Black Friday binge: My favorite vintage hockey

A whole bunch of the cards I picked off of COMC during the Thanksgiving Week sale came from two particular hockey sets. One was the Panini Classics Signatures release from a couple of years back, which I'll get to in a future post. The other set was this one:

I'm not a hockey card historian or anything, but the 1971-72 Topps/O-Pee-Chee is easily my favorite set of the 1960's or '70's. It's such a distinctive design that fits so perfectly within the era these cards were made. The bright, clashing colors, the bubbly font for the team names. These cards shouldn't work, but they do. They definitely do.

I ended with 33 cards from the set (two of which it turned out I already had...d'oh!), including this second-year card of Flyers legend Bobby Clarke, which was one of the bigger names I had left on my checklist. As you can see, the card isn't mint; it's a bit off-center and the corners are all slightly rounded. But I'd say it's definitely excellent or better. And that's about the level I've been shooting for with these cards because, alas, my wallet's not big enough to chase an entirely mint set.

Here's another big star on the checklist. It's not quite as nice as the Clarke, but still plenty good enough for my set.

Bright red, pea green and light blue. If this card was an outfit, they'd say it was power-clashing.

This was one of the two cards it turned out that I already had. Idiot. I really need to start keeping my Zistle library current. But it'll make a nice addition to a trade package at some point.

The set begins with six of these league leader cards. I would have much preferred Topps made six more base cards instead (and maybe squeeze in some folks like Guy Lafleur, Tim Horton and Gump Worsley, who were all only in the O-Pee-Chee version of the set). But I suppose any card that finds a way to squeeze Bobby Orr onto it is a good one.

Oh, and how good must Boston have been that year? My goodness.

And here's one of the three guys on both of those leader cards.

Clear the track -- here comes Shack!

Dale Tallon played more than 600 games in the NHL. But he's probably best known as the initial architect of the current Chicago Blackhawks dynasty. (It's okay to consider them a dynasty at this point, right?) He was run out of Chicago a few years back amid all the cap trouble, so he's missed some of the glory years. He's now the GM of the Quebec City Panthers.

One more Hall of Famer in this batch. Eddie here is probably among the worst cards I bought, condition-wise, although it's more than acceptable for my collection.

A Guelph Biltmores alum! In a horribly air-brushed Toronto Maple Leafs jersey!

I had to get at least one Golden Seals card into this post.

And those are the highlights of the '71's from this particular buying binge. After moving them all into the binder, I'm now just five cards away from the set. Of course, that includes several biggies: Bobby Hull, which is probably the third- or fourth-most valuable card (behind Ken Dryden and Bobby Orr, and probably, but not definitely, ahead of Gordie Howe). I also still need card #1, the goals leader card with both Hull and Phil Esposito on it, and the checklist, which for some inexplicable reason is always one of the priciest cards in vintage sets. (The other two are easier: The goals-against average leaders, which is the last of the six leader cards that kick off the set, and Chris Bordeleau.)

But it's a hill, not a mountain at this point. Finishing this off will be one of my collecting goals for 2016.