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C.A.: 2008 Topps Stadium Club Ichiro Suzuki

(Welcome to the lost weekend. Thanks to daylight savings time and work, this is the weekend each year in which Saturday and Sunday melds into one and sweeps past you so quickly that it's as if you reached Monday straight from Friday. In fact, give it a week and you won't be able to convince me that I created these posts this weekend. Time -- if you have any -- for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 200th in a series):


I heard the other day that Topps is teasing card collectors with what's supposed to be a Stadium Club card for 2014.

Whether there is a new Stadium Club set afoot or just a bunch of inserts of Bryce Harper, Yasiel Puig and Yu Darvish with the Stadium Club logo, the news has prompted me to turn my attention to my still incomplete 2008 Stadium Club set.

In 2008, Topps returned Stadium Club to the collecting world. I saw some cards and was hooked.

But as you know, '08 Stadium Club didn't make set collectors happy. It's quite possibly the most confusing set of all-time with difficult-to-find base cards and a perplexing number of variations. Topps basically killed a franchise in 2008.

That's why I would be surprised if Stadium Club returns as a full set this year. It's more likely a bunch of inserts.

Still, it's an excuse to finally finish the 2008 monstrosity. I mean, come on, look at that Ichiro card from the set! Yes, it's one of those stupid cards numbered to 999, but LOOK AT IT!

I have no desire to collect all the variation cards in the set, I just want the 150 cards that make up the base set.

Here is what I have left:

24 - Justin Upton
42 - Carlos Pena
45 - Josh Beckett
54 - Albert Pujols
57 - Roy Oswalt
72 - Robinson Cano
84 - Daisuke Matsuzaka

Seven cards may not seem like much, but all seven of those cards are divisible-by-three short-prints, numbered to 999.

I don't expect anyone to send me these cards. I don't know what I'd have to send in return. My plan is to take my time, find and then acquire these cards before it's 2015. I think giving myself nine months should be sufficient.

Otherwise, I'll be tempted to just trade off all the cards because being seven cards short on a set from six years ago is just too painful to see in a binder.

When it's complete -- if it's complete -- it will be the most bittersweet completed set in my collection.

That is until I get serious about 2008 Heritage.

Comments

I'm so excited and so scared for whatever they do with Stadium Club. I'm excited by the potential and scared they're going to reuse photos and fill it was more stupid parallels.
Fuji said…
Ichiro and Stadium Club go together like peanut butter and jelly. All three of his SC base cards are pretty awesome.