Probably the final card purchase of 2024 has arrived and it's a really, really good one, something I've wanted for a long time. Ever since I was a youngster I have been fascinated by the SSPC sets from the 1970s, those cards that were nothing but photos during a time when that was unusual in the hobby. I first came to know them through the 1978 Yankees yearbook, something so pervasive in my neighborhood that I eventually bought my own copy from the local CVS because it seemed like everyone had one. I was a card-carrying Yankee hater even back then but I knew the yearbook contained the SSPC Yankees as a panel insert. I didn't know these cards as "SSPC" or that they were part of a larger set, as panels for other teams were also inserted into publications. I just knew them as cards I didn't have and therefore needed, even if they were Yankees. Since that time I became aware that it's a 270-card set and there are cards for other teams -- most notably the D...
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