Entering the parallel universe

Today is Ron Cey's 71st birthday, and as habit around here, I try to write a post about my favorite player on his birthday.

I also try to obtain a new card of Cey on his birthday. But that's getting difficult.

I've mentioned before that I own most of Cey's cards already and it's not like they're making new ones. So most of what I'm lacking are cards that don't interest me a lot anyway.

For instance, there are a few relics of Cey out there that I don't have. But relics ... meh. They just can't get me to throw that card into my cart. Also, there are some autograph cards of Cey, but how many Cey autographs can I own? I have nearly two dozen already.

There also are a few weirdly shaped oddballs. If I'm in the right mood, I'll acquire one of those. But that urge doesn't come along often.

That leaves parallels.

There are still a fair amount of Cey parallels that I haven't obtained. For example, there is the black&white version of the above Archives Snapshots card from 2017 that I don't own yet.

Around about 2005, Cey started to re-emerge into products and there are a couple parallels there that I don't have.

Then there is the matter of this:

I could pursue all of these parallels although they are all essentially the same card. I have a few of them already so I guess that's a reason to go after the rest.

But as you can see, I'm not all that excited about landing these Cey parallels.

No, there is really only one Cey parallel that I care about. It is parallels of this card:

It is my all-time favorite card. It is the first Cey card that I ever saw.

But I do have most parallels of this card already.

I have the much-treasured mini parallel of this card. I also have the O-Pee-Chee version, two copies in fact.

No, there is really only one other parallel of this card that I still want.

And I ordered it up today.

As you know, I am attempting to complete a 1975 Topps buyback set. I have 40 percent of the set in buyback version, but I know there will come a time when I'll run out of cards to find. There are cards of stars and rookies and such that just don't seem to be out there.

And then there is the Cey buyback. Who knows if a buyback of the '75 Cey was made?

Well, I was strolling through COMC today, just perusing Ron Cey cards for the very sake of this post when I came face-to-face with this:

Holy smokes, that's a 1975 Ron Cey buyback.

I couldn't get that card into my cart fast enough. And then I couldn't hit the ship button fast enough.

So now that card is on its way to me.

What a card to get for The Penguin's birthday!

This, no joke, was the highlight of my day.