Old and New Business on a Pretty Good Good Friday.

   First things first, you will have noticed that the header has changed, I figured the blog could use a spruce and little more color plus the other photo was not a good example of social distancing.  While I am not sure if the new one has the guys 6 feet apart, it is still a better graphic for this day and age. 

A couple packages have come to Starting Nine central recently, one was from a new reader eager to share; Tom from The Angels in Order looked at one of my my wantlists and satisfied some missing base Mets, especially from series 2 of 2018 Topps, from which I purchased exactly zero packs:

One of the last posts I did before I disappeared was a harsh yet fair critique of the 2018 Topps design (and what they could have done about it).  I stand by my thoughts 1000% though I must say, those vertical photos of d'Arnaud and Thor looks great regardless of their borderless nature.  I never did get to say what I thought of the 2019 look, but I liked it more than most; 1982 Topps is one of the first sets I remember and it definitely invokes that look.  Anyway, I have a bunch of Angels stuff to go out to reciprocate these so thanks Tom!

The other came from Nate of The Bucs Stop Here, who read about my glut of 2020 Heritage and wanted to trade.  I sent him the Alvarez/Aquino rookie I had and he sent me some Mets that will be far more appreciated around here:

It may not look it, but that Granderson is shiny foil and rookie cup cards are always appreciated especially when needed. My completed trades column to the right has been updated.  Thanks Nate!   Also in the right column, you will see the "followers" and "blog roll" - if you aren't following me, you may as well click on the button now and rectify that.  Also, if you want to be on the blog roll, just let me know and we'll do the old quid pro quo (and not even get in trouble for it).  I usually don't worry about such things much, but with the blog being dormant for so long, I figure I'd like to see more readers and know who they are, especially if they're new.  Hell, I have now posted more in the last month or so than in any of the last four years.  I am also pleased to see that one of the few bright spots of this current lockdown situation we all find ourselves in is that a few blogs that had gone down have started up again.  Let's hear it for the blogosphere!!!

***

A few belated thanks need to also be delivered to some altruistic displays of cardboard giving.  Last November, Jeff from 2 by 3 Heroes sent a random email to me verifying my address.  This email had no other information whatsoever but I told him I hadn't budged, address-wise.  A few days later, a package arrived full of goodies:

I am pretty sure it was this long forgotten post that inspired his delivery, but full of Firefly cards it was.  He even gave it an international header card.  There was also a bunch of Mets cards in there too and it is rare that they are relegated to second tier in a scan, yet here we are.  Firefly is streaming on Hulu right now and we all have nothing but time on our hands, so I suggest highly that if you have never seen it to go watch it.  And hell, now is as good a time as any to watch it again if you have seen it.  (belated) Thanks Jeff!

While I was irregularly (then not) blogging, one person I kept trading with was venerable veteran Night Owl Cards.  We have probably sent 40-50 packages to each other in the last 10 years or so and because we know what each other collect so well, we just kept doing it regardless of online status.  At one point last year I scanned this batch:

Matt Harvey?  Sheesh, this is old.  Remember that guy?

These are some fabulous Mets cards and inserts, then there was this vein of oddities (from NO at least):

The note answered my questions when it said "I didn't suddenly become a Bo-Chro collector, the cards just kind of landed in my lap."  It is probably the strangeness of the rookies in there and the gloriously dismissive abbreviation that made me scan them for future use in the first place.  Well, thanks as always Night Owl, I already have plenty in my pile for your next package.  I even looked at your wantlists for a change.

And speaking of piles, lastly I need to clear up a few unresolved trades.  I keep the outgoing cards on my bookshelf close to my mailing stuff and right now there is a bunch of things I need to figure out.

A few, like those Orioles and Blue Jays, I just need to verify addresses before I send them out.  But I also have a rare Barry Larkin insert that I can't recall whom I was going to swap with.  I also have a bunch of blue parallels, do you collect blue parallels?  Let me know, I think those are for you.  I also have a couple of 1990 UD Marquis Grissom rookies that I know there is a blogger who wants to collect 1000 of them or something but I can't remember who it is.  Is it you? Do you know who it is and if he's done collecting his grand of Grissom?  Please leave a comment or drop me a line. 

So now it's back to the grand Spring Cleaning, in between playing with stuff I find of course...

Going Dutch.

     This is not my first international trade, as Canada insists upon being a different country.  This is not even my first overseas trade, as I have sent Red Sox to England.  But this is my very first trade with continental Europe so I guess that is something.  I am, of course, talking about everyone's favorite Dutch card guy, um, The Dutch Card Guy.  In keeping with yesterday's 2014 Topps trades, I noticed when he posted about his newest flagship break that he got a 1970 Topps Ron Swoboda with the Topps 75 logo.  I did not get any of these classic pulls in my packs, so I inquired about it, offering a couple of Glavine numbered cards as bait.  The Dutch Card Guy immediately took me up on the offer.  He also said he would take a look at my want lists and augment the deal...

Proving European folk are much more polite than us American folks, he really really augmented:

He sent a bunch of players from my player want lists.  And I mean a bunch.  Here you see almost enough Stephen Strasburg cards to make a page all by themselves.  That's one page off the list.  That Justin Upton card helps, but he is still on the list.

You see here a block from the AL East:

Those Boggs cards will complete his second page.  The Bautista and Buchholz cards come close to finishing their player pages and that Team USA WBC card completes Pedroia's page.  That's three. 

Now we go to Cincinnati:

The Aroldis Chapman cards find places on his incomplete page and all those Jay Bruce cards more than finish off his page.  That's four.

He sent enough David Price cards for a whole page alone with one to spare:

So that's five.

Lastly, he sent a Ty Cobb which knock off his page in my Hall of Fame books - so that makes six player pages completed in one trade.  That might be a record, though I have not kept total track of such occurrences.  He also generously included a couple of Bryce Harper cards, which I keep on that want list page just to remind myself I need them, not expecting anyone to actually send them.  And yet, there they are.

DCG also included a few great oddball non-sports cards and some (I assume) Dutch soccer stickers.  Excuse me, football (pfft, I am such an American).  And very lastly, you see the card that kicked off this wonderful package, the 1970 Ron Swoboda with the Topps 75 logo.  All I can say about all this is wow!  My last bit of shame here is I have not even sent out the package I have for DCG, but it gives me the opportunity to add some goodies for his collection.   Dank u, Jeroen. (yes, I had to look that up on Google).

Apparently A Trade With Fuji.

       This one has been in the queue for a while, but it is important for me to both empty this damn draft folder and highlight the giving nature of the card blogosphere.  This time it is the fine altruism of Mark, aka Mr. Fuji of The Chronicles of Fuji, one of the finest blogs that doesn't get nearly enough love - I blame east coast bias.  A little while ago, he posted about picking up a near complete 1984 Donruss set at his infamous flea market that was missing like five common cards.  I immediately looked and realized I had for of them (three of them were Diamond Kings, a subset I am known to hoard) and sent them off to him, expecting nothing in return.  Well, in early January (yup, I am way behind on my posts) these cards arrived in the mail for me:

The man is a scholar and a gentleman as he looked at my want lists and sent me five awesome cards I needed, all either inserts, shiny parallels, or oddballs I have extolled my everlasting love for.  So thank you Fuji for paying it forward; in the grand scheme of things I seem to have gotten the better of this trade - including a second personalized card that has a different autograph from the first (are these little Japanese affirmations or are you cursing at me in another language?;)

Mail Call: Instant Gratification.

       When I was a kid, somewhere I heard the old adage that you never know until you ask and picked up the old positive affirmation that if you ask, all someone can say is 'no'.  This makes me one of the most annoying kinds of human beings: the kind that asks a lot of questions.  I think my point got lost in all that, I guess what I am saying is, I am not shy about asking for things, not that I am an insistent pest.  Sorry, my intros are rusty.  

I got a package in the mail from Night Owl HQ yesterday.  Because we are constantly shuffling things back and forth, I have no idea if this is in response to stuff I sent or if I now owe him stuff.  Either way, I have a pile for him.  This particular package was full of wonderful things:

You can't really see it in the scan, but trust me, the Harvey and Dickey cards are quite shiny.  The Wright card is a manu-patch card, but this one works nicely, good colors, very fancy intricate patch.  I used to hate these cards, but I have grown to not only accept them but enjoy the ones that look very good.  I still think they are confusing and ruin the value of actual game-used pieces, but I guess we have also learned those "actual game-used" pieces aren't worth the paper their disclaimers are printed on.  The bottom three cards are the ones I was sort of addressing my awful opening paragraph.  Night Owl recently posted about the new Topps Archives packs he picked up.  I requested he set those cards aside for me and we could work out compensation.  He told me that not only did he have a package ready to go out to me, he would put these inside.  The package got here in two days; in the world of blog transactions, that is the very definition of instant gratification.

In my last post, I snarkily addressed Topps' photo choices on vintage/retro cards.  The cards on this scan perfectly illustrate my point.  On the Gypsy Queen Gooden, that is a picture I am certain I have seen before but it is now in painting form, so I suppose that makes it better (as long as they don't use the same picture next year).  The Archives Gooden is not only a photo I have never seen before, it is a damn nice one - full of nuance and intensity (please do this more, Topps).  Conversely, the Seaver is a photo that has been used so many times, I could probably make an entire page of cards using it. The Ted Williams photo has also been used ad nauseum, but it is so iconic, you can almost forgive it here.  Almost.  Also, I can give the Williams card a slight pass because there are no doubt far fewer images of him in the Topps vault than of Seaver.  Plus, since he is dead, I am sure they have to okay the use of his pictures through his licensing company, which I am certain adds a layer of annoyance.  *steps down off his soapbox*

Night Owl not only sent that pile of Mets goodness, he has been perusing my want list:

Those 2010 Upper Deck now complete my page of these cards.  I hope I never have to mention this set again.  The next row has not one but two Rookie All-Stars I can scratch off the list, a pair of parallels at that.  The Opening Day Tavaras card has been especially elusive for me for such a recent card.  I wanted that one greatly because his Topps base card omitted the trophy, and that little cup is the whole point of the collection.  Night Owl's love of 1975 minis is well documented, so for him to give up a couple is surprising.  I have this vision of him in my head hoarding them by the thousands in a bunker under his house.  The Nomo will go on my 1997 Upper Deck page, one that has also been difficult to fill (odd, too, that N.O. would give up a Nomo card).  I never bought any of that set and for some reason I also never see them around.  Four down, five to go. 

Also from the want list:

Three Mets of varying importance, from nothing to everything.  I am praying that a stint in the minors will do Ike some good, considering I could hit .165 in the majors.  The 1964 design this year on the Heritage seems to really do the modern player justice.  They just look good to me, better than the last few years, at least.  And I do so prefer the old school trophy on these cards. 

Final batch from Night Owl:

The top three cards finish my Mets Topps set from 2013 Series 1.  I am slightly disappointed the Opening Day set has white borders, I was so hoping they would give it a green border to differentiate it from the flagship set.  I think the abstract ball field design cries out for green - and not the crazy shiny Emerald pattern they used as a parallel, but a nice muted kelly green.  As always, Night Owl wisely includes a little note in his package.  Each and every one of these cards is of use to me, in case you were wondering.  Thanks Greg!

Also in the mail was an odd thing for me, Yankees cards:

I realized I did not own a single Robinson Cano card and I have a feeling he is not going to be on the Yankees next year, so I won't have to automatically hate him, so when I saw a very cheap lot of 11 cards, I snagged it on eBay. That is a rare sight indeed, a current Yankee with his own 9-pocket page.

I was on a roll and scanned all the cards I got in the mail Tuesday, so here are the rest:

Those top three cards are a lot from Listia I picked up literally for nothing.  I got it just for the Reggie Bush, the other two will end up in a box to be forgotten.  I am slowly but surely becoming a user of that site.  The bottom two are the other 2 Cano cards, which I might actually list on Listia since I have no need for them (unless someone wants them).  The last card there in the middle is a mini refractor of Zack Wheeler.  The Mets have threatened to actually let him pitch in the majors next week, I'll believe it when I see it.  But I figure I should grab his cards now while I can.  I am not sure what the purpose of making that card mini is, though, but I do like the shiny.  Shiny > mini.

Ask and ye shall receive! I think that is what I was going for with the opening.  Sheesh, my brain is so sluggish and tired lately.

Completed Pages, Complete With Joy.

     While my blogging may have slowed down some recently, my collecting never stops.  Today I have some completed pages, one quite recent and a few more than a decade in the making.

I haven't bought much Bowman the last few years.  In fact, I haven't bought any Bowman the last two years.  I used to be quite the Bowman backer, especially Chrome.  I liked the shiny and the speculation, and I also liked the vague rookies who you'd never hear from again (there is a reason my collection is eclectic and devoid of great value, after all).  This year, my interest in Bowman was renewed, well, my interest in one specific kind of card was piqued.  A while ago, Night Owl sent me an R.A. Dickey from the silver ice parallels and I was immediately struck by it.  I am such a sucker for the shiny and in this case it was a different shiny than I had ever seen before on a card.  I went to eBay with the task of finding myself a lot of them.  The cards themselves were only popping up one or two a box, I believe, so the prices were a little high.  I waited out a nice lot of 12 and snagged it at a price I could live with.  From those, I made this page:

The scan does not do these cards justice.  They are really really really shiny (no, really!).  They remind me of the 1998 Bowman's Best Atomic Refractors, my all time favorite shiny (and a page I have yet to complete).  I got a nice mix of players and colors in this lot; even the Yankee player is a tolerable one.  I am quite pleased with this page.

While recently rummaging through a pile of cards, I found a 1998 SP Authentic Jeff Conine.  I had forgotten all about this set but I remembered that I really liked it when it came out.  Back then, SP Authentic was very high end stuff and (I believe) this was their first baseball offering.  I liked the foil-like pictures and the use of negative space.  I looked around in a few boxes, but alas, that Jeff Conine was the only one I had.  So, in my quest to make a page, I went first to eBay, but eBay did not have any lots of the base cards (nor had they in a while - hint: always check completed auctions when looking for something vague to see how easy/hard it will be to find).  So, I went to COMC.com for these instead. 

I was able to pick off these cards for 20-25 cents apiece.  I went with a few beloved subjects (NOMAHHHH!! and a catcher pose) and a few reviled subjects as well (Clemens, Palmeiro).  Overall, I think I captured a good mix of players and poses and it only took me 14 years to get around to it. 

I also read a blog piece recently (the blog itself escapes my memory, lemme know if you recognize your dilemma) that was very puzzled with the 2001 Donruss baseball set and what they did for parallels.

This page here is of the 2001 Donruss base cards.  This page has been in my binders for quite a while.  See, 2001 Donruss was their first baseball set since 1998 - I am not sure if their exile was self imposed or contractual - and it celebrated their 20th anniversary.  For the parallels, they decided to fill in those two missing years by making "2000 Donruss" and "1999 Donruss" cards.  I always found this odd and I can certainly understand some collector's confusion over the cards, especially 10 years after the fact.

I had, along with that 2001 Donruss page a 1999 Donruss page. 

A pretty sharp (and Indians heavy) page.  What I did not have was a 2000 Donruss page to go along with the other two.  Since I decided my Donruss pages would not be complete without it, I went to eBay again, but only found a large (and way overpriced) lot for sale.  Back to COMC.com again for me!

Since I still had the 1998 SP Authentics cards still unsent, it made sense to grab the cards I needed for the 2000 Donruss page as well.  This is what I came up with.

Once again, a nice mix of players and colors, and, as an accidental aesthetic choice, a lot of batting follow thru pictures.  I snagged these at 20-35 cents apiece with the Tony Gwynn costing me that big 35 cents.  I had never actually seen the 2000 Donruss baseball cards and I immediately recognized them...they copied the 2000 Donruss football set.  I have had this page forever:

Now, Topps used to, and in fact still, uses their baseball set as a tablet for their football design, and some card makers use the same design for each name plate brand for each sport (like Prestige or SP etc.).  But this is the first time I can think of that a unique and singular football set was the basis for a baseball set and not the other way around.  Can anyone else think of one?  You know, if you can even understand what the heck I am talking about.

Anyway, COMC has had a nice cheap bulk shipping option for the last couple months, so I might load up on some more neglected or ignored pages in the future. 

***
And as one final update, I recently showed the spoils of a recent new product buying binge.  Some specific cards were put aside and dropped in the mail this week.  Some of you know they are coming and some of you don't.  Anyway, rest assured, they are out there and on their way...

Right now, if anyone wants to reciprocate, I am desperately trying to get my hands on the two SP rookie cup cards from this years Topps - #158 Josh Reddick and #207 J.P. Arencibia.  I am also looking for the Dwight Gooden Mound Dominance insert from this year's Topps and the 1977 Gary Carter reprint and cloth sticker from the Archives set (plus his Gold Foil parallel). I am always dubious of people actually looking at my wantlist, so if anyone has any of these, please please email me post haste. Thanks!

Quick Trade with gcrl

      You may think that I have abandoned blogging everyday or perhaps my industrial strength ADD has kicked in and my focus has gone elsewhere.  Well, luckily the answer to both of those is no and no.  The truth is I have been traveling and, surprisingly, actually working more the last couple weeks (yay!).  How do you bloggers with a full time job do it?  I guess blogging is like anything else in this world - if you really want to do it, you find the time.

     Tonight I can't sleep, so here is a quick post about a little (yet awesome) trade with jim of gcrl (the man has a lot of ee cummings in him).  I find his main blog a most excellent read (I am a huge Ron Cey fan), but my trade query regarded his side project, oh my o-pee-chee! (oh mon o-pee-chee!), which is a fantastic salute to one of my own obsessions, the variations on O-Pee-Chee cards.  Now, I had recently found a nearly complete 1986 OPC set amongst my piles.  It was missing six odd cards; I can't figure out if they were pulled out of the set by someone (or even myself once upon a time) or if these really were the actual six cards that helped this set evade completion.  Knowing the cards he had on his site were all his, I figured if anyone in the blogosphere had these six cards, it would be him, or he would know someone who would.  After a quick email exchange, I was tickled to know that he had the dastardly six I needed:

Odd combination, don't you think?  Jim also found a few of my rookie all star needs.  In fact, he emailed me that he had a 1964 Jimmie Hall and I ignored it at first, figuring he had emailed me this information by mistake.  But nope, it was on my wantlist and he had read it and found it for me.  The man knew my wantlist better than me...much like Henry Jones Jr., this is why I write things down, so I don't have to remember.  And once again, it is nice to know the system works!  I hope I can find the time this week to get to the post office to drop his cards in the mail.  Plus, his generosity is being rewarded by an all out insomnia driven search for a few of his nebulous nine.

Jim also put a little note in with the cards, always a wise decision, since sometimes packages get misplaced or worse, get to the bottom of the pile...

...no jim, thank you!

Joy of a Completed Page (or two).

       Someone reads my wantlists! Someone reads my wantlists! I mean, some of you have emailed me saying "nice collection" or "hey! let's trade" but I got some cards in the mail today directly off of my want list.  The system works!

       The package came from old reliable, Night Owl.  This was one of our smaller swaps, as I had sent him a few random Dodgers cards I had found to test a new envelope system.  He reciprocated by sending me a few current Mets (always appreciated) and the following:

Joy of a Completed Page™ #1 2011 Topps Heritage.

He sent eight different cards, but I only needed four. The Ramos, Baily, Konerko, and King Felix found their spots and this page is done.  I now have a page representing every year of Topps Heritage from the beginning.  I built the entire 2001 and 2002 sets back in the day, but sold them long ago.  Those short prints were a real pain in the ass and, from what I have read, they continue to be.  I find this method far more relaxing.  The other ones he sent, Matt Kemp, Whitey Ford, Jon Lester, and Ryan Braun, will all find spots in their respective player collections as I had gaps in each page.  And dig that Konerko card, I believe he is staring into my soul...

Joy of a Completed Page™ #2 1983 Donruss.

This page is nearly 30 years in the making.  Well, to be more precise, about six weeks.  When I decided to organize some of my more basic binders by manufacturer rather than strictly by year, I noticed that I had all the Donruss sets of the 80's represented except for 1982 and 1983.  Most of my cards from this era had long been consolidated (most with extreme prejudice) so I scrambled around to find nine to properly fill the pages.  I only found seven of each.  Enter Greg.  He sent me a pair of '83s, Steve Garvey and George Foster.  I made an executive decision and brought over the Howard Johnson from the Mets binder and replaced him with the Foster.  Now Hojo and Eddie Murray will be in a staring contest for all eternity.

Night Owl also sent over a 2009 Topps Denard Span from my Rookie All Star list, thus completing my 2009 rookie cup needs.  You made my night last night - if only you were a curvy redhead - thanks Greg!

Complete Set Sunday - 1995 Topps Cyberstats.

       Today I wrap up what became parallel weekend here at Starting Nine with one of my favorite sets of all time.  First, let's jump into the WABAC machine...1995 was an odd time for baseball.  The 1994 strike was damn near armageddon for the sport.  Both sides got themselves in a Mexican standoff over the issue of a salary cap and neither side blinked; we lost the World Series because of it.  Spring of 1995 brought folly to the proceedings when the owners decided to bring in replacement players for spring training.  Once they realized how ridiculous that idea was, they blinked and the sides settled, but nothing was really settled.  Not to get into the boring details, but it is obvious that the only one's who lost the 1994 strike were the fans.  I know folks who still don't care about baseball because of the whole nasty affair and I really can't blame them.

       Topps released their flagship set of cards in 1995 in a rather muted manner.  It wasn't in every toy store and CVS and they say the presses were run at their lowest levels since the mid 60's, so the cards were a little hard to find.  I was in my junior year of college in 1995 and probably at an all time low in terms of excitement about baseball in general and card collecting specifically.  So, due to the combination of youthful shenanigans and ennui over baseball, I don't think I bought a single pack of 1995 cards in 1995.  And it is a shame, because the Topps put out a quality set:

The simple borders and non-offensive but stylish font make for some good looking cards. They used some nice pictures and the area for the photo is nice and big.  Most noticeably, for the first time, Topps used gold foil on the base set, not the parallel set.  Turn the cards over and you see the backs also had some flair to them:

You get two pictures, an action shot and a head shot cleverly stylized into a Diamond Vision scoreboard look.  There were also the usual stats and some good write ups.  It is a shame no one noticed at the time, but the 1995 Topps set was put together very well, I wish they put as much time and creative effort into the contemporary base sets.

So, with gold foil on the front of the base cards, what on earth was Topps to do for a parallel?  I think the world would have continued turning without a parallel set (the base set did just fine without one inserted from 1996-2000), but Topps did something very different and kinda ballsy.  Now, because the mid 90's cards are not as deeply discussed in blog circles as current or vintage stuff, I have not seen many opinions about this parallel set...but I will throw out the notion that what Topps did was one of their most ingenious and daring efforts.

I present the 1995 Topps Cyberstats:

First, let's cover the aesthetics, the shimmering, refractor-like glow these cards have make them very attractive.  Sadly, I don't think my scanner captures the effect perfectly, but believe me, the shiny foil fronts alone would make this a worthy parallel set.  The kicker is the backs:

This is where this set differentiates its self from any set, before or after.  Topps decided to run a computer simulation to complete the unfinished 1994 baseball season and the put the results of that on the backs of these cards...

That's right, this is a parallel set from a parallel universe.


Like I said, I was too busy ignoring baseball and being a capricious youth to notice this set early in the year.  But the 1995 baseball season in Boston (where I was living) was pretty exciting.  The Sox surprisingly won the division and, little by little, they sucked me back into baseball fandom.  It was this team that made the Red Sox my baseball mistress (I am married to the Mets, after all).

Oh, back to the cards, lets look at a few more fronts and then get back to those backs.




Diving into some of these stats...according to Topps, Ken Griffey Jr. would have a monster year: .330 average 55 HR 133 RBI, which seems pretty accurate, given how well he was doing up until then and he would pretty much have two or three years just like that in the next few years.  I have to disagree with the Jeff Bagwell numbers, though.  The players went out on strike on August 12, and Bagwell was hit in the wrist with a pitch on August 10, breaking it.  I am pretty sure he would not have returned until very late in the season, if at all, so his numbers would have stayed right where they were (Bagwell won the 1994 NL MVP unanimously with a .368 average 39 HR and 116 RBI and an incredible .750 slugging - and no, I didn't have to look those numbers up...I am a big Bagwell fan). 


This is the last page of the set.  You can check out the stats for Darryl Strawberry on the original base card (above) and here in the Cyberstats world.  Darryl Strawberry was, as usual, coming back from injury and a drug suspension.  Look at that very Pedro-esque year they had for Pedro.  You might have thought it kind of a long shot then, but Pedro went on to put up those kind of numbers - and a heck of a lot better - over the next 10+ years.  Pedro Martinez makes me as happy as Darryl Strawberry makes me sad.

The set itself covers 396 of the 660 cards in the set, so most major players are covered and a lot of the rookies too.  If you have been paying attention to my odd predilections, I love that this set is 396 cards, because it fits perfectly into 44 pages, but that is certainly not why I kept this set.  When I discovered this set late in the 1995 year, I didn't do much about it, but in 1996, when my card collecting habit regained some steam, I bought as much of the 1995 cards as I could to catch up.  I built most of this set myself from those packs and finished it off at a show in 1996.  This set grew on me exponentially, both because of the spectra light fronts and the weird, bizarro-world stat backs.  I found it such an audacious choice for a parallel set and I poured over the alternative universe Topps created.  I wish they had advertised it more back then; I wish Topps would make such bold choices today in their set making.  I wish I knew more people as obsessed with this set as I am.  The set is in the front of the first book on my set shelf and it will probably always keep that status.

Post Script.  The set was punctuated with an insert set that was only available in the very hard to find 1995 factory set.  The set celebrates the pretend achievements of their alternative 1994.  I only have three of those cards seven cards, but I have the shiny foil Ken Griffey Jr. promo card, which is also pretty rare - and features a much better photo than the base card.

I will hopefully complete this page someday.  I have added the cards I need to my wantlist...if you think you can help, drop me a line.

Complete Set Sunday: Topps Rookie Cup.

        I promised a few posts ago to reveal one of my collecting obsessions.  Well, that particular oddity is going to require more preparation, so I will play bait and switch and expose a different one:

Topps Rookie All Stars!

My love of baseball cards is obvious...put a shiny little trophy on it....

...my reaction is simple:
 

This is one group of cards I do not keep in binders because most years there are 10 or 11 rookie all stars and only nine pockets on a page, thus ruining the whole visual makeup I like to maintain.  I might change my mind on this eventually, but for now they are all in 150-count cubes for my periodic ogling. 


In 2005, Topps released one of my favorite niche sets off all time, Topps Rookie Cup! (you can tell I love something by my overuse of exclamation points to describe it) It's as though they made this set just for me.  Kind of a crappy design, but I don't care, they all have that fantastic little trophy on it.

I bought this complete set on ebay and it has resided in a place of honor in one of my set binders ever since.  One thing I love about it is that players from "the dark period" (1974, 1979-1986) when they inexplicably didn't put the damn trophy on the cards finally get their hard-earned little golden idols.  If I had any sort of design skills, I would scan and make cards from the dark times with the proper recognition.  I am sure if I look around the interwebs there are plenty of lunatics who have done this, but I have not been that curious or motivated.  Yet.

Then, in 2008, Topps outdid themselves by making a two series insert set for the Rookie All Stars' 50th anniversary with 110 modern and vintage players.  The design mirrors the original 1959 cards, has the original trophy, and is five hundred kinds of wonderful.  I put this set together myself by pack ripping, trades, shows, and COMC.
 
Alas, Topps love affair with the Rookie All Star was short lived and no further sets have followed.  In fact, in 2010, they briefly changed the trophy (for worse) and started to forget to put it on some of the cards like they did in the old days.  2011 brought back the proper cup, but 2012 seems to have the problem of forgotten cups yet again. I could ramble on and on about these cards, but we both have lives.

I have updated the wantlist page with the All Star Rookie cards I don't have.  If you have any I need, shoot me an email and let's make a deal.