Thanks for a great post Patrick. The landscape of baseball card issuers became a little bit like the various boxing commissions. Too many spoils the pot!
I liked the 86 Topps set fine (especially because any time I pulled a Royal, I knew they were World Series champs) but I loved the 87 set. My memory of that set is the first pack I bought that year, I got a Wade Boggs right on top. Pretty good! I always had to try to build my sets through packs, and I would have been better off saving that money and buying the complete set. Sigh.
For whatever reason, I have held on to my cards all these years. A few years ago I bought a whole rack box of 1987 Topps. It sure was fun opening them, but even with those added to what I already had, I still don't have the complete set. Looks like I'm 77 short on my checklist, although none of them should be tough to get.
Before that, I tried to finish off the 1983 set (the first year I got into cards). I'm 25 short but two of those are the Gwynn and Sandberg rookie cards. $$$$$$
Yeah, those might set you back a few bucks. As I said in the article, I don't collect anymore, but my youngest son is into it right now— although, as I also pointed out in the article, buying a pack of cards has gotten so pricey, he can't really dive into it the way I could as a kid. But anyway, whenever I get him a pack, I often grab a pack or two of older cards while I'm there. They're cheaper, and it's fun to open them up and be reminded of a lot of players I've mostly forgotten about. I give the cards to my son, but I've toyed with the idea of trying to put together an '86 Topps set. So far, it hasn't progressed beyond that, but we'll see.
Thanks for a great post Patrick. The landscape of baseball card issuers became a little bit like the various boxing commissions. Too many spoils the pot!
Thanks for reading, Mark!
I liked the 86 Topps set fine (especially because any time I pulled a Royal, I knew they were World Series champs) but I loved the 87 set. My memory of that set is the first pack I bought that year, I got a Wade Boggs right on top. Pretty good! I always had to try to build my sets through packs, and I would have been better off saving that money and buying the complete set. Sigh.
Both great sets. I never really tried that hard to build complete sets, because I knew it was never going to happen.
For whatever reason, I have held on to my cards all these years. A few years ago I bought a whole rack box of 1987 Topps. It sure was fun opening them, but even with those added to what I already had, I still don't have the complete set. Looks like I'm 77 short on my checklist, although none of them should be tough to get.
Before that, I tried to finish off the 1983 set (the first year I got into cards). I'm 25 short but two of those are the Gwynn and Sandberg rookie cards. $$$$$$
Yeah, those might set you back a few bucks. As I said in the article, I don't collect anymore, but my youngest son is into it right now— although, as I also pointed out in the article, buying a pack of cards has gotten so pricey, he can't really dive into it the way I could as a kid. But anyway, whenever I get him a pack, I often grab a pack or two of older cards while I'm there. They're cheaper, and it's fun to open them up and be reminded of a lot of players I've mostly forgotten about. I give the cards to my son, but I've toyed with the idea of trying to put together an '86 Topps set. So far, it hasn't progressed beyond that, but we'll see.