1978 Topps - Part II

I have sorted through the eBay lot of 1978 Topps baseball cards.  As per usual, an Excel spreadsheet was involved and every card has been cataloged.  Here's the stats: $23.61 (including S&H) for 824 cards, 431 of which I needed.  The rest of cards will go up on eBay before too long as I try to recoup the cost for the original purchase.

In general, the lot was pretty average.  No cards of considerable value were included and all the star cards were assuredly well-loved and in very good (VG) to excellent (EX) condition at best.  For those not familiar with the grading of a card's condition, VG and EX are not exactly ideal, but I'm elated nonetheless! 

As it stands right now, I'm missing 207 cards for my 726 count 1978 Topps set.  Within those cards I'm still seeking the Eddie Murray rookie card, Andre Dawson, George Brett, Pete Rose, Nolan Ryan, and Reggie Jackson to name a few.

Here's the highlights from the eBay lot with a bit of commentary for each grouping.

The 1978 set is chocked full of cards featuring players who would continue their career in baseball after retiring as a player.  Steve Stone spent many years in the broadcast booth with Harry Caray and Lou Piniella managed the Cubs for the better part of three years.

The '78 set also features manager cards with a picture of them in uniform with their current team and a picture from their playing days.  The backs also include stats from their playing days.  Pretty cool if you ask me.  Within the set are rookie prospects cards that feature four players per card.  The one that I've pictured contains Dennis Lamp as a Cub, who wound up winning and losing 96 games in his career.

Team checklists!  Score!  Hall-of-famer Willie Stargell at the end of his career.

 Gary Carter, Rollie Fingers, and Willie McCovey are all in the Hall of Fame.  Charlie Hough is famous for being a knuckleball pitcher who would win 216 games in his career.

If a player participated in the All-Star game that year it was denoted on his card.  These days the players will be featured on two Topps cards: one in the base set and an All-Star card in the update set. Willie Randolph's Yankees beat the Dodgers and Steve Garvey in the 1977 World Series.  George Foster was the NL MVP in '77 and Carlton Fisk is in the Hall of Fame.

Hall of Famers Jim Rice and Jim "Catfish" Hunter, 200 game winner Vida Blue, and Bill Buckner are the last that I will share with you in this post.  And for what it's worth, Buckner is now the manager of the short season Boise Hawks, which is a minor league affiliate of the Chicago Cubs.