Fun on the Back

In earlier phases of my collecting life, I completely ignored the backs of cards. One of the things I learned to appreciate when I discovered my first card blog was the very thing I used to ignore. While looking at the back of my 2011 Heritage cards, I noticed a few that caught my eye.

First up is NF-3, Mona Lisa.

One thing jumps off the card at me: the price of gas in 1962 was 30 cents a gallon. 30 cents!! I know all about inflation and supply and demand, but I also know my gas has gone UP more 60 cents a gallon in the last couple of months. Weren’t we all supposed to be getting around in flying cars by now anyway?

I don't know what's up with Blogger. It keeps turning these images sideways even though they are saved in the horizontal position. Another cartoon that caught my eye was this nice play at the plate on the back of Juan Pierre’s card.

I had no idea Pierre stole home twice last year. I’m sure I saw the highlights on ESPN at some point last year, but the info didn’t stick in my brain.

I’m not familiar with vintage 1962 Topps cards at all and only have a few in my collection. Someone with more knowledge of that set will have to tell me if what I noticed next is a carry-over to the 2011 version.

That’s right. Aroldis Chapman and Brett Anderson have the same cartoon on the back of their cards. Obviously the write up is different, but the art is the same. I think these were the only two repeats I had, although I didn’t match up every single card. Did Topps re-cycle cartoons on the vintage ’62 set as well? For that matter, are the cartoons on the back of these cards the same ones used in 1962?

I’m probably showing my ignorance with that question, but I’m 7 hours into a 16 hour shift, so I’ll have to ask for a little leniency.