70s Saturday - 1976 Topps Cubs

 The 1976 Cubs set is one of my favorites of all time.  The blue and red on the cards match nicely with the Cubs uniforms.  Many of the cards also have a blue sky background.  A majority of the players are wearing the home uniform.  There is so much that is good! 

Too bad the team's performance didn't match the look of the cards.  The finished in 4th place with a record of 75-87.  It was the exact same record as the year before.  Both the manager and GM were dumped after the season ended.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2022 Cubs Factory Team Set

 My 2022 Cubs factory team set arrived in less than a week from when it was ordered.  I always appreciate the quick-shipping eBay sellers.

There are 17 cards in the set, as there has been for the past several years.

 

 

These five are all in the first series and the cards are identical.  The factory set used to have different pictures on the cards of some of the series one players, but that hasn't happened in a while.

 

 

 

These are the players in the factory set that are still with the Cubs, although Frazier, Miley, and Mills are on the injured list.

 

 

The last group of six are not with the Cubs any longer.  Deichmann could end up back with the Cubs.  He was released but no other team picked him up, so he was given a minor league deal and is in AAA at Iowa.  The others are long gone and not really missed.

1969 O-Pee-Chee Deckle Set

O-Pee-Chee skipped most of the inserts that Topps issued.   The only exceptions were the 1968 posters and the 1969 deckle-edge set.  One Cub was in each of those sets, Ron Santo.  I haven't been able to get the poster yet but I do have the deckle card.  Let's take a look.

First, you'll notice that the OPC card is a little shorter than the Topps card.  The autograph on the Topps card is blue while OPC's is black.  Less noticeable from the scan is that the OPC card is printed on regular cardboard while the Topps card is on a glossy stock.  Was OPC trying to cut costs by using plain cardboard and no color?  Topps wins this by far.

OPC didn't print anything on the backs of their deckle cards.  Another way to save a buck?

1969 O-Pee-Chee Cubs Set

Set Size: O-Pee-Chee - 218, Topps 664  

Cubs in set: O-Pee-Chee - 8, Topps - 26

Once again O-Pee-Chee used the first two Topps series for their set.  It's a few more cards than in 1968, going from 196 to 218.  While the total number of cards in the set was increased, the number of Cubs cards went down. In fact, the number of players for each team went down because there were four new teams added in 1969.

There's no difference between the front of the O-Pee-Chee card and Topps card

The obvious difference on the back is the color.  OPC used a much brighter red and it doesn't seem to fade like the red that Topps used.  But also, for the first time, the Topps name was removed from the back and replaced with O-Pee-Chee.  And the design was changed slightly as the box with the player's vitals went from white on the Topps card to red on the OPC

The '69 cards were much easier and cheaper to find than those in the '68 set.  The only difficulty for me was because Ernie Banks was included.  His cards were very expensive, so I had to settle for one that is not in the best condition.  I have no problem with that.  I know that there is no way I can afford an OPC collection with cards in NM or Mint condition.