General Forum

Well, I never got to go through all my cards. Life's a bit too busy. But I completed the 1969 Topps baseball set last year, and now I finally officially put it away. That, of course, involved taking all of the cards out of the binder and reorganizing them from numerical order (random, company created) into teams with the Hall of Famers after the managers, and then down the line from great to good to mediocre to bad players (something that has actual meaning to me). It took many pleasurable hours.  

Just a few observations, in no particular order,

Generally not a fan of the photography. No action shots. All spring training shots with lots of blacked-out hats. 

Love the large size of the set, especially in comparison to the number of teams. Each team has more than 20 players, with a Manager card. You can actually see who comprised the team. 

Love the backs. The cartoons. The full stats, including minor league for most players. The blurbs. It's all just perfect. Not every comment is all roses. The back of this card, in particular, is a favorite. One of two manager cards for Washington that year. https://www.tradingcarddb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/69/cid/30502/1969-Topps-294-Jim-Lemon

So many UERs. Look, I spent about two minutes on every. single. card. in the set. I read the backs. Carefully. Slowly. I found probably 20 typos on the cards. I'm sorry, Error Correctors and NitPickers (in the best way), I reported about three of them, actually made one change in the database myself, and then I just stopped caring. 

At least five players were noted as having started as hitters and switched to pitching or vice versa. Not so rare at all. 

So many catchers. Some teams had four. 

Ok, that's all. On the whole, I really like this set...from the back. 

v3

Congratulations, V3. I like how you decided to organize them. 

The '69 set is one of my favorites from the '60s because of its simplicity, too. I really like the Sporting News All-Star subset, and I hope to join you in completing that subset, too.

Never a fan of the 69 set- many player photos are dupes from the 68 set- Banks, Aaron, etc..too many head shots and air-brushing. got the reggie rookie, about my favorite card in the set- card stock was thin..idk my buddy just sold his 69 set for 500, 1968 and 1970 are better sets in my eyes. If you get that Mantle white letters card, good luck grading it- PSA very tough on it, so many fakes..

Thanks for the update, v.  This was the most recent vintage first set I completed, and I did not like the photography much either. I also noticed that the Mets were harder to find even for common players and commanded higher prices than other teams

Mark 

The photos in this set were not taken in 1969. They were photos from previous years. I believe this was because of contract problems with the players. If you look at Johnny Bench's 1969 card you'll see first how young looking he was and closer inspection will reveal that he is wearing #53 instead of his normal #5.