Cards from the Diamond Giveaway...Yes I'm Not Done There Yet

Before I show some cards, I would like to thank Topps for their bone-headed maneuver of putting an incorrect date on the codes for Diamond Giveaway.  It has enabled me to continue playing with my portfolio and making trades for actual cards instead of coins nothing.  I have only been on the Golden Giveaway site twice, both times to enter codes and left disappointed each time.  That wasn't the case with the 2011 site.  I haven't been going longer than 3-4 days without checking for trades and such since it began.  Even after this delivery (which is my 7th total delivery), I still have about 12 cards on the site most of which I plan to get delivered.  I can't believe how badly Topps dropped the ball in 2012 on this once great gimmick.  Anyway, let's take a look at some of the cards from my 5th paid delivery from Topps.

The best thing about Diamond Giveaway has been my ability to put a serious dent in my rookie cup collection.  Ed Charles is my 3rd from the 1963 set, which I'm sure after the past three days of Heritage you are all familiar with.  Les Cain is my first from the 1971 set which is odd because, aside from Thurman Munson and possibly Larry Bowa, the 71 team is mostly no-name guys.  The 1972 Bill Buckner is in fantastic shape, probably the best shape of any 70s card that I have gotten from Topps through DG.  He does look like he doesn't care that much for the trophy though since he is about to knock the little man off the top.

This 1974 Gary Matthews was very hard to trade for on DG despite there being over 100 copies.  It's a great photo, but I don't like the landscape photos in the 74 set.  They don't even look like they belong to the same set as the portraits (see below).  Next we come to a 1975 Frank Tanana.  Both Tanana and Matthews (and Buckner for that matter) were still active when I got into collecting in 1986.  Tanana was a Tiger and Sarge was a Cub in that 1986 set.

Here is a pair of card from the 1983 team.  Sax was obviously the more accomplished player from this group, but guys like Laskey are why I enjoy the rookie cups so much.  Making the Rookie All Star Team was probably the highlight of Laskey's career (1982-88), but he will always be on the same team as Ryne Sandberg.  The only thing to improve this would be the addition of the cup.  Well that and getting the Halloween uniform off of him.  I just noticed that I had two Dodgers and two Giants among the 7 cup cards and got a little sad.

It wasn't all rookie cups for me though.  This 1971 Jim "Mudcat" Grant is the only card that I have had shipped that I personally unlocked.  I probably could have turned it into a Larry Bowa or another of the 71 rookie cups I needed, but how can you trade away those muttonchops?  What a great card.  The other 17 cards I got shipped this time came from the 1974 set that is one of my Mountains to Climb in 2012.  The highlight of those 74s is this Manny Trillo rookie card.  The 1974 set is not really known for rookie cards, so Trillo's is one of the biggest names in the set.  The others are Dave Winfield, Dave Parker, Gorman Thomas, and Dan Driessen so not wallet busters by any means (well maybe Winfield).

Here are the more interesting photos from the rest of the 74s that I got.  The Eduardo Rodriguez is the only action shot from the ones I received, other than the Matthews above.  I don't the Athletic that is lazily leading off 2nd, but maybe some of you guys from the 70s might know.  The Marty Pattin is ridiculously awesome just because of how bad the airbrush job is on the cap.  A four year old with crayons could probably do as good a job on that cap.  Finally, I'll end with Jerry Bell and his muttonchops.  They are definitely a distant second to Jim Grant's, but they are still wickedly cool to go along with the old M caps for the Brewers.


I should be done with the Diamond Giveaway after my next shipment, but I will tell you for a fact that I will miss it.