I deserve to complete a set

With the significant volume of unpleasantness that has infected this month, and particularly this week (and probably the next), I'm feeling a little entitled.

That's what happens when things aren't going your way. You start to feel like you deserve something. I deserve that doughnut. I deserve to watch TV for the next six hours. Can you believe what he/she said to me? I deserve a few drinks.

That's how I'm feeling. Just a little bit mind you.

But I won't be stuffing my face or pounding back several at the bar. No, for this collector, he feels like he deserves to complete a set.

It's been awhile. I haven't been doing too well in that area either. The '73 Topps quest has stagnated (the long gaps between card shows has something to do with that). The '81 Fleer want list actually grew after I was down to what I thought was just one or two cards. It's now four. .. Isn't anything going right?

So that is why when I saw what was in an envelope from mr haverkamp that came just today, I shoved aside any of the packages that had arrived before it, scrapped my intended blog post idea and pushed that baby all the way to the front! Yes, this package is cutting in line. Because it completed a set! And I deserve to complete a set!

It also just happens to be one of my favorite retro sets of all-time.

The 2001 Upper Deck Decade 1970s set is not perfect. Not even close. First, there is the ridiculous name. I don't know what it means and it's a hassle every time to type it out. The amount of repetition among the players featured is ridiculous, too. There is a mish-mash of black & white and color images, which gives it an amateur look. And Upper Deck displays its usual lack of appreciation for collectors by repeating the same images within the set.

However, I love it for its ode to the 1970s. Many of my '70s favorites are included. And the colorful border design is an obvious riff on my all-time favorite set, from 1975 Topps.

I've mentioned before that I discovered this set during my hiatus from collecting. It was in 2001 or possibly 2002 when I was walking through Fay's Drugs and found these cards displayed in rack-pack fashion on an end cap. What in the world were these? Joe Morgan has another card? I bought a couple of packs and they were probably my favorite cards purchased during that 1995-2005 period until I discovered Fan Favorites a year or two later.

Here are the other cards that mr haverkamp sent that complete the set:

What a wonderful set to complete.

I still need to finish off a couple of insert sets -- Arms Race and Decade Dynasties -- but I am very happy that the base set is finished. Any set that pays tribute to the players of my childhood deserves to be completed.

There were three non-1970s cards in the envelope as well.

These are all for my 1985 Fleer completion quest. They may be on a 1980s card set, but all three are very 1970s players and I will think of them as '70s players before I ever get to their '80s days.

Also included was this brief Dodger in A&G mini form, Tim Federowicz. This is my 15th card -- all from 2012 -- of Federowicz, who played all of 89 games for L.A. He was still playing in the majors in 2018, but it's difficult to find any cards of him post-2012 because HE WASN'T A ROOKIE ANYMORE.

Yup, that stuff still gets me upset.

Because it's very un-1970s.

Now that the 2001 Upper Deck Decade 1970s set is complete, you can count on a post dedicated to a breakdown of the entire set. That will have to wait until there's a little more time in my life.

But I guarantee you that it be written. Because nothing makes me happier than reviewing a set that I've completed, especially when it's devoted to the '70s.

Sets like that deserve to be chronicled.