The card design shows off the green, white, and yellow team colors. The photograph is perfectly cropped and captures Rollie's iconic mustache while he's in mid delivery in front a crowd of blurred fans. It deserves to be hanging up in a museum somewhere and Topps recently made it a possibility.
A while back they offered collectors the opportunity to bust open these oversized wax packs for $14.99:
Each pack contains five 8.5" x 11.5" limited edition archive prints featuring some of the most popular players on the 1974 Oakland Athletics.
I'm sure the $14.99 price tag has scared off a lot of prospective buyers. But Topps currently has these on sale for $9.99, along with a bunch of other World Series Championship teams: 1977 New York Yankees, 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates, 1980 Philadelphia Phillies, 1984 Detroit Tigers, 1986 New York Mets, and 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers. There were a few others produced, but due to the limited production (less than 75 sets produced) they're already sold out.
Okay... that's enough of my pretending to be a Topps representative. Let's check out the other four cards from the wax pack:
Two more hall of famers. Two more amazing action shots. Two more prints worthy of being framed.
And rounding out the pack...
Two fan favorites who helped the Oakland Athletics win three consecutive World Series Championships in the 70's.
It's a shame that I don't have enough wall space for the entire collection. I'm probably going to frame the Fingers and clear some space for it on my office walls. The other four will likely go back into the wax wrapper and wait patiently until I can afford a bigger place.
So what do you think...
Would you ever consider framing a blown up print of a baseball card? If so, what card would you pick?
Well that's it for now. Happy Thursday and sayonara!
That Vida Blue framed would be a nice pick-me-up everytime you saw it. Such a great shot.
ReplyDeleteI think framing a blown up print of a baseball card is a cool idea, though I'd probably just do it at Kinkos or something. But man, it's tough to pick which one I'd go with.
Never actually thought of that. I wonder what they'd charge. With Topps current sale, you'd only have to pay around $3 per poster. If Kinko's can beat that. There are a few cards I'd consider having printed.
DeleteMy only complaint about any of these types of offerings by Topps is the lack of effort they put into them. The original cards were a product of 1970s technology, so you had fairly low quality photo printing at the time, which only looks more apparent when blown up. Instead of Topps going back to the negatives and reproducing these with higher quality copies of the photos (and we've all seen the gorgeous, crystal clear negatives they sell from the Topps Vault), they just scanned in the old cards and blew them up. As a result, what looked slightly blurry and grainy in 1974, looks horrible at 8.5" x 11". I would buy the Winfield if it looked better than something could do at home with my scanner and color HP printer.
ReplyDeleteGreat point. They were more grainy than I had anticipated. But overall... for the price I was too disappointed.
DeleteI am a collector of both Reggie and Vida so this pack would fit great into my collection. I may have to go to Topps and pick this up. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteLike Jason mentioned... they're not super high quality. But for the price, they're decent. I'm considering grabbing the 1986 Mets pack, because I love the Gooden from that year.
DeleteI got the 2014 wax pack with the 5x7 Orioles cards this summer as a gift. I thought it was pretty neat. Topps seems to be going nuts with this stuff though. I get emails several times a day with a different item I've never seen. They don't have a 'classic; Orioles set like this one. I'd pick it up for $15 if they did.
ReplyDeleteAs for a frame-able oversized card.....gimme a nice '78 Murray rookie. It's my favorite card produced after 1970.
Some other choices would be the '57 Brooks Robinson, the '59 Campy Tribute card or the '61 Fleer Lenny Moore.
Yeah I think this is just another money making scheme for Topps... but at least they're keeping the stuff reasonably limited. However... they're definitely flooding the market with a bunch of different products.
DeleteBtw... I love the 1959T Campanella choice. One of my favorite cards in the collection. Thanks again for that amazing card! I am forever indebted to you.
NO BLUE MOON ODOM CARD???? That one is almost as good as the Fingers.
ReplyDeleteI'd frame a blown-up card, but I'm not paying more than the cost of the frame and the copying fee.
The good news is that Topps is fairly reasonable on these prices. Five 8.5" x 11.5" pictures for $9.99 + shipping... equals out to about $3something per photo. Now the quality isn't the greatest... but you get what you pay for.
DeleteFuji. I picked up the Sox 75 set. They look great. One or two may go in a frame.
ReplyDeleteSeriously jealous. I wanted that set, but they're sold out.
DeleteThose cards look great. If only these big cards were (both length and width-wise) 0.5 inches smaller in order to fit into binder pages.
ReplyDeleteThey have a small border for matting purposes. So I guess you could take a paper cutter and go to work ;-)
DeleteI think that Topps has done some nice work with the oversized cards, many of them are definitely frame-worthy. I dig the Reggie Jackson card.
ReplyDeleteIf I was to pick a card that I would like as a blown up print I would probably go with a 1933 Goudey Lou Gehrig #92 or a 1955 All-American Jim Thorpe #37.
I see nothing wrong with framing those. They have a cool look to them.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I get the Fingers framed, I'll make sure to let you guys get the first look.
DeleteAw dangit! More oddballs for my Blue and Campy player collections. Anyone see singles on ebay yet?
ReplyDeleteIt might be hard to beat the current $9.99 + shipping asking price on the Topps website if you're trying to get two of the prints from eBay.
DeleteThey're pretty affordable. You might want to just buy the set of five... and maybe use the Jackson, Fingers, and Hunter as tradebait.
DeleteNice ones! You bet that green and yellow are really bright! I think I'd like to see any kind of those with yankees ;)
ReplyDeleteThey have the 1977 Yankees for sale ;-)
DeleteTopps probably owes you a commission. I went and ordered both of the Athletics packs they have available; the one you are showing off above, and the one with four Spring Training shots of Rollie Fingers, Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Joe Rudi, and an A's logo print.
ReplyDeleteI also found a coupon code for 35% off boxes of 2014 Topps Mini Baseball, so I snagged a couple of those. I really liked the 2013 issue in spite of collation issues, but I'd been holding off on 2014 because MSRP was a bit higher than I wanted to pay. At 35% off I was sold, and it wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't been digging around on the site at your recommendation.
35% off? That's tempting. I'd probably buy a box of minis myself.
DeleteThe coupon code is MINISALE. The website I found it on (RetailMeNot) says it is valid until October 8, 2015.
DeleteThanks. I spent 30 minutes going back and forth on whether to buy a box. Ended up closing the web browser to keep me from buying it. I unfortunately spent way too much money last month.
Delete