10 Bucks at an Estate Sale

I was browsing on FB Marketplace, and someone in the next town over was doing an "online estate sale" -- posting single items or lots they had for sale.  Scrolling through, I saw one of the pictures looked like this.

I was a little worried that it said "Pre-1990s" (since that includes the 1980s junk wax), but it had a 1972 Topps on the front and the backs I could see poking up looked old, too.   I was itching to open something -- I had nearly purchased a Fairfield Repack blaster at Target the night before, and talked myself out of it -- so I bought it!  I was expecting about 150 cards from that picture, so for half of the price of a blaster I was willing to gamble.  Let's see what was in there.

Total cards:  212

I'll go "oldest-to-newest" on these.

1968: 1 card // 1969: 2 cards

The Alley is in good condition.   The checklist, however, is all marked up. 

1970: 3 cards

Some nice cards to go in my trade boxes here.

1971: 56 cards

Here's where we start to get into the majority of the box.  There was a big stack of these.

Condition varied a lot.  The two on the top row were in fantastic shape!   The ones on the bottom - eek!  I'm not sure how you do that to the corners without tearing them off.

There were a couple highlights in here - Two Willie Stargells.  Pops!   One in pretty nice shape, and one a bit more worn.

Two of Pirate legend Bill Mazeroski, and a nice condition card of Dock Ellis.

1972: 99 cards.   

When it looked like there were a few '72s in the box....I definitely underestimated!   This was half of the box. 

Condition varied a lot on these.  Here's some bad guys.  Many of them looked like they had water damage on the top edge, which sullied some otherwise nice vintage cards.   The Maddox is a LITTLE miscut.  Someone took a red pen to Carlton/Seaver, and they have apparently made a lot of progress on their '72 checklist, too!

Showing the damage a little more...you can see it at the top of these HOFers.

However, there were quite a few "names" which were in outstanding condition!  Will keep a few of these and trade the rest.  Another Dock Ellis, too.

1973: 21 cards

Here's everything from that year.  Brooks suffered a little top damage, but the Blyleven looks nice.

Rockcards!  13 cards.  Someone opened a pack of these.  It had a few big stars I recognized.

The rest: 16 cards

 There was some other junk in there (including a little pile of bent 1994 Topps).  But these all caught my eye - George Bell "hole puncher" variation, an Elks membership card from Palm Desert, CA (I don't live there....), a Yamaha motorbike, and a nice 1994 Piazza.

I will enjoy putting these in my trade list on TCDB.  If you see anything you'd like, let me know!

In summary: 

Did I enjoy the variety in this box?  Yes!  

Did I get my money's worth?  Yes!  

Was this better than a repack blaster?  Yes!  

So I end this post as a happy camper.

Question:  Which card should I keep in my collection forever and ever?