Growing up as a collector in the 1980s, there was one player who always intrigued folks in the hobby: Nolan Ryan. There were no doubt countless other names who did as well, but when collecting baseball cards was becoming  big business, Nolan Ryan was nearing the end of his career and seemed to be breaking records left and right, thereby keeping his name and cards at the forefront of many conversations. The result was a growth in popularity; a rise in interest in his cards.

As a collector now in my late 20s, I still find myself infatuated with Ryan’s older cards. The result has been my quest to obtain every Ryan basic Topps card from 1968 through 1980. There were hundreds of other Ryan cards produced in the “modern” card era, but some how those do not catch my attention like these vintage cards.

My vintage Ryan collection started with the 1974 Topps card I got from a friend in a poker game. Then snagged a 1979 Topps out of a pack at a local card shop — great-looking card that was graded a 6 by Beckett Vintage, primarily because of the centering. And in the last five years I’ve done some eBaying to come up with almost every other card. There is no shortage of Ryan collectors, so it still costs a decent penny to obtain his vintage cards in good shape. But I’m not that picky when it comes to my vintage cards.

As you can see, I’m still missing two cards, the 1969 card and 1971. Grr.

1968 — The Rookie

1970 Topps

1972 Topps

1973 Topps

1974 Topps

1975 Topps

1976 Topps

1977 Topps

1977 Topps Cloth Sticker — SP

1978 Topps

1979 Topps

1979 Topps — pack pulled;  BVG 6

Grades: 9 edges; 8.5 corners; 8.5 surface; 5 centering

1980 Topps

This entry was posted on November 17, 2009 at 10:32 am and is filed under Newspaperman with tags baseball, baseball cards, Nolan Ryan, sports, The Ryan Express, vintage baseball cards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.