Stats on the Back said "Trade Me," I said "Sure!"

Stats on the Back has held a lot of various "giveaway trades" lately, where he offers up a big lot o' cards for his needs, or one card that he'll enjoy. I took advantage with his player sets and grabbed an Albert Belle lot a few weeks back, and now he was offering up vintage-y stuff, so I bit the bullet again and said I'm in.

Since I don't really collect vintage yet but like to have it, I simply asked for the oldest unclaimed card that he could send. Being an awesome guy, Mark sent much more than that, but the goodies started with that oldest card, a 1969 Topps #62 Chico Salmon:
Ooooo. This card is my first MLB card from a team that doesn't exist today (excluding the Expos since that's relatively recent). I love the big team name in the middle of the card - so simple, yet so good.

And the backs even better, for me anyways:
First of all, I LOVE expansion drafts - be they the new Cleveland Browns, the Houston Texans, the Rays and Dbacks, or whatever, I have always loved seeing who gets picked by expansion teams. Apparently Chico was one of those guys, as the Pilots picked him for their team between the end of 1968 and the making of this card. I also never realized that the Pilots only existed for one year before becoming the Brewers, so I guess there aren't many Pilots cards out there. So I feel lucky to have one!

And the base stealing cartoon is so cool, as I love cards that get into that criminal aspect of base stealing. Reminds me of a card I've posted here a few times before, my 1999 Topps Brian Hunter:
Never gets old haha.


Mark also send along some 1970 Topps, specifically #'s 243 and 417 (Yay Expos!):


And a few 1971's, #'s 274, 317, 353, and 392:
I really like the Rookie Stars card a lot. I also like that Slocum's card has his position "fixed," via pen, from infield to catcher. There's even more writing on the back:
The Taylor is a bit hard to see as I cut it off with the scanner, but it says Pitt Pirates, while Slocum says Padres. I asked Mark if he wrote on these and he said no - I was just curious because I know that some of my Panini Stickers from the late 80's/early 90's had writing on them as a kid since I was pretty young! I'm sure if my Dad had given me some of these older cards, I would've written on them too. Good thing he didn't hahaha.

Thanks so much for all of the great cards Mark!