Night Owl Cards

  I have a couple of 1975 Topps-centric posts to publish before the 50th anniversary year of my favorite set -- and my first year of buying cards -- is through.   This is the first of those posts. Ten years ago I wrote " A history of 1975 Topps tributes ," in which I documented all of the '75 Topps themed cards that I had known up to that point. It was pretty thorough, but it's 10 years old now and there have been so many more tributes since.   In that post I asked readers for other examples and said I'd add them to the post. But I didn't do that. I even forgot the post existed.   The only reason I'm updating it now is reader Dave kept commenting on it with other 1975 examples. He provided several in 2022. Perhaps I noticed that then, but I forgot about it again. Then, at the start of this month, he offered up another example. That got me to finally address this and provide an update.   So let's start with some of Dave's examples. One of them, the ...

  OK, I have another weird card number thing for you.   Like I mentioned the other day, my recent sportlots order included me chasing down the final couple cards to finish several team sets.   One of the planned team sets to finish was the 2001 Topps Archives set. But I didn't get to finish it. I was distracted by some weirdness in that set and then all completion was lost.   Did you know there are two Ralph Branca cards replicating the 1952 Topps design in that set??? I sure didn't.   Before placing my sportlots order, I was looking at what I still needed for the Dodgers in '01 Archives. Oh, hey, I need the '52 Branca card, let me add that one to my cart.   Then I realized I already had it. OK, let me remove that from my cart. Then I realized there are TWO of them with TWO different numbers. Whaaaa?     There is this one and if you look at the small print along the left side, you see it's card No. 227. (Yes, having two different card numbers on ...

I've talked about paring down my collection of Dodger relics for years now. I've done some trimming, holding a couple of giveaways. But I'm almost to the point where I want to keep what I have, at least for now. Every once in awhile, though, a relic card emerges from the walk-in safe downtown where I keep my relics (What? You don't do the same?), and I think, "why the heck do I have this thing?" In fact, it happened several weeks ago with one of them. But it took me coming across another card first. It was this card: This is a gold-bordered parallel from 2001 Topps Archives, which is a retro-reprint set. The Archives card is paying tribute to Shawn Green's initial Topps appearance in a base set, which happened in 1992. The card is replicating this card: Green appeared in the Draft Picks subset in 1992 as the Blue Jays' No. 1 pick in 1991. So this is a Blue Jays card. But I don't own Green's '92 card (the above is filched...

With all of the Topps tributes to itself over the last 15 years, I have no idea which original Topps design has reappeared the most. But if this were the 1980s, my guess would be the 1975 design. During the early '80s, as a budding collector becoming more and more aware of what was available in the hobby, I would see various '75 Topps style mockups in advertisements when companies were illustrating that they had cards for sale. And there were also actual sets that mimicked what Topps did in 1975. Plus, I distinctly remember one of those tiny ads that used to appear in Baseball Digest, saying "Your FACE on a baseball card!" and showing some unknown boy on the 1975 Topps design. In short,  the '75 Topps design was instantly memorable and iconic the moment it hit packs. And folks recognized it by paying homage. That has continued to this day, helped along by Topps' undying love for itself. But I won't complain, because the 1975 Topps set is my all-ti...