A Couple of Parkies & a Teaser for Tomorrow's Epic Post!

Even in these stressful and uncertain times, in fact maybe now more than ever, it's important to treat yourself.  That's why a couple of weeks back I put together an order with one of my favorite eBay sellers as a small mental reward for making it through my first few weeks of sheltering in place.

I picked up five cards in all for around $30 (free shipping on orders over $25).  I've got the first pair to show today, from one of my favorite vintage hockey sets; 1957-58 Parkhurst!

First up, Leafs left wing Sid Smith.  Sid played a dozen seasons with Toronto, winning three Stanley Cups and two Lady Byng Trophies (for sportsmanship).  He was even captain of the club for a season, just a year or two before this card was printed up.

I love this set for its simplicity.  A prominent logo, a nice painting of the subject in action sans background, and a loud red strip across the bottom with the card number (on the front, blasphemous!), subject name, and position. 

You can see some surface wrinkling in the upper right of Sid's card here, but it doesn't bother me in the least.  As this set goes, and virtually all '50s hockey for that matter, I just care about overall visual appeal and avoiding cards that are truly atrocious (like missing an entire corner, or a mustache drawn on, stuff like that).

The backs aren't quite as exciting, but you do get a nice write-up in both English and French at least.

The other addition is from the Montreal Canadians portion of the set, defenseman Bob Turner.  He was fortunate enough to be a member of the team that won five straight Stanley Cup Championships between 1956 and 1960!

The entire checklist for this release is only 50 cards deep; 25 Maple Leafs cards and 25 Canadiens cards.  When I first learned that, I thought for a moment that maybe this would be a reasonable '50s hockey set to pursue.  Then I looked at the checklist and saw names like Jean Beliveau, Maurice "Rocket" Richard, Tim Horton and plenty of other HOFers, and realized that's not a very likely possibility.

That's okay though, I'm content to sit back and enjoy each and every relatively cheap pick-up I can find from this set.  Like these two, which cost me $4.75 and $5.50, respectively.  I may never reach the finish line, but with this pair in hand I do have 5 of these now, or 10% of a complete set.

That's a wrap for today, gotta get back to work here.  I don't usually do this but I also wanted to tease my next post just a bit...

Earlier this year, before the pandemic really broke out, I executed a massive flip via eBay.  In the end I sold 35 separate cards and shipped them out all over the country, and used the proceeds to buy just a single dream card for my collection.  For now I'll just say that it's one of the most iconic cards in its particular sport, and it's probably not the card you'd guess it would be if you've followed this blog over the years.

Tune in tomorrow morning to see the results of my largest many-to-single card flip to date!