My first vintage project- 1955-1960 Topps Harmon Killebrew PSA
 

Hi everyone! I'm fairly new to Net54, but I've been pretty active on Blowout for the past few years, and SCF before that. I've been collecting for around 10ish years, but it's been almost post-1980 cards, aside from slowly building Twins team sets from Topps flagship from 1961 on. Anyways, I've been looking to get more involved in vintage, hence my reasoning for joining this forum, but I wasn't entirely sure where to start. There are a few cool sets I have picked out that I'd like to chase eventually (namely 1933 Delong and 1941 Play Ball), but both seem pricier than I can handle right now, and not the easiest way to jump into the vintage world. The other day, I realized the perfect project to start it off-

One by one collecting a Harmon Killebrew card from each Topps set in his Senators days. I'm a big Twins fan, so going after one of the best to play for the franchise is pretty appealing, and his rookie card was in 1955 Topps, his first Twins card in 1961 Topps, so only having 6 cards to chase is super doable. I decided I want to get PSA copies of each card, to help lessen the risk of obtaining fakes, plus I just really like the way they look with vintage cards! My target grade will vary from card to card, mostly trying to keep each step within my price range (entering my final year of college, so money is pretty tight for a bit longer)

I'm going to start with the 1960 card and work my way backwards until I have a copy of the 1955 rookie. Not completely sure why, but I'm going to only do one card at a time- First get the 1960, then get the 1959, and so on. I'll keep this thread updated with my progress so you all can join in on my quest. I don't have any of these yet, so still looking for the 1960. I'll update the below section any time I get a new copy in. Thanks for the look, looking forward to this project!

Currently searching for: 1960 Topps Harmon Killebrew #210 PSA 5-7

Scans of what I have so far:

None yet, coming soon! :D

Welcome and good luck. Also, this thread was in the memorabilia section so it was moved over here...

Go Hollywood...and welcome

Once you go vintage you never go back!

Best of luck on your "Killer" project.
Please share some scans here.
RayB

Amazingly, there is NO card of Harmon in the 1957 Topps set, please keep this in mind....

Whoops :o Thanks for moving me to the right spot!

Absolutely will do, really looking forward to this!

Really! Never would have guessed that. I always just assumed he had a card in the set. Thanks for the heads up!

Hollywood42, welcome aboard. As your collecting budget is limited, I suggest you also keep your eyes open for SCG-graded and BVG-graded cards, because one can frequently find nicer condition cards in these slabs for less $$ than PSA-graded cards.

I assume the reason "Killer" doesn't appear in the 1957 Topps set is that he spent almost the entire year at Chattanooga. I believe that Senators' management decided very early, well before spring training began, that this was best for Killebrew

From everything I have ever read about Killebrew, he was one heckuva nice guy. I had the pleasure of meeting him once, at a large card show roughly 25-30 years ago. After his signing session ended, rather than disappearing, he walked the aisles of the show for 1.5-2 hours, chatting with any and all dealers and collectors who cared to chat with him. He couldn't have been more friendly and pleasant, which made me wish I hadn't been so negative about him when he first joined the Senators (my team) as a "big bonus baby." His signing bonus was so large that the MLB rules at that time required the Senators to keep him on their MLB roster for a couple of years as a penalty, rather than letting him get the minor league seasoning he needed. He seldom got to play the first few years, and he struck out a lot. I felt Killebrew would never amount to much, probably because my heroes were the singles hitters who batted .300, probably because my dad considered it a sin to strike out.

"Killer"
 

Hollywood,

You picked a great one to collect. Killebrew was not only a great player, but arguably even a better person. Looking forward to viewing your pickups.

Thanks for the posts, everyone. I unfortunately am too young to have seen Killebrew play in person, but have heard nothing but good things about him

Here is another reason to admire Killebrew that is relevant to collectors. I think this echos what others have said about him. Good, quick read.

http://www.denverpost.com/2013/03/02...ct-penmanship/

I did know this bit. There's a good number of Twins players past and present that would tell you Killebrew sat them down and taught them how to sign properly. Awesome story