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Traveling through my wants a decade at a time


It's fairly clear that out of all the decades in which trading cards were produced, I love those from the 1970s the most.

After that, I enjoy the '80s, followed by the '50s. Next is the '00s/current cards, followed by the 1960s, followed by the '90s. And although I enjoy pre-1950s cards probably more than some of those already listed, I don't dare figure out where they fit in, because I just haven't seen enough of them in person.

But it's fair to say I don't limit myself to a single time period. Some day I might. It's more and more tempting to focus on the '70s and dismiss everything else. But I'm not at that point yet.

All you gotta do is look at my want list to get that.

And, damn, did Greg/grogg ever look at my want list. The operator of Nearly Mint has sent quite a few great cards my way over the years and this package I rank right with the best. I can say with confidence Greg is one of the greatest want list analyzers in history.

His fulfillment of several wants is so thorough that I have to break it down by decade, from present time to -- well, let's not get carried away now -- we'll stop it at the '70s.

Here we go:


2010-15

Here are four more cards from my favorite insert set from this time period. The "More Tales Of The Game" is the Topps Update sequel to the flagship set's "Tales Of The Game". "Tales Of The Game" is complete, and now "More Tales Of The Game" is one card from being complete.

#MTOG-5 - "Ruth Laps The League"

That Ruth is all I need, and then I'll throw a party.


2000-09

This the Retro Decade, and Greg stuffed plenty of retro into the envelope. I'll start with the Diamond Kings.


Pitchers who flamed out pretty quickly.



I shouldn't like this set, but I weirdly do.


And this one. I'll call this the grogg/night owl special, because it combines Cubs and Dodgers. I could have lived to be 450 and not known about this card that so very obviously belongs in my Dodger binders.



Still not done with the '00s Retro. This is Donruss Originals acting all nostalgic for its first few sets. Little did it know that in a few short years Panini would take over its designs and foist weird, bastardized versions of Donruss on the public.


Topps Retro, now. This Brad Penny card is a short-print, a former Nebulous 9 need, and finally completes the 2006 Heritage team set for me. I couldn't be more pleased with Penny's chin squirrel.



Yeah, I know. That's not retro at all. It's foily and shiny and filled with people in non-MLB uniforms. Can you believe this stuff is on my want list? But grogg uncovered it, and I'm not questioning the expert. Somebody please tell me who Logan Bawcom is.


I want all of this card. Do you hear me? There are a thousand of them. I want them all.


1990-99


This is the decade where grogg does most of his damage. Unfortunately, it's also the decade where I have the least to say. These are from 1996 Fleer. The Piazza is much shinier than you see here.



Another trio, this time from 1996 Flair, a set that I have virtually ignored.



More '90s trios. These are from the puzzling '95 Fleer Ultra. I've never bothered to figure out why some names are in blue and some are in red.


Greg really piled on the 1997 Fleer Ultra. These aren't even all of them, and even with all that, I still have far to go.




You want '90s parallels? Grogg's got 'em.


'90s inserts? Grogg sent those, too.


These last three '90s cards were all on the Nebulous 9 list. Gibson is one of the final, elusive late '80s/early '90s box-set Dodgers that I need (there are still a few left). Candiotti completes the '92 OPC Premier set. And, sorry, 1994 collectors, the Black Gold Piazza is mine.


1980-89


I can't feature the sheer volume of '80s cards as I did '90s, because, really, who needs '80s cards?

But these 1981 Donruss are very key. Six more off the want list means four more to complete the set. What am I waiting for?


1970-79


This was completely unexpected and very cool.

Something -- I didn't know what, since I've already completed both '75 Topps flagship and mini -- arrived in a '75 Topps wrapper.

It was a mystery, and as you can see, there are actually 1975 Topps cards that came from that wrapper.


I know that grogg is also collecting the 1975 Topps set (he just landed a George Brett recently!). Perhaps potential upgrades?

No, it wasn't anything like that.


They were buybacks!


This collecting quest is really amusing me.

I can't believe the shape these cards are in -- if they didn't feature the stamp I'd see if I could upgrade anything in my set. But right now I'm too happy to receive my first mass-installment for my quest to accumulate as many '75 buybacks as I can.

Just 646 to go now. Crikey, I might need to make a list!

While I think about adding that, I'll be crossing off an bunch of other numbers thanks to this package. The sheer variety will keep me busy for a long time.

Once again:

Comments

Zippy Zappy said…
"Somebody please tell me who Logan Bawcom is."

He's one of the guys who got traded to the Mariners in the Brandon League deal.
Fuji said…
Those 75 Topps Originals are awesome! But I love the 90's too. Overproduced? Yeah. Boatload of products? Yep. But they also had a handful of very cool insert sets. Plus that's the decade where cardboard (and non-cardboard) innovation flourished. Plus... in the last year or so, I've really started to enjoy collecting on-card autographs and the 90's were filled with those.