Topps Venezuela

miklia

I don't have much familiarity with these, but I just found out I'll be moving to Venezuela in a few weeks. Are all examples long gone out of the country, or might there be a shot to find some squirreled away somewhere?

rbdjr1

A country of that size?

One could imagine there is plenty of Venezuelan Topps inventory still floating around down there?

rd

bengineno9

For what it's worth, everyone i have bought off Ebay has come from Venezuelan native.

miklia

interesting. might be able to get lucky then - thanks for the tips! I'll ask around (will be splitting my time between the three biggest cities), and hopefully dig something up. given the rarity, I should basically pick up anything I can find, yes?

NickM

Look at ebay prices (VCP if possible) on them to get some idea of what's safe to pay if you're looking to turn a profit. High-grade cards will sell very well, as will any '59s or '67 Retirados regardless of condition. Other cards have a tendency to not sell well in low-grade, though most HOFers will be $10-$20 in even P condition if they're reasonably presentable on the front.

Nick

Nathaniel1960

Did Topps make a Venezuelan Valenzuela?

mlbfan2

<< <i>I don't have much familiarity with these, but I just found out I'll be moving to Venezuela in a few weeks. >>



Enjoy the 7 cents per gallon gasoline!

miklia

wow, I'd never even heard of the Retirados before. Now it's time to fill up the tank for a buck and drive around the country for the hunt. Thanks Nick!

mcadams

<< <i>

<< <i>I don't have much familiarity with these, but I just found out I'll be moving to Venezuela in a few weeks. >>



Enjoy the 7 cents per gallon gasoline! >>



Yeah, just make sure the gov't doesn't seize your car and all other assets while you're there.

mikeschmidt

There are still examples down there -- but you can't just go to downtown Caracas to a card shop and find them. The stories you hear of finds are basically rural blue collar worker families who kept them from decades ago. Good luck -- it was a beautiful country, but all my family has essentially fled over the past 5-10 years as Chavez and the gov't has fundamentally changed the structure / power of government.

m

miklia

mike, i know what you mean. My gf's host family has had to deal with many of the same experiences. Interestingly, they are in Tovar, which is also the hometown of Johan Santana. Being a Minneapolis native, I was shocked to roll into town a few years back and one of the first things I saw was a huge new fire truck with the Minnesota Twins logo on it. Turns out Santana remains very active in Tovar, and put clauses in his contract in order to ensure that Tovar would be taken care of and get assistance no matter what happened on the field with him. A good guy to root for, and a situation that I bet happens far more often than we realize wrt Latin players in the bigs.

NickM

Just to be clear, the Retirados are not a separate set. 1967 Topps Venezuelan had 3 large subsets - the first paralleled part of that year's Topps set, the second was of retired players (mainly HOFers), and the third was of current Venezuelan winter league players. The second subset has become known as Retirados.

Nick