Minis without end

When I coerced UltraPro into making pages to house 1975 Topps-style minis and then somehow got them to send me a box of the new pages, I knew it wouldn't be long before the guilt would set in.

My primary goal in getting these pages made was so I could store my 1975 Topps mini collection, which is now three cards away from completion.

That collection is now stored in those free pages and ... I have a few leftover.

What do I do with the leftovers? And -- here is where the guilt comes in -- will I ever need more of these mini style pages?

I eased my guilty thoughts by quickly storing some 1970s Kellogg's 3-D cards in the remaining mini pages, knowing that I would likely be pursuing more Kellogg's cards in the near future. But at the achingly slow rate that I am adding cards to my collection, when would I ever need to buy more mini pages for the cause?

Enter Tony of Off Hiatus Baseball Cards, who reminded me that '75-style minis are here to stay in many different forms.

He sent me several Dodgers from the 2014 Topps mini set. I didn't even know Topps was doing the mini thing again this year, and have no idea how you can obtain them, but yet here were all of the familiar 2014 base cards in mini form. And that caused me to whip out one of the extra mini pages:

Those are the minis, proudly displayed in one of the new-fangled pages. Tony didn't send exactly nine, he also added the nifty little gold Kenley Jansen mini (numbered to 63 for whatever odd reason).

(Not going to mention I still need the base version of some of those cards).

This makes me realize that I have plenty of minis from over the last few years and plenty of uses for those mini pages. Because of that, I recently acquired some mini pages in a trade, and I will someday transfer all of those 2012 and 2013 Topps minis into proper mini pages. I am sure one day I really will run out of those pages and be knocking on UltraPro's door.

Meanwhile, Tony sent a few regular-sized cards, too. We're still doing the purple thing with Chrome.

This is my first Dodger from this year's Topps Finest, which I really like a lot. Colorful Finest is the finest Finest.

Finally, a card I saw on Tony's blog that I had to have. It looks like you're average 1969 Topps Willie Davis card.

But careful observers would note a perforated edge on the right (there's also another one at the top).

That's because it's a Dover Publications reprint of the '69 Topps Davis. I remember as a youngster Dover Publications reprints of ancient cards like 1930s Goudey and Cracker Jack cards. I didn't know they did more modern day cards, too.

For comparison, that is the back from an actual '69 Topps Davis. The Dover reprint is lacking in color and is also on much thinner stock.

My next task is to figure out when the Dover version of the card was printed.

Hobby tasks never end. Researching, collecting minis and finding mini pages.

Not that I'm complaining.