teamconfusion4u.com

All right, I'm already regretting the title to this post, and I'm still not happy that I'm going through with writing this at all.

But my job on this blog is to document my collecting journey, and this is a part of that. Just know that this is a small, small, small inconvenience in what is a wonderful asset to the hobby.

Teamsets4u.com made my want lists what they are today. I haven't even accessed the site fully -- I know there are many other sets listed there that I need to add to my want lists. But if you scroll through the entire page of my want lists, it will take you a little while anyway. I owe that to teamsets4u.

It is an invaluable resource for team collectors. Every set painstakingly separated by team.

It's an amazing undertaking. All that patience, all that time.

I find periodic errors, which are perfectly understandable given the massive number of sets issued through the years, especially since the early 1990s. There is no way you couldn't screw up with all the ways sets confused collectors throughout the last two decades.

While going through teamsets4u, I've come across Expos listed as Dodgers and other obvious mistakes that haven't been an issue. I know that Steve Rogers never pitched for the Dodgers.

But there's one error that has tripped me up periodically. It's when a player is listed with the Dodgers, but he actually had recently left the Dodgers and appears in the set with another team. A couple days ago I was looking through last year's Heritage team set on teamsets4u and saw that Russell Martin was listed under the Dodgers. But he's obviously featured with the Yankees on his card.

I've often taken teamsets4u's word for it, listed the card as one that I needed on my want list, then much later realized that it was not a Dodger card and quickly erased it thinking "phew, glad no one sent me that card."

This time I wasn't so lucky.

This wasn't a case of a player recently leaving the Dodgers and being listed incorrectly with the Dodgers. This was the case of a player with the same name as a well-known Dodger.

Quite some time ago, I acquired the Ramon Martinez card that you see at the top of the post to complete my 1993 Topps Stadium Club Dodger set. Or so I thought.

Several months ago, I realized that there was a second Ramon Martinez listed under '93 Stadium Club in teamsets4u. This one was numbered 322. The one that I had was numbered 71.

"Crap," I thought. "There are two Ramon Martinezes in this set."

I assumed that's what it must be. In '93, we were well into the era of players receiving multiple cards in one set. I didn't necessarily like it and think it adds to confusion like this, but I shrugged it off as the game that I have to play if I want to collect modern era cards. Besides, Stadium Club had those Member's Choice cards. Probably one of those.

I dutifully listed "1993 Stadium Club Ramon Martinez (#322)" on my Nebulous 9 because I wanted to be done with the set once and for all.

Then months of blissful ignorance went by until a package from Johngy's Beat arrived and one of the cards to fall out was this:

Wha? Ramon Martinez -- a MARLIN?

I flipped over the card and, sure enough, it was card No. 322.

I'd been duped by teamsets4u.

This particular Ramon Martinez never made it to the major leagues. He never even made it above Double A. Shame on Stadium Club for creating a card for him in its set.

I'm sure Johngy was wondering why I had posted a Marlins card on my Nebulous 9 list.

Fortunately, another Nebulous 9 need was met in the same package:

This is 2006 Upper Deck J.D. Drew #243. There are two J.D. Drew cards in '06 Upper Deck. But I knew for a fact that both featured him as a Dodger, so there was no surprise here.

See? I get these things right some of the time.

Also, Johngy sent every last remaining 1993 Topps gold Dodger card that I needed:

I think this is the first gold team set that I've ever completed. Cool!

I'm still reserving the '75 minis that Johngy sent for another post.

Meanwhile, I'll remain firmly dedicated to teamsets4u. And if you're a team collector, I recommend that you use it, too. You'll come across a few glitches, but really they're minor. So what if you end up with a Marlins card from the early '90s? Small price to pay.

There is a contact email on the site for questions, and I've considered emailing to point out these small issues. But for some reason I've hesitated. I guess I just don't want to be THAT GUY who says, "Hey great site. You've got mistakes here and here and here."

Of course, maybe that's what I just did.