Carlton - '77 Topps Cloth Sticker

Schmidt - '77 Topps Cloth Sticker

A couple of weeks ago I bought a Steve Carlton 1977 Topps cloth sticker on eBay. I collected Carlton cards pretty heavily during the late 1980's, and early 1990's - but, as work, college, girls and other things crept into my life, card collecting got pushed to the side. At the time (pre-internet), finding either of the Phillies cards in the set for a price I could afford was few and far between. Not surprisingly, these were two gaps in my collection for some time.

As I try to give my son some of the experiences I had growing up, I have recently come back to collecting Phillies cards more regularly. While I will never keep up with every variation in every set, it has been fun to add both the Schmidt and Carlton cloth stickers to my collection over the last couple years. The 1977 sticker set is a must-have for vintage card collectors, and has justifiably been revisited in the 2012 Topps Archive set. I am looking forward buying them soon, too.

The 1977 Topps Cloth Sticker set details:

55 nylon fronted stickers featuring notable players from 1977 (18 additional checklist cards were included - they could be used to create two, nine-piece puzzles of both NL/AL All-Star teams).
Two Phillies are included: Mike Schmidt (#41) and Steve Carlton (#11).

Both can usually be found for less than $10.

As with anything else, condition is key! Stickers from the original 1977 set tend to pull away from the backing if not kept in the "ideal" environment. There are enough of these two cards on the current market to be picky.
Full checklist (via KeyMan Collectibles)
More on the Phillies stickers in the 2012 Topps Archive set (via 14k Phillies cards)