Grab Bag - Four Decades of Topps

Quick post today, featuring five random cards grabbed on my way out the door from my "to be scanned and sorted" pile that sits on my card desk...

First up we've got a Jacoby Ellsbury Topps Heritage blue parallel from last year's release.  This was sort of an impulse buy for my Red Sox collection, I snagged it with a winning bid of $1.28, mostly because the seller offered free shipping.  I think I'm missing only the Kevin Youkilis to give me the complete team set of these blue parallels, anyone have one for trade?

Next we've got a much older Red Sox card, this one a team card from the 1965 Topps set.  This one's a little rough around the edges and has some type of ink mark in the yellow space below the team photo, but it came from a dollar box and it's nearly 50 years old at this point, so I'd still call that a deal.

Here's another one from the dollar box, 1960 Topps Jim Gilliam.  I doubt I'll ever complete the set in my lifetime, but as a general rule I am never leaving a '60 Topps card that looks this good condition-wise behind in a dollar bin.

Changing things up a little, here's a card that my Dad actually recovered from me in his basement from my original childhood collection.  Yes, I casually collected Nolan Ryan even way back in 1993 as an 11-year-old, and this gold parallel was one of my prized cards.  I know it's not worth much but from a nostalgia standpoint this one's priceless.

Just look at those career stats!  Who'd have thought a pitcher who first threw in the Majors in 1966 would still be around when they started producing gold parallels of baseball cards!

Finally, in closing, because it's still hockey season (and what a game last night!), here's another one from the dollar box at the local hobby shop.  This 1973-74 Topps Jacques Lemaire puts me at 77 cards now from this set, not bad considering I haven't pursued it too vigorously at all.  Aside from needing this for my set, it was a no brainer to pick up a card of a Hall-of-Famer from 1973 for a dollar.  This would have been a better shot if Yvon Cournoyer (I think) hadn't gotten in the way.

That's all for today.  I'm off on vacation for 10 days from work starting tomorrow at 5pm, so you can expect some regular posting here for a change over the next couple of weeks.  I've purchased a few killer cards recently that have mostly arrived, and I also have some great trade packages to show from The Card Raven, Sportscards from the Dollar Store, and Coot Veal and the Vealtones...