Buyback Franken-set: I Get Buy(backs) with a Little Help from My Friends

Recently, buyback cards have been flooding into Shoebox Legends headquarters from all over the place.  In fact, I have four more folks who've sent me buybacks recently that I need to thank, and that's exactly what I'll be doing here.  Let's take a look at the goods and see if they make the franken-set album...

1978 Topps #167 - Tim Foli

First up is a trio of buybacks from Billy of Cardboard History.  Billy has just gotten into hockey cards recently, and sent me a few Hartford Whalers.  It turns out that I had the Whalers cards already, but the three buybacks he sent with them were all new to me!

Tim Foli's 1978 card was the first of the trio from Billy.  Foli was a solid infielder but swung just an average bat over the course of his career.  He possessed neither speed nor power, but still carved out a lengthy MLB career for himself.  He's got competition for slot 167 in the franken-set:

While I don't have any particular affinity towards Deron Johnson, this is a wonderfully colorful '72.

The competition was just a bit too tough, off to the buybacks box with Tim Foli.

1971 Topps #190 - Bob Tolan

Here's a really sharp '71 featuring speedster Bobby Tolan.  Bobby would actually miss the entire 1971 season after rupturing his ACL playing basketball in the off-season.  He'd return the following season though, and play well enough to earn Comeback Player of the Year.  Again there's some competition here with the following card already in slot 190 in the binder:

Unfortunately for Bobby Tolan, he's up against a Gold Glove and Rookie of the Year winner on one of my favorite designs of the '50s.

That one hurt a bit.

1960 Topps #414 - Don Williams

Here's the last of the cards that Billy sent, a 1960 buyback!  This set is sparsely represented within this project to say the least.  I was really excited to find that slot 414 was empty, this card is in.  Despite Don making just 11 career MLB appearances, this one will put up a tough fight against any future buybacks.

1987 Topps #537 - Rance Mulliniks

Next up is the very first 2017 Topps buyback to enter into my collection, pulled from a pack and sent to me by my buddy Shane Katz of Off the Wall.  I mentioned in a previous buyback post that I was excited to see all of the '80s and '90s buybacks included in this year's flagship Topps set as I think they'll be a huge help in filling the higher number portion of my set, and this is a perfect example of that.  Rance makes the set uncontested, and actually has an entire page all to himself at the moment.

1975 Topps #495 - Nelson Briles

This Nelson Briles came in a care package from Chris, aka The Pedestrian Collector.  Chris sent some much appreciated cards off of my set building want list as well.  I'll get to those in a separate post, but for today it's this super colorful '75 Topps Briles.  This one makes the cut without contest, and it's fitting given that Nelson had a card in the franken-set previously, but was bumped.  Great stuff!

1992 Topps #705 - Dwight Evans

Last card for today, this 2017 Topps Dwight Evans buyback just arrived yesterday courtesy of Commishbob, The Five Tool Collector.  Another shining example of 2017 Topps filling up the high number portion of the binder, as this is only the second buyback so far with a number of 700 or greater.  Making this one even cooler is the fact that I love "short term stop" cards featuring players with teams you don't normally associate them with.  Add to that Evans' long and successful career with the Red Sox and this is just a perfect card for my project.

Billy, Shane, Chris and Bob, thank you all so much for your contributions to my buyback project!  I really appreciate you guys thinking of me, I know I owe you all cards and will have some packages out soon here.

Franken-set Progress:  317/792 (40%)
"Rejected" Buybacks:  97
Total Buybacks in Collection:  414