Trade With Johnny's Trading Spot: A Taste of Vintage Cardboard

I completed my first trade with John of Johnny's Trading Spot. You can see what I sent him here. I have already accumulated some more cards for John, so another trade should be in the works soon. 

I mentioned this in my last trade post, but when I got in touch with John he offered to finish off my 1989 Topps Dodgers team set. I wasn't paying attention and ended up trading for two 89 team sets, but more Dodger cards isn't a problem to me.  He mentioned in the email he would send some vintage cards as well, but I didn't know what to expect.

As a 20 year old kid born in 1993, cards from 1981 seem vintage to me. I don't know if there is an age a card has to be to be considered vintage, but I'd like to know. 

I opened his bubble mailer yesterday to find some great looking cards staring back at me. Little did I know the cards would get better as I moved on. 

John sent over 13 cards from 1973 Topps. I had never seen this set until I opened up the bubble mailer so these cards were a great surprise. I recognize at least 75% of these names. Considering they were produced 20 years before I was born I think that's okay. I'm still wondering why they would feature a card of Steve Garvey in which you can hardly see his face. A little odd to me, but I'm sure it's not the first bad picture out there. 

Like I said, the cards got better as I moved along. This card hails from 1968 Topps, and though I've never heard of Bill Singer I was happy to add a card from the 60's to my collection.

These were the next two cards staring back at me. They come from 1968 Topps, a set I am very fond of. I have heard both of these names before, though don't know why I know them. The Roseboro card is off-center a bit, but not a big deal in my book. Simply adding a card of this the 60's is exciting for me. 

I was pretty ecstatic after catching a glimpse of this card. The 1964 Topps set is one of my favorite sets ever produced by Topps, and adding an original 1964 to the collection feels pretty good. It is card 291 out of the set, so I though I would compare it to card 291 from 2013 Heritage. 

Needless to say, I like the Ortega better.

I was excited when I saw the 1964, but when these showed up I was even happier. 1964 is one of my favorite sets, but this set may be my favorite of all-time. There is just something about the 1960 set that makes it great. Maybe I'm just hypnotized by Wally Moon's mono-brow. 

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, it did. This card comes from 1959 Topps. 1959. This card has been around 34 years longer than I've been alive. That is incredible to me. It isn't in pristine condition, but if I could get my hands on other 1959 cards that are in this condition I'd be a happy man. 

Writing this post makes me wonder why I have taken so long to get into the vintage part of the hobby. I have never heard of some of these player, yet these cards instantly became some of my favorites. I am sure the age of the cards has something to do with it, but these sets are phenomenal all around. 

I guess these cards lead directly into my Topps Team Set Project, or TTSP. I want to collect every Dodgers team set from every Topps set ever produced. I'm simply talking about the "Flagship" Topps, so no other Topps products like Stadium Club or Topps Gold. Just regular ol' Topps. I haven't had the time to upload my need lists for cards pre-1980, but what you see above is pretty much the extent of my collection. 

Thanks again John! These cards are amazing and I hope we can do this again very soon.