Preparing for Premier League Soccer - 1960 A&BC Gum

If you browse through the back pages on this blog you'll learn that my collection is very scattered.  As much as I try to keep things reigned in, a good part of the fun of this hobby in my opinion is discovering the many random cards and sets that exist out there.  Today's post is another example of that, as I feature my first soccer card here on Shoebox Legends.

It started when I read a really interesting post on one of my favorite blogs, Diamond Cuts and Wax Stains, about an obscure soccer card from the 1960 A&BC Gum release.  I really got into Premier League soccer last season because there was no NHL hockey for a few months there, and I'm looking forward to following it again this year, especially thanks to the generous television coverage here in the States.  So, when I saw the card in that post I knew I wanted some of my own from the set.  They say imitation is the highest form of flattery...

Here's my very first card from the 1960 A&BC Gum set.  If you went and looked at the post I linked to above, you know that A&BC Gum received permission from Topps to use this design, which baseball card collectors will recognize from 1959 Topps:

Not exact, but close enough.  Now, back to the card at hand...

I had never heard of this set before reading the blog post, but I really love these cards.  This is #2 in the 84-card set, and features a cool photo of a smiling Don Donovan in the dressing room of his new team, Grimsby Town (he played his entire career with Everton prior to joining Grimsby Town in 1958).  It's gently loved with some rounded corners, but overall very strong visual appeal.  Not too shabby for a card that's over 50 years old.

I have to confess I don't know anything really about Grimsby Town.  Looks like the club's been around for over 100 years.  They're in a bit of a rough patch right now, having been relegated from the English Football League in 2010, yet to return.

Here's a look at the back, simple design.  As the bottom of the card indicates, these were printed in England (Essex specifically, at least for this year).  For me, living in the US, this is going to make collecting this set a bit more of a challenge.  I just don't run across these in my travels, ever, which means I'm pretty much getting them from international sellers when I can find them and paying the shipping costs that go along with that.

I do have a few more of these that I won in a lot along with Don Donovan here, and I plan on showing some more of them as the 2013-14 Premier League season progresses...