A Boatload of Licensed Non-Topps Cards

And they're just Swell.

P-Town Tom gets himself another mention here as he recently hosted one of the cheapest group breaks known to humankind. A mere four dollars got me a health stack of cards from various late '80s/early '90s Legends sets, the type of thing you can't even pull off these days unless you're going to go around altering classic photography, which I really don't recommend. All in all, I received complete Cardinals team sets from three Swell Greats sets (1989 through 1991), plus all of the 1990 Pacific Legends Cardinals and some surprise bonuses.

Even though the years in play were at the height of my childhood collecting years, I used to shy away from the "legends" type sets (eww, old-timers!) because I guess I didn't appreciate anything old as a good-for-nothing troublemaker. For shame. The 1989 Swell set featured players both legendary and some that are lesser known, which seems to be a theme for all of their sets. I don't remember this design at all.

This one is a bit more familiar to me, as some generous traders have probably sent me one or two of these over the years. The 1990 design feels a lot more Fleer-y, but in an '80s way.

I don't have many Joe Garagiola cards that feature him as a member of the Cardinals, but these Swell sets really changed that. He was in St. Louis for a total of six seasons, but I really know him best as Vin Scully's broadcast partner on the NBC Game of the Week throughout much of the '80s.

This design isn't familiar to me at all. The 1991 set feels a bit thinner than the previous set, but one of the colors present seems to recall another set that was released in 1991 - Fleer again.

Is that the most positions that you've seen spelled out on a baseball card? Because it is for me.

I'm a little more familiar with the Pacific Legends sets than I am the Swell sets, but that could be because I grew up in the Northwest and Pacific originated in the Northwest. I never managed to visit, but they used to just be a big (I assume?) card shop that happened to print their own cards, which I used to think was pretty cool. I think I subscribed to their catalog at one point, but I probably never bought anything directly from them.

The super surprise bonus was that Tom threw in some 1975 SSPC cards that, y'know, might(?) be licensed. The cards have always given off a bit of a bootleg vibe to me, but I still like putting them in my binders.

Haha, Mike Tyson! Always a classic.

Well, I'd have to say, one of the best things about this break was that the cards were all pretty much in pristine shape. That's not something you'd necessarily expect from cards this old, nor a break this cheap. I'll take it!