Al---
Thanks for sharing your vast array of rare Topps. I particularly admire your 1968 Topps 3-D Mel Stottlemyre in PSA 6. A perfect card in high grade.
I was living in the suburbs of Chicago in the early 70s. A high school buddy of mine found out I liked baseball cards. He had some old cards, and two I had never before seen----a pair of 68 Topps 3-Ds. I just stared and stared at them. Wow. These looked so cool. By now I was a veteran of several years collecting the Kellogg's 3-Ds. Those were special to me, but these cards were also quite attractive.
How Scott and his father got the two, Stottlemyre and Bill Robinson, I do not recall. His father was a high school principal in another suburb; perhaps five years before he was at a meeting in metro NYC, and stopped in one of the candy shops in Brooklyn where Topps was known to market them. They even had the stamping on the backside to return them to Topps, which sounded ridiculous to me. Knowing what little I do about them, a pack cost a dime and you got two cards and two easels to stand them up. Topps designed them to be special. They were.
My buddy gave them both to me that day. I thanked him profusely, and again, I'd never seen them before, nor knew what they were. In a year, I found out. In about 1973, I hooked up a trade with pioneer collector and dealer extraordinaire, Larry Fritsch. I traded him the Stottlemyre for a 1952 Topps Roy Campanella. The Stottlemyre was EX+, I would say; the Campanella EX-MT. We did it through the mail. Apparently, Larry needed Stot, and I only owned one other 52 Topps high number. We were both happy, though that Stottlemyre was flat out beautiful.
Thanks again, Al, for taking the pains to share some of yours Topps "Mother Lode".
Best regards, Brian Powell