Reading the Competition: 1970 Topps Scratch-off Tom Seaver

The Phillies are in New York to visit the Mets and that gives us one last opportunity for an All-Star Game related post. It was great to see the Mets bring out Tom Seaver on Tuesday night. Despite being a Phillies fan I was always in awe of Seaver as a kid. His driving delivery and all those Ks really grabbed hold of my 10 year old imagination.  

1970 Topps Scratch Off Tom Seaver

Seaver's Hall of Fame career really doesn't need redocumented by me - but I will quick-hit some highlights, 3 Cy Young Awards, 1969 World Champion, 1967 Rookie of the Year, 12 time All-Star, 311 Wins (100+ games over .500), 3,640 career Ks, 5 time strikeout champ. His Career pitching WAR of 106.3 is 7th all-time and still the all-time leader among folks that pitched during my lifetime in the non-steroid division - which means he is behind Roger Clemens.

Seaver was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1992, receiving close to 99% of the BBWAA vote, Which remains the record. He got the thumbs up on 425 of 430 ballots.

Scratch Off
In 1969 and 70 Topps released a subset of scratch off cards. The set was limited in size (24 cards?) so it is all pretty much superstars. At a show I will pick up any HoF or name player scratch off card that is a buck or less.

1970 Topps Scratch Off Tom Seaver (inside)


The scratch offs can be used to be pay a baseball game, fortunately this one is untouched.  I have flirted with the idea of using one of these for an online game, but have never been that ambitious.     

Rookie Card
Seaver's RC is 1967 Topps #581 has a low recent auction of $156 in good but certainly not mint condition.  Ungraded cards appear to be running just over $200 with a half dozen auctions ending between $200 and $210.

On the high end the card went for between $839 and $1,034 for PSA8 NM-MT.
 
Sources
Old Cardboard - HoF Rookie Cards
baseball-ref.com
ebay.com
wikipedia.com