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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