A New Vintage Set Quest

Yesterday I shared some matchbook covers that I won in an auction recently.  During that same auction I bid on and won some cards from a set I have been thinking about building, 1961 Fleer.  My goal was to finish off my 1960 Fleer set and my 1961 Golden Press set prior to starting this set.  I see these sets in a similar light as smaller sets and somewhat of oddball sets featuring retired baseball greats.  But seeing 3 lots of these cards at a pretty reasonable price made me decide to start putting this set together without finishing the others up.

I picked up 36 total cards and 32 different cards which is more than 20% of the 154 card set.  Not a bad start.  Here are all 36 cards:

 Boy, my photography skills need some work - those are some crooked pictures.  While I generally like some scenery in the background on cards, I am okay with the solid colors, they are bright and make the players stand out.  It will be interesting to see once I get closer to completing the set if there is a pattern to the colors.

Whenever I see these cards I always wonder, "why 5 stars, could it have been 4 or 6 - who made that decision". Silly I guess but it would be great to hear from card designers what went into the decisions.  I really enjoy the variety of players in this set.  There are going to be some tough (expensive) cards in this set build like Babe Ruth and Ted Williams but I don't think it will be crazy expensive.

Here is a look at the card backs:

The trophy surrounding the number is kind of cool.  I really like the write ups and the career stats and everything is pretty easy to read.

I ended up with 4 extras, if anyone is looking for them let me know.  Also, outside of the Giants team set featured here, I don't think I have any more of these in my collection so if you have some available for trade or sale drop me a line.

Completed Giants Vintage Team Set - 1961 Fleer

Back in 2012 and 2013 I had set a goal to complete my 1961 and 1963 Fleer Giants team sets.  I recently shared my 1963 set completion, if you missed it check it out.  That tough Mays acquisition inspired me to try and finish off the 1961 set and I have now achieved that goal.  Here are the final 3 cards I needed to complete the set.

This Hughie Critz card was actually acquired over 2 years ago back when this set was one of my annual goals.  I had never showed it and it was still in my scanned folder so I figured I would include it here.  Critz had a 12 year career with the Reds and Giants.  He was a .268 career hitter and was runner up in the MVP race in 1926.

About 2 weeks ago I brought home the card of Joe "Iron Man" McGinnity.  I love how they used his nickname.  He spent 7 of hit 10 years with the NY Giants around the turn of the century (he spent 2.5 years with Baltimore - 1 in the NL and 1.5 in the AL and 1 year with the Brooklyn Superbas).  In those 10 years he has a W/L record of 246-142 with a 2.66 ERA and was inducted into the HOF in 1946 by the Old Timers Committee. 

The final card is also a Giants HOFer, Ross Youngs.  He played his entire 10 year career with the Giants in the teens and twenties and was a lifetime .322 hitter.  This card proved challenging to obtain as it was the last card in the set.  There were times I did eBay searched and none of these came up, regardless of condition.  When this one popped up with a reasonable buy it now, I jumped and now have a great completed vintage team set.

Here is the entire team set with a bonus Fleer Team Pennant Decal.  Lots of star and HOF power in this team set.  Enjoy.