While I grabbed every card I found from the oldest sets in the box (1973 and earlier), I had to be a bit more selective with the more recent cads because there were so many. I generally settled for plucking out Hall of Famers, like Yvan Cournoyer here from 1977-78 Topps. Thing I learned just now: Yvan's nickname was "Roadrunner," because he was so fast.
In addition to stars, I also picked out any subset cards. I love these older playoff recap cards, since they're from a time long before I watched hockey myself.
Now, I did grab every 1979-80 Topps card I found because this is a set I'd really like to complete one day. (Who wouldn't?) I found about 30 I needed, which finally bumped over the halfway mark. I'm still missing the Big One, though, so in reality I may as well only be about 5 percent of the way home. No big stars in this lot. Gary Smith here was my favorite, simply because this has to be the most seventies card ever.
A few more '79's, all goalies. It was between the Smith and the Wayne Stephenson for my favorite of this particular lot.
Moving on to 1980-81 Topps, I thought this was an especially cool find. I believe it is the final card of Phil Esposito's playing career, as he retired in 1981 and wasn't included in either Topps' or O-Pee-Chee's 81-82 set. I've been toying around with buying this card off COMC for around $1, so to find it in a 20-cent box was especially sweet.
And three more from 80-81, another Hall of Famer and two playoff cards. I'm fairly confident that's Mike Bossy in the Islanders-Sabres card. And I think he may be battling with Perreault, although I'm less sure of that.
Next up is 1981-82 Topps, a much better design than 80-81, in my opinion. Like the Phil Esposito, I believe this was the final card of Dave Keon's playing career. I don't think I knew he played for Hartford late in his career; I only ever knew him as a Maple Leaf.
Two of these seven guys aren't actually in the Hockey Hall of Fame. I mistakenly thought Danny Gare was when I picked his card out. I knew Mike Liut wasn't. I just remember liking him as a kid. So he got pulled out along with the bigger stars.
I've always liked Topps' "Super Action" cards, even though I'm not sure that any of these photos -- save for maybe first one of Denis Potvin falling over Billy Smith -- really qualify as action shots. A nice batch of stars, though, including another Mike Bossy sighting.
That's it for the vintage card haul. Picked up my first card from the '60's, big batches of '73 Topps and '79 Topps and a bunch of other random stuff. It's easily the best quarter box I've ever come across. Here's hoping they restock it for next month!
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