1964 Topps Venezuela

I've documented a bit of my progress on my Wally Moon collection recently. I have most of the low-hanging fruit already in my collection, so I now have to gather the rarer stuff. Some of it is not readily available in PSA-graded form, so I've gathered some cards that will eventually be sent off to PSA once I'm confident I've got just about everything in-hand. That future PSA submission will include Wally Moon cards, as well as the remaining cards I've gathered for the 1891 N20 Allen & Ginter 50 Prize & Game Chickens set I've been working on for the last decade. None of these cards will grade very well, but that's not really the point for these set builds.

I recently found myself looking for Wally Moon's 1964 Topps Venezuela card, which is similar to his 1964 Topps base card, outside of the printing on the back. Venezuelan releases were printed on poor cardstock, and most of the ones that have survived are in poor condition. This copy is no exception, with rounded corners and fading. It still shows Wally's unibrow in all its majesty, though.

The card backs on the 1964 Venezuelan cards are printed in black, as opposed to the U.S.-released cards that were printed in orange. It's a relatively easy way to determine which is which for this year. Several years ago I purchased a 1962 Topps NL Batting Leaders card that purports to be the Venezuelan edition that I hope will grade as such in spite of being virtually identical to the U.S. printing.

Based on the available offerings during my search, it worked out cheaper to buy a lot of Venezuelan cards rather than just the Wally Moon single. It's strange how it works out that way sometimes. So I got Ryne Duren and Harvey Kuenn Venezuelans as well.

Again, these are in pretty rough shape, but that is expected with these cards that are nearly as old as my parents, who were born in 1962. Ryne Duren I wasn't super familiar with, but he made the All-Star Game a few times and won a ring with the Yankees in 1958. Harvey Kuenn was a familiar name, who was a perennial All-Star with the Tigers and managed the Brewers for a couple of years after his playing days.