Back in 2011 Topps included Kimball Champions cards as inserts in their flagship products, based on cigarette cards produced by William Kimball & Co. in the 19th Century. Unlike Allen & Ginter and Gypsy Queen which are also tobacco brands revived by Topps, Kimball never made the jump to become a full set in its own right.
This card arrived in the eBay lot that was misdelivered after I'd paid an 'administration fee' for the privilege of paying customs charges. I'm still a bit irked about that.
Card Number 554: Topps Kimball Champions, 2011; #KC-59
The front is illustrated rather than a photo. The bottom half of the picture makes it look like Tony is playing in a park somewhere.
The illustration is based on a photo of Tony taken in the early part of his career. The brown cap and jacket help to date the photo, as does his fine moustache.
All the cardbacks contained a checklist for the relevant section they were in. Cards 51-100 featured retired players and legends of the game. It's a dull cardback even by fake cigarette card standards.
This is only the second card from 2011 that I've featured on the blog so far. 2011 was a comparatively lean year for Tony Gwynn cards - with just 182 cards listed on the Trading Card Database.
Total: 554 cards
Loved this set! Ended up buying the first and second series set. Anyways... as much as I love it, I sure hope Topps doesn't read this post and get any funny ideas.
ReplyDeleteI think it's highly unlikely Topps would read this post. But there's always a danger they'd get some funny ideas.
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