my 1956 topps sampler set

continuing on with my sampler set posts.  these posts are for posterity, as i am dismantling the samplers and keeping only the dodgers.  for those who might be wondering, the sampler sets are something i put together in lieu of actually completing the full topps sets of the 1950's and 1960's.  the samplers include at least one card from each team, each subset, and each color/background variation.

in 1956, there were still only 16 teams, but there were a couple of new subsets to chase.  first, topps included cards for the american league and national league presidents (i, of course, purchased a copy of the national league president's card - warren giles, upper left). second, topps added team cards to the mix.  i have a couple - i first bought the reds because i couldn't afford the dodger card.  i later bought the brooklyn team card from the vintage bargain bin dealer at a local card show for a song.  it's beat up, but it's mine.

without further ado, here is my 1956 topps sampler set, as it was

lots of dodgers there.  a complete team set, in fact.  you can see that my jackie robinson card is trimmed, and my walt alston card is missing a corner, but oh well.

here are the backs of the first page - some bright, some gray.

you will note that i did not include checklists in the sampler.  that's simply because the checklists were not part of the 340 card set.  in future years, starting with 1961, the checklists were part of the base set and so were included in the samplers.