Monday, December 9, 2013

Fantastic Fingers

As a collector who prides himself on finding good deals on sports cards, I'm not ashamed to tell all of you that every now and then, I'll splurge and pay full book on a piece of cardboard.  And if I really want a card... I'll even pay over book.

That's what happened when I stumbled across this 1974 Topps card of Roland Glen Fingers:

1974 Topps #212

Isn't it a beauty?  Seriously... just take a few seconds and soak in the awesomeness of this card.

If I owned a baseball card museum, this card would definitely be hanging up on one of the walls.  Everything about it is stunning.  The 1974 Topps design shows off the Athletics team colors.  Fingers with his iconic mustache is in mid delivery and was cropped perfectly to fit the photo window.  Plus he sort of blends in with the blurry fans in the background giving the card sort of a Van Gogh kind of feel.

However these reasons alone don't justify the dollar amount I spent on this card.  Heck... there are multiple copies of this card on COMC for under a buck.  But what separates this card from those is the condition.

This card looks like it was recently pulled from a pack.  It's in great condition and is very well centered (don't be fooled by the top border... part of it was chopped off in the scan).

That's why I had no problem dropping $3.99 on this amazing addition to my Oakland Athletics PC.

Okay... your turn.  Based on card design and photo selection...

What are some of you favorite cards that would be museum wall worthy?

Happy Monday and sayonara!

12 comments:

night owl said...

Too many to mention: 1976 Johnny Bench and Fred Lynn, 1977 Mark Fidrych, 1975 Steve Garvey, 1988 Topps Bo Jackson, 1974 John "Blue Moon" Odom, 1981 Topps Fernando Valenzuela, etc, etc.

The '74 Topps A's cards are fantastic. Fingers and Odom are the best.

Chuck's Used Cards said...

Growing up collecting the Swingin' Oakland A's was fun. Every spring (and not before), I looked forward to opening packs of cards, chewing the gum and looking for A's - Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, Rudi, Campy and Sal.

The thing that struck me most on those cards was the gleeming sunshine in every picture. Yes - there were more day games, but it justs seems that it was sunnier, brighter and more colorful. Go back and look and compare those with todays cards ...

Commishbob said...

1961 Topps Wes Covington. I just love the color, pose, everything about it. Just a great card. 1978 Murray, 1981 Topps Roger Carr, This card just exemplifies football as I loved it.1964 Philly Gum John Mackey. See explination for the Wes Covington card.

Play at the Plate said...

Any of the 1956 play at the plate cards, the 1971 Munson on my header...I'd like them blown up to about 3X5 though. That would be sweet.

Pro Set Cards said...

Going with hockey, my two all-time favourites are 80-81 OPC Wayne Gretzky and 90-91 UD Wayne Gretzky Promo. Both are worth a look!

Ana Lu said...

Wow besides the great condition of the card is the fact that Fingers mustache is not rolled up!
Never saw him this way!

sg488 said...

1971 Munson,1973 Bench,and 1976 Bench.

Fuji said...

Wow. Didn't notice that. I'll definitely flip through my vintage binder and compare them. My brother would take me to A's games all the time when I was a kid... although the ones I actually remember are from the late 70's forward. Still I love collecting cardboard of those Swingin' A's.

Fuji said...

I actually tried to do some research on this to see when he started rolling the 'stache... but didn't find anything. It must have been sometime during 1973 or 1974 season.

Fuji said...

Thanks guys for the feedback... I'll head over to COMC and look into adding a few of these to my collection. I pretty sure I already have the 71T Munson, 77T Fidrych, and the 78T Murray... but I might need to double check on those.

Fuji said...

Huge fan of the 56T set. I only three or four cards from the set... but grabbing the Jackie Robinson was definitely one of my hobby milestones.

Fuji said...

Wow... you weren't kidding. That Odom is awesome!