Another set complete (with the usual aggravation)

I normally don't try to complete portions of sets, it's just not the way I was brought up to collect.

But as card companies have made set collecting exceedingly difficult over the last couple of decades and not all that attractive at the same time, finishing small segments of sets seems like the better way to go for modern offerings.

I did it with 2016 Topps Archives and again with 2019's version of Archives. And now I've done it with the 30-card subset of stadium cards issued in last year's flagship.

I knew when I first started pulling these cards out of packs back in early 2019 that I wanted to complete the set. Then I found a bunch of them from Series 1 in a discount box during a card show last spring. I made sure to buy up the Series 2 ones during one of my COMC buys late in the year.

So here they are all now, following the Dodgers one, of course, because they're the best:

All right, some of you astute people may have noticed that's only 29 teams and 29 cards.

I discovered the same thing once I had what I thought was the entire set in hand.

It turns out I never purchased the San Francisco Giants card.

I'm not sure why. It's entirely possible my brain would not allow myself to buy a Giants card under some mistaken belief that any money purchased for a Giants card would go to the organization itself and we don't need to be supporting such a repugnant team.

But I had to do something about that. Sets must be complete.

So, for my final card purchase of the year, I used the last remaining cash left in my COMC account to pick up the Giants team card. But even that wasn't easy. Because it's the Giants. And Topps.

As I was shopping for the card, I came across the usual annoying parallels first. The gold Giants stadium parallel. The foil Giants stadium parallel. The 150th anniversary stamped parallel. Come on! I just want the basic card here!

I eventually found what I thought was the base card and hit ship.

This is what I ended up with:

It's difficult to see -- and trust me I didn't see it at all when I was buying it -- but this is the 582 Montgomery Club parallel. The stamp appears over the stands on the left side.

All I knew of the 582 Montgomery Club is that it's that exclusive club that Topps is promoting where people who sign up get specially designed cards. I didn't know there were dumb stamped parallels, too. (I apparently didn't read the card description very carefully either).

I went back to try to get the base version of the card to add to my cart. But, weirdly, the base card is sold out.

It is the ONLY one of the stadium base cards that is sold out on COMC. I know this because I checked. I typed in the convoluted stadium names for every team, and base cards are available for every one ... except the Giants.

This is so, so Giants. To be annoying to me, in the most weird and tiny, irritating way.

But I'm calling the set complete anyway. Maybe I'll get the base card someday, maybe I won't. Doesn't matter. It's only the Giants. It's only a stamp.

And with that, I'd like to review the cards in this set.

The stadium photos are just different enough that I can select some of my favorites in various categories:

Most patriotic card: That would be the Reds' stadium with the huge outfield flag.

Sunniest card: St. Louis' Busch Stadium. I was a little surprised that so many of the photos selected show overcast days.

Best sky effect: The Mets' Citi Field shows a beautiful sunset. Not even the fireworks card for the Rockies' Coors Stadium can beat that (the Rockies card also shows a crowd of people on the outfield grass, which looks unnatural. Aren't there supposed to be just 3 people in that space?)

Most identifiable player: Jose Urena of the Marlins. I noticed that the photo faces toward home plate instead of the outfield where we could have seen the much-mocked sculpture one last time. It was removed after the 2018 season, but my guess is a lot of the photos from this set were taken in 2018.

Best night card (that doesn't include fireworks): Angels Stadium. The Phillies card is the only other obvious night card and even that is really a sunset card. Kind of a lost opportunity since baseball stadiums at night are beautiful.

Least sunny card: Tropicana Field. You can't see the sun inside.

Stadium shots that make me uncomfortable: Both Milwaukee's and Seattle's stadiums feature monstrous overhead structures over or just outside their parks. Maybe you don't notice it at the park, but I don't need something that large hovering over me.

Worst image: San Diego's card is just an advertisement for Petco as the photo is a shot of the outside of the stadium. I don't know why an inside stadium shot wasn't picked. This was an issue with Upper Deck's stadium cards in 2010, too. Detroit's card also shows the outside of the stadium, but at least there's a cool tiger to greet you.

Weirdest image: Kansas City's shot focusing on a specific element inside the stadium, the wall mural. I know the waterfalls have been displayed on past Topps cards but I'm not sick of them yet. They need to be in every Royals stadium shot.

Best skyline shot: There are several of them. I think if PNC Park's photo was taken on a sunny day, it would top everyone. But the honor goes to Busch Stadium.

Best field backdrop if you like the water: The Giants' Oracle Park, obviously. I'm a land guy, not a water guy, but it is pretty.

Already obsolete shot: The Rangers' Globe Life Park, which saw its last MLB game at the end of this past season.

I also like the backs of these cards because they contain lots of interesting information and are a reminder of team cards from the past.

The first time I saw the stadium layouts on the backs of cards were with the 1956 Topps team cards. Those '56 cards were more interesting because not only were the stadium dimensions much more distinctive but Topps listed the outfield dimensions on the card.

I want to go through these cards some more and see if there's any other weird things I can find -- maybe spy equipment in the Astros photo or Topps tinkering with ads.

Even though the Giants card irked me, I'm still super pleased with this completed set. And I got another card in my order that balanced out the Giants aggravation.

This is one of the "purple hot box" chrome cards from last year's Heritage set. Topps moved to a more lavender look to its Heritage purple parallels in 2018. I prefer the stronger color, but a pretty Kershaw card is a pretty Kershaw card.

I added one more card to my purchase and that was actually the final card I picked up in 2019. You'll see that in a post soon.

Don't get too excited. It's mostly something that would interest only me. But then this IS my blog.