1961 Giants Team Set

Back in 2013 I set a goal to complete half the Topps Giants team sets from the 1960s and I was able to exceed that goal by finishing off 7. The other 3 were major challenges and I set a goal to finish those off in 2014.  I was able to finish them off at the buzzer and celebrated the final card in my 2014 Collecting Recap post.  I never got a chance to show off the 1961 complete Giants team set and now that I have finally gotten around to scanning it, here it is for your viewing pleasure:

 The Giants had team members on 3 league leader cards, to me it was a surprise that 2 of the 3 were pitching leaders as they were known in this era for their hitting more so than their pitching.

 

I really like the rookie star from this set, it is one of my favorite features.  The Jim Marshall horrible airbrush job stands out like a sore thumb in this team set.  Not sure why Willie Mays doesn't have a hat on, did Topps think the Giants would trade him?

This is a great page.  2 Giants Rookie stars, a nice combo card featuring those league leading Giants pitchers, an appearance of all time great from 50-60 years prior in Christy Mathewson and two Hall of Famers in Marichal and Cepeda.  The Juan Marichal is his rookie card and is considered a short print.

The final page was a beast to put together.  I had the McCovey from my player collection but there were two Mays cards to pick up and a bunch of high numbers.  The high numbers are pretty scarce with very few on the market.  To finish off the page, I inserted the 2 Giants Magic Rub-Off cards.

I am so excited to have finished off all the Giants team sets from the 1960s and I have had the chance to show them all off on the blog.  The HOFers, high numbers and scarcity of some of the earlier cards made this quite a quest but now I turn my attention to the decade of the 1950s.  With all the early Willie Mays cards, this one will take a while and a decent chunk of my budget.  I didn't set a goal for the 50s team set completion this year but will still keep my eyes open for set needs at reasonable prices.