The year of vintage

Don't just stand there like some slack-jawed yokel!

It's 2013! Time to get moving! Time to act! Time to ignore whatever is new, cool, hip, groovy, fab, gnarly, rad, awesome, dope, sweet and sick about this year's cardboard and focus on vintage!!!

This new year is the Year Of Vintage, and that will be my focus for at least the next 12 months, but probably longer.

Last night on the twitters there was a mild discussion about what constitutes "vintage" in the cardboard world. There are lots of opinions on this. Unlike certain antiques, there is no definite time period in cardboard that is defined as "vintage." "Vintage" is more like a measurement. Select a certain year in the past as the starting point of vintage and everything from that point and previous to it is "vintage."

But when does vintage begin?

I've often thought about it as whatever card set was issued 25 years ago. That's the starting point of vintage. So, for example, when the ball dropped last night, the 1988 Topps, Donruss and Fleer sets, as well as the very first Score set, were crowned "vintage."

I can hear you now, "Wow, that makes me feel old."

Good sir, that's nothing. I remember the bicentennial. Don't expect any sympathy from me because Bo Jackson is 50.

Some people have a more forgiving definition of "vintage." They say any cardboard 20 years old is "vintage." That would mean sets issued in 1993 are now vintage. And that would mean all junk wax is now "vintage." Wow, 1993 Upper Deck is vintage, too! That's too soon for me. Those can't be vintage sets. Twenty-five years sounds like a good cut-off point.

Other people put a much more personal spin on "vintage" and say it's any set issued before they were born.

I've heard this one many times. It works for a little while. I used to do it, too. But when you get to my age, it's a little difficult to tell people with a straight face that sets that included Aaron, Mays and Clemente during their playing days are NOT vintage.

So that doesn't work.

I've also heard some collectors say any set issued before 1981 is "vintage," citing the end of the Topps monopoly as the birth of modern cards. I used to do that, as well. But it's been more than 30 years since then and at some point we're going to have to admit that 1981 Fleer is vintage.

I'm sticking with 25 years ago.

Now if you're not interested in cards from 25 years ago or earlier, I can't help you. That's still going to be the focus here.

I promise I won't totally abandon newer cards. I'll still be buying repacks. I'll still pick up a pack or two of 2013 Topps flagship and Heritage and A&G, etc., etc. And you'll see that here. What you won't see here are want lists for that stuff.

Except Dodgers, of course.

(Wow, this guy has a lot of exceptions, doesn't he?)

But since this is the Year Of Vintage, I should at least feature vintage cards in the first post of the year.

Fortunately, mr haverkamp recently sent me a very vintage-laden package. I'll save some of it for another time. Right now, I'm showing the 1972 cards he sent me.

That's right, cards that are not merely 25 years old, they're 41 years old!

Oh, I hear you moaning already. It's not that bad.

Look, isn't that fun? Psychedelic tombstones are always fun. It doesn't even matter that there's no position on the front.

Mike Kekich. The man always remembered as one-half of the Yankees' wife-swapping duo. He kind of got screwed in the whole thing. He swapped Fritz Peterson for his wife and he and his new wife later split up. All that publicity for nothing.

Bill Melton has a few creases in him. Not to sound ungrateful, but I'll probably replace this card at some point. I don't mind creasing in some older sets -- stuff like creases in 1969 Topps is totally forgivable, it's an old, ugly duckling set anyway. But '72 is vibrant and young-looking even to this day. You can't get wrinkles in '72 Topps.

Milt Pappas. You ever do that thing where you imagine what an adult looked like when he was a kid? I just did that with Pappas. I'll bet he was a hell-raiser.

I'm not sure if Billy Parker is wearing an airbrushed cap, but if he is, he lucked out next to the paint jobs on the other two fellows.

I'm guessing that Jim Bibby is wearing a minor league New York Mets jersey with his painted on Cardinals cap. For a minute I thought he was wearing a Cubs jersey and pondered the cosmic response to someone wearing a Cardinals cap with a Cubs jersey.

There might be more "looking to the heavens" photos of this nature in 1972 Topps than in any other set. I'll have to count them all one day.

As mentioned in a previous post, '72 Topps was issued a couple of years before I started collecting cards. They were the cards that were floating around at my friends' houses -- the friends with older brothers. The 1972 cards just seemed like what a baseball card SHOULD be.

I've always felt that way, from the time I was at my friend's house and he had a few '72 cards.

I also remember the time when he put a record on -- it was his favorite song -- and he started dancing around the living room to it. Spastically.

This was the song:




It's a tradition that I find a 1972 song to go with my 1972 Topps posts. No matter how strange.

Just go with it.

It's vintage.

It'll make you feel good. I promise.

#GoVintage