A while back, I wrote about how I was trying to fill in some missing Topps baseball card sets. Mission accomplished, and I now own every Topps set from 1978 through 2005. A key set that comes out every year is the Topps Traded set. Not only does this set show their player in the correct uniform at year end (so Placido Polanco has a card in a Tiger uniform, while in the base set, he was in a Phillies attire), it also have all of the rookies that debuted during the season and it also has a card for each of the draft picks. So I believe Felix Hernandez’s first card is in this set as is Justin verlander’s.

One thing they did change is, it’s no longer the “Traded” set, it’s the “Updates and Highlights” set. And it’s a lot larger. This year’s set checks in at 330 cards, while a lot of the older sets barely topped the 100 card mark. I liken this to Series 3 of the Topps set.

The problem is, they’re not sold in sets. I bought a couple of boxes of packs from Sports Card Central. My local card shop closed up and I found Sports Card Central through ebay and I’ve been using them ever since. Very professional and if you buy enough stuff, they’ll eat the shipping.

Anyway, I’ve been busy opening up and sorting my cards. I bought what I thought was well more then I needed to complete the set and I was pretty much correct. I say pretty much, because I now have a dilemma.

I’m missing one card. Carlos Lee’s Homerun Derby card. And the odds of a card shop having loose cards this soon for this set are pretty slim. So my options are to wait and hope I can pick up the card from someone, or buy another box of packs, which could produce a second set. I’m still on the fence.

What I did find was how much fun I had going through them. It’s something I miss, and now I think instead of buying factory sets, I’ll buy packs and build my own sets. This is beneficial because you get some special inserts now and then and you also get extras. So even though I’m a card short of the set, I have three Felix Hernandez cards. Not too shabby.

***UPDATE***

Well, I finished the sorting last night (Wed) and it looks like I do only need the one card.

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Since my son’s been born (hard to believe it’s almost been a year), I’ve rekindled my interest in baseball cards. I went back and looked up how much the book value of the 1971 Topps Set and though of how great it would have been to have sets since the year I was born. So I decided to not only fill the holes I have in my Topps sets, but to also buy my son the newest factory set every year just to keep the collection going.

I also decided to go back and try to either buy or build sets going back to my date of birth (i.e. the 1971 Topps set). I picked up a couple of 1979 Topps lots via ebay, and decided I needed a couple of 800 count boxes to keep the cards in, so on the way home one day I stopped at the local baseball card store.

And they were closed. For good. The store was empty. I had been in there only a few times, and most of what they had was overpriced compared to what I could get on ebay, so I opted for the cheaper route. While I’m not sure if they’re “Out of Business” or if they just decided to close their brick and mortar store and go the internet route, I got to thinking about how Ebay has basically destroyed the traditional baseball card shop.

I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. I spent a lot of time in my local card store (they had arcade games as well), so I have some fond memories. But I also don’t like playing sometimes 20% more (and tack on another 6% for sales tax) for something. So while I was a little sad to see the store as closed, it really doesn’t affect me. At all.

So now I have to find a new card store. If anyone could recommend one in Oakland County, I’d appreciate it.

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In my quest to own every baseball card ever created, I thought it would be cool to try to build a relatively older set. I recently bought 1,000 loose 1979 Topps commons and minor stars, and while it went a long way towards finishing the set, I’m now stuck with a ton of doubles.

If anyone’s interested in these cards, drop me a line and maybe we can work out a trade.

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