Trade from Wrigley Wax and Redemption Card from Dutch Card Guy

I've been blogging about baseball cards for a few weeks now and reading other blogs to get ideas for my own posts and learn more about potential traders out there. I'll admit up to now, I've been jealous of my fellow bloggers, who've posted about trades they've made and the cards they're received.

Now I'm proud to post my first gift and my first trade!

Yesterday's mail brought a letter from the Netherlands and a small bubble mailer from Michigan. The Dutch Card Guy kindly sent me a 2012 Topps Prime 9 redemption card. I just hope the only card shop in my area--Cards-R-Fun--will redeem it. Thanks so much, Jeroen!

Next came a package from Paul over at Wrigley Wax. On Valentine's Day, I posted about my goal of completing my dad's 1974 Topps set and Paul responded that he had a lot of cards to help me. Yesterday, they arrived--two stacks of 64 cards total sandwiched between two plastic card holders and wrapped in easily-removable painter's tape (a great idea by the way). When I posted the card numbers I needed, I had no idea which players would be on them, and I was surprised by the number of star cards included (or at least players who had respectable major-league careers). Here are the highlights:

Two Hall of Famers--Harmon Killebrew (#400) and Rich "Goose" Gossage (#542)--as well as Manny Mota (#368), Cardinals third baseman Ken Reitz (with chewing gum bubble) (#372) and outfielder Jose Cruz (#464), and Bucky Dent's rookie card (#582). What's the deal with the off-center photo of Gossage, Topps?

Three Hall of Famers--and one who should be soon--Phil Niekro (#29), Frank Robinson (#55), Jim Palmer (#40), and Joe Torre (#15). Jesus Alou, the youngest of the three Alou brothers (Felipe and Matty) and troubled slugger Dick Allen (#70) complete this group. I especially like the Alou and Niekro cards; I'm not sure what's happening to Torre on his card!.

One Hall of Famer in this group: Tony Perez (#230), the great Cincinnati Reds first basemen of The Big Red Machine days. Despite having over 400 career home runs, Darrell Evans (#140) remains outside the Hall of Fame. Jack McKeon (#166) shows him in his first season as a major-league manager with the Kansas City Royals in 1973 at age 42. Last season, thirty-eight years later, he was manager of the Florida Marlins at age 80!

I really do appreciate your help, Paul! I've been putting together some Cubs cards to send your way this week. With his contribution, I now need just 149 cards to finish. If anyone else can help me complete my 1974 Topps set, please check my want list and send me a comment or email.

1974 Topps Complete Set: A Work in Progress

Ah, the Seventies! When players wore long hair and afros, sported mutton chop sideburns,and wore polyester uniforms and stretchy-waist pants.

I was three years old when my Dad starting buying wax packs for the 1974 Topps cards. When I started collecting cards, he gave me his collection, which was rubber-banded together and stored in a cardboard box in the hall closet. The oldest cards were the 1974 Topps. When blogs like Mark's Ephemera and Night Owl Cards renewed my interest in the hobby, I sorted those cards into numerical order to see which ones I needed to complete the whole thing. (This will be a side project to my main Cardinal team set collecting.)

I'm still looking through a few boxes of random cards that are jumbled together, but I've come up with a working need list:

(Thank you to Wrigley Wax for sending 69 cards and Dave Chase for sending 43!!)

Red = Potential TTM cards

1, 2, 3. 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, 19, 20, 24, 28, 29, 31, 32, 36, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 50, 51, 53, 55, 56, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 67, 68, 70, 71, 74, 75, 78, 79, 80, 82, 83, 84, 88, 89, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 103, 108, 112, 114, 118, 122, 124, 126, 132, 134, 137, 138, 140, 146, 151, 153, 158, 166, 170, 173, 175, 176, 179, 184, 186, 190, 194, 195, 201, 202, 204, 206, 207, 209, 212, 213, 220, 222, 223, 227, 230, 234, 236, 237, 239, 240, 241, 245, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 258, 260, 261, 262, 264, 265, 266, 268, 270, 271, 272, 276, 279, 280, 283, 285, 286, 288, 290, 294, 296, 297, 300, 301, 303, 304, 305, 307, 308, 312, 313, 315, 321, 322, 324, 336, 338, 339, 341, 343, 344, 347, 350, 351, 353, 355, 358, 360, 361, 366, 368, 371, 372, 373, 374, 376, 378, 390, 391, 393, 396, 397, 398, 400, 404, 409, 410, 412, 417, 419, 421, 438, 439, 441, 442, 444, 445, 456, 464, 467, 470, 472, 478, 481, 496, 500, 517, 520, 530, 542, 547, 548, 549, 550, 555, 561, 571, 572, 573, 575, 576, 580, 582, 584, 596, 599, 614, 619, 630, 647, 652, 654, 655

So I have 67% 77% 84% of the set and need 220 215 214 148 103 cards to complete it.

If anyone has any duplicates in their collection, please comment below and maybe we can work out a trade.