signatures off, but that's only because I'd be totally chasing signed copies of these cards.
ReplyDeleteThat does look a lot cleaner. Nice score!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of these before, but I always enjoy learning about things like this. I can't remember if anyone I collect is on this checklist, I'm kind of hoping not now!
ReplyDeleteI'm not a huge fan of facsimile signatures, so the blackless '82s definitely look better to me. It's not an urgent need, but I wouldn't mind picking up a blackless one day.
ReplyDeleteI like how with the black-less version there isn't the black border around the picture. I'm not sure why though.
ReplyDeleteI believe I offered on that one you ended up with. I "lowballed" the seller. Well, not really, but obviously if we are talking about the same card, and you only got a 5% discount, I had no real shot at it. I seem to recall offering about $30. They seem to have grown in popularity too, making them a little harder to get when they do pop up. I still think $30 is pretty nice for a card like that, but apparently there are plenty more folks willing to pay much more.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of much more, the 72 Venezuelan! I saw 2 really poor conditioned versions sell within the last couple of months. Ebay is being a pisser about BO prices now, so trakcing end prices like I have done for years, it harder. It seems a fair number of the Venezuelans that showed up in the last decade plus were fakes. I believe that I own a fake, but considering that even at the prices they brought, there are not a lot of fakes floating out there either. Maybe it was a non-malicious "fake"? I don't plan to drop 2-5X what I paid for a "fake" to have a rag of a real one at this point in my collecting career. I'll just keep pretending mine is real and call it good. i have rarer items that I have never seen again that nobody would give two turds about. The collecting world is quite funny about rarities and demand. They don't always line up quite right.