Set Building Progress Report - Baseball

The 2022 baseball season is about to begin! Why not celebrate the occasion with an update on my baseball set builds? 

I'm not attempting a 2022 Topps set build, but I've picked up some singles in TCDB trades. I had to bite the bullet and buy a small binder at Staples for Red Sox overflow; Dime Box Nick filled up the last of my five full-sized Boston binders!

Some more flagship singles I recently acquired. Three of these four aces have World Series rings; the other has pitched for the Astros and Yankees 😜

I'm still chipping away at inserts from two sets nearly a quarter-century apart: 1993 Fleer Ultra and 2017 Topps Heritage. And I need Nolan Ryan in each of them!

His Strike Out Kings card would complete that six-card set. I also need two Home Run Kings inserts - Joe Carter and Barry Bonds. (No plans to finish other '93 Ultra insert sets at the moment.)  This Flashback insert of a young Ryan is the only 2017 Topps Heritage insert I need that isn't a Topps Game card. Just yesterday I picked up a Jake Arrieta single from the 'main' Topps Game insert set on COMC. That means Anthony Rizzo is the only other card I need - unless I decide to pursue the tough Rookie 'Game' insert sets.


2013 Topps Update is nearly complete, thanks to these recent acquisitions from COMC:

Puig my friend. The rest of these guys... not so much. Although I've got nothing against Gattis or Didi. I was lucky to snag the Cole RC (the one on the left) for $4.25; they're usually at least $6 on the site. However I passed on a chance to procure the Mike Trout All-Star card (#300) for $3.00 and now the cheapest copy is over $5. You win some, you lose some.

Aside from that Trout I only need the Nolan Arenado RC.. and maybe a Grant Green upgrade.

It's a similar story for my 2014 Topps set build: I need a Mike Trout, a star third baseman's rookie card, and an upgrade of a common card. Four more cards - including a Trout checklist and Marcus Semien's RC - are waiting in my COMC inventory, leaving me with the 'base' Trout (#1), a Logan Morrison upgrade, and a rookie card of recently-extended Guardians slugger Jose Ramirez to finish off '14 Flagship.


And then there's 2018 Topps Chrome. I've been chipping away at this one as much as I can, through trades:

I traded a PWE full of 2014 Topps blue parallels for these

COMC purchases:

And Sportlots. I found a seller who had three rookies I need and charged just 95 cents shipping for up to four cards. Once those arrive - and the four COMC is holding for me now - I'll have just six cards left to acquire:

• #12 Tyler Mahle RC
• #25 Rafael Devers RC
• #66 Max Fried RC
• #72 Ozzie Albies RC
• #150 Shohei Ohtani RC
• #193 Ronald Acuna Jr. RC

Eeek! I can see myself giving up on this set build six cards away from completion, like I did with the 2014-15 Panini Prizm basketball set. Not to get too off-topic but I needed the Joel Embiid and, rather than pay $150+ for that card during the pandemic, I broke up the set and earned about $150 for the lots I sold. Embiid is having an MVP-caliber season and that Prizm RC has actually gone... down. Huh?!?

Not ready to throw in the towel on the 2018 Chrome set yet.

Future Projects

Aside from a few 1993 inserts (Score Franchise, Donruss Diamond Kings) the only other baseball sets I'd consider building are 2010 Topps and 2012 Topps. That would give me a complete ten-year run of flagship - which is certainly tempting. I already have the 2012 Topps Trout, so that will save me $10-20.

However I'm nowhere close to completing either issue. I've actually got a higher percentage of 2010 Topps Chrome(20.9%) and Update(17.9%) than the main set (15.6%). I'm barely at 10% of the error-filled 2012 "surfboard" set, and I'd need the Bryce Harper RC to complete that one.


How many Topps flagship sets have you completed by hand? Do you own any Topps factory sets? Have you spent $25 (or more) on a single card to complete a recent set?

 

Thanks for reading!



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Looking Ahead

I thought this day would never come, but it is finally here. Tomorrow will be my first day at the new job. I've been wondering what the work will be like, what my co-workers will be like, and other incidental things such as dress code, mask policy.. and how I'm going to pass time on my lunch hour. I haven't had a designated lunch break in 12 years!

My work day will end at 5:30 p.m. which means I won't get home until about 6 p.m. That will be an adjustment.

 

During my day off yesterday I published my 50th (and probably final) post at The 1993. I'll have less free time to blog starting tomorrow, and there are some other topics I want to explore here. I won't rule out returning to the 1993 as I just added a new follower - Cardboard Jones. Steven reached out and offered to send me three cards I need for the 1993 Donruss Diamond Kings insert set. Wally Joyner here isn't one of them; this arrived in a small PWE trade from TCDB user MattnMiller.

Today is the 5 year anniversary of my 5-box break of 2017 Topps Heritage, one of the most exciting days I've had as an adult card collector. I celebrated the anniversary by selling the Aaron Judge photo variation RC I'd pulled that day.

I've become much more of a set builder and less of a high-end card collector. If I'm ever going to finish the 1956 Topps set I have to scrounge up the cash somehow. And while I will be making more money in my new job it's not 'spend hundreds of bucks on vintage baseball cards' money. A decision regarding this undertaking will be discussed here in the coming months. 

My set building wantlist is now updated, as of yesterday. Also I bought two more 1956 Topps cards (not listed on my set building tab) with a $50 bill I received as a late Christmas present because I had Covid and couldn't see the in-laws. 

I'm also going to try and complete my base card checklists for the Hartford Whalers project. The spreadsheet is complete through 1990-91 and I hope to have the full run (up to 1997-98) done by the end of the NHL season. This project will be far less costly - though Gordie Howe's sunset card isn't cheap (especially the O-Pee-Chee version).

Hopefully the MLB lockout will be settled soon and we'll have a full baseball season, or close to it. Once that kicks off I'm planning to relaunch my All-Time Teams series. The redux will focus on which cards I have chosen for each player, and which players might be added/dropped from their franchise's All-Time roster in the near future. (And again, I might need to commission a custom card or two so that the frankenset can be completed.)

Aside from the pair of '56 singles (Eddie Yost and Bobby Avilia) I've got an order from COMC and six TCDB trades set to arrive in the next couple of weeks. One small trade arrived today, along with the Roy Campanella card I mentioned in a previous post.

2010 Topps is not on my list of set building projects. I simply grabbed a handful of semi-stars and scenery from user Zughiaq in exchange for some Red Sox dupes and a couple of 1993 Upper Deck extras. (Not pictured: Alex Gordon).

 

These 2014 Topps singles arrived in two different trades. I'm just 15 cards away from completing the set, but it looks like I'll have to buy the rest on Sportlots or COMC. Three consecutive trade offers I made on TCDB were rejected - for personal preference reasons, not because I was trying to "win" a trade. Thankfully Matt from Diamond Jesters broke my career-worst slump and agreed to a Time Travel Trade. It won't bring in any set fillers but it gets me closer to 400 completed transactions.

This 9-pocket page of 2015 Panini Prizm football cards arrived courtesy of TCDB user Talanhugh. It's been tough to trade for these singles and Blowout Cards still hasn't lowered the price of fat packs.

I'm excited and nervous about starting a new chapter in my professional life, but I am so ready to leave the old drama behind for good. I'll be sure to keep you all updated even if I can't be around the blogs as often as I'd like. Last spring was special. What will this spring bring?

Thanks for reading!



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In Between Days

I have a four-day weekend in between leaving my old job and starting my new one, and I plan to get caught up on my card hobbies and blogs. There wasn't much for me to do at the office and so I walked around, took long lunch breaks, left early. A couple days ago I saw a baseball card lying on the ground.

The card back was facing me when I found it and for a few seconds I stopped thinking about Office Girl and the rest of the gang, and got back to my roots. Who's on that card? I had to know.

Night Owl, do you need this one? lol

I didn't take it home, obviously. This was the second baseball card I'd seen near the office. About a month ago I spotted a 1989 Donruss card of an Atlanta Braves player (Gerald Perry maybe?) And on at least two occasions I've come across a water damage estimate of a flooded basement with pictures of the damaged items - including baseball cards and Starting Lineup figures. I cringed at the thought of storing collectibles in a basement. Give those cards a good home if you don't care about 'em!

Some cards I acquired in recent TCDB trades

It's been a strange time for me. I've been reflecting on the past three years - and in particular the past 14 months - knowing that a major life change is on the horizon. This group of people that I've seen eight hours a day, five days a week, will no longer be part of my life. I've been struggling with that for days.

2019 Topps Update is almost done. I've got six cards incoming from COMC, including Tatis Jr. and Vlad Jr. There are five 2018 Topps Chrome singles in that batch, too. I'll soon have over 90% of the set.

I'm now at 95% completion of the 2014 Topps set. Five more cards are on the way, including a Masahiro Tanaka RC. Then I will need just 15 cards to complete every flagship offering from 2013 to 2019.

I've decided not to pursue the 2022 Topps set and focus on my 1956 set build instead. If I happen to see a blaster or hanger box I'll pick one up, but that probably won't happen.

My 375th complete trade on TCDB arrived today. I sent seven Bengals base cards and a checklist to BRM7576 for these two cards. Kitty Goes Meow!

I don't buy Brett Favre cards anymore, but I was happy to trade a PWE full of 1993 Leaf baseball commons and a few MVP hockey singles for these two. I'm up to 847 different cards of the ol' gunslinger.

Campy's coming

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