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Welcome! This is the 342nd and final post for this blog, started by me back in October 2015 and officially wrapped up exactly 10 years later. If you've stumbled upon this blog for the first time, please see below for some handy navigational tips:
- Set Navigation: If you start here and work your way backwards, you'll be able to view the set in reverse order. Or, you could go to the first card in the set, American League President William Harridge (#1), and follow along with the Previous Card / Next Card links at the bottom of each post. OR, for those of you who want to enjoy the blog in the order my Dad and I collected the set, please start with the Chuck Diering post (#19) and use the Order Collected links at the bottom of each post.
- Team Sets: I'm a big fan of visual galleries of vintage baseball cards. Clicking on the Team Sets page on the row of links below the blog's title banner will take you to a launching page of the 16 teams featured in the set. I've grouped each team set alphabetically, with the team card at top for all, along with the manager cards for just the Dodgers and Phillies.
- Finding Cards: I'd suggest the Numerical Checklist at the top or the Names links on the sidebar to the left.
- Other Fun Stuff: Also linked above are looks back at each of the four series in the set, along with my "what if" fifth series/traded set checklist. Find out which color bar combinations were used the most in the set, oldest and youngest players in each series, or which player in the set was born in the United Kingdom.
Thanks for visiting, please check out my other blogs, also linked to the left, and happy collecting!
March 17, 2007 from Dad's eBay purchases - Card #295
Our first son Doug was born in December 2006, and this happy event led directly to my Dad visiting us on a more regular basis. Dad was living by himself at this point in Mays Landing, New Jersey and he didn't enjoy the 40 minute drive north to our house. Among all the very positive memories I have of my Dad, one of my few negative memories is the fact he absolutely seemed to loathe driving and that loathing increased exponentially if there was traffic or if it were dark. But he made the trips anyway, sometimes staying no more than an hour, because he was so incredibly anxious and excited to spend time with his grandson.
By the time his second grandson (Ben) was born in April 2010, my Dad's health had started to fail and whatever visits we had were pre-arranged or consisted of us visiting him. Which is why these visits during Doug's infancy and first few years are so special to me. My Dad would show up usually unannounced, ecstatic to see Doug, there would be some small talk and we'd complain about the Phillies, and then he'd leave. But on his way out, he'd always say he'd see us again in a few days and I'd look forward to these visits.
This background is needed to better explain how this partially checklist came into our set. In 2007, my Dad's days mostly consisted of an occasional round of golf, calls and visits to his kids - my sister and me, watching cable news, an afternoon nap and scouring eBay. Most (but not all) of his eBay purchases benefitted me in the form of 1956 Topps cards we needed for our set. He'd show up at our house for a visit with Doug and nonchalantly hand me one of his recent purchases. I suspect this checklist card was a major eBay purchase, along with the Elston Howard (#208) card he'd give me a few months later for Father's Day. But having looked for pristine, unmarked checklists for the better part of 20 years, he couldn't wait the three months until Father's Day and he gifted me this card in mid-March. The greeting card is shown above, and for the record, my Dad wanted it known this checklist was specifically designated for his grandson's collection.
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| September 27, 2025 - Wrapping up the blog |
For the first time in its short history, and I believe a first for any baseball card set, Topps made the decision to include checklists in certain packs of its 1956 Topps cards, to let collectors know who was in the set and which cards they might still need. From what I've read, Topps (and Bowman) had avoided providing collectors with checklists with its earlier sets so as to alert them who wasn't in the set. For example, collectors would continue to buy packs of 1955 Topps cards hoping to find an elusive Mickey Mantle (#135) or Roy Campanella (#101) card, not realizing those cards did not exist, as Mantle and Campanella were both exclusively under contract with Bowman. With Bowman out of the way beginning in 1956, there was nothing holding Topps back from letting collectors know who was in their set.
I'm assuming that motivation is behind the logic of having the two checklist cards for the 1956 Topps set include non-consecutive series from the set. This first checklist shows the cards from series one and three, while the second checklist contains cards from series two and four. With this checklist, not only could collectors see who they needed from series two, but they now had a preview of who to look for in series four.
Topps also took the extra step of highlighting the team cards in red, a new innovation for baseball card sets, so that collectors would be sure not to miss those. And just in case collectors had no idea what to do with this card, the back contains this handy suggestion, still relevant today:
"Check off cards you have. Trade your duplicates for numbers you need to complete the series. There are 340 cards in Topps '56 Baseball including 16 full Team pictures."
Previous Card / Next Card
Order Collected: #312 Andy Pafko - Milwaukee Braves / #159 Clint Courtney - Washington Nationals
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