Why I'm a Big Dope

Here we go with Exhibit A in my trial. I'm charged with 'Being a Sucker for Anything'.

The 1964 Bill Pierce Topps card is a pretty good one. I tend to favor cards/sets where the colors accent the uniform colors of the player/team pictured. That's certainly the case with the Giants' players in the '64 Topps set. Add to that the fact that the pose is not a common one and the fact that it's Billy Pierce and it all adds up to it being, in my eyes at least, a great card.

Granted I prefer his White Sox cards (not that I'm a fan of either team exactly) because that's how I first saw him...with my Dad, as a White Sox pitcher in Yankee Stadium.

And that leads me to this 'rainbow' of sorts of '64 and '64-'style' Pierces. It's because I don't follow modern cards that I have a hard time figuring out what all the different 'heritage' cards are that I have listed on my Pierce checklist. I have others listed as 'wants' but I'm halfway convinced that they are just different ways people describe these same cards. I tried sorting it all out one night and it gave me a massive migraine.

I've ended up with these six cards. I don't know it they are all separate 'official' Topps releases or just different ways that people have had him sign the heritage card. For what it's worth, this is what I have pictured:

Top Row:
left) actual '64 Topps regular
right) Venezuelan '64 Topps

Middle row:
left) 2001 Heritage 'blue sig'
right) 2013(?) red sig numbered to 64

Bottom Row:
left) just a plain ol' 2001 Heritage
right) 2001(?) blue sig Heritage with '7X All Star' inscription

Outside of the top two cards, that actual vintage versions I have no idea what to make of these cards. Of the Heritage only the red signed one cost more than a couple of bucks. But the fact that I bought them at all sort of dismays me.

The Venezuelan version was $12 if I recall correctly.  The 'best' one is still the original '64 Topps Billy Pierce.