A new favorite set?

It seems I'm having a small run of luck lately.  Not long after winning a contest over at Junior Junkie's blog, I won another contest.   All I had to do was root for the Cubs against the Phillies.  Easy enough.  And the Cubs won.  So I won. 

What did I win?  Lots.  I'll break this into 3 parts.

 Part the 1st

First I got 4 Complete team sets from some box breaks Tom was having.  I of course picked the Angels.

Here's the complete Angel team set from 1989 Swell

Here's the complete Angel team set from 1990 Swell

Yup.  That's all the Angels in the set <sigh>


 Here's the complete Angel team set from 1991 Swell:

And here's the complete Angel team set from 1990 Pacific Legends

Bobby there can go into my Grich PC.  Lucky I got two.

 Part the 2nd

While I was already getting the Angels as the prize for my win, I decided to go ahead and buy a 2nd team from the break.  I went ahead and selected the Red Sox.  What's that?  No, I'm not secretly a Red Sox fan.  I've already detailed the nightmares the Red Sox have caused me over the years.  Nope.  I wanted:

those.  I considered getting the Twins so I could add some Rod Carew cards to my Carew PC.  But somebody already claimed them.  So I went with my other favorite and claimed the Boston Splendid Splinters.  I already have a destination for a set of the other Sox.

*mini-rant time.  I got 68 Red Sox from the four sets, including doubles.  I got 9 Angels.  What the ??  Seriously no love for the Angels.  C'mon man!  end rant.*

Part the 3rd

Now, that was pretty much what I was expecting and was really very happy with that.  But there was an added bonus.  And by bonus, I mean B O N U S !

 I LOVE SSPC!!  Seriously.  I remember seeing this set in a Baseball Card Guide as a kid and thinking it was a novelty.  It looked odd to me.  It was a one-off set.  Now that I have some, I want more, more, more.

That's a coach card.  That is outstanding. Donruss dabbled in coaches in 1982 (and maybe 1983?), but SSPC did it 6 years before that.

Between Bowman in 1955 and Fleer and Donruss in 1981, SSPC is the only real challenge Topps faced.  These cards are fantastic.  The design is so simple and clean, that it's timeless. 

I can't say too many times how great these cards are.

Here's a look at the back.  There's a lot to notice here. 

First, full names.  Another thing Donruss ripped off. 

There's uniform numbers.  Nobody did that until Score in 1988. 

These are 1976 SSPC, but notice the 1975 copyright date.  And to top that, notice the teams listed for these players.  The two on the left are in Angel unis on the fronts, and the two on the right are in Red Sox unis.  All four were traded between November 4 and December 12 of 1975.  But there's a 1975 copyright date.

Did I mention I love SSPC?

Thanks Tom.