Buyback Franken-set: Off the Wall Part III - No Foil?

After a deflating Bruins loss last night, then watching Liverpool drop valuable points in the Premier League for the second game in a row this morning, this time inexplicably losing to last place Swansea City at home, it's been a rough last 24 hours of sports for me.  While I try to flush the memory of those awful games from my mind let's look at something a little more positive, the next ten buybacks I received a while back from my buddy Shane Katz...

1966 Topps #37 - Billy Herman

Today's post kicks off with an oddity, the first buyback I've received to date that's missing its foil stamp.  You can see where the card was stamped there on Billy's left shoulder, but despite being embossed the silver foil is completely missing.  I'm not sure if the foil fell away over time or if this was a manufacturing defect, but I'm betting it was the latter.  Either way, I'm going to leave this one out of the franken-set for now as I'd prefer all the cards in there have visible foil stamps.  Still a cool card for my Sox collection though, especially since Billy is enshrined in Cooperstown!

1974 Topps #433 - Lerrin LaGrow

Lerrin LaGrow is probably most remembered for having a bat thrown at him by Bert Campaneris in the 1972 ALCS.  He's also now a member of the buyback franken-set in slot 433.

1979 Topps #498 - Rich Chiles

Up next, a string of five consecutive 1979 Topps buybacks, all of which make the franken-set.  Whoo-hoo!

1979 Topps #684 - Jamie Easterly

Jamie Easterly, who gave up Willie McCovey's 500th career home run, fills a really nice high number at 684.  In fact, hundreds of cards into this project there are only five in the binder that fall after this one.  Finishing the higher numbered portion of the set is going to be tough for sure.

1979 Topps #464 - Joe Nolan

Joe Nolan's specs and some sparsely populated bleachers are the highlights of this card.

1979 Topps #399 - David Clyde

Something went awry with the printing process on this David Clyde.  Blue ink abounds, including along the side of Clyde's face.  It's even spilling over into the white border along the top left.

1979 Topps #160 - Mike Flanagan

Here's the last of the '79s, and by far the best.  Flanagan paced the league with 23 wins in 1979, and captured the AL Cy Young Award as a result.  If I could hand-pick a single buyback of Mike's for the franken-set, this would be the one.  A solid addition to say the least.

1980 Topps #142 - Phil Huffman

Phil Huffman is an interesting story if you like obscure players.  He made the Blue Jays roster as a starter in 1979, but after a single disappointing season was demoted before the 1980 campaign in favor of a four man rotation (ouch!).  He'd spend the next five years in the minor leagues before finally getting the call for the Orioles in 1985.  In two appearances that season Phil threw 4.2 innings to the tune of a 15.43 ERA, and that spelled the end.  As far as the franken-set project goes, Huffman is in!

1980 Topps #139 - Dane Iorg

Here's another '80 Topps card, featuring two-time World Series champ Dane Iorg.  Buybacks from the '80s aren't yet that prevalent in my franken-set since Topps only started using them heavily with last year's releases.  Nice to add a pair of them here, and they land on the same page no less!

1972 Topps #86 - 1971 AL Batting Leaders

We'll finish up for today with arguably the best card in this bunch, featuring the 1971 American League batting leaders.  1971 was actually the third (and final) batting title that Tony Oliva captured in his career, which is damn impressive.

For the lone time in today's post we've got a conflict; Mike Kilkenny's 1971 release is already in slot 86.  As tough as it is for me to toss a '71 out of the binder, I'm going to do exactly that.

That was a really nice grouping.  Eight new card numbers for the set, and one conflict card that won out.  With the way rounding up worked out I jumped from 34% to 36% complete in this one post alone.  I've still got three posts worth of buybacks left to go from the lot that Shane sent me, and the best is yet to come!

Franken-set Progress:  282/792 (36%)
"Rejected" Buybacks:  76
Total Buybacks in Collection:  358