Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

I recently came across an eclectic mix of 40+ team sets, and I'd love to know how this mish mash of different team sets came to be in one place.

All but 9 of the team sets contain "Basic" cards only. The 9 sets which incorporate "Advanced" cards date from 1971 through 1976 (and are chronologically the most recent sets).

Most of the "Basic" only team sets are printed on the usual card stock in the usual blue ink. However, there are 5 team sets which are printed in black ink.

There are many pairings of World Series teams such as the '54 Giants/'54 Indians, '61 Reds/'61 Yankees, '68 Tigers/'68 Cardinals, etc.

However, many of the sets have a random appearance to them: 7 team sets from the 1969 season; 3 team sets from the 1963 season; 5 team sets from the 1964 season; etc.

My gut feeling is that this is a collection of a Strat player who in the mid-1970's began collecting team sets of teams he wanted to play with. However, I'm not sure if this would have been possible back in the day. Would anyone have been able to purchase individual team sets from Strat back then?

Sure hope there is a knowledgeable collector out there.

Rusty

LeGrandeOrange wrote:I recently came across an eclectic mix of 40+ team sets, and I'd love to know how this mish mash of different team sets came to be in one place.

All but 9 of the team sets contain "Basic" cards only. The 9 sets which incorporate "Advanced" cards date from 1971 through 1976 (and are chronologically the most recent sets).

Most of the "Basic" only team sets are printed on the usual card stock in the usual blue ink. However, there are 5 team sets which are printed in black ink.

There are many pairings of World Series teams such as the '54 Giants/'54 Indians, '61 Reds/'61 Yankees, '68 Tigers/'68 Cardinals, etc.

However, many of the sets have a random appearance to them: 7 team sets from the 1969 season; 3 team sets from the 1963 season; 5 team sets from the 1964 season; etc.

My gut feeling is that this is a collection of a Strat player who in the mid-1970's began collecting team sets of teams he wanted to play with. However, I'm not sure if this would have been possible back in the day. Would anyone have been able to purchase individual team sets from Strat back then?

Sure hope there is a knowledgeable collector out there.

Rusty

Just tell you my experience and recollection:
I began playing Strat in 1966 with some friends and we had the 1965,1966,1967,1968 complete sets (still have them).
Those were just the basic card sets.

When the double-sided sets started becoming available for the 1971 season I purchased that.
And somewhere in that time period they offered "old-timer" sets, consisting of various teams from the '20s, '30s, '40s, '50s and early '60s. I bought those and have them. Also for nostalgic reasons I purchased the complete 1964 teams set.

I really don't recall if buying a group of "you pick 'em" teams was an option at that early date. I would suspect it was later and now???

I used some version of "you pick 'em" for my first season, 1967. I have a vague recollection of a promo offer of top 5 teams (St Louis, Boston, Detroit, San Francisco, Minnesota) and 2 additional of your choice(Cincinnati, Atlanta for me).

Thanks for the input guys.

LeGrandeOrange wrote:
There are many pairings of World Series teams such as the '54 Giants/'54 Indians, '61 Reds/'61 Yankees, '68 Tigers/'68 Cardinals, etc.

Rusty

Definitely the old timers team sets from the '70's. They were basic side only and had several historic world series teams starting with the '05 Giants through the late '60's I think.

LeGrandeOrange wrote:Thanks for the input guys.

How many cards on the teams? They used to provide 20 players and offer a set of 4 additional per team.

They could be Old Timer sets but Strat did not make 1963 Old Timer teams part of their old timer sets.

During the 70's, it was common for kids to order individual teams. This was done because it was cheaper than buying the whole set and, not everyone had the need to try to replay whole seasons. When Hal Richman did an interview for Strat O Matic Review back in the 70's, he said that the reason they sold individual teams was that a lot of kids were very loyal to certain teams and they were repeat customers.

So if you have teams from the 60's that were not in the World Series and random teams from the 70's that is probably how that assortment of teams came to be.

Or the person just liked buying invidivual teams online from ebay or Chris Rosen aka Moonlight Grahm.

Sounds like my upstairs closet. I need to get rid of them. Haven't used them in decades.

Some very helpful information guys!

Thanks so much.