Sparkly, tiny, pricey and mine

My card collection might be regimented compared with some, but I have enough variety to keep me interested. And only the most expert want list searchers can dig up items from several different needs and send them to me.

One of those experts is Greg, a.k.a, grogg. He's recently reactivated his card blog, Nearly Mint, and he's collecting the 1975 Topps set! He's a wise collector.

He's so wise that he found stuff from so many different want lists that I'm still trying to figure out how he did it.  How's this for variety?:

He sent this junk wax need from off the Nebulous 9 list, a quarter card of failed uber-prospect Jose Offerman.

And he sent this short-print from last year's Gypsy Queen that had sitting on my Nebulous 9 for longer than all but one card.

And he sent the last 1995 Studio card I needed for the team set. I know you can't actually use this card to buy stuff, but I'm willing to bet that if Pedro Martinez has a card in this set, you'd have a better chance with that one.

He also sent these two Nebulous 9 needs, which allows me to do this:

There may be a short-print or two missing, but otherwise that is the entire Dodgers team set for base and Update for the diamond sparkle parallels from 2011.

Yeah, it took me four years, and yeah I may never complete another team parallel set again, but I'm sure happy to have this one done.

After taking care of the Nebulous 9, Greg moved on to my much lengthier want lists.

Who needs early '90s gold parallels? I do! I do!

Who needs a '90s Nomo? Meeeeeeeeee!

Who needs a 2014 Bowman Chrome Dodger for which there is no want list yet? That'd be me, of course.

One of my newest want lists is the 2014 Allen and Ginter set, and Greg found that list, too.

Then he added something that I refuse to make a want list for -- a bunch of A&G minis! Weeeeee!

All of these make the frankenset mini binder. That's quite a feat, knocking out all those spots (the new task is now knocking out that Brian Wilson card).

I've been asked to provided a frankenset mini want list in the past, but I'm not going to supply one unless I'm down to needing less than 10 cards. Part of the joy of this project is pulling and receiving random cards and deciding whether they make it or not. If someone fills a want list then I'm just adding whatever cards I get to blank spots. Where's the fun in that? I want the power of arbitrary decision-making!

Finally, Greg went way back and hit some rather pricey wants on my list -- 1972 Topps high numbers.

These, without a doubt were the most fun cards in the package. I'll start with some relatively low level cards.

Those are all cards between #529-#594. Not super-high, but not the easiest to track either. I hope you took notice of Ed Brinkman's neck. Has to be the longest neck ever on a baseball card.

Now for some much higher cards.

#613 - Mike Ferraro. I call this "Airbrushed and Collared in the Foothills".

#723 - Al Santorini. A member of the 1969 expansion Padres. Plus an equipment bag.

#744 - Jim Slaton. Throwing balls into the dugout at Yankee Stadium.

These are all greatly appreciated and tremendous fun. I love opening up my 1972 Topps binder every time.

Greg sent one other card, that's quite a bit older than '72 Jim Slaton here.

It's interesting that I'm checking this card of my want list because there are a whole bunch things checked off on it already.

It's the 1959 Topps team card! If you look close you can see Koufax and Drysdale and Hodges and Snider and Gilliam and a bunch of clubhouse men.

This card means I just have Koufax to go to finish off the '59 Dodgers set, and since I've made Koufaxes a priority this year, I should be pouncing on that relatively soon.

I sure do appreciate folks like Greg scouring my very large want lists for cards. I'm grateful for even one card off my want lists, let alone two or three dozen.

I do want to keep the variety in my want list, after all. You don't want me to get bored.