Saw Just One Sportscaster Card at a Show on Sunday...

 ...and I couldn't afford it.  

It was so unfortunate that I didn't even want to take a picture for the blog.  

I'm sure the dealer would have given me a fair price, but the Magic Johnson won't be finding its way into my collection at the current prices.  So, probably never.

I did pick up more Track and Field Sportscaster cards from ebay this week because I just can't get enough of them.  Lots of high numbers too.  Since I started this challenge with my original collection and then track and field cards,  I now have all of the North American version of track and field cards.

Sportscaster Series #21 Variations That I Have Found - More Points Than Wilt?

Moving forward with another look at Sportscaster card variations.  I have all of the 72 cards in this series between three different printings - blank, "A", "B".  I have a few (7) from printing "C".  So, I suspect that there will be a few variations of statistics at least.  I have an unopened pack of series 21C but I am not willing to open that to see about any variations.

21-01 Alpine Skiing - Olympic Downhill.  No changes until the "C" printing which actually updates the back with the 1980 Olympic results.  That certainly gives an idea of when this printing was completed.

21-02 Auto Racing - Karting in Europe.  The "A' and "B" print run are the same but they have updated results compared to the first printing.

21-07 -No variations--. Boxing - Archie Moore.  I just thought it was interesting that his date of birth is listed as 1913 or 1916.

                            OOPS -- I forgot to get a picture of this one.  

21-13 Cycling - Tour of Lombardy.  The "B" printing shows updated results.

21-14 -No variations-- Once in a while something makes me read more about a particular card.  This was one.  It states that he holds the NCAA record with 113 points in a game.  Now, I've got to read about this.  The text says he scored 116 for Rio Grande College, which is in Ohio and not Texas.  He averaged 50.1 points a game.  

I'm glad I read this.  Clarence Francis and his Rio team caused the NCAA to change their rules.  The NCAA declared that a record would only count if it was against a four-year, academic degree-granting institution.  The Rio team played a lot of schools that didn't meet those requirements.  After the rule change he scored 113 points in a game that did count as the record.

There have been seven 100+-point games in NCAA history and he has two of them.  

21-17 Volleyball - Dictionary / Glossary.  The first printing has a title on the front and back called Dictionary.  That was changed in printings "A" and "B" to Glossary.  The icons on the front also differ in the first printing.

21-19 Boxing - The World Heavyweight Title.  The "A" and "B" printing add text about Ali losing to Leon Spinks and later claiming the title again.

OOPS -- I forgot to take a picture of this one.  

21-21 Weightlifting - The Records.  The "A" and "B" prints include records updates with different as-of dates.

Wide World of Sports (WWS) in the 1970s allowed us to see other sports even with cable and without the internet.  Winter weekends could include skiing, indoor track, weightlifting, the Globetrotters, etc.  The Superstars competition was fun to watch too but I don't know if it was on WWS.

Alexiev was the weightlifting star.  He was paid every time he set a world record so he'd try to set them by the smallest possible amount so he'd collect more bonuses.  

21-22 Auto Racing - Monaco GP.  The first printing has 1977 results.  "A" adds 1978 results and "B" adds 1979 results.

21-23 Nordic Skiing - Odd Martinsen.  The "A" and "B" printings have added some results from 1976-77.

21-24 Beyond Gymnastics - The Horizontal (high) Bar.  The only difference is on the front actually.  The first printing has the two overlapping icons seen on the top right above another icon.  That is changed for the other printings to just one icon atop another.

Sportscaster Series #20 Variations That I Have Found

This is not going as quickly as I had hoped.  Since COVID I've been busier than ever and I am not in a health profession.  

I picked up hardly anything new this year.  I think I added a few of the baseball stadiums.  

I am continuing a look at the variations that I have for each deck / series / pack.  Here I will take a look at series 20.   I've got all 24 cards from the first printing, the "A" printing and the "B" printing as well as a few cards from the "C" printing.  If there are some variations I should find them.  

I hope to keep moving along through these decks.  I need to get more than one done every six months somehow.  

I don't know how I will ever get this set done at my current pace.  

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20-02 Beyond Sports - The Astrodome.  I've seen some of these where the front border colors don't match.  Beyond Sports should be gray and baseball should be tan.  Oddly, the "A" printing is gray.  

I'm glad that I had the chance to see a baseball game in the Astrodome.

20-04 Horse Racing - Harness Racing and Saddle Trotting.  The "B" printing changes the back caption, correctly noting that harness racing is shown in the bottom picture.

20-06 Motorcycle Racing - The World Champions.  The "A" printing has different text than the first printing.  The "B" printing is formatted differently and it only lists drivers with 3+ titles.  All are different from each other. 

20-08 Tennis - Jan Kodes.  The "A" and "B" printings added 1976 and 1977 Awards and Records.

20-11 Table Tennis - The Expedite Rule and The Doubles.  The only change on A/B is the icons on the front of the card.  See the bottom of this post to see an example with card #20-24.

20-17 Fencing - The Foil.  The first printing and the "A" printing list champions up to 1977.  The "B" printing added the 1978 and 1979 winners.  

20-22 Table Tennis- Match Specifics.  The only change on A/B is the icons on the front of the card.  See the bottom of this post to see an example with card #20-24.

20-23 Swimming - World Records.  The text changed along with the as of dates for the records.  Al three have different dates.  Plenty of event records were updated each year between the first printing, the "A" printing and the "B" printing.  

Nice to see someone I used to work with still on the record list.  

20-24  Gymnastics - The Beam.  The only change on A/B is the icons on the front of the card.

Do people consider this a variation?  I guess if one considers printing "A" and "B" different because of the letter on the back then this fits into that distinction.  

Back in Business

 I had some problems with this account.  I plan to be back as we get closer to the National.  I rarely see Sportscaster cards there, but I can always hope to find something.  

Trying to Get a Few More Decks Done

 Nothing is going on here.  Not really any shows and there isn't much to find on ebay lately.  I would like to finish my decks up to 60 so here is the short list of what I need.  Do you have any of these?

• 59-20 Frank Robinson
• 59-14 Yankee Stadium
• 58-20 Veterans Stadium
• 57-02 Dave Winfield
• 57-01 Willie Lanier
• 56-18 Longest Passes
• 56-11 Marvin Webster

I am certainly interested in finding any cards on my want list, see the right side of the blog, but these ones would be great additions since they are the last seven that I need to be done with sets 1 through 59.  

In the meantime, I am hoping that the world becomes safer for everyone again soon and that the National happens this year since it is near my house.

Under 100 to Go

For the first time, I decided to check how many Sportscaster cards I don't have.  I am ignoring the print run / variations.  Since I have everything entering into Excel, I figured out that I am down to needing 99 different cards.  I've listed more of them on the right side of the blog.  Let me know if you have any to trade.

That is great, but some things haven't changed.  I still need Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Wayne Gretzky.  Lots of the high numbers that I need are the more popular (and probably expensive) cards in each deck/series.  

Since I have the checklist in Excel, send me an e-mail if you'd like a copy of it.  I haven't completed looking into variations, but this is at least a starting point.  

I really like checklists that list team and sports, but it might be difficult to do with the Sportscaster set.  Maybe someday.  

I haven't started on any foreign checklists.  Does anyone have any of these?

I am Sorting the Purchase from April 20th - Finally

I will update my want list if I am lucky enough to get anyone I need from this lot.  Ugh.  Nothing that I need.  Maybe I will get a few different variations that I don't have.    

UPDATE #1 - I sorted the first 19 decks and I ended up with 155 new variations.  If I would have known this I would have sorted these a bit earlier.  How did I get so many?  From decks 11 - 19 I had very few of the 'B' print run.  It turns out that this lot was almost all from the 'B' print run.   

UPDATE #2 - Just over eight months and I finally sorted the box of cards that I purchased in April.  For decks 20 - 55 I ended up getting about 100 more variations that I needed, mostly from print run 'C'.   Overall, it was a nice surprise to get some many variations.   

I only need a few cards from the first 59 decks - not including variations.  Here is the list.

Those are my goals for next year.  Let me know if you can help.

Does anyone have a good way to store their Sportscaster cards?  My running shoe boxes are not ideal at all.