Vintage Baseball, Quick Draw McGraw and a First PWHL Card Join a Collector’s Latest Finds

A new batch of cards can turn a quiet stretch into several collecting detours at once. These latest pickups reach from a 1961 Topps baseball project to a vintage cartoon game, a football card tied to a television favorite and a first card from the PWHL. Each one adds a different kind of interest: set building, personal history, or a reason to follow a player.

A Billy Loes card reconnects with the 1961 Mets

The first addition fills a small gap in a project built around the 1962 Mets. The collector calls it the 1961 Mets Prequel: a look back through 1961 cards featuring players who would be associated with the club the following season. The collection includes Topps cards and one Post Cereal card, and the latest pickup is a 1961 Topps card of Billy Loes.

Loes had been a Brooklyn Dodger before the Mets purchased him from the Giants. He didn’t report to the Mets before spring training, unhappy with how the club’s front office had treated him. The Mets sent him back to the Giants, who released him, ending his Major League career. His earlier record gives the card a compelling backstory: Loes was an All-Star with the 1957 Orioles and pitched in three World Series with the Dodgers.

The card also brings the collector’s 1961 Topps count to 82, a total that came as a surprise. Twenty-seven cards belong to the Mets project, 17 are part of a possible Orioles team set, and the rest are scattered across other interests. That split shows how one vintage set can serve several collecting goals at once. A card can fill a project slot while also standing on its own as a record of a player’s career.

A cartoon card from a childhood favorite

Another 1961 find came from an Ed-U-Cards Quick Draw McGraw game, sold as a deck of cards. The collector remembers enjoying Quick Draw as a kid and spotted the card while searching for “Ed-U-Cards.” That combination of a familiar character and a chance discovery made it an easy addition.

Game cards sit in an interesting spot between toys and traditional trading cards. Their original purpose was play, but a loose card can preserve artwork and packaging era details that aren’t found in a standard sports set. Here, the pleasure is straightforward: the card reconnects the collector with a show he liked growing up.

A Francona family trail through baseball seasons

The 1970 Topps set is a long-term goal, though the collector has put active searching on hold. Cards still get picked up when they turn up, and a Tito Francona card prompted a question about how often a Major League season has passed without a Francona in a dugout.

Tito played from 1956 through 1970. His son Terry played from 1981 to 1990, then began coaching and managing in 1996. The collector’s count allows for 2012, when Terry worked as a television analyst, and 2024, when he was described as retired. By that reckoning, only 17 of the 70 seasons from 1956 through 2025 had no Francona in a Major League dugout.

That’s a neat bit of baseball history tucked inside a set-building pickup. The card itself connects to Tito’s playing years, while its place in the family timeline reaches well beyond the cardboard. Small questions like this can make a familiar set feel newly engaging.

Timothy Brown, on the field and on screen

A 1967 Philadelphia Gum NFL card brings another Timothy Brown into the collection. Brown had a solid football career, but the collector’s interest also comes from his appearances in both the movie and television versions of M*A*S*H, where he played different characters. This is the third Brown card in the collection.

That screen connection led to a custom card made a couple of years ago, featuring Brown as Captain Jones in the first season of the television series. Jones shared the Swamp with Hawkeye, Trapper and Frank. The character had a racist nickname, which the collector chooses not to repeat.

A first PWHL card with a Vermont connection

The final pickup marks a first: a PWHL card, featuring Theresa Schafzahl. The collector grew up in a hockey household and still enjoys watching the sport, but has become more interested in the Professional Women’s Hockey League than the NHL. A smaller group of teams and players makes it easier to follow, while the style of play and general atmosphere also appeal. There’s no single favorite team or player, though several teams and roughly 10 to 20 players draw particular interest.

Schafzahl’s connection comes through the University of Vermont, which a longtime friend attended. That gives the collector a reason to root for Catamount alumni, even without a school hockey connection of his own. The card turns that personal thread into a new corner of the collection.

Upper Deck holds the PWHL card license, and the collector finds the cards expensive. The first purchase still makes sense as a way into a league he enjoys watching. Across this group, the common thread is personal connection: a project, a childhood favorite, a family name, a television role, or a team tied to a friend. More cards are waiting to be shared, whenever time allows.