BLACK FRIDAY COMC PICKUPS - PART 30: ALL-TIMER

TIME TO SHOW OFF MY BLACK FRIDAY 2022 BINGE. IN PREVIOUS YEARS I SET MY LIMIT AT THE PRICE OF A BLASTER. LUCKILY FOR ME, BLASTERS GOT SUPER EXPENSIVE DURING THE LOCKDOWN. THIS PLUS THE CREDIT I GOT FROM THE PREVIOUS YEAR'S PURCHASES MEANT I HAD TWICE AS MUCH TO SPEND AS THE YEAR BEFORE. MY PLAN GOING IN WAS TO WORK ON SOME SETS, GET THE REQUISITE PLAYER COLLECTION PICKUPS, SNAG SOME COOL THINGS I HAD TO PASS UP THE YEAR BEFORE, AND THEN GO BARGAIN HUNTING. I HAVE TO SAY THE PLAN WAS SUCCESSFUL, EVERYTHING I GOT HIT ONE OF THOSE CATEGORIES. WHILE THE 'FINISH SETS' GOAL COULD HAVE GONE A LITTLE BETTER I WAS DEFINITELY WILDLY SUCCESSFUL AT EVERYTHING ELSE. IT WAS ALSO A QUANTITY OVER QUALITY SHOPPING SPREE. I GOT FORTY-TWO POSTS FOR FIFTY-NINE CARDS QUEUED UP FOR YOU, WITH ANY LUCK I'LL HAVE THEM ALL UP BEFORE THANKSGIVING. LET'S BEGIN WITH THE FIRST CARD I PUT IN MY CART

1976 TOPPS TED WILLIAMS ALL-TIME ALL-STARS

1976 TOPPS WAS ONE OF MY VERY FIRST FAVORITE SETS. I LOVED THE COLORFUL BORDERS AND THE LITTLE ILLUSTRATIONS FOR THE POSITIONS. THE BACKS WERE GREAT TOO WITH THE BAT ON THE SIDE AND CARD NUMBER IN A BASEBALL. NOT QUITE AS FUN AS THE SCOREBOARD MOTIF IN '77 OR THE GAME IN '78 BUT THE FRONTS MADE UP FOR IT. PLUS IN THE EARLY 80S, IT WAS STILL PLENTIFUL AND CHEAP. THE ALL-TIME ALL-STARS SUBSET WAS ANOTHER FUN THING ABOUT THE SET, HALL OF FAME PLAYERS ON NEW CARDS, WHAT A CONCEPT. THEY WERE PRETTY EASY TO GET TOO, OTHER THAN TED AND THE BABE. YOU CAN PROBABLY STILL FIND COCHRANE AND GROVE IN SOME COMMONS BOXES NOWADAYS. I PICKED UP MOST OF THEM PRETTY QUICKLY BUT THE WILLIAMS ELUDED ME FOR A LONG TIME. MOSTLY BECAUSE I KNEW I WAS MISSING ONE OF THE ALL-STARS BUT FORGOT WHICH ONE. PRETTY SURE I GOT CONFUSED AND BOUGHT AN EXTRA GEHRIG OR COBB ONE TIME. AT THE TIME I NEEDED SIX CARDS TO COMPLETE THE '76 SET AND THEY WERE THE FIRST THING I LOOKED FOR WHEN I STARTED MY SEARCH. THIS TED WAS SUPER CHEAP DUE TO THE MUSHY CORNER AND '205' WRITTEN ON THE BACK SO I GRABBED IT RIGHT AWAY

HOWEVER, THIS WAS THE ONLY 1976 I PICKED UP DESPITE BEING IN FULL 'I'M GONNA COMPLETE THIS SET' MODE. PETE ROSE AND HANK AARON WERE PRICY AND WOULD HAVE BLOWN THE BUDGET SO I UNDERSTAND NOT GETTING THOSE. JIM RICE WAS THREE BUCKS AND CHANGE, MORE EXPENSIVE  THAN MOST EVERYTHING ELSE I GOT BUT NOT ALL THAT BAD. I HAVE NO EXCUSES FOR NOT PICKING UP CATFISH HUNTER OR THE CHECKLIST THOUGH, BOTH WERE A BUCK OR LESS EACH AND WERE OPEN IN TABS FOR A VERY LONG TIME BEFORE I FINALLY PASSED. I GUESS I DECIDED SINCE I WASN'T COMPLETING THE SET RIGHT AWAY I'D JUST LEAVE THEM FOR ANOTHER DAY? A LITTLE DISAPPOINTING, BUT SETS WERE COMPLETED AND KNOCKING OFF TED IS A GOOD STEP TOWARD KNOCKING THIS ONE OUT

I come to praise Heritage, not to bury it

Well, the past post was kind of a downer but it had to be done. One does not simply have a shelf full of Heritage binders and quit 'em all in a day. And yes, I have quit Heritage, but unlike some of the commenters I'm not dumping them all into the ocean to live with their '52 Topps High Series brethren. I had a plan and I stuck to it. Quite successfully actually. I had freed myself from the Heritage monkey on my back. I was done with it. 

Then the very next day, 2013 Heritage popped up in Wally World. 

Come on, I had to get a look at it.

So I looked at it. A few times. And went back for a second look. Maybe a third. 

Goddamnit, I finally had gotten over my Heritage fixation and I went and liked this stupid set. 

I should probably start to explain my future Heritage collecting plans going forward before I get into the meat of this post which is basically defending 2013 Heritage like a deranged fanboi. So up until recently, I was seriously trying to complete ALL the Heritage sets. Not actively, mind you, but I had all the wantlists posted somewhere up through about 2010 or so. Here's the thing: other than 2002 and 2008 I didn't have any set even close to complete. I think I had all the non-short prints from 2002. Other than that, disaster. So I finally came to the decision that I just needed to pick some sets and focus on them and screw the rest. My three favorite designs from Heritage are 1953, 1956 and 1960. Maybe I should focus on those? Well, no, because I needed 200+ cards from the '05 and '09 sets. I had a healthy chunk of the '07 and '08 sets but neither really did it for me. I finally settled on focusing on the 2002 set with the 1953 design, partly because I kind of want to steal a Ben Henry idea for the hundredth time. The other sets I would harvest for Braves team sets and also embark on a special project. 

So there I was, happy that I had finally focused my Heritage collection into one set, a bunch of team sets and a you-know-what that was actually completed Monday evening. Then I saw the 2013 Heritage set and fell in love with the damnable thing. I have an odd relationship with 1964 Topps. I didn't pay attention to it much when I was a kid but I've still managed to accumulate quite a bit of it. And it is a great set, the design is simple but effective. There are tons of extreme close up portraits in the set and a large amount of them are extremely goofy. The orangey pink backs are a little eye-bleeding but every beautiful thing always has a flaw. And damned if this Heritage set didn't just nail those '64s. Nailed it in a a way that Heritage hasn't nailed anything in a long time. 

Now I know there are a lot of people out there who aren't happy with this set at all and that's cool, I can respect that. This is not a normal Heritage set. The 2013 version of the set doesn't resemble the one that came out in 2001 at all to be honest. That doesn't mean it's not any good though, and here are some reasons why I like this thing. 

The photos are ludicrous but awesome

One thing that has turned me off of Topps flagship sets in recent years is a complete lack of portrait cards. Flagship has had an awful lot of pics of the pitcher in the windup and the batter at the plate since 2008. Topps hasn't completely ignored them though, you see a lot of portraits in Heritage and other retro sets. The '13 Heritage set has a TON of em, and many are extreeeeeeeeme closeups in awkward poses like Ol' Busted Elbow here. As you can see from an Actual Colt .45 card this kids of crazy eyed closeup is common in the '64 set and I like it. A lot. 

The card stock is absolutely perfect

There has been much discussion on the interwebs about the 'flimsy' white card stock that the cards are printed on. I don't want to be rude but... well, Applejack says it much better than I can.

This set is not printed on flimsy card stock. It is printed on the exact same stuff Allen & Ginter is printed on. Allen & Ginter is not flimsy and I will fight anyone who says differently. It is absolutely printed on different card stock than all other Heritage sets (except maybe '12 Minors and High Series, I haven't actually seen those yet) in that it is white card stock unlike the traditional gray card stock Heritage is usually printed on. Even the Heritage sets that have white/light backs like the 2006 and 2010 sets with the 1956 and 1960 designs had gray stock clad with white on the back. This is pure white stock and it makes the set look really clean and brilliant. It is different from the other sets? Yes. Can I see how this could be a big shock to a hard core Heritage collector? Yes, I can. Do I think the white card stock is going away? NO. Every Topps set from 1963-1970 used white card stock. I have a feeling you'll be seeing this stock in Heritage for a few years to come.

Like Applejack says, this card stock is not flimsy

In the center is one hundred 2013 Topps Heritage cards with the white stock. on the right is one hundred 2011 Topps Heritage cards with the gray stock. The white stock is flatter and a tiny bit thinner than the gray stock. About two or three card thickness' difference in a stack of 100. That's not flimsy. Whatever junk they printed Archives on last year, that's flimsy. The stack on the left is one hundred original 1964 cards. I wouldn't call those flimsy either.

The scratch off trivia on the back ACTUALLY WORKS

Yes, yes, this is an idiotic reason for liking a trading card set in this day and age of SUPER SERIOUSNESS. My post yesterday almost started a blood war between the hardcore set collectors and the super Mojo chasers. SERIOUS BIZNISS. Fuck that shit, this is at heart an ephemeral bubblegum card set that's supposed to be fun and educational for the kiddos. There was a scratch off trivia question on the original set and Topps managed to reproduce the same thing on a modern card. How freaking cool is that?? Nickels actually work too. Try it! Ruin your cards! Ensure that your Drew Storen common card will never be graded Gem Mint by PSA and find out who the 2nd man with a 50-HR season was! DOOOOO IT! When I build the set I will probably scratch off at least one of every unique trivia questions (there are a bunch of duplicated questions in the set) just for the dang fun of it. Remember fun?

I got this card in my first pack so I won't be chasing it for years

This is a legitimate reason to love a set for a person who has still not found a 2002 Alex Rodriguez low numbered short print for a reasonable price. Chasing high dollar cards for a set sucks, especially in a modern set where cards are either near mint or in the garbage instead of the bargain box.

Topps put these silly things in there

This is an original, the 2013 parallel is down below. Most everybody probably knows that the cards with the black and red backs are the Venezuelan parallels. I will say this much about the set: There are too many frickin' parallels in the set and they're all too hard to find. Besides the many layers of Chrome with even shorter print runs, there's Red, there's Blue, there's mini numbered to 100 and probably a few more that are off my radar. And half are skip numbered so you need a database to know what to look for. These I like though, because they're not too impossible and I actually have a couple of originals. They are very nice but very weird looking in person. A weird parallel for a weird set. How can a weird collector not like this?

Although, sometimes bizarre stuff like this happens

All three of these came out of packs from the same Wal-Mart in Georgia. How in the hell? There's probably a mini and a gold still at the store waiting for me to come get them. (they'll be waiting a long time, I'm broke) I have no idea how this happened but I do know that Night Owl and gcrl probably want to kill me right now. If anyone covets these Kershaws, just know that I am absolutely desperate for a Kris Medlen Mini. Start searching, Dodger fans.

Mojo? FUCK Mojo.

After the card stock complaining the number one issue most collectors have with this set is the sheer number of ridiculously rare chase cards that are in this set. Heritage has always had difficult pulls with dual autographs and relics and such, but this year they've taken it to a different level. There's minis and coins and gold refractors numbered to 5 and stamps and coins and tattoos and Beatles and book cards and Senators variations and action variations and error cards and... and... and I don't even know all the crap that Topps has stuffed in this set to get the case breakers to buy more product and help keep the box prices from plummeting six weeks from now. It has gotten a tad ridiculous, and the set is suffering from the insert bloat that has been making Allen and Ginter less fun to collect recently. Even the traditional Flashbacks, New Age Performer and Then & Now insert sets have more subjects than ever before and Topps seemingly tried to hide that fact by replacing the numbers with initials so it wasn't immediately obvious how many cards were in the set without consulting a checklist. All this stuff crammed into what was once a simple set collector's dream set, and most of it the average collector will never ever see in a pack.

And you know what?

I don't give a shit. At all. Not just about the chase cards themselves, or the gimmicks or the whatever. I just don't care. They don't mean anything to me. If I happen to stumble across one in one of the limited number of packs I buy this year, great. If not, so be it. I don't like this set for all the inserts and bells and whistles and gimmicks and nonsense. That's not the set. I like the set for THE SET. All those base cards and short prints that are numbered 1-500. That set. That set that was very well done with some close attention to detail. Something that Topps has neglected in their fixation on gimmicks in the past few years. But not this year. This year Topps got it right with the base set at least.

So I'm probably collecting this set along with the 2002 Heritage set. I'm not going to worry about the variations be they error, action or Senator. (although I wouldn't turn down a Jonny Venters with the wrong birthdate) I know that in the past, variation cards were about as scarce as regular short prints in Heritage sets and I had fun collecting them, but they aren't anymore. That's just a fact. Topps has short printed them to the bejeezus belt to appeal to the gamblers. That's fine, they are neat cards but I like the set and I will collect the set. Because in the end, no matter what Topps does with their products, we are ultimately in charge. We buy the packs, we collect the cards. And no one can tell us what to collect. Not Topps, not Beckett, not eBay, not a certain editor we all know and love, not Bud Selig, not the Pope, not your parole officer*. Your wife may have a say in what you collect. I'd listen to her, but none of those other people.

You collect what you wanna collect be it cheap or expensive, new or old, mainstream or oddball. Here's what I wanna collect as far as Heritage is concerned going forward.

The 2002 set with the 1953 design.
The 2013 set with the 1964 design.
All Braves team sets from 2001-2013.
And a completed FrankenSet of Heritage cards from 2001-2009.

sample page - actual contents of the FrankenSet subject to change

This particular set is complete, scanned and in a binder. Starting tomorrow (actually today since this post took longer to write than I hoped) I will be showing it off one page at a time. This is a direct rip off of Ben Henry's Best of the '80s set that I attempted to show off card images for in the early days of this blog and failed. The FrankenSet idea itself is a ripoff of that idea to be honest. All the pages are scanned and ready to post so maybe, just maybe I'll actually finish something I've started for once. Expect the first page Wednesday evening and yell at me if it doesn't get posted in time.

Here's to collecting the way you want to collect.

*maybe your parole officer. I don't know the circumstances of your incarceration.

I will buy this card all day long

Last Friday I got in a nice groove of finishing sketch cards and putting together packages when the unthinkable happened. I RAN OUT OF BUBBLE MAILERS. Well, not completely out. I still have some larger sized ones and I've got tons of used mailers lying around cluttering up the joint, but new, fresh, virgin, unused 4"x8" mailers were all used up. All work and progress on catching up on my mailing queue obviously screeched to an immediate halt. I was able to hit the local card shop and pick up a fresh batch on Saturday. So now I have no excuse for not mailing out that stuff I promised you 6 months ago.

I was not able to scrounge for cards too much as I arrived at the shop right before it closed at 5:00pm. I did pick up a few cards out of the $.50 bin and one pack just so I could buy something other than mailers. I don't want the only decent card shop within 30 miles of me going out of business just because I only ever bought packing materials from there. This was one of the fifty cent cards.

Jason Heyward 2011 Allen & Ginter short print. For fifty cents! I already have this card as I pulled it out of my lone A&G Hobby box last year. It was the hit of the box, to be honest. I also may have bought one or two more of them out of dollar boxes along with the Glossy version off of COMC. But I had to get this one too. FIFTY CENTS! If there is one advantage to having my new-favorite-player-as-soon-as-Chipper-retires not meeting the ridiculously high expectations thrust upon him, it is that his cards are cheap as hell right now. He ain't but 22 years old folks... All you Braves 'fans' out there who are pissed off because Jason isn't Willie Mays yet just need to wait five or six years before he gets there. In a Yankee uniform most likely, but dammit, he'll be there.

I know what the set builders (the last remaining of a dwindling breed) out there are thinking... Dude! I need that to finish my set! Trade it to me! NO. MY HAYWOOD. HANDS OFF. Before you scold me for treating my fellow set-builders so shabbily, let me pass on some important information you may not have heard. Apparently short printed cards are no longer part of the base set so we collecting anachronisms don't need to chase them for our set-building needs. They're not part of the base set even though they are numbered along with the rest of the base set checklist because they are printed in lesser quantities than the actual base set and as we all know if a card is printed in lesser quantities it's an insert card and not a base card. Pay no attention to the insert cards from '90s Fleer sets that were printed in quantities that rival 1988 Donruss. At least this is what a certain Editor of the Hobby's most reliable and relied-upon source explained to me a couple of weekends ago. And by "no longer" I actually mean "never were" part of the base set because the definition never changed, it's just that us collectors had it wrong all this time. We had it wrong since the days of tobacco cards, but wrong we were. My October 2007 price guide says differently, but Winston hasn't gotten to that issue yet I guess. Short prints are not part of the base set and they have always not been part of the base set! To which I say....

THANK GOD. 

No more chasing after goddamn Heritage SPs. Allen & Ginter is now a hell of a lot easier to complete! Those weird skip numbered sets like Turkey Red and '06 A&G, well I don't even have to collect those abominations any more! and 2012 Archives? Well, that's a 241 card set. It's got Bryce Harper's rookie card in it and as we all know inserts cannot be rookie cards and if short prints are inserts and not base cards well then Bryce Harper's card CANNOT be an insert because it's a rookie card and if it's not a real rookie card then well that might hurt sales so it's a gorram rookie card because the industry needs this! Dammit, you selfish oaf, think of the hobby. It's not really short printed per se, just printed in slightly lesser quantities than base cards because it was added late in the print run and that's ok because Bryce Harper. I don't really care because I'm only collecting the 1-200 short set of Archives without SPs anyway.

I know what you're thinking now. "But if the definition of an insert card is that it is one that is printed in lesser quantities than the base set cards and the 2012 Bryce Harper Archives card was printed in lesser quantities due to being added late in the print run doesn't that mean the Harper card is really a short printed insert and not a legitimate rookie card per these new always been here base card rules?"

Dude.

That's a clown question, bro.

Something seems amiss here...

This is page two from my UD Masterpieces binder. It has probably been like this for about a year and a half, but I just noticed it today. Can you see the problem with the page?

I'll give you a few minutes to figure it out.

Ok, here it is:

Two #15, no #14. D'oh! So much for my complete set...

Set Building Progress Report

Ok, my goal this year was to build sets and build them I have. I haven't actually completed any one quarter into the year, but I've made some significant progress. Here's what I needed January 1st, and what I need now.

1979 Topps:
Needed January 1st - 139
Need April 1st - 28

1983 Topps:
Needed January 1st - 19
Need April 1st - 2

1984 Fleer:
Needed January 1st - 89
Need April 1st - 8

1987 Donruss:
Needed January 1st - 48
Need April 1st - 3

1991 Topps:
Needed January 1st - 17
Need April 1st - 2

2003 Topps205 Minis:
Needed January 1st - 21
Need April 1st - 19

2006 Allen & Ginter:
Needed January 1st - 74
Need April 1st - 41

That's some pretty good progress right there. I couldn't have done it without help from these readers:

Chris Harris, Saints of the Cheap Seats, Bay Rat North West, Mr. Haverkamp, Todd Querry, grcl, Duane, Night Owl, Jeffrey Wolfe, Don Sherman, HookMan, Kevin, Albukwirke, Duane G, Matt P. and probably a few more I forgot but will add soon.

Also thanks to local shops Champion Sports Cards, Atlanta Sports Cards and the Sports Card Alley.

I'll be posting a few more sets soon since I'm getting close on many of these. 1993 Upper Deck, 1981 Fleer (don't judge me), 1983 Donruss and a Topps set to be named later. Thanks again for all your help and don't hesitate to ask for help in completing your own sets. I might take a month to get back to you but I'll get there eventually.

One of the more useless things I've done lately...

I think anyone who has followed this blog for any amount of time knows that I'm somewhat obsessed with Allen & Ginter. I've got the 2007 and 2008 sets completed and I'm currently working on the 2006 set. You also know that I like to have the sets I like the best in binders. Now, you can't hand complete Allen and Ginter sets through ripping wax without accumulating a lot of mini cards. And I've got a bunch of 'em, but not quite enough to seriously consider building a mini set. I've got about 80 from 2006, 150 from 2007 and 120 from 2008, give or take a few. That's a lot of mini cards, but nowhere close to a set for any of those years. But... put all three of 'em together...

Yeah, it's kind of silly to be honest, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. The different designs look pretty neat all on the same page. There's plenty of spaces for the 2009 cards too and at least I've got 'em all in one place now. I put all these in pages a few weeks ago when I was on my set building binge. Last night I tried to put in the Mayo Cut Plug minis I got from that blaster break into the A&G Frankenset, but they don't actually fit into the sheets. They are just a teensy bit larger than the A&G/T206 sized cards as you can see here.

That is probably the size of the original Mayo cards, but man is it going to be a pain to store those Mayo minis. Good luck to anyone who builds that Mayo set, because Topps didn't cut you guys any breaks.

Gettin' My Act Together 2009 - Part 1: Focus

Ok, new year means resolutions. Even Spike Jones thinks so.



You guys don't want to hear about the 'start exercising' 'call my dad more' 'quit eating deep dish pizza and cheesecake for breakfast' kind of resolutions but I will share my card collecting goals for '09. I'm not even going to look at the ones I did last year, 'cause I know I didn't do very well. I'm going to keep it simple this year. First thing I want to do is get some focus.

I like building sets. That has been established. Thing is, I want to collect EVERY set. I've got 50 years worth of sets all over the place and there's at least two dozen more coming out this year that I'll be distracted by. If there's one thing for certain, it's that it's impossible to collect everything. So, I've decided to concentrate on a few sets and once I knock them out I can go on to the next. I've chosen one set for each decade except for the '80s where I'm going to work on three at a time. The goal is to knock 'em out and then move onto the next set instead of trying to complete every set all at the same time.

So here's the sets. First off is three from the '80s because really, there is no excuse for me not having every set from the 80's completed already. I could buy outright half of the sets from that decade with the money I spent on my box of 2008 Allen & Ginter. Like I said, I would get really close to one set, then the calendar flips and I get distracted by a bunch of shiny new stuff. So here's the three to focus on, one from each of the Big Three.

1983 Topps

This is the set that really started off my addiction. It's still one of my favorites of all time. It looks great, has an awesome rookie class and includes the 1982 division winning Braves. I actually completed this set in 1983, but some of it went by the wayside since then. Once this set is complete, I'm taking out '86 Topps.

1987 Donruss

This is my favorite design from Donruss, I always liked those little gray baseballs on the sides that showed you exactly how off center your card was. Like '83 Topps, it also has a pretty hefty rookie class. This was also the first full box I ever bought from a hobby shop. I always assumed I had the full set, but I'm missing a few here and there. 1983 Donruss will be next on my list when this is complete.

1984 Fleer

It's odd, but I never got into this set when I was a kid even though I loved '83 Fleer. I wasn't collecting as much in '84 though and packs became much harder to find around then too. It's a really solid set though even though the huge rookies were saved for the update set. Gotta love the crazy photos they used though. I bought the contents of most of a box of this stuff from a friend in the late '80s after he gave up collecting so I'm not that far from a set even though I never bought a single pack myself in '84. After this is done, I'm going to complete '87 Fleer.

I'm not going to specifically focus on any sets from the '50s or '60 because this project is about completing the sets and one of those sets will take years unless I just focus on it exclusively. I'm pretty sure you readers out there don't want this blog to become "The 1956 Topps Blog" so while I will always be on the lookout for Vintage stuff, I'm not putting it in my main focus for this year. The '70s is completely different. Once the difficult high series cards were done away with in 1974, Topps sets became entirely completable. The only difficulty is with the rookies and between prices falling and the fact that I love Tiptons, I'm counting any Topps set after 1974 as one I can complete if I just get my butt in gear. the one I chose to start with is....

1979 Topps

Why 1979 Topps? I'll be honest, I was not a big fan of this set when I was a kid. 1980 Topps I liked. 1978 Topps I liked. 1979 didn't do much for me for some reason even though I got lucky and found a brick of cards that was stuffed with stars one time. I've grown to appreciate the elegant design now, and the fact that I am much closer to completing this set than any other one from the '70s makes this a no brainer. Really, the only challenge I'll have is the Ozzie and I'll be able to find that easy. Once this is done I'm going to get ambitious and tackle 1974 Topps.

I'm a little less enthusiastic about working on my '90's sets, but I'm going to at least plan for it now that I'm in a set building frenzy. The '90s is when cards really first started to no longer be about the sets anymore but there's still a bunch of great sets to put together from that decade.

1991 Topps

The last real Topps set, as far as I'm concerned. Chipper's rookie is in there for Pete's sake! 792 cards, real cardboard stock, a solid Toppsy design and a boxed Traded set tacked on afterwards. I just picked up the Traded set from D&A so now I just need to pick up the few stragglers from my set. I haven't actually figured out which ones I need yet, or if I need any at all. It's entirely possible I've completed this set and forgotten about it. If so, they next set in my sights will be the utterly fantastic 1993 Upper Deck set.

There are a lot of sets from the new millennium I'm chasing. Heritage and all of the retro sets immediately come to mind. I'm going to be laser focused on two in particular though... One base set and one parallel set.

2006 Allen & Ginter

I've got the '07 and '08 sets, now I need to finish '06. This set drove me crazy. When it first came out I absolutely loved it, but hobby box prices almost immediately zoomed way out of my price range. It didn't help that I was going through financial difficulties in the fall of '06 either. I was able to pick up some loose packs and a few blasters from Target, but once the eBay sellers realized they could make a neat profit on blasters, they evaporated rapidly. Still, I got a decent amount of the set and I should be able to complete it if I buckle down. I'll definitely be chasing the '09 set so it would be cool to have all four completed by the end of the year. After I complete this one, I think I'm going to attack the 2007 Goudey short prints.

2003 Topps205 mini set

If you think I'm nuts over Allen & Ginter, you should have seen how loopy I got over Topps205. T205 is my favorite tobacco card design and I loooooooved the minis from this set. I bought multiple boxes of Topps205 and pestered the local hobby shop owner for every boxtopper bonus of 20 cards in a little box. I am really close to completing this thing but I haven't paid attention to the set for a few years once singles started drying up at shops and on eBay. Time to finish the sucka.

I'm working on the want lists for each of these sets and I'll let you know when I've posted them to the sidebar. I'm still busy with giveaway packages and a a couple of other trades so I'll do a seperate post once I'm ready to start trading. That's enough to think about today, I'll continue on with my 2009 plans tomorrow.

Two Completed Sets

I'm kind of embarrassed about this, but that trade I made with Nachos Grande actually finished off my 2008 Allen & Ginter set. That Randy Johnson card I mentioned? The only one in the package I didn't scan? Well, that was the last one I needed. I was thrown by a couple of empty slots in the binder at first which is why I thought it wasn't completed. One of those holes was an AJ Burnett card I pulled to scan for a Hot Stove League post. The other was a Joey Votto card that I pulled out of my doubles box for someone in a trade, promptly lost the thing and ended up sendint them the one out of my set instead. I found the two cards in a box of stuff and now the set is officially complete. Time to work on filling holes in my 2006 set.

That's not the only set I completed this week, the past package from my Masterpieces begging post came in the mail yesterday. I now have the complete 90 card base set and the only short print I wanted, Warren Spahn. My '07 and '08 Masterpieces sets are now safely in their binder and I've got a year to wait for an '09 version. I don't mind the wait, just keep the quality up and ease up on the impossible short prints and I'll be happy. Each of the five readers who finished off my set sent soem extra stuff with them, so this is a good time to show 'em off. I picked 2 cards from each package to showcase.

grcl - sent Jake Peavy

1973 Topps Dave Lopes rookie

I'm honored that someone with Davey Lopes in their handle would send me one of his rookie cards! I've got it already, but I'm going to pass it on to someone in the Xmas giveaway. '73 had some neat triple rookie cards, the best of which has to be the Cey/Schmidt.

2002 Topps Super Teams Warren Spahn

2002 Super Teams was a one off set that featured cards from a handful of World Series winning teams. The '57 Braves were one of those teams. I tried to get a team set, but I'm not sure if I have the Spahn already or not. I kind of wish I had collected the entire set now. The cards are on an Archives-style clay card stock and it's sort of a retro precursor to the '04 Timeless Teams I'm so interested in now.

2008 Legendary Cuts Jeff Francouer

I really like the way the SP Legendary Cuts sets looks this year. I hate the way they short printed all the legendary players to hell. It's too damn expensive to boot. Luckily, I think I have the complete non-short printed Braves team set thanks to Jim. I included three cards from this package because it's pretty huge. Here are the rest:

23 1990 Topps cards including Glavine, Smoltz and Avery
28 more Glavines
3 more Smoltz
3 more Avery
12 Chippers
3 Lemmers
2 Murph (in Phillies and Rockies unis, ugh)
3 more McCanns
3 Andruws
5 Javys
4 Kleskos
4 Great Justice
6 Galarragas
and 46 more Braves that I'm not going to list out

Dan Wood - Jay Bruce

2008 Topps Updates & Highlights Brian McCann jersey

I really like this insert set. The foil Yankee stadium facade is neat and the oval design is different. I've got both Braves now so I'm feeling good.

2005 Topps Updates & Highlight Jair Jurrjens rookie card

I probably have at least a half dozen of this card, one of which I recently pulled out of a penny box. I'll take 'em all though, Jurrjens is the closest thing we have to an ace and I'm optimistic about his future. Sophomore years scare me for young pitchers though. I've seen too many Horacio Ramirez and Chuck James flops. I think he'll turn out all right though.

Also:
7 Chippers including: 08 UDX die cut (with notches intact), 08 Chrome trading card history, 08 Topps Stars, 07SP Authentic Power, 07 Fleer Perfect 10, 06 Bowman Heritage jersey and foil parallel.
08 Donruss threads Murphy & Aaron
06 '52 Rookies Tom Glavine retro
93 Upper Deck Strike Force Maddux Glavine Smoltz and Avery
89 Fleer Zane Smith
4 extremely crisp 1986 Fleer cards of Horner, Smith nad two combo cards featuring Murph. These must have come straight out of a pack!

jacobmrly - Gary Sheffield & A-Rod

2006 SP Authentic Chipper Jones #618/899

Ah, parallel cards. Simultaneously the bane and joy of player collectors. A bane when you're hunting 'em down, a joy when they fall in your lap. This one is from 2006 SP and it quite frankly is lazy. The card is the exact same as the base cards just with a serial number stamped on it. I always saw SP as a signature brand for Upper Deck, but they're really mailed it in the past few years. If they're going to abuse the brand like that UD should just discontinue it. I likey getting a Chipper I didn't have for the collection though.

2004 Playoff Prestige Chipper Jones Stars of MLB #70/100

Speaking of parallels, here's some Donruss. I'm not sure what flavor insert this is, but it's numbered to 100. I'm almost positive it's a parallel. I'm sure glad I'm not obsessive compulsive about having every one of Chipper's cards or these weirdo inserts and parallels numbered to a hundred or less would drive me to drink. It's a nice looking card though, even though the scan does not do it justice.

Max sent 15 other chippers including:
2007 UD Jersey, 07 Moments & Milestones black #7/29, 00 Finest Dreamcast, 98 SPX Star Force #2204/6500m 97 Finest uncommon, 03 Fleer Lumber Company, 98 Gallery auction card, 98 Pacific Crown Royale Pillars of the Game, 99 Powerdeck, 97 UD Predictor and five base cards.

Scott - Michael Young

2008 Upper Deck SP Chipper Jones .400 batting average

Scott send over some extra goodies with my spoils from the Updates and Highlights blaster break. I still think the SP set from this year is kind of boring, but this Chipper insert commemorating Chipper's run at .400 is pretty sweet. I'm looking forward to a few more of those kind of inserts next year.

Legends Masterpieces jersey of Joey Freaking Mullen!!!

I drooled over this card when it was first pulled in his Legends Masterpieces box break. The Flames, as you may know, were originally stationed in Atlanta before they were cruelly stolen by invading mounties. Man, it killed me when they won the Cup in '89. Joey, MacInnis, Otto, Gilmour, Fleury, Vernon... they should have been winning that cup for Atlanta! Now Atlanta has a new team whose terminal ineptness is killing my love for the sport. I need to buy a blaster of Legends, pull out the Super Nintendo and my EA Hockey cartridges and play a Stanley Cup tourney while ripping packs in between games to get me a good hockey fix.

Also: 08 SP Frenchy, 08Topps U&H gotay, Gold Ridgway

Chris - Warren Spahn SP

While there are other Masterpiece short prints I wouldn't mind having (Fisk for one) but Spahn is the only one I had to have. If I can just find a Chipper framed parallel I'll be golden.

2006 Ultimate Brian McCann 778/799

You know, Ultimate is one of those products I'd never give a second look to, but I have to admit the cards are really nice. Super thick, clean design and just a little bit of shiny. McCann in the catcher's gear is pretty cool too.

1997 Upper Deck Memorable Moments Andruw Jones

These die cut cards scan interestingly and were inserted into special packs of Collector's Choice back in '97. I got quite a few of those packs but I don't think I pulled this Andruw card commemorating his two World Series home runs. How the hell did we win two games in Yankee Stadium and then get swept? Why? How? Ugh.

Thanks everyone for the cool schtuff, some cards care coming back your way too. For the record the last card needed for the sets was a Randy Johnson and Warren Spahn. Not a bad pair of lefties.

Why Set Builders Build Sets

I've discussed the joys of building sets on this blog many times before, but I feel that I haven't really been concise enough in my explanations to get across the concept of why exactly it is that I do what I do. I especially want Gellman to understand where I'm coming from, because he's a passionate collector who knows his stuff and doesn't get fooled by all the marketing bullshart that pervades the hobby.

Before I get into set building, I want to make one thing perfectly clear: There is no such thing as a 'real' collector. A real collector is someone who collects. These are all examples of real collectors:

• The kid who buys packs of Topps at Target and keeps them in a shoebox
• The high roller who busts several cases of Exquisite, keeps one autographed card of Rudy Gay and flips the rest on eBay
• The set builder who buys box after box of Heritage trying to get a complete set
• The team collector who wants one of every Durham Bulls card in existence
• The guy who is trying to get his entire 1988 Score set autographed through the mail
• The girl with 3000 different cards of David Ortiz because she thinks big men are sexy
• The guy who rips a box of every new product lookin' for the MoJo
• Your aunt who has had a 1983 Topps SuperVet card of Bobby Murcer propped up on her bookshelf right next to her Joseph Campbell books for the past twenty years for absolutely no discernable reason
• The guy who only collects bubble gum cards from the thirties that have been written or drawn on in blue ink
• Your cousin who got a factory set every Christmas from Nana, and has kept them all in the closet ever since
  
• The girl who collects players whose name makes her laugh like Lerrin LaGrow
• The guy who has EVERY single card of Ellis Burks because he saw him hit a home run against Chicago in a game he went to with his dad
• The creepy guy who collects cards numbered 666 and props them up on an altar surrounded by black candles
• The guy who has enough cards to choke a whale completely disorganized all over the house

There are many, many others who are real collectors, not just set builders. This is a better way to put it: Purist old-school mystical disciples of Jefferson Burdick don't buy hand-collated sets of current year product. They rip packs, scrounge through common boxes and trade through the mail. The only qualification to being a real collector is to collect.

Ok, now that that is out of the way, I've been thinking about this for a while now and I think I have finally come up with a succinct explanation of why set collectors build sets:

The chase is better than the catch.

The joy isn't in the having but the getting. A complete set is a complete set, but completing that set is an accomplishment. Take this page with one card missing:

To some that card number 3 is a gaping hole that spoils an otherwise nice page. To a set builder, it's a quest. A grand chase like Kasper Gutman hunting down the Maltese Falcon. Having to tangle with Sam Spade and Joel Cairo and Miss O'Shaughnessy while tracking it down is the fun part, metaphorically speaking. People spending hundreds of dollars at bars picking up chicks is not wasting money if they have fun doing it. Someone spending a ton of money and man hours renovating their house instead of just buying a new one is not a waste if they enjoy the renovation. Paying for extra courses at a community college for classes that are interesting but won't necessarily help to raise your tax bracket is not a waste if the person is ultimately enriched by the experience. Buying worthless* retail boxes is not a waste if you simply enjoy the hobby.

If that doesn't explain where I'm coming from, then some one else will have to do it. That's the best I can do. If you just don't buy it, or you just can't trust a guy who goes ga-ga over 1991 Bowman, I ask you to put that all aside and accept an endorsement of my argument from none other than Motörhead.


How can you not trust a face like Lemmy's?

*Note: ALL wax packs - hobby and retail - are worthless. It's overpriced. It's a scam. It's for suckers. That's not the point.

The Joy of a Completed Page

It's even more sweet when the last card you needed was the Mantle. I was absolutely convinced that I wouldn't find the Mick until late 2009, which is pretty much how long I chased the Mantle for my 2006 Bowman Heritage set. I've got 6 of these pages down, only 33 more to go...

The Elusive Ones

When I chose to get a regular Hobby box of Topps instead of a jumbo box, I knew I was going to miss out on two things: the two guaranteed hits and a complete set. The hits I didn't mind, I can pick up a relic and auto off eBay cheap as hell right now with all the case breakers flipping their pulls. The set was a little more worrisome, I knew if I didn't get it squared away I'd bee obsessively ripping packs like mad until I finished it. Silly me, I should have realized that I'd like the insert sets so much this year I'd be obsessively ripping packs like mad anyway. Between the Trading Card History, 50th Anniversary Rookie set and the Target T205's I'll be ripping for a while, even if I end up with a pile of Mantles and 14 Joe Biden cards.

So to justify buying packs full of doubles I'm going to conduct a little experiment. My hobby box had exactly 300 cards out of the 300 card set. I still need 30 to complete it, 31 if you count the Giuliani bullcrap card. I'm going to list them here, and see how many packs it takes to finish the set just through opening packs. Don't send me trade offers, don't send me cards through the mail, I want to finish this set through wax only. I'll probably complete two other near sets before I do it, but I want to see if it's possible. I'll quit if I finish all the insert sets before the base set, but hopefully it won't come to that.

The ones I pull will be in bold and will have the players name and pack number next to them. Packs are Hobby packs unless I note otherwise.

Here's the list:

5 - Scott Kazmir - Pack 20
8 - Stephen Drew - Pack 13
13 - Kendry Morales - Packs 1-5
23 - Ross Gload - Pack 20
29 - Anibal Sanchez - Pack 46
41 - Rich Aurilia - Pack 9
64 - Mike Lowell - Pack 13
72 - Mike Piazza - Pack 10
86 - Scott Podsednik - Pack 46
92 - Ross Detwiler RC - Pack 46
93 - Kenny Lofton - Pack 46
104 - Kevin Youkilis - Pack 9
115 - Johan Santana - Packs 1-5
142 - Chris Duncan - Pack 16
148 - Gerald Laird - Pack 16
154
171 - John Maine - Pack 10
184 - Tadahito Iguchi - Packs 1-5
191 - Orlando Hudson - Pack 28
193 - J. J. Hardy - Pack 10
196 - Chin-Lung Hu - Pack 20
210 - Mark Teahen - Packs 1-5
214
232
234 - Red Sox Postseason Highlights - Pack 7
242 - Manny Acta - Pack 16
250 - Jonathan Papelbon - Packs 1-5
266
298 - NL League Leaders Home Runs - Fielder, Howard & Dunn - Pack 27
319 - Joey Votto - Pack 13

Again, NO TRADE OFFERS. I'm finishing this set through packs!

Here's the good pulls out of the packs:
Packs 1-5 ( I sorted these before I decided to run the experiment) - Biden & Edwards Presidential Candidates, YR13 Halladay Year in Review, AR10 Dave Johnson & AR12 Dan Johnson 50th Anniversary Rookies. 5 cards for the set.

Not bad, 5 inserts I needed and 5 cards for the set. Add three gold foil cards and that leaves 37 doubles. Or, looking at the glass half full, I now am 37 cards into my second set.

Pack 6 (Target) - Mantle HR530. No cards for the set.
Pack 7 (Target) - TCP12 Steve Pearce T205. Got the Red Sox without the politician card for the set.
Pack 8 (Target) - TCP14 Wladimir Balentein T205, AR3 Doc Gooden 50th Anniversary. Two sweet inserts, but none for the set.
Pack 9 (Target) - TCP7 Chin-Lung Hu T205, AR34 Chipper Jones 50th Anniversary. Two for the set AND a Chipper! I already know I will not beat this pack in this experiment.
Pack 10 (Jumbo) - Edwards Prez, 202 Mike Lamb Gold, AR15 Hanley Ramirez 50th, Mantle HR520, YR50 Verlander Year in Review, OTG11 A-Rod Own the Game, THC5 Clay Buchholz History. Good: a few nice inserts and 3 cards for the set. Bad: only three for the set out of a jumbo. there were also 4 others that I pulled in the first 9 packs though. The first Presidential candidate double was disturbing.

One box + 10 packs (including a jumbo) and I still need 19 more for the set. I'm averaging about one card I need a pack though. This could take a while.

Pack 11 - AR26 Ozzie Smith 50th. None for the set.
Pack 12 - C08-HC Hillary Clinton. No cards for the set, but I didn't have Hillary yet. I've done reasonably well on the Predidential candidate cards so far, but soon I will get nothing but doubles of them and It Will Suck.
Pack 13 - Mantle HR #506. Three for the set! I doubt I'll beat that.
Pack 14 - Mantle HR #505. Nothing for the set.
Pack 15 - AR47 Shawn Green 50th. No cards for the set.

Yipe, five packs had only three cards and they were all in one pack. If it weren't for the two 50th anniversary cards (and the Chipper Jones Trading Card History Promo I got free with the packs) this would have been horrible. Sixteen to go.

Pack 16 - AR40 Mike Piazza 50th. Three more for the set! The Piazza card beats the hell out of the Mantle Home Run card too so this takes over as "best pack".
Pack 17 - 208 David DeJesus Gold. No cards for the set. I'm not even getting doubles of the ones on the list I needed so I'll still be chasing them for the second set.
Pack 18 - OTG3 Ryan Howard Own the Game. None for the set.
Pack 19 - TCH3 Dice-K Trading card History, MMS49 Mickey Mantle Story. No cards for the set but two sweet inserts.
Pack 20 - YR53 Oliver Perez Year in Review. Three more cards for the set, but I got the WORST CARD EVER for the insert. Rotten, lousy, graargh!

20 packs in and I've pulled 20 cards for the set. One a pack. I'm getting better odds on the inserts. I fear the last ten will be exponentially harder to pull.

Pack 21 (Jumbo) - Rudy Giuliani Gold, AR33 Billy Wagner 50thMantle HR #515, YR45 Randy Johnson Year in Review, OTG14 Ryan Howard Own the Game,TCH25 Grady Sizemore Card History, two decent gold foil cards - Sox Classic Combos and A-Rod. Thirty something base cards and not one for the set.
Pack 22 (Target) - TCP13 Vlad Guerrero T205. None for the set.
Pack 23 (Target) - OTG25 Fausto Carmona Own The Game, AR19 Julio Franco 50th. None for the set and the Fausto is a dupe. I'm overdue for a trade with Indians Cards Always guy anyway.
Pack 24 (Target) - TCP5 A-Rod T205. None for the set.
Pack 25 (Target) - TCP4 Luke Hochevar T205. None for the set. How easy are these T205's to get anyway?? That's 6 in 8 packs.

Complete disaster on this group of 5 packs. I got a bunch of inserts but none of the last 10 I need. That's it for a little while until I see a blaster hit the shelves.

Pack 26 - C08-MR Mitt Romney. None for the set. Did Topps purposely find the sleaziest picture of Mitt?
Pack 27 - OTG3 Ryan Howard Own the game. I have the Howard insert already, but I finally got another one for the set. 9 to go.
Pack 28 - Kazuo Uzuki Fake Bullcrap Advertisement. The insert sucked, but I got another one for the set. Down to 8.
Pack 29 (Target) - AR11 Jermaine Dye 50th, Barack Obama. None for the set, but a Braves Dye insert. The Candidate dupes are starting to pile up.
Pack 30 (Target) - AR5 Gary Carter, TCP7 Chin-Lung Hu T205. None for the set, another dupe insert.

Five more packs, got 20% of the cards I needed. Or to put it a bit more bleakly, 2 cards out of 50. Even more disturbing is most of the inserts I pulled are dupes too. I STILL haven't seen a freaking blaster. I'm starting to get antsy about that, I want to find out what the Wally World inserts are.

Ok finally found a blaster. The Wal-Mart exclusives are interesting, but that's for another post. Here's the rips:

Pack 31 (Wal-Mart) - AR51 Francisco Liriano 50th, OTG23 Brandon Webb Own the Game. None for the set.
Pack 32 (Wal-Mart) - Nothing. First pack without inserts. The box topper pack and two inserts in the first pack somewhat mitigates this, but it's still disappointing.
Pack 33 (Wal-Mart) - MMS48 Mickey Mantle Story. No cards for the set and I think the Mantle is also a dupe. The box isn't working out too well so far.
Pack 34 (Wal-Mart) - C08-MR Mitt Romney. None for the set. One last chance for even one card I need...
Pack 35 (Wal-Mart) - MHR513 Mantle Home Run. None for the set. I was also taunted by several cards that were one number away from ones I needed.

This box was a disaster. None for the set and at least two of the inserts were dupes. The box topper made up for it though as you'll see next week. So far I've ripped the equivalent of at least another box looking for those last thirty cards and still come up short. This is why what I'm trying to do is a bloody stupid idea. Still, who knows, I could get lucky next time! (yeah right)

I haven't bought any Topps for a couple of months but I decided to try one more box to see if I would get lucky. The Box Topper pack had Man-Ram, Ichiro and Mantle Deck Perez cards so I'm off to a good start. If I get one or two of the 8 I need for the set I'll be dancing.

Pack 36 (Wal-Mart) - OTG5 Brandon Webb Own the Game. None for the set.
Pack 37 (Wal-Mart) - Useless, worthless 3rd copy of Kazuo Uzuki and nothing else.
Pack 38 (Wal-Mart) - MMS55 Mickey Mantle Story. AR28 Garret Anderson all star rookie. No cards for the set.
Pack 39 (Wal-Mart) - C08-FT Fred Thompson. None for the set. Once again I'm striking out on a Wal-Mart box.
Pack 40 (Wal-Mart) - MHR517 Mantle Home Run. None for the set.

Second straight blaster that netted nothing for the set. Starting to get the picture? I did need the Fred Thompson card though, so the inserts save the box from disaster. Maybe I should try a Target blaster since the Wal-Mart ones aren't working out too well.

I probably should have noted each time this post was updated with a date or something, but it's too late for that now. Maybe next time I try something as daft as this I'll remember to do that. True to my word, I got a Target box this time. They are discounted to $7.50 a box now, which is like a gallon of gas nowadays. Cards are increasingly becoming a better value! This box started off badly as the T205 bonus pack had a Joba Chamberlain and TWO Steve Pearce cards. I think those are my third and fourth Pearce T205 cards. Pulling just one little card I need to complete this set will make up for it though. Just ONE.

Pack 41 (Target) - YR55 Mark Reynolds Year in Review and none for the set.
Pack 42 (Target) - OTG9 Lance Berkman Own The Game, AR44 Todd Helton 50th. None for the set.
Pack 43 (Target) - No inserts and none for the set. Ouch.
Pack 44 (Target) - Another pack with no inserts and all doubles. This is getting painful.
Pack 45 (Target) - MMS46 Mickey Mantle and zippo. There wasn't even a Brave in this box.

Three straight blasters and none had even one card I needed. I need to rethink my strategery on this project.

Pack 46 (Value Pack) - C08-JM John McCain, YR3 Ian Snell Year in Review, OTG10 Own the Game Miguel Cabrera and four cards for the set! And I only cheated a little bit! Check out the full pack rip here.