It's been months now since I did a post with contributions to my Buyback Franken-set project. Let's get back in the saddle today with a new trio of hopefuls, beginning with the great Carlton Fisk...
The '88 Topps set certainly arrived at the height of what's now known as the junk wax era, but it seems many collectors still have an appreciation for it. Fisk's card is a great example of how the design really created some dimension, with his left leg positioned behind the name banner in the lower right, but his helmet and bat overlapping the White Sox team name along the top of the card. Great stuff.
Even though he's in the wrong uniform here, I'd love a chance to welcome Carlton to the Buyback Franken-set binder. There's some existing competition for slot 385 though, and even though he's not enshrined in Cooperstown like Fisk, he's no slouch either...
It's Curt Shilling, with the Phillies on his 1999 release. Interesting that Fisk gets matched up against another player that I associate more with the Boston Red Sox than the team he's depicted with here. This is actually a really nice buyback, I like the how the photograph and the way that it's cropped are a perfect fit for the design.
I think I just like the Fisk card a little bit more, though. Fisk is in, Schilling is out. This one was part of a completed page as well.
Here's the before, with Schilling in the lower left...
...and here's the page now, with Fisk having supplanted him. Not a bad bottom third of the page, eh?
1969 Topps #361 - Gary Holman
Next up, a visually stunning Gary Holman. There's a lot to love about this one. Forgotten franchise of the past? Check. The awesome, jumbo-sized Topps All-Star Rookie trophy logo? Check. Palm trees, even? Check!
At a relatively obscure card number like 361, I'd assume this one will make the cut easily. It has some competition though...
This Mark Thurmond is a perfectly fine card. He's wearing a cap, which is great. Honestly though, pretty boring and does not hold a candle to that Heritage Holman buyback.
Easy call here, the challenger wins, Thurmond moves off to the rejected box.
This one was part of a completed page also. There's Thurmond in the lead-off spot...
...and here's the page with Holman inserted. I like how it's 1960s all the way down the left side there. My favorite on this page might be the legendary "fly down" Claude Raymond, middle left.
1989 Topps #229 - Jimmy Key
Last but not least, a very blue 1989 Topps card. Jimmy Key nearly won a Cy Young Award on more than one occasion, and was an All-Star five times in his career. I actually love the composition of this card; the many hues of blue are just so fitting for a Blue Jays card like this one. The problem is...
...this Frank Thomas Star Power buyback from 1996 Topps already calls slot 229 home.
Tough break for Jimmy there, that was an absolutely brutal match-up with the Big Hurt. There are plenty of other slots where Key would've battled his way in without question, but it just so happens that this is how the chips fell in this case.
Not a bad trio today, Jimmy Key didn't stand a chance against that Frank Thomas card, but the other two fought their way in and bettered completed pages at least. We're gonna cap it here, because posting too many cards in this new Blogger interface is a real bear. You can expect to see more frequent, but smaller, Buyback Franken-set posts like this one going forward.
Until next time, thanks as always for stopping by!
Franken-set Progress: 672/792 (84%)
1990 Topps Buyback Set: 136/792 (17%)
"Rejected" Buybacks: 725
Total Buybacks in Collection: 1,527
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5 comments:
Good to have this series back. Between the lack of new buybacks in any product but Heritage and the fact that so many of us aren't going to shows or stores, I'm not surprised that the project has slowed down. Wish I could help, but I'm steering clear of anything but online shopping for the most part.
I'd love to see you get one of the Willie Mays buybacks from Heritage, but they've got to be super-expensive!
I would have went with the same picks as you... but that Schilling would have gone down to the wire.
Agree with all your choices here! Especially nice to see Schilling get knocked out of the frankenset.
I came here to say what Nick said :) Hope you can find some more Buybacks soon. It's always fun to see your progress on this project.
That Gary Holman card fascinated me (and is now in my COMC cart). This guy was a Topps Rookie All-Star and I've never so much as heard of him?
So it turns out this was his only card. He batted .294 in 1968, his rookie season. He split the next season between Washington and AAA and couldn't even match his rookie numbers in AAA. 1969 was his last season... but it seems like there must be more to this story... maybe an injury?
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