Making Major Progress on my 1956 Topps Giants Team Set

I have a folder set up on my computer with scans of cards that I have acquired since I started this blog or have pulled from my collection with plans of blogging about them.  I was thinking about blogging ideas and was looking through the folder and realized I have over 250 scans.  For each scan I made I had an idea about a blog post I could create from the scan but if I am being honest with myself many of the ideas have gone by the wayside.  I guess it is time to study the scans and come up with some new ideas. 

I have been doing better as of late on scanning incoming cards and immediately writing the post.  I will have to mix in some of the older scans with new stuff coming in to clear out my folder.  Maybe I should add timely posts after scanning to my 2013 goals???

When looking through my folder, I noticed the number of 1956 Topps cards I had picked up over the last 2-3 months towards my Giants team set.  When checking my want list I realized that I only need 1 more card to complete the team set, unfortunately it happens to be Willie Mays-  just like my 1955 Topps, 1963 Fleer and 1965 Topps want lists.  The joys of having the greatest player of all time as a former player on you favorite team.

Here are some of my 1956 recent pick ups:

1956 is one of my favorite vintage sets, I love the portrait shot up front with an action shot in the background.  This appears to be a picture of Mueller sliding into home with possibly Willie Mays directing him to slide, the play at the plate cards in this set are amongst my favorites.

 Most of the Giants have their name surrounded by an orange block but old Foster here has a green block.  Not sure of the reason for the variation.  This action play at 3rd is a great one as well but it appears the runner is going to be safe on this one.

 On this card of Jim Hearn we start to see some variation in the shade of blue used in the Giants cap.  I am not sure if the artist used some creative liberties or if the Giants did actually have caps of varying colors.  Maybe that is something worth checking out.  I read a post earlier tonight from Nick over at Dime Boxes who mentioned he may be interested in going after a collection of cards with players showing high leg kicks.  Jim here may fit the bill (and don't forget about the Dominican Dandy - Juan Marichal if you decide to go that route Nick). 

 In this card of Hank Thompson, the blue hat really comes alive. It also matches the blue box around his name, interesting. Looks like Hank made a nice stop at a ball in the hole.

 Here is the team card which is actually pretty tough to come by and this one happens to be in pretty good condition.  I guess I do have a 1956 card featuring Willie Mays!

 Marv just isn't a name you hear much of any more.  I think he looks like a perfect caricature of what I think of when I think 1950s ball player.  Buzz cut, kind big ears, little bit of a smirk and just a good old boy.

 Antonelli was a darn good pitcher and I actually just picked up a 1960 All Star card of his that I need to get scanned and feature.   His action photo shows him on the mound in front of a packed crowd and I really like the look of it.

Finally my last 100% new addition to the Giants team set features catcher Wes Westrum.  Every time I read or hear Mr. Westrum's name I think of a baseball coach I had when I was about 11-13 whose name was also Wes.  He was my buddy Jamie's dad.  Wes pitched a lot of batting practice and had a natural curve to his pitches.  He was right handed as was I and he started every pitch at your head and it would curve right into the strike zone. I helped us learn how to hit curves quite well and he was very consistent and accurate with it - to everyone but me. During my 3 years of playing on his team, coach Wes threw only 2 pitches that didn't curve and both ended up hitting me in the head.  Anyway, this card features a sweet play at the plate with a Cardinal base runner getting tagged out, way to go Wes.

I mentioned that these 8 cards were my only 2 100% new cards as I also picked up these 2 cards:

Both are very nice cards, I particularly like the stretch on the play at first on Gail Harris' card.  Many of the 1956 cards come in two variations, a white back and a grey back. These are both grey backs I added where I already had the white back.  If I was smart, maybe I should have scanned the back to show the difference. It appears Coach Wes' second non-curving curve ball may have caused a little more damage than I realized.  Anyway, since I was able to score these cards for under a dollar each (plus a little shipping) I decided to pick them up and mark them off the want list. 

If you look at my 1956 want list you will still see 8 cards listed including both versions of the Willie Mays card but the other 6 are all cards where I have one version.  Anyone know how and where to pick up some Willie Mays cards on the cheap so I can finish some team sets?