Tuesday, April 22, 2014

2014 Sportlots purchase #1: the old guys

With this weekend's show purchases covered I'm back to some recent internet pickups.  Earlier this month I hit up Sportlots to complete one baseball set plus a couple from football.  As usual, while I was at it I added some stuff for my player collections.  I decided to split that haul into two posts--today's covers three of my older PCs, and the other will include the rest.  So enjoy this look at 10 new cards added to my Maddox, Roberts, and Sizemore collections:
Elliott Maddox 1975 O-Pee-Chee
Maddox is the latest player whose '75 OPC/Topps/Mini run I've completed.  Here he is on a spring training card whose only proof of its O-Pee-Cheeness is the back.
Elliott Maddox 1981 O-Pee-Chee
Not only does the '81 OPC version include the brand on the front AND the position in French, this one is also different from the Topps by including a floating "Now with Yankees" message.

And, oh, look at that:  I have 23/23 Maddox cards, so that's another PC down!  He joins Rick Leach, Matt Miller, and Geoff Zahn in that exclusive club.  Check out his entire collection here if you're interested.  Hooray completed projects!

Leon Roberts 1981 Donruss
I still can't help but laugh when I see some of these older Mariners uniforms, but that's partly because I really do like some of the newer versions.  Once again this is a solid entry from Donruss' first set.
Leon Roberts 1981 Topps Traded
Besides Willie Horton, a couple other notable players were sent with Roberts from Seattle to Texas late in 1980:  21-year pitcher Rick Honeycutt (who I remember most from his Oakland days) and "guy that has an infamous benchmark named after him" Mario Mendoza.
Leon Roberts 1982 O-Pee-Chee
Just for fun, I looked up the meaning of "voltigeur," the French word OPC uses for "outfielder."  Merriam-Webster includes a pair of definitions:  "a member of any of various French organizations of light infantry; often :  a sharpshooter in the French army" and "leaper."  I think "sharpshooter" and "leaper" combine to capture the position pretty well!
Leon Roberts 1983 O-Pee-Chee
Again, the OPC version includes a note, "Now with Royals," that the Topps card doesn't, but then again, Topps actually produced a Roberts Royals card in that year's Traded set.  Not that I mind that there's no such thing as OPC Traded--I've got enough to collect as it is!
Leon Roberts 1984 Topps Tiffany
This is the second of Leon's pair of Tiffany cards, and I had already grabbed the '85 card, so I'm all set there.

Although I can't claim to have completed his collection yet, I now own 26/28 of his cards, good for about 93%, and I have one of the remaining two on the way, so it may not be much longer until he joins Maddox and the rest of the completed club.  Check out what I have here.

Ted Sizemore 1973 O-Pee-Chee
This ended up being an OPC kind of day for Ted, which makes sense since that's all I have left of his collection to nab.  The centering on this one is pretty terrible, but I've said a lot that I'm not that picky about it, especially since I wasn't interested in paying much for these.  Fortunately it wasn't one of the harder-to-get high-numbers from some of the other 70's OPC sets, which are gonna set me back a pretty penny.
Ted Sizemore 1979 O-Pee-Chee
Here's an interesting difference between the OPC and Topps cards:  the former has him pictured with the Phillies but notes his February '79 trade to the Cubs, and even labels him as a member of that team; the Topps version is 100% Phillies.  There's still no such thing as a card of Sizemore in a Cubs uni, though.
Ted Sizemore 1980 O-Pee-Chee
Ted was included in both Topps and OPC for his final issue with his last team, the Red Sox.  Unfortunately, the front doesn't provide any insight to OPC's choice for the French translation of "2nd baseman."

With these three additions I now have 20/23 cards in Sizemore's run, with the remainders being the rarer 1971, 1972, and 1974 O-Pee-Chee issues (plus he also has a 1/1 I've never seen).  I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to find them at a price I like, but I still hope to have his collection finished by the end of the year.

One PC done and two above 85% was a nice way to end the day, but check out my second post from the series soon as that also touches on several newer collections!

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