I only need 1...no, make it 2...alright 5 Nolan Ryan Topps cards.

I went to a card show two weekends ago. My main goal at the show was to find a 1969 and/or 1970 Topps Nolan Ryan card. The dealer I have been getting most of my vintage from at the shows had posted on Facebook that he was bringing some player pages at $1 a page. I spied some 1984 Donruss cards and so I hit up his table first and went through the pages. I grabbed 8. Then I went through the 1969 and 1970 cards  in his boxes. No Ryans. Then I checked his showcase and found this.

It has great eye appeal, but has some issues which resulted in the $60 price tag Yes, please!

Not sure I realized that Ryan debuted in 1966. Check out that 15.00 ERA. Even so, Topps recognized early on that Ryan was a strikeout machine, even if it didn't always translate into wins.

I took a shot and asked the dealer if he would do the Ryan and the eight $1 pages for $60 and he agreed, so I guess technically I got the 1970 Nolan Ryan for $52. I'm very happy with that price.

In my mind I was pretty sure that I just needed the 1969 and 1970 cards to complete my Topps Nolan Ryan base card run. I realized pretty quickly afterwords though that I also need the 1972 card. Now that I am looking, I am seeing a couple other holes. I need 1977, 1978 and 1980 as well. I've got some work to do, but I guess needing only 5 out of a total of 27 is not bad.

I'm not expecting to be able to trade for a 1969 or 1972, but if anyone has a 1977, 1978, or 1980 Topps Nolan Ryan that you would be willing to trade, please let me know. I am not all that picky about condition, especially on the older cards. I do have an extra 1974 Topps Nolan Ryan card that I can offer up for trade. Let me know.