patterns and updates

Man, I really wish I could get this scanner/printer to work right. I'd really love to have pictures accompany my thoughts on 2011 Update. I haven't purchased much. A few racks, a $9.99 Target box and some loose packs. With $$$ being a bit tight I'm forced to cut back a little. It's entirely alright though and I'll explain why (I'll get to Update in a second).

This being the second year that I have come back into collecting, I have noticed a pattern with my buying habits. First off, I have cut out a lot of the impulse packs and such that I bought so much of early on in 2010. When I got back into collecting, I had nothing, so naturally buying up anything and well...everything, seemed right. To see what I had missed. It was certainly a good lesson in past years of sets and players and so on but it left me with a mountain of cards. Thankfully I found blogging and fellow collectors on here that were willing to trade for their favorite teams and players. Or maybe they just wanted to finish off a set and I was more than glad to help. Topps flagship is a different story though. I have noticed that in both 2010 and 2011 a pattern has definitely made itself apparent. What I do is buy up a TON of series 1. Probably because it is a new year and the lack of baseball has be frothing for some cardboard goodness. Then series 2 hits and I buy a bunch but it is always significantly less. I'd say about half of what I did for series 1. Maybe it is due to the glut of products Topps puts out in between that kills my wallet and I'm a little burnt on cards at the moment. Or in the case of this year, little work=little money. Then Update hits around now and I end up buying even less than series 2, roughly half of that I'd say. I finish off the sets but then in the case of series 1, I kept buying. I have no idea why but I did. I know that last year in the case of Update, I knew it was hitting in mid-October and I was getting married about a week later. Little time for cards. This year its the summer lack of cash hitting again. So is my pattern due to circumstance or is it just how things work? I would say a little of both. Circumstance certainly has more to do with it but by the time Update hits I'm burnt on collecting and just want to finish off the set and be done with it. Topps releases so much during the year and I try to sample it all (high end not withstanding) so it just kills my drive. I did buy less this year than last year, which is good. Less stuff I don't need and more of what I set out to collect, which is something I wanted to focus on in the 2011 collecting year.

Anyway, enough of my silliness, how about some Update?

Again, I would love to have pictures but I almost don't need them because its Update and we've all seen them. When the set hit eBay I scoured to see if they had added any more legends variations and found that they had. 25 more to the fray, bringing up the total to 74 for all three series. If you need the list, I added them to the checklist on baseballcardpedia. I would like to collect them all again, so If you come across any, I'll definitely trade for them. I did manage to pull one, Paul O'Neill. I will trade for any of them but I won't be actively chasing the parallel versions just the regular white border ones.

Speaking of parallels, Update is FILLED with them and I don't mind. The congnac parallels are pretty nice and the Target red border are really cool too. Wal-Mart has a blue border (of course) and the Hope Diamond blue I haven't seen in person yet but I'm sure they look nice too. Speaking of Wally and Target, did anyone buy an blaster from either place? Do they still have the throwback and all black parallels? I hope not. As cool as the throwbacks are I think the red/blue borders are much nicer and I hope that blasters replaced the old parallels with the new ones.

As far as inserts go it seems that there are only Topps 60, Kimball Champions, and Diamond Duos, which are numbered the same as series 2 and have NO distinction as to which set it comes from. No idea why Topps did this but if you get a DD-22 from series 2 and DD-22 from Update, they look identical save for the players, making set building that much harder...if anyone even bothered collecting them. Sure ToppsTown are there but no one cares and thankfully are a little harder pull. I will be collecting the Kimballs too and will have a list up soon on my wantlist page.

Other than that Update is filled with some great action shots from the summer, All-Stars and some new rookies and is pretty much what you expect from series three at this point. I would like to finish off a set and if you find yourself with some extra Update you don't mind donating over, I'll gladly take 'em.