the set topps got right (seriously this time!)

I knew very little of the 2002 release of Topps T206. In fact, I knew next to nothing except that it existed. I knew I had a few Blue Jays cards that one of you may have sent over, and I had that stray Vladimir Guerrero sitting in my Topps box. I never knew of its scale of how on point the set is to the original. Until yesterday. As many of you know, I find the 2009 T206 set to be one of my favorite sets and I had stated my over the top liking for this set in this post. How wrong I was. Well, not fully as I still really like 2009. As I neared completion of the 2009 issue, I started to do some looking for the 2002 set on eBay. I found one that said it was the complete 456 card set. I thought it would be just right, even though in Beckett it said the full set was 525 due to the variants. Well the set came in yesterday and after looking through it, I began to see it was indeed the full 525 cards. Someone had painstakingly put together this set (including the 90 Team 206 subset cards from each of the three series), included all the variants, the three boxtoppers with the history of the 2002 issue written by Keith Olbermann, and even included the three paper checklists from the boxes. There were even 20 or so duplicates of the original T-206 reprints, including the six pictured above. This was the most complete set I could have ever asked for and totally didn't expect. What I paid for it was even more scary, as practically no one touched it and it ended at $16 (plus $11 for shipping). After picking through it and reading over the three boxtoppers, I realized that this set, not the 2009 set, was Topps' real love letter and tribute to the original 1909-11 issue. The two to three variants per superstar player, the reprints of the originals, the size of the individual series is even close to the original. The relics were not included here, but I have seen some of them online and on the checklist and they seem tremendous. Johnny Evers Jerseys, Honus Wagner bats, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, the list goes on of fantastic relics from 100 years ago. I believe this set has now taken over the top spot as my favorite modern set. Simply incredible that they went these lengths to preserve the legacy of one of the most famous and collected baseball card sets ever. Now my one question: where is the Topps that pieced together the ideas for this set? Because surely they aren't the same Topps we have around now.

its finished!

Last week, the final set I needed to complete my goal of having every Topps set from 1982 to now, came in the mail. It was the 1985 set. I started out collecting just 2010 and 1987. Then I bought a few factory sets off of eBay, starting with 1988, 1989, 1991 (basically the junk wax I had as a kid), because I knew I wanted sets from my youth. I had originally wanted just 1987 through 1993. Then I came across some of the newer sets, like 2005, 2007 and 2008, really cheap, plus I found 1997 at the local shop for a good price. That's when I decided to go for it all. I wanted 1987 to 2010. I slowly collected them when I found them for great deals. It wasn't all fun, as I ran into a few snags. These being; astronomical prices for factory sets for the years 1995, 1998, 2001, 2002 (that's when I stopped doing factory and went hand-collated), my 1989 set was rubbish due to a fourth of it being horribly miscut (I'll show these off soon, they're great), 1993 was missing about 25 cards, and 1994 was stuck together. Those three years got replaced (very cheap), and are now all good. Once I got closer to finishing the goal of 87 to 10, I sought out prices for the 5 years before 1987, and found they weren't too bad. So I gave in and went for them. Many of you have noticed the set reviews I've done in past posts. These were when I got a new set to go through. I'll do some retrospective thing in the future that goes more in-depth about each set. For now though, I'm just glad to have a full shelf of some great Topps history coinciding with how long I have been around as well. Here's to 2011!

factory showroom

Here's a question. Is it wrong of me to buy up Topps factory sets just to open them up and go through them? Now I've missed a lot of years here. I have various Topps cards from 1952 to now. I have obtained them all within the past 5 months or so. I collected when I was younger and I had my vast collection of 1987-1991 Topps and boatloads of 1987-1990 Donruss, some 1991 Upper Deck, plenty of Score, etc. You get the picture. While I enjoy collecting the sets, opening packs, hunting for single cards I need, it all gets expensive. Quickly. Especially when Topps collation is tricky. I find myself buying packs just to get a final couple of cards I need for my third full set. Its that compulsion thing. Gnaws at me, heh. So I finished 2010, I'm now 1 card short of 1987 (which is coming), and I picked up cheap on the 'Bay 1988 and 1989. I bought 1997 (apparently a tough year to find) in my local card shop, just sitting on a table, begging to be bought. Also coming from eBay are about 7 more various years. It is essentially just to play 'catch-up' on all those years I missed in the years I didn't collect. Yes they get opened and yes, they get put into numerical order. I enjoy it (for some reason), and its does do good catching me up on what I missed out on. I do have a rule though; I only grab them if they are sealed and if I can get them for under $20-25 including shipping. Which is tough because they are heavy, and usually run anywhere from $7.50 to $11.00 for shipping. Regardless, I think this is the best way for me to get the full set and see what I missed.

the final countdown

MAIL DAY!! I received the Troll's trade package today in the mail. He was more than generous with the Blue Jays cards that I didn't have. Many O-Pee-Chee's, a bunch of various years Topps Heritages, some 2010 golds. Good stuff. One card excited me more than anything though:

Yeah, I know what you are thinking, its a used Million Card Giveaway code, so what? Well here is the story. I purchased the 25 card Topps Town Gold set for 3 bucks on ebay (plus $2 for shipping) that I got in the mail today. Upon obtaining that set, the final FINAL card I needed to complete my 2010 Topps series 1 set was that silly card above. I opened up the Troll's package and was glad to see that, in the sea of Jays cards, that very card, thus finishing off my set for me to never worry about again. A big thanks to the Troll again, and I'll be on the lookout for Ray's stuff to send your way!