Finally Some 1972 Topps Progress

I took more than a year off on working on my 1972 Topps set.  It is the only set I need to complete my lifetime run of Topps flagship.  The high number cards are hard to track down and even harder to get at a reasonable price.  Whenever I pop into a card store, usually when I am traveling for work I get a chuckle from the owner when I ask if they have any.

Just a couple months back I decided to bit the bullet and reignite my set quest.  I started by putting the cards I did have into binder pages in hopes it would help inspire me and it worked.  My buddy at work, when we face a big challenge, always states that the way to eat an elephant is one bit at a time.  I decided to try and pick up 3 cards a month towards the set build and have pretty much stayed on track.  I have picked up some on eBay and I also search COMC from time to time and I decided to share the dozen that arrived in my recent COMC shipment.

These first two cards are of Hall of Famers and are not high numbers.  I only needed a few non-high numbers when I stopped my pursuit and with these additions, I am down to needing 5 non-high numbers including some heavy hitters like Nolan Ryan, Pete Rose and Hank Aaron IA.

Here are the first 5 high numbers.  I read a great book about the A's of the 70s and wasn't really aware of how good Ken Holtzman was for the A's.  I remember him late in his career with the Cubs.  Funny how a book read connects me to certain players.  This is my second copy of the Alan Gallagher card, I have one in my Giants binder.   I recently read an article about Jose LaBoy.  I get a weekly email from the Baseball Hall of Fame that usually has an article that shows a baseball card and gives some info on a player.  LaBoy's 1970 Topps card was the featured card here.  If you don't subscribe to the newsletter, I would highly recommend it.

And here are the last 5 cards.  A nice card of HOFer Walter Alston and it looks like a candid shot as he manages a game.  The Simpson card looks like a pre-game photo before fans were let in and the Doyle and Steward appear to be Spring Training shots.

This addition of a dozen cards leaves me with a want list of 72.  72 bits of the elephant left.