Trade Post - Dawg Day Cards

One of my favorite traders is Angus over at Dawg Day Cards.  He lives in Canada and has access to vintage OPC cards but has a PO Box in NY to keep postage costs down for his fellow traders!  He has also shown the ability to track down some unique items which you will see later in this post.  Our first trade was in the second half of last year and today I am sharing two more packages Angus sent my way.

First up is some vintage set help:

I have been plugging away at this 1971 Topps set and Angus helped me inch closer with this six-pack of cards including HOF Tony Perez and Le Grande Orange Rusty Staub decked out in his Expos gear.  As of today, I need just 26 cards and have 2-3 incoming.  My goal to finish this set in 2017 seems within grasp.

How about this group of 1972 Topps cards?  These are all mid-high or high number cards which have been very tough to track down for me.  HOFers Wilhelm and Santo along with some stars like McLain and Murcer add to the greatness of this lot of cards.  My LCS doesn't have any high numbers in stock so I am hoping to convince Mrs. ARPSmith to allow a trip to the National in July to work on knocking more cards off this want list.

Moving onto the Canadian portion of the post, 1975 Topps OPC cards!  A nice group of nine makes a significant dent in the want list.  I can't pinpoint the reason, but the Canadian versions of these Topps cards hold a mystique for me.  I have considered making the acquisition of all the Giants OPC cards an annual goal for the last couple years but haven't pulled the trigger.

Here is a 1971 OPC of Willie McCovey. This was a condition upgrade for my McCovey collection.  I think these card backs are among the best out there. I also got a couple nice oddballs for the Giants collection.  I was 12 when this Super Sugar Crisp card came out.  I probably had a box or two of these when I was a kid but never remember pulling cards out of the boxes.

This scan shows a couple more OPC cards, a couple Barry Bonds inserts and a cool oddball of the Polo Grounds.  I wasn't able to pinpoint the origin of the Polo Grounds card but it is instantly a favorite.

Finally, I mentioned at the top of the post about some unique items and I have two to share:

First up is a great looking postcard of San Francisco Legend Lefty O'Doul. I am guessing this postcard came from his restaurant.  O'Doul grew up in San Francisco and had an 12 year MLB career.  He also played 12 years for the San Francisco Seals of the PCL (although he only made it into 1 game in 2 of the seasons)  which predated the Giants relocation to San Francisco.  His peak year in 1929 with the Phillies where he hit .398 and finished second in the MVP voting.  He played 3 different seasons with the NY Giants and had a peak year of getting 16.7% of the votes in Hall of Fame balloting in 1960.  This postcard is a great addition to my Giants collection.

The final item is a first for me, a matchbook cover:

This unique item comes from a hotel the Giants used during Spring Training.  I hadn't heard of this place and this matchbook caused me to do some research.  The Francisco Grande is still in business and had a neat historic video on its website.  I found out that the Giants owner bought the land in 1961 and starting in 1962 the Giants used it as a Spring Training site. There was a baseball field on premises and the great teams of the 1960s including Mays, McCovey, Cepeda, Marichal and Perry all played there. The Giants kept this as their Spring home until 1982.  The swimming pool is shaped like a baseball bat with the jacuzzi acting as the ball.  If you watch the video you will also see a nice John Wayne connection to the resort.

Thanks Angus for all the great stuff, both the collection needs and the unique items.  I have a few things I need to get together and send your way soon.