The Seventies were my youth. The movies "Jaws" and "Star Wars" came out. Disco was king. The A's and Reds dominated early and it was the Yankees and the Dodgers at the end of decade. Wait, I can't forget the "We are Family" Pittsburgh Pirates of '79. I got my first cards in the '70s. I don't remember anything about them and I'm pretty sure they got tossed like most kids' cards did. It wasn't until '81 that I really got into collecting cards.
Working in the card shop in '80 and '81, I got to see a whole lot of the cards from the '70s. As a matter of fact, collectors that came into shop were either shopping for cards from the '50s, the '70s or the new Topps, Fleer and Donruss of '81. It's like they skipped the '60s for some reason.
I'm going to share my 3 favorite and 3 least favorite sets from the '70s. I'm not ranking them, just my three favorite sets and the three least favorite sets. Like I've said before, just because it might be a least favorite set, doesn't mean I don't like it. It's still baseball cards and you can't go wrong with baseball cards.
First up, 1972 Topps.
The 1972 Topps set screams the 70s. The design of the cards definitely matches the decade with the 3D look and colors of the team name at the top of the card. This 787 card set was the largest Topps set to date. The biggest addition to the set were the "In Action" cards that followed the base cards of the players.
I love the "In Action" cards. Especially, when it is an all-time great like Willie Mays.
'72 Topps included the regular subsets of league leaders and the the play-offs/World Series. It also included new subsets boyhood photos, award cards and traded cards.
I really like the look of the league leaders cards. It's hard to mess those up, but I guess it's possible. I'm also a firm believer including the play-off/World Series cards in the sets. It fills in the history of the previous year.
Two out of three on the new subsets isn't too bad. The boyhood photos are cool cards. I like being able to see what some of these guys looked like as kids. The award cards are nice, but it's not like I need to see these every year. Putting them in the sets in random years works. The traded cards? Yeah, it doesn't work for me. I could do without them.
Here are a few more cards from the set.
I'm a fan of Roberto Clemente and I really like these two cards. You think he didn't like the call in his "In Action" card?
The infamous Billy Martin finger card. I remember back in the day there was almost as much talk about this card as there was about the Billy Ripken card. The big difference is Topps didn't try 15,000 ways to hide it.
The Rod Carew card is the first "big" purchase of a card I ever made. I was finishing up my freshman year of college and found a small card store in Arlington, TX that had this card in his display case. I bet I asked that guy about that card a hundred times. Finally, I broke down and bought it for $35. I wish I still had it. It was one of the cards I sold when I decided food on the table for my family was a little more important than owning the card.
The design and colors of the '72 Topps set is all 1970s. The design and the inclusion of some of the all-time greats like Mays, Clemente and Robinson make it one of my favorite sets of 70s.
Let me know what your thoughts are on the 1972 Topps set.
