Like a well-Hoyled machine

I don’t trade very often.

It’s not because I don’t like it or I’m antisocial or anything like that – it’s just that relative to the rest of the blogging world, I collect strange things.  Vintage hockey, OPC baseball, British soccer, Australian football – it’s a bit of an odd mix.

Now, it doesn’t mean that I’m not happy to get something in return that doesn’t fit that profile, but it does mean that whoever I’m trading with has to want the odd stuff .that I tend to have.  Most of my trades fall into the “here, have a pile of stuff” variety.  This is OK.  I like those.  It’s just about finding trade partners who would actually like the piles of things I have lurking haphazardly in the basement.

Fortunately, into that void stepped Mark Hoyle, who had empty spots in his collection that could precisely be filled by OPC hockey and baseball and UK soccer.  He’s a Boston fans and sadly, if there’s one area where I’m thin, it’s Boston teams because I’ve done three other Boston packages in the past couple of years.  I think I really have to go stock up on vintage Boston simply so I can trade it.

What he sent me, though, is to my eyes really exotic.  This is something that, to the best of my knowledge, was never sold up here and I’ve never had any in my possession:

Basketball.

There was also a mix of football (US style), baseball, and some hockey which are all also quite cool, but it was the basketball cards that made this package.  In basketball, just like in baseball, I cheer for an expansion team.  This means that for vintage, I’m team-agnostic and everything is good.

The card above is 1979-80 basketball.  I think this set is gorgeous and I’m going to chase it. The design is sharp and there will be enough players I’ve heard of to make it interesting. My knowledge of the sport is thin enough that other than the top half-dozen names in any given set, the whole thing will be a learning experience.  This should make it fun. Fortunately, the backs of these are pretty info-laden.

Dreadful scan, but the point is clear.  Lots of great stuff in these.  I have a nephew who plays quite seriously.  Maybe now I’ll learn enough to keep up. 🙂

I also get a kick out of the 1975-76 set:

I assume this is the Phil Jackson I think it is…

This is a neat set (70s anything is really in my wheelhouse), but what really makes it is the design of the back:

This might be the first set I’ll collect because I like the backs so much.  Could use a touch more text, but it’s great, all the same.

The package had a number of cards from all the standard-sized 70s sets.  It was like getting a sampler and it was perfect.  I see a few things I want to target.  These are a few other highlights:

This one is 1978-79:

As I said, there was a lot of baseball, football and hockey in there, too.  This stuff, though, was what I wanted in the first post.  So now I think I will collect vintage hockey, OPC baseball, British soccer, Australian football and 1970s baseketball.  Still an odd mix, but at least it’s fun.

Thanks Mark!