When garage sales were great for card collectors

So in 1983-84 when I was about 16 my pops went to a garage sale down the street. This garage sale was at the house of a boy I grew up with. Now this kid had older brothers and sisters, the key is he had much older brothers. Pops came home with a massive bag and a box of sports cards, not just any sports cards but what we would call vintage (I will rant another time about the use of the terms “vintage” and “rare” on EBay) all for $5. The cards were mostly baseball cards, but there were some from all the major sports (O.J Simpson rookie card anyone?) at that time. These cards went back to 1959 Topps, including a few odd-ball cards from Leaf, Fleer, etc., then all the way through 1977 Topps.  However, the vast majority of these cards were from 1964-1971 and the majority of these were 1966 Topps.

So on a recent trip back to the STL I brought these cards home, which ended up being roughly 1500 cards. Today while my wife was out with some girlfriends I decided to sort out the 1966 Topps to see what I need to complete this set. The picture below is the sort out of these cards, including doubles, into stacks of 001-099, 100-199, 200-299, 300-399, 400-499, 500-598 along with some of the better cards which I have already put in to top loaders. These stacks go from right to left, and then front to back. Please note the smallest stack is the 500s. I also have to say this is one of the ugliest sets imaginable, uuuuuggglllly.

Sorting these cards out I suspect that he bought a lot of packs before the higher series #447-598 because unsurprisingly these are most of the 105 base cards and variations I am missing. He, I assume a he, must have bought a lot of packs because of the #s of certain cards he had. I mean 7 cards of#261 Ron Hansen of the White Sox! Or 9 #367 Mel Nelson! OMG. Now before I complain let me say this there were most of the Hall of Famers and other stars of that generation in that bag and box.   First up how many cards do I need to complete the set (these #s include the variations)? Also, most of these cards are Very Good to Excellent.

#001-99 I need 5 cards.

#100-199 I need 14 cards.

#200-299 I need 7 cards.

#300-446 I need 2 cards.

#447-598 I need 77 cards! So you can see why I made my hypothesis regarding when he must of have stopped buying cards. Perhaps the Cardinals were out of it by the time this series came out and he lost interest.

Total=105

Key cards I need are #92 Yankees Team, #100 Sandy Koufax, #103a Dick Groat, #104a Alex Johnson (no trade), #110 Ernie Banks (I am sure I have this card some place), #124 Tug McGraw, #125 Lou Brock (again I may have this), #126 Jim Palmer, #130 Joe Torre, #150 Rocky Colavito, #153 Rico Carty, #156 DP Combo, #222 A.L ERA Leaders, #293 Mike Shannon, #298 Rico Petrocelli, #299 Lou Burdette, #354 Smoky Burgess, #450 Tony Olivo, #474 Dick Schofield, #530 Robin Roberts, #535 Willie Davis, #544 Cardinals Rookies, #547 Horace Clark, #550 Willie McCovey, #580 Billy Williams, #583 Tigers Team, #598 Gaylord Perry. I will check some other stacks before I drop some $$ on the more expensive key cards. They don’t make managers like ex-Cardinal manager Johnny Keane any more.