Great vintage from the Five Tool Collector and Christmas pack 10

I just got back last night from a last-minute trip to Arizona for a family birthday. I only decided to go once I heard that a cousin was travelling there with my sister so I felt that I should go too. I had a lot of fun, but not too much free time to myself so I didn't contact any of the Arizona bloggers (sorry, guys, if you care!), but did manage a quick visit to one store on Tuesday afternoon. I'll post about the trip later.

I had this post ready to go before I left, but set it up wrong to post automatically. At least it makes it easy to post something today.

Before Christmas, while looking at the Five Tool Collector's blog, I realized that I had a couple of 1969 Topps 4 in 1 Baltimore Colts that he needed. I quickly sent a message to him asking for his address and sent them off in the mail to him. The day before my trip I received some cards back from him.

Wow! He hit me back with older vintage.

Look at this beauty!

1952 Bowman Small #67

 But it says Ohio State, why is it a Browns card?

Ah, that does it. It's a Browns card.

The amusing thing is that he didn't play a game for the Browns. This card back says that he was signed by the Packers and transferred to the Browns for the 1952 season.

Pro Football Reference shows that his hole career was spent with Green Bay where he played the 1952 and 1953 seasons, and that he was drafted by the Browns in the 11th round of the 1952 NFL Draft.

I think that I'll trust Pro Football Reference's information.

L-R: 1964 Philadelphia #35 and #32

Don't you love these 1964 Philadelphia cards with the cars in the background?

I needed this Green rookie card, and will check to see if the Costello card is an upgrade or not.

Ernie Green played from 1962-68 and shared the Browns backfield with two Hall of Fame running backs, Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly. He made two Pro Bowls (with Leroy Kelly) in 1966 and 1967. He averaged 4.8 yards per carry in his career, rushing for 3204 yards.

1966 Philadelphia #42

Gary Collins also made two Pro Bowls in his ten year career with the Browns. He wasn't just a receiver for the Browns, he was also their punter in his first six years with the team. In his 1965 Pro Bowl season leading into this card, he caught 50 passes for 884 yards and 10 touchdowns, while punting 65 times, leading the league with a 46.7 yard average.

Bob, thanks for the wonderful cards! I'll have to keep an eye out for any interesting Baltimore Colts cards that I run across. (Arizona update: picked up one cool card for you.)

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On to the Christmas pack.

1989 Topps Big

The front of this card stuck to the wrapper - you can see it on the sides of the card.

Let's see the back of the Hall of Famer.

Rock on the front, Tim on the back.

On to the rest of the pack.

I had seen cards from this set before, but had never opened any. Pretty neat but I'm sure the odd size wouldn't help in storing them.