Buyback Franken-set: Crossing 1,400 Buybacks!

Even a couple of years into the project now, I continue to enjoy my Buyback Franken-set.  Taking in new buybacks and continuing to work on the binder is easily one of the most enjoyable things in the hobby for me.  Let's keep the momentum going today with another handful of Topps Heritage box-topper buybacks that take me over the 1,400 total buyback mark!

1969 Topps #377 - Gary Bell

I grabbed this Gary Bell off of COMC and paid way more than I usually would for a single buyback at $3.33.  This was 100% about paying the "Seattle Pilots premium" as I would absolutely love to complete a Pilots team set in buyback format someday.  A pipe dream perhaps, but I'm one card closer anyway.  Pilots aside though, it's not a very interesting card...

...and unfortunately it runs into a very interesting card as far as the franken-set binder goes.  I love the bright, vibrant colors and the amount of background activity going on here.

'72 Terry Harmon for the win!

1960 Topps #322 - Willie Tasby

If memory serves this 1960 Topps Willie Tasby All-Star Rookie came as part of a lot, not a card I hand-selected at all.  Certainly a strong contender for the binder though, as I have precious few 1960 Heritage buybacks (this is just my fourth, and my first from the rookie subset).

1975 Ed Goodson looks none too pleased about Willie Tasby's attempt to oust him from the binder.

He certainly won't be pleased now, as Tasby supplants him.  Off to the rejected box for Ed Goodson.

This number was part of a completed page in the binder.  Here's how it looked before, with Goodson in place lower left...

...and here it is now, with Tasby included.  My absolute favorite on this page by a country mile is Pumpsie Green.  Got that in a trade with my hobby buddy Douglas Corti last year, and it remains one of my most prized buybacks to date.

1967 Topps #265 - Lou Burdette

An awesome buyback here, featuring an aged Lou/Lew Burdette.  1967 was Burdette's final season, and I really like the simple posed photograph of the weathered veteran Topps used here.  I was almost certain that this card would merit inclusion in the franken-set, but it turns out that #265 is a pretty brutal match-up as far as that goes...

Ouch!  Hands down one of my favorite '80s buybacks to date.  You could make an argument that this photograph was poorly cropped by Topps, and you wouldn't be wrong, but I love all the blue.

Easy choice there, Yount retains his spot.

1962 Topps #86 - Donn Clendenon

A Donn Clendenon rookie card is up next, now we're talking!  Donn is of course most famous for being named World Series MVP for the 1969 "Miracle Mets" team.  Cool shot of him showing off the guns on his Pirates RC though.  This one has got to make the set, right?

Oh man, another rough battle here.

At the time I was getting this post ready and fixing up the binder a couple of days ago, I decided to stick with the '72 leaders card.  In the time that's passed since then though, I'm seriously wondering if I made the correct call here.  There have been a few cases of this throughout the course of the project, and I plan to revisit some of them if and when I complete the franken-set.  This is a card that will absolutely be revisited.

1970 Topps #452 - Felix Milan All-Star

Let's close out the post with a trio of brand new Heritage box-topper buybacks, featuring 1970 Topps.  My first buyback from that set's wonderful All-Star subset, second baseman Felix Millan of the Braves.  I really like what Topps did with the newspaper-based design for these.  Would love to welcome this card into the binder based purely on aesthetics...

...and it looks like that will work quite well, given that I had a 1990 Topps buyback in slot 452!

Felix Millan goes into the franken-set, and Luis de los Santos becomes the 120th buyback in the dedicated 1990 Topps buyback set binder.  Still such a long way to go with that one, if it's even possible to complete (which I seriously question).

1970 Topps #3 - Darrel Chaney

At card #3, Darrel Chaney is making a push to land on the very first page of the franken-set binder.  As you can imagine, competition is pretty damn tough on page number one.  In case you had any doubts about that...

...in this case Chaney gets matched up against one of my absolute favorite cards from childhood.  1990 Topps was the first baseball card set that I ever collected, and I absolutely treasured the five Nolan Ryan cards that led off the checklist in that release.  It's going to take something much nicer than that Darrel Chaney to bump this one out of the binder.

Poor Darrel, he never stood a chance.

1970 Topps #406 - Mike Andrews

Last one for today, a really nice buyback for my Red Sox collection.  Like the pair of '70s before this, I picked this card up on COMC earlier this year.  Even if it doesn't make the franken-set, it's still a nice addition to my team collection.

For the second time in the past week, Lee Elia's 1967 card is challenged for slot 406 in the binder.

For the second time this week, it defends its title.  This is another one that I feel kinda iffy about, but I don't want the binder to be too heavily loaded with Red Sox cards so I have to try to keep myself in check there.  While I like the Andrews card every bit as much as the Elia, I couldn't really find a definitive reason that I liked it better, so we'll leave things as they are for now.

That's a wrap for today.  No new numbers for the project, so I'm still stalled at 82% overall completion.  I did get to add a new 1990 Topps buyback to that project at least, and more significantly this post sees me surpass the 1,400 overall buyback threshold!  It's pretty insane to think that I've featured 1,400 unique buybacks on this blog over time.

As I said at the outset of the post, I'm every bit as motivated as I've ever been with this project.  1,500 buybacks here I come!

Franken-set Progress: 653/792 (82%)
1990 Topps Buyback Set: 120/792 (15%)
"Rejected" Buybacks: 628
Total Buybacks in Collection: 1,401