[Merkle923]

As you may have noticed, I'm not posting here any longer, but I did have some news to share.

Unbeknownst to me, Topps moved its negatives archives back to New York and I've been invited to inspect it, get some images scanned, and point out some more attractive photo items that the Vault might put up on eBay. So I've made two trips of a few hours' each and found some White Whales.

Obviously I can't post images here but the envelopes will give you a hint of some of what I found and which they expect to sell over the next few months. I can add that besides the likes of Ken Reynolds and Ron Roenicke, images like Ed Farmer (Brewers), Roger Freed (Expos), Cito Gaston (Indians), Roric Harrison (Tigers, Cardinals, Twins), Chuck Hartenstein (Padres), Mike Heath (Rangers), Mike Mendoza (Mets), Aurelio Monteagudo (Phillies), Claude Osteen (Astros, Cardinals), Stu Pederson (Dodgers - Joc's father), Mike Potter (Mariners), Richard Sauget (Sharman Society guy from 1970), Rick Sawyer (Expos), George Scott (Royals), Bob Sprowl (Astros yes, Red Sox no), Tom Walker (Pirates), Jeff Yurak (Brewers) all exist and are now in the to-be-sold pile.

Now the bad news: I can also confirm, or re-confirm, what isn't in the files. There's no Mike Caldwell (Reds), Stan Clarke (Royals, Cards), Willie Crawford (Astros), Terry Crowley (Braves), Ivan DeJesus (Yankees), Mike Eden (Braves), Cito Gaston (Pirates), Bill Gogolewski (Indians), Bob Johnson (1977 Braves), Matt Keough (Cubs, Astros, Cards), Jim Kern (Phillies), Mike Kilkenny (Padres), Stan Perzanowski (Twins), Horacio Pina (Phillies), Jamie Quirk (Indians, White Sox), and George Throop (Astros). They might exist - but they are not where they should be.

So far I have been unable to even find the files for such noted targets as Dave Coleman (1978 Red Sox), Kerry Dineen (Phillies), Rawly Eastwick (Royals, Cubs), Woody Fryman (1977 Reds) - some of which did exist during my previous research. Lord knows what happened to them. There is a lot of breaking of the alphabetical order and I'm probably only about 60% through a complete inspection so these are not necessarily lost causes.

The Vault is a little smaller than when it was moved out 13 or 14 years ago. The photo you see shows a little more than a third of the file cabinets; these include football and basketball. The files seem to be concentrated more narrowly, as if nearly all the images before 1964 and after 1985 have been removed. I hesitate to do this but if you think there's a 1965-85 era possible obscure Topps negative I might not have checked for, list it - but be circumspect here, let's not put a list of 500 here. I'll check back in a few days.

In the interim: when you see these pop up on eBay, bid early and often.