Down the rabbit hole

I received a ponderous number of Dodger cards from the late '90s/early '00s from Play at the Plate a couple of weeks ago.

I don't have much more to say about cards from this era than I already have. They are indeed welcome, but because they come from a time when I didn't collect and really paid little attention to baseball, most of the pleasure I get from them is checking them off the list.

My want lists from this time period are vast and pretty much immortal. I can't possibly hope to kill off all of them in my lifetime. And as evidence, Brian sent me around 60 cards directly off those want lists from the late '90s/early '00s and barely made a dent.

In fact, let's head down the rabbit hole and see exactly how much damage he did from sets of that insane, spastic era. Let's hope I can get back out the other side.


TOPPS

1999 Stadium Club

Cards acquired: two
Cards left on the want list: three
Thought I'm left with here: The play doesn't appear to be working out for Charles Johnson.



BOWMAN

1998 Bowman

Cards acquired: one
Cards left on want list: NONE
Thought I'm left with here: Well, that wasn't too difficult! Bowman Piazza was a former Nebulous 9 need.

2002 Bowman

Cards acquired: one
Cards left on want list: one
Thought I'm left with here: Every time I acquire a 12-year-old card of a player I've never heard of, I do a thorough evaluation of my life.


DONRUSS

1998 Preferred

Cards acquired: one
Cards left on want list: six
Thought I'm left with here: One of the few '90s base sets that stands out for me. I should have more of these.


FLEER

1999 Flair Showcase

Cards acquired: one
Cards left on want list: 11 (I think, who knows?)
Thought I'm left with here: Fleer should have served time for this set.

1997 Fleer Ultra

Cards acquired: two (plus one insert)
Cards left on want list: 10
Thought I'm left with here: Wondering how large my want list would be if I included most inserts.

 

1998 Fleer Ultra

Cards acquired: one
Cards left on the want list: 11
Thought I'm left with here: Love the look of this set. Don't love that there's 11 cards to go.

1999 Fleer Tradition

Cards acquired: 12 (plus one parallel)
Cards left on the want list: five
Thought I'm left with here: WHAT? After all that I still have five cards left?

 2001 Fleer Tradition

Cards acquired: three
Cards left on the want list: three
Thought I'm left with here: Todd Hundley reminds me why I didn't pay attention to baseball at this time.

 2001 Fleer Triple Crown

Cards acquired: one
Cards left on the want list: one
Thought I'm left with here: I have no idea who Shawn Gilbert is. Until I scanned this card, I thought it was a card of Eric Karros. I have to pay more attention.

2002 Fleer Ultra

Cards acquired: two
Cards left on the want list: two
Thought I'm left with here: Not a pretty set. It shares something in common with '96 Donruss. That's not a good place for a nameplate with a full-bleed set.


LEAF

2002 Leaf Rookies and Stars

Cards acquired: five
Cards left on the want list: nine
Thought I'm left with here: There are all kinds of card numbers left with the letter "A" after it. I don't even want to know what that means.


PACIFIC

1998 Pacific Omega

Cards acquired: four
Cards left on want list: NONE!
Thought I'm left with here: Other than that Omega was an ugly, ugly set, I get this confused with '99 Omega (also ugly, ugly) and I fear I've probably flubbed both want lists so badly that they're irretrievably broken.

1999 Pacific

Cards acquired: six
Cards left on the want list: two
Thought I'm left with here: Even though there are still cards left on the list, I believe Brian did the most damage with this set. At the very least he made me realize that '99 Pacific exists.

1999 Pacific Crown Collection

Cards acquired: three
Cards left on the want list: two
Thought I'm left with here: I'm also now aware that Pacific Crown Collection exists.

1999 Pacific Aurora

Cards acquired: one
Cards left on want list: one
Thought I'm left with here: I have about as many thoughts as Karros is exhibiting in his profile photo.

2000 Pacific

Cards acquired: one
Cards left on want list: 11
Thought I'm left with here: I believe this is a parallel, so it's just a pretty card to view.

2000 Pacific Private Stock

Cards acquired: one
Cards left on want list: NONE
Thought I'm left with here: Can't get too excited. There are only five cards in the team set.


SKYBOX

1999 Skybox Thunder

Cards acquired: one
Cards left on want list: one
Thought I'm left with here: I always must read the backs of these painful things:

"Here comes Angel Pena. Players are so jealous of your skillz, they disdain ya. But it don't pain ya. You're the one who's hurtin' them."

Ow, ow, OW!


UPPER DECK

2000 Upper Deck MVP

Cards acquired: two (one parallel up at the top of the post)
Cards left on the want list: NONE
Thought I'm left with here: I'm having a difficult time typing the word "acquired".

 

2001 Upper Deck Vintage

Cards acquired: one

Cards left on the want list: three

Thought I'm left with here: This is the last card on this post! Yay!

And I've somehow made my way back out of the late '90s/early aughts.

Well, I was able to cross five sets off the list. That's pretty good, especially for this time period. I'm very happy to have less of those needs than I did before Brian sent me the package. And I'm very happy to be able to put them into a binder.

But now that the want list numbers have been erased, most of the fun is done.