Sunday at the National

I picked up the following nine cards.  What makes them different for me?  They are from the set that originated in Sweden.  I don't have many cards from this set.

The next six cards are from Finland.  I have a lot of cards from this set.

I did something out of the ordinary this year - I brought a checklist to the show.  Only one dealer had more than a few Sportscaster cards.  Unfortunately, this was the same dealer I bought from last year and he didn't seem to bring any different cards.

I did consult my list so that I could at least get a few cards that I needed.  I picked up two baseball cards that I didn't have and one new variation.  Not the best, but I do like moving forward on this set.

Time to see how many cards I have in the set of 2,184 cards.  It looks like I need about 117 cards not counting variations.

Friday Shopping at the National

I only saw Sportscaster cards at one table yesterday.  I will spend more time tomorrow looking for more.  I couldn't resist buying the cards shown below.  Tomorrow I'd like to find a few to get me closer to getting a complete set.

I ended up buying some of the track stars from the set printed in Finland.  I think I only needed one of these, but I always grab the distance runners when the price is right.

More tomorrow after the show.

The National is Coming Up Next Week

I'm not going to get a lot of time at the National Card Show until Sunday.  I think I've got the entire day to search and find some of the Sportscaster cards that I need.  Now that I've documented my needs, other than variations, I hope to make a dent in all sets other than the high numbered ones.

Rarely do I find many of the Sportscaster cards at the National, but I will be looking for them.  I will post a recap of my finding on this after attending on Sunday.

How Are These Two Well Known?

I bought these two cards a few months ago.  Now that school is out I will have some time to catch up on a few things before the National.

Douglas Lowe and Lord Burghey were a big part of Chariots of Fire.  Lowe declined and Burghey didn't approve of the historical inaccuracies in the movie.  So, fictional character Lord Lindsay was created with similarities to Lowe and Burghey.

Burghey was the first to actually complete the Great Court Run, one of my favorite scenes in Chariots of Fire, and he didn't lose to Abraham as the movie depicted.

Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram tried the run and didn't complete it.  Only one other person finished before the last bell.

Sportscaster Series #14 Variations that I Have Found So Far

Here is what I found for the 24 cards in Series #14 so far.   It looks like the first print run has no letter.  I've only found those from Italy.  Is there a first print run from Japan?  In addition, I am finding print run "A" and print run "B".  So I'm working on getting all three versions for Series #14.

I have every card from print run 'A' and I am only missing one card (#09) from the first print run.  For print run "B" I am missing #03, #09, #11, #12 and #18.

Here are the back variations I've seen.  I have yet to check for variations on the front of the cards.

14-06 Kayaking - 'A' and 'B' have different text
14-07 Motorcycle Racing 500 cc WCH - 'A' has 1978 update; 'B' has 1979 update 
14-08 Victor Saneev Track and Field - 'A' and 'B' have different subtitles
14-21 Heini Hemmi Alpine Skiing - 'A' and 'B' have updated records


03 - George Foreman
09 - Oakland A's
11 - Maury Wills
12 - Emil Zatopek
18 - Oscar Robertson

I was surprised to see that I am missing Zatopek's other versions since I have lots of his cards since I've purchased numerous of track and field lots.

Sportscaster Cards from France

Track and Field cards are my first priority with Sportscaster cards.  Up until recently I had only one card from the French set.  Recently, I picked over over 60 cards from this set.  One card is from Judo and all of the others are Boxing cards (Boxe).

It's great to have these cards, even if they are not in perfect condition.  I don't know if I will ever try to complete the French set since I hear that is difficult to do.

If I get a chance I will try to trade them for track and field cards.  That shouldn't be too difficult since it seems as though here in the USA the most popular cards are from the four major sports - football, basketball, baseball and hockey.  After that, the boxing cards seem to be the only other ones with a big following.

Of the boxers that I purchased, about 20 of them featured boxers who I had heard of before.  Most were big names - Ali, Dempsey, Tunney, etc.  Here are a few pictures if you haven't seen a French version of Sportscaster cards before.

A Few Purchases to Help Me Trade?

I've gotten a large amount of Sportscaster cards from the UK and Finland sets.  I already have the Steve Prefontaine card from the Finland set but I couldn't resist buying a few more since I know I need many other cards.  Maybe I can trade these duplicates for some of the other challenging cards in the set?

Since I've yet to see a complete checklist, that will probably be a long way down the line.  Has anyone else seen complete checklists for each of the sets?