2024 Topps Heritage Mini Yount Checklist

 There are a couple Younts to find in the Mini version of Heritage this year.

2024 Topps Heritage Mini - 1975 Baseball Sensations #75BS-7
2024 Topps Heritage Mini - Baseball Flashbacks #BF-12

2024 Topps Heritage Yount Checklist

 I think this might be one of my most anticipated sets in a long time as a Yount collector.  And Robin has a bunch of cards to chase, and maybe even more in the High Series.

2024 Topps Heritage - 1975 Baseball Sensations #75BS-7
2024 Topps Heritage - 1975 Baseball Sensations Gold Foil #75BS-7

2024 Topps Heritage - 1975 Baseball Sensations Platinum Foil#75BS-7

2024 Topps Heritage - 1975 Mint Nickle #75M-RY #/15

2024 Topps Heritage - 1975 Mint Dime #75M-RY #/10

2024 Topps Heritage - 1975 Postal Stamp Relics #75US-RY #/50

2024 Topps Heritage - Baseball Flashbacks #BF-12

2024 Topps Heritage - Clubhouse Collection Dual Relics (w Hank Aaron) #CCDR-YA #/75

2024 Topps Heritage - Clubhouse Collection Dual Relics (w Hank Aaron) Patch #CCDR-YA #/1

2024 Topps Heritage - Clubhouse Collection Quad Relics (w Yelich, Burnes, Aaron) #CCQR-BYYA #/10

2024 Topps Heritage - Clubhouse Collection Quad Relics (w Yelich, Burnes, Aaron) Patch #CCQR-BYYA #/1

2024 Topps Heritage - Clubhouse Collection Dual Autograph Relics (w Yelich) #CDAR-YY #/10

2024 Topps Heritage - Clubhouse Collection Dual Autograph Relics (w Yelich) Patch #CDAR-YY #/1

2024 Topps Heritage - Real One Dual Autograph (w/ Yelich) #RODA-YY #/25 or less

2024 Topps Heritage - Real One Triple Autograph (w/ Yelich and Wiemer) #ROTA-WYY #/5

2001 Topps Archives Reserve 1975

Year: 2001

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Archives Reserve Baseball

Card Type: Base

Card Number: 86

I often wonder, but not enough to really do anything about it, how many times has Topps reprinted in some way or another this card?  It must be over a 100 times I would guess, at any rate it's a lot and it seems like almost once a year.  I won't deny it, it's an iconic card, a card I love and have a bunch of the original, but seems like easy pickings for Topps.  That being said, back in 2001 this horse had not been beaten so badly and I do love the shininess of chrome.

All about the Base - 1975 Topps

Year: 1975

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Flagship

Card Number: 223

Card Type: Base

Over the course of the next few weeks I want to feature each of Robin's Topps Flagship cards in chronological order, from 1975 to 1994.  It's something I've wanted to do for awhile now and I know I've probably feature a few of the cards before, but what can you do?  I'm also toying with doing this for his Fleer, Donruss, Upper Deck, and Score cards, but I'll probably break up the series'.

First up is Robin's rookie card out of the classic 1975 Topps set.  Robin broke into the league in 1974.  As a matter of fact Robin was on the roster and played during the Brewers opener on April 5th, 1974, they lost to the Red Sox.  So why wasn't Robin in the '74 set?  Well 1974 was the first year Topps switched from issuing their product in series' and put the whole set out all at once.  So where Robin might have been in one of the later series', there was none. And the traded set was exclusively for traded players.  Robin had to wait till 1975 to grace cardboard.

The 75 set is pretty iconic and a hobby favorite.  I didn't realize the card I chose to scan was so mis-cut, but I wasn't going to dig out another card.  I currently have 5 1975 Topps Yount rookies in my collection all in varying conditions.  But it's so true what they say,  "You never forget your first."  I would love to say that the card scanned was my first Yount rookie, but to be honest I can't remember which one it was anymore.  But I vividly remember when I picked my first rookie up.  

I was living over seas in Germany.  My father was in the army and stationed in Berlin.  We got there just after the Wall fell in December of 1989.  Berlin was a divided city not just East and West, but in the Western sector between the British, French, and Americans.  The US didn't have a centralized base in the city, rather it was spread out in what they called Kasernes.  I can remember going over to the Air Force Kaserne, called McNair, and they hosted a periodic sports card show.  It's there I met a guy who had a ton of vintage cards there with him and he was going around asking what people collected.  I had set up a table selling as many singles as I could from my dupes.  The guy had asked me who and what I collected and I told him I was a Brewers collector and really liked Robin Yount.  He came back a few minutes later with a 75 Yount rookie.  We talked for awhile and I took the card home for about $50.  I thought I'd gotten a good deal then.  Robin's rookie cards were still commanding around $200 and while the one I got wasn't in mint condition it was a card I'd never thought I'd own.  I can say that's the most I ever spent on one of my rookie cards, but it's still a great memory.

1975 Hostess Twinkie Rookie Card

Card Manufacturer: Hostess

Card Set: Hostess Baseball

Year: 1975

Card Number: 80

Card Type: Twinkie Single

It's rookie card Wednesday here at the Yount Collector.  Don't worry there won't be too many of those.  And while Robin has more than just his 1975 Topps rookie card he doesn't have that many more. 

Of course his 1975 Hostess cards are classics and most clean versions you see hand cut come off of boxes, but there are also these version that were used as the backer for the Twinkies twin pack. I know that Hostess offered cards this was for at least 1975, 1976 and 1977.  Unfortunately you can see what having two Twinkies sitting on top of the card does.  

I have read that there are a number of these card that made it out of the factory without being used. I haven't seen one with my own eyes, but I'm sure they come with a premium price.

Another distinguishing feature of these cards other than the fact they are featured singly on an over sized piece of cardboard is the black stripe on the back of the card and of course the huge grease stain.  The card is otherwise exactly the same as the one featured in panels on the back of Hostess boxes.

1975 White Hen Pantry Milwaukee Brewers Team Ruler

 Manufacturer: Whie Hen Pantry

 Set: 1975 Milwaukee Brewers

Year: 1975

Type: Ruler

A great oddball item from 1975.  I hate calling this item a rookie item, simply because all Yount fans know that Robin broke into the majors in 1974, but he has no merchandise with his visage until 1975.  But since all Yount's rookie cards are in 1975 I guess we can lump this into the rookie catagory.

Alright enough nitpicking. What we have here is a 1975 White Hen Pantry Milwaukee Brewers Team ruler that features a very young Robin Yount.  It also has most of the team and of course the other big name on the ruler is Hank Aaron.  

White Hen Pantry was a chain of convenience stores that started in Des Plains, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. They also had a large number of stores in New England, mainly Massachusetts and New Hampshire and I'll assume that they also had a large number in southern Wisconsin, but I can't find any good information on that.  I would have also thought that since the company was based in Illinois that they might also have issued some Chicago team related stuff, but the only other ruler I found was the 1972-73 Milwaukee Bucks.  Alas, White Hen is no more, in 2010 all of it's stores were rebranded as 7-11's.

But this is still a pretty cool oddball item. And it's even useful. I don't have a 1972-73 Bucks ruler, but from images I've seen they appear to be a hard plastic rule. These 1975 Brewers rulers are made of thin plastic and flexible. I'm not sure if this was a stadium giveaway, which is likely, or these were sold or given away at stores in Wisconsin.  As to the rarity who knows. I'm sure some of these were used, others probably just thrown away, but they do appear on ebay from time to time usually in the $10 dollar range. I can't remember what I got these two rulers for, but I know it was well under that price.

1975 Hostess King Don's full box

Card Manufacturer: Hostess

Card Set: Hostess Baseball

Year: 1975

Card Number: 80

Card Type: Food Issue

Product: Full Box

One of my favorite pieces in my collection is this 1975 Hostess King Dons Full Box that features one of Robin Yount's rookie cards. It's also pretty awesome that this box was never used. There are glue stains where the glue was applied but this box never held those delicious King Dons.  

You might be saying to yourself, CB what the hell is a King Dons, those look like Ding Dongs??!!  And you are right those are Ding Dongs. Hostess changed the name of the Ding Dong to King Dons since it sounded too much like a Ring Ding which was a similar product put out by the Drake Bakeries.  And Drake also put out a few sets of baseball cards back in the early 80's.  And also in a twist of fate, Hostesses parent company once owned Drake. 

 King Dons are still produced and distributed in Canada from what I could gleem from the interwebs.  And since July 2013 we have Ding Dongs again down here, or up here if you live in Alaska like me.  

1975 was the inaugural set of Hostess cards and the 150 card set has some big names along with Younts. This also was the first time in a long time that Topps had any kind of competition and there are still some big fans of the Hostess issues.

This box has cards 79, 80, and 81 and also feature Andy Messersmith and Al Oliver

Here's a close up of the panel.