I picked up a pile of 1979 Calbees the other day which has got me thinking about whether they might be a realistic set build. I have, with these new ones, more than a hundred 1979s which is usually about the point at which I make the move from dabbling to set building.
There are two things that have held me back on committing to this set. The first is that it is confusing as hell. It was released in 12 series of differing sizes, and none of the cards are numbered so keeping track of them is a nightmare. The card fronts all look the same too, just having a photo and nothing else, which adds to the confusion. Having organized them into a binder I've figured out how to distinguish them from the card backs, but the lack of numbers is a real pain in the ass when it comes to searching for cards you need.
The other stumbling block is that two of the series (Red Helmets and CL Championship Series) are short printed and quite expensive. I think they were only released in Hiroshima, though I'm not certain. I don't have any cards from either and they only occasionally come up for sale on Yahoo Auctions, always at high prices.
Another minor point against them is that the photos on most cards are a bit more boring than the ones from other 1970s Calbee sets. Its not as bad as contemporary sets, but there are way more boring posed shots and head and shoulders profiles in this one, which makes it less interesting to me.
On the other hand, this set was issued in an interesting way that has always intrigued me. Most of the series (and most of the cards I have) feature players who received the most votes in a given month from fans. So one series would have the top vote getters from April, another from May, etc etc. Its kind of cool.
I think this one belongs in my "soft" set in progress category - I'll pick up cards I need for it when I find a deal and don't have anything else exciting to spend my monthly card budget on, but otherwise its on the backburner.
(1) That's an interesting way for a manufacturer to issue cards. Pretty fun, too. All these years later, it provides a historic snapshot into which players were hot during each month of that season.
ReplyDelete(2) I think the "soft" set collecting idea is a good one. You could even forget about the short prints and just go for the rest of the set, if that kind of thing wouldn't bother you.
Yeah I thought it was a cool way to issue cards too. I wouldn't mind seeing them resurrect it.
DeleteThis set is a good one for ignoring the short prints since the cards aren't numbered. With other sets I feel obligated to leave blank album pages for the missing numbered cards, but that isn't necessary with this one!
Different sizes and no numbers? I wonder why Calbee decided to do this. I think I'd do the same thing as you. Pick them up if they're cheap... otherwise put the set build on the backburner. Best of luck.
ReplyDeleteThanks! They were going through a kind of experimental phase in the late 70s which led to some oddball years (especially 78 and 79) which made their sets look really weird in hindsight, but probably very fun to collect at the time.
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