1977 Hostess Suzy Q's full box

Card Manufacturer: Hostess

Card Set: Hostess Baseball

Year: 1977

Card Number:34

Card Type: Full Box

The last of my complete Hostess boxes. Like my 1976 Twinkees box this one has been opened as well.  I've been looking for 78 and 79 boxes, not hard, but haven't found any. 

My 1975 box might feature Yount's rookie card, but this box has the best panel by far and probably the best panel out of the whole 1977 set. With this box you get two HOFer's and a guy that probably should be in the Hall of Fame.

I always  lump Robin Yount and George Brett together. They have so much in common. While George may have made the majors in 1973, both player's rookie cards are in the 1975 set, both players played for the same team their entire careers, both retired the same year, both were inducted into the Hall of Fame in the same year, and both continue to work with their old teams. Plus Brett is revered by Royals fans just as much as Robin is with Brewers fans.  And that Steve Garvey guy is pretty neat too.

Just a great box and panel set. Plus the box features Reggie Jackson and Jim Palmer too.

Here's a close up of the panel.

1976 Hostess Twinkies full box

Card Manufacturer: Hostess

Card Set:  Hostess Baseball

Year:1976

Card Number: 11

Card Type: Full Box

Unlike my 1975 Hostess King Dons box that was never used, this 1976 Twinkies boxes definitely was.  Who knows if this whole box was purchased and taken home or if it sat up by the counter at some convenience store to entice shoppers with an impulse buy. Since there is a box price on the box it was probably sold whole.  Luckily someone had the foresight to save the whole box.

Yount shares this box with Tony Olivia, who retired after the 1976 season, and Rick Manning, who would later join the Brewers team in 1983. Rick also happens to be a great TTMer if you're into that like me. 

Here's a close up of the panel. Other than the box having been opened, it's really not in bad shape and the cards are as close to mint as you can probably get.

Maxwell House Coffee Mug

Manufacturer: Maxwell House

Set: Maxwell House Mugs

Year: ???

Type: Stadium Giveaway

I featured this one back in November 2012 as part of my Yount drinkware post. You can find it HERE.

I'm sure I'll feature each one of those again here separately.  But I've never been able to find much out about this mug. There is no date anywhere on the mug. On the bottom it's stamped with the maker, Eagle, and a Made in the USA, but other than that it was a total mystery.  I even asked the guru of all things sportscards, Bob Lemke, if he knew anything about them, he didn't.  So now it's time to put on my deerstalker cap and channel my inner Sherlock Holmes as I play the Yount Detective.  

First lets have a look at the mug. Notice the clear handle, that's a clue.

After doing some research on the interwebs and combing threw ebay auctions and other sports related sites. I really couldn't find any good information on the origin of these mugs. But I did discover a few things. One there were two types of mugs. Ones with clear handles like Robin's here and one's with white rounded handles like this one..

featuring Gorman Thomas.  That's a clue.
Some of the mugs feature the 94 FM WKTI Logo on them. WKTI was a local Milwaukee radio station.. WKTI stopped using that call sign in 2008, but used the WKTI and WKTI-FM from 1974 to 2008...Ah.

But not all the mugs feature the logo, but both the clear plastic and white handles have some players that feature the logo.  Yount's does not feature it and I could find no version that does.

When I first got the Yount mug I had thought that these were possibly send away items you could get from Maxwell House, but the more I looked into it, it now appears that these were more likely stadium giveaways. Unfortunately I can't find any information on past giveaways from the 80's.

Searching the web I found the other players featured on both kinds of mugs.

The white handle mugs
- Manager George Bamburger -WKTI
-Gorman Thomas
-Rollie Fingers
-Brewers Logo

The clear plastic handles
- Robin Yount
-Paul Molitor
-Cecil Cooper - WKTI
-Jim Gantner - WKTI
-Dan Plesac

There might be a few others I missed, but these are the versions I could find.  From these people we can narrow down possible years.  First we have to assume that players that were featured were current or at least recent team members. If we do that we can place the first four mugs, the white handled mugs in the 1985 to 1986 realm. And I'm leaning on 1986. First George Bamburger was manager from 1985 to very close to the end of the 1986 season. Gorman Thomas came back to the Brewers in 1986 for his final year and while Rollie retired in 1985 I think that his mug might just be a carry over or a tribute.

The clear plastic handle mugs look to be about from 1987 or 1988 and I'm leaning on 1987 for a couple reasons. One, in 1987 everyone featured was on the team. 1987 was Dan Plesac's rookie year with the team and it was also Cecil Coopers last year. Two, it would seem plausible that the mugs were a continuation giveaway from the year before if the white handle mugs were from 1986.

Of course it's very possible that mugs were given out over multiple years.  And while I'd like to say that these were definitely stadium giveaways from the late 80's I just don't know. If anyone from the Milwaukee area remembers these and knows anything about them I'd love to know. Leave a comment or drop me an email.

1976 Linnett Portraits

Card Manufacturer: Charles Linnett

Card Set: Linnett Portraits

Year: 1976

Card Number: NNO

One of my favorite oddball items from the 70's. The Standard Catalog lists these as 1976 Linnett Portraits. I've seen them listed on other websites for sale as 1973-74 Linnetts.  The Standard Catalog also has a 1975 set and the 1976 Linnett Superstars set. There really isn't too much other information out there about these great cards.  The portrait measures 8.5x11 inches and has a blank back. A perfect piece for framing. I do believe there were about 175 of these you could get in the baseball issue. There are also Hockey and Football series as well. The Standard Catalog says these were available by mail for fifty cents a piece, but how they were advertised I'm not sure. I have seen a few the ads for the Reds and Bruins issues.  I'm sure there was probably an ad in a sports magazine or something similar.  In my web search I found out the Charles Linnett, the artist, has two daughters that are both artists as well and run a graphic design company. I believe that Mr. Linnett is still alive and kicking since I found his address and phone number or at least someone with the same name living very close to his daughters. I had thought about giving him a call, but that's kind of weird and really I'm happy to just call this Yount the 1976 Linnett Portrait.  

Charles Linnett put out a ton of different Portraits from multiple sports back in the 70's. All you need to do is search ebay or Google to see the variety and selection.  I picked this Yount up a few years back.  And if I ever get my man cave back it might even get framed and hung.

The Holy Grail?

As a Yount collector there is one card that I consider THE rookie card. And that is Robin's 1975 #223 Topps card.  I've got a few in my collection and I've got just about every other 1975 card of Robin too, trust me there are more that just this card.  But Yount's 75 Topps card is the IT card for a Yount collector and growing up it was my Holy Grail. It was the pinnacle, the zenith, you get the idea. It was the card I lusted after and because at the time it booked at over $200 it was way out of my reach.  Anywho...

 I saw this beauty up on ebay. I'm guessing that centering doesn't count in the grade, otherwise this card is probably the nicest example I've ever laid my eyes on it.  According to PSA this is one of threeYount rookie ever to get the Gem Mint 10 grade.

You can check out the crazy price it's going for here.

Radar alert, New Yount on the horizon.

Figure I'd throw this out there for anyone who cares about new Yount cards.  2013 Topps Five Star is about to hit the streets tomorrow.  Mr. Yount has a base card in the set. It's card number 43 and the base is numbered to just 60 cards! There are also Rainbow Foil parallels numbered to 10 and the Five Star 1/1 card.

Robin will have a bat knob card in this years set. I remember the bat knob from last years National Treasures went for big bucks.

This product had some QC problems last year with chipped edges and honestly it's really expensive. Not as spendy as some of Panini's super high end stuff, but this is a product well worth letting someone else bust and picking up the scraps later on ebay.

I'll be adding the base and rainbow foil to my want list, but I have no expectations of ever seeing the other cards.

2013 Topps Triple Threads Sepia Unity Relic Bat card

Card Manufacturer: Topps

Card Set: Triple Threads

Year: 2013

Card Number: TTUJR-RY

Card Type: Relic

Relic Set: Sepia Unity Relics

Relic Type: Bat

Card Attributes: Bat Relic, Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 10/27

You know the best part of about Topps Triple Threads each year is the base cards. Seriously. It seems that those are the only cards in the set that change.  Look at all the relics and auto cards in this years set and they look exactly like all the years past.  But for some I guess that's a good thing.  I have a hard time keeping up with every insert set in Triple Threads too, mainly because there are a ton and on top of the each set has about 5 parallel versions.  

It was a little overwhelming for a player collector. Until I realized that I could be happy with just one representative card for my collection.

I ended up picking up this beauty recently and for a great price.  This is from the Unity Jumbo Relic set.  The base cards in the set are numbered to only 36.  This one happens to be the Sepia parallel numbered to 27. And there are 4 more parallel versions numbered even less.  But I'm happy to finally have this one card in the collection.  Not that I wouldn't hunt down the other parallel versions of the card for the right price, but I'm happy to have just the one Unity Jumbo Relic card in the collection.   Now to find some cheap base.

2013 Topps Update Commemorative Coin Card

Card Manufacturer: Topps

Card Set: Topps Update

Year: 2013

Card Number: PCC-RY

Card Type: Insert

Insert Set: Pennant Chase Commemorative Coin Card

Card Attributes: Coin, Serial Numbered

Serial Number:  49/99

When I saw the checklist of 2013 Topps Update I was pretty excited to see Robin had a coin card this years set

.

While I hate that Topps calls these relics they are pretty sweet cards.  

I had been watching just about every one of these copper level coin cards on ebay that have been up for auction. I was biding my time.  I finally was able to snag one for a decent price.  Still it was more than I really wanted to spend on the card, but there comes a time when sellers stop putting these up for 99 cents and letting the market determine final price and just start listing them as Buy It Now with insane price tags. 

I will say this it's a great card. It's super heavy. The coin is solid and the card looks amazing in hand.  There are two more levels of coin cards the Wrought Iron and Steel, numbered to 50 and 10, but I'm not really worried about them, if I can find either at a great price I'll bite, but I'm glad to have at least this great tribute in the collection now.

The theme of the Coins is Pennant Chase and this coin commemorates the 1982 World Series team that lost to the Cardinals in seven. Sadly the one and only time the team made it.

Great Moogaly Googaly, Graded 75 cello pack with Brett on top and Yount on back.

I saw a post by Sports Collectors Daily on Facebook about this auction up on ebay right now.

A PSA 9 1975 Topps Cello with George Brett on the front and Robin Yount on the back.  

You can follow the auction HERE.  As I'm writting this the auction is already over $1700 with over 4 days left to go.  SCD called it a holy grail of cello packs.  Maybe for a Brett collector, but for a Yount collector the Yount would have to be on the front.  Still pretty neat, and well out of my price range.

2013 Panini Home Town Heroes

Card Manufacturer: Panini

Card Set: Hometown Heroes

Year: 2013

Card Number: 19

Card Type: Base

The latest and greatest from Panini is the Home Town Heroes set which features a nice selection of current and retired stars and Hall of Famers. Cool thing about Yount's card is that the card number is his number. 

So far I've only gotten the base card, but the base also has two parallel versions, state and zip code. Robin also has a checklist card in this set as well that'll be on the look out for.

2013 Panini Cooperstown Colgan's Disc

Card Manufacturer: Panini

Card Set: Cooperstown

Year: 2013

Card Number: NNO

Card Type: Insert

Insert Set: Colgan's Discs

One of the cool inserts in this year's Panini Cooperstown set is the Colgan's discs. A nod to the original Colgan's Chips discs that were produced from 1909 - 1913.  These are found one per pack and Panini has produced a huge 165 disc set.  

2013 Panini Cooperstown

Panini's second year of putting out the Coopertown themed set and the second year that Mr. Yount gets a base card. He also as at least one insert in the set and I do believe he might have an auto in the set as well.  

Here we have the base and the green crystal shard parallel (unnumbered)

There are also blue, red, gold, matrix (all numbered), and the 1/1 black crystal shard parallels

I like the design this year. I'm not incredibly fond of the head shot, but it's a nice looking card even without the logos and the crystal shard parallels are pretty in hand.

2013 Gypsy Queens

Catching up on some summer acquisitions.  This year Robin had another card in Gypsy Queen. From early checklists I thought he would also have framed parallels, but it looks like that didn't happen.

He did however have all the mini parallels and a mini variation.

Here's the parallel. These were found in the little mini boxes that came with each hobby box. This was actually the image they used for his framed mini relic last year.

The Green numbered to 99.

And the black numbered to 199.

The only other mini parallel I'm missing besides the printing plates is the sepia.

1992 Mr Turkey Panel

2013 is turning out to be a great year if your a Yount collector, but I'm going to turn back the clock on a neat oddball I picked up this summer.  I already have a Mr. Turkey card, but when I saw this full back panel I decided to add it to the collection as well.  Plus it was pretty cheap.

The newest Younts on the block.

I've been a bad blogger.  It's been over a month since I posted over at the main blog, Collector's Crack, but I've been busy and well that's life.  But I figure I'd throw together a crappy post over here at the Yount Collector with a few new Yount pick ups.  So far it's been a pretty good year for new Yount cards.  A couple relics, and a slew of parallels and inserts.

First up is the 2013 Archives base card.

I already posted about the foil numbered parallel I got.  I'm also still on the look out for the day glow parallel, but I have my eye on a few.

And second we have Robin's 2013 Topps 1972 mini insert from Series 2.  No parallels or relic or auto versions to chase here, but still nice to add to the collection.

So that's it.  Just like I promised. A crappy little post about some not so exciting new aquisitions.

1993 Duracell cello pack

I stopped in to Don's Sportcards here in Anchorage a few weeks ago, yeah I'm that behind, and  while I was just going to pick up a few cheap cards off his drop board I ended up spending a lot more than I planned on.  Don had just bought a huge collection and had some pretty awesome Brett Favres.  I ended up picking up the a bunch of the more unique and interesting cards, but this post isn't about those Favres this is about the awesome Yount pick up I found.  While Don was pricing out all those great Favre cards and giving them to me at 60% book value I walked around and found a few unopened packs of Duracell cards.  Now I already have Yount's Duracell card it looks like this...

But I had never seen the cello packs the cards came in.

So for a buck I also got the Durcell cards of Gooden, Baerga and Gwynn.

And Mr Yount was right there on the back.  Pretty neat.  These cards came with the Super Saver packs of Durcell way back in 1993.  

I also picked up another pack with Frank Thomas in it for my Thomas collection.

Yount Archived! 2013 Archives parallel.

I've been insanely busy lately and, well, not only has my blogging dropped to a trickle, so has my card collecting.  But Robin has a bunch of new cards available in this year's Tribute, Museum Collection and Archives from Topps.  The first new addition I acquired in passing is his foil parallel card.  I haven't even opened a pack of this stuff and I'm not sure if I'm going to, but I will be collecting the Brewers from this set and of course all the Younts I can get my hands on.  Besides the base and this foil parallel, I know there is at least one more parallel to be had and that's the Day Glow parallel.

Tying up some loose ends

At the end of 2012 there were two Yount cards on my radar that I had yet to aquire.  Both had been going for way more than I wanted to spend and I had missed out until recently.

The first card was Robin's 2012 Topps Golden Giveaway Gold parallel die cut card.  I had picked up the regular card soon after people started getting them in hand, but this bad boy was always out of reach.  The seller was either always asking way too much or the auctions were ended way too high for my liking.  I finally got this one for well under what I wanted to pay.  I guess patience paid off in the end and I was getting a little worried.  There's a fine line on waiting too long.  Sometimes cards like this just disappear or you have only one seller who wants way too much.

The second card I needed was this 2012 Gypsy Queen Mini Relic card.  I had picked up the full size relic card a long time ago.  And seeing that 2013 Gypsy Queen is here already it was about time I finally got my hands on this one.  I'm not sure how many of these were made, but I know that a few of the veteran HOFer's were short printed and Mr. Yount's card was no different.  I had never seen more than a couple of these listed at anyone time and I was getting a little worried I had waited to long to try and go after it.  But recently another pair popped up on the ebay so I was able to pick this guy up for a great price.

That's most of the 2012 cards I need.  Sure Panini has a few from it's Cooperstown set I need, but I'm not in  a hurry.