Yesterday my vehicle received four brand-new tires. It was long overdue. I hadn't changed them since I bought it four years ago, and it had been hovering over my head for awhile now.
You know how it goes. Tires are expensive -- everything is. And people who aren't made of cash are always pushing it. But I don't like the chaos in my brain of the multitude of unfinished tasks, and when something is accomplished -- even something as mundane as new tires -- I feel that endorphin rush, that rush of "Done!" Finally, something I can cross of The Massive List.
This is something that translates easily to the hobby, especially if you are some sort of completist, as I am. I like finishing sets, large flagship sets in particular, but also team sets, and sometimes a mini insert set, when I need a fix fast.
There is no better feeling in the hobby for me than finishing a set, yelling "Done!" in the privacy of my own home as I slip the final card into the binder. I HAVE CONQUERED! This is why I will never comprehend player collectors, whose tasks often never end. I have enough unfinished tasks in life already!
My most recent "Done!" moment was wrapping up the 2025 Topps Series 1 set this week. The final card was Bobby Witt Jr. and it came from Max of Starting Nine. As you may recall a few months ago, I received most of the Series 1 set from Greg L, who opened a whole bunch of it. But even opening as much as he did, he came up a few cards short of finishing a full second set. So I went about getting the final cards.
Most I found at a card show in April. That left two cards to get. They were Mike Trout and Bobby Witt Jr. Big surprise. How come the last card is never some Marlin you've never heard of?
Trout arrived in a TCDB trade -- for free, didn't even have to send a card back. And now Witt is here. I Am Done! ... Per usual, a day or two after finalizing the trade with Max, I received another trade offer on TCDB that included the Witt card. I didn't want to reject it because I wanted the other cards offered, so now I'll have dupes of the card that was holding out on me.
Max sent some other very key Dodgers along with Witt. I'm always desperate for current Heritage at this time of year, especially the Dodgers, especially the short-print Dodgers. The two injured pitchers above are both SPs. The Mookie is the chrome version, and, yes, I still need the regular SP'd version.
You're looking at two quests for Done with these cards because I want to finish 2025 Heritage as well as a separate team set. Come on, man, I can't put new tires on my vehicles every week, this is what's getting me through!!!
Now, if you've been paying attention closely to this blog over the years you know that I do collect cards that aren't obvious parts of set-completion quests. I received a few of those types of cards recently, too.
This Topps Online rookie card of Kyle Freeland arrived from the biggest Freeland collector I know, Kenny at Torren' Up Cards (though maybe he's done collecting him). He sent it because it's a night card. He also looked up the date of the photo, which was taken a day before my birthday eight years ago.
Night cards' ultimate goal in my collection is making it into the Awesome Night Card Binder. Technically, that's a set quest because I will be done when all of the page spaces are filled, which I never expect to happen -- so what am I actually doing here??
Sadly, Freeland isn't making it into the binder. He has a very low card number -- #7 -- which automatically makes it impossible to crack the binder. The first nine spots are set in stone. Interestingly though, this is the card that kept out Freeland:
It's another Rockie! With a date pinned down, too! But Brent Mayne isn't even a pitcher, which is why this card is a forever choice in the binder.
Now that I've completed 1977 and 1979 Topps football (Done!), my football set quests are mostly Bills team sets. That's pretty much for the '70s and '80s though. Anything else is a card of a player from when I covered the team, such as Andre Reed here. These are random, interests -- why would I ever try to complete Prizm? But I saw this card featured on Sportscards From the Dollar Store and mentioned that I needed it. Douglas sent it!
He also sent this oversized Upper Deck card of long ago Sabres defenseman Marco Scandella. Its Winter Classic outdoor theme is enough to overcome my mission to add only Sabres cards from the vintage era/1980s (unless you're Dominik Hasek). It's a weird size, that I think will have to go in a two-pocket, but better than stashing it in a box!
Douglas said he was waiting for an envelope to fit to send the card, and I happened to send him one with a oversized card I sent. (P.S. I just received a Return To Sender envelope of my final Mets PWE envelope I was sending him -- that I sent in February. I don't think Doug's moved, so I'm going to chalk this up to postal strife in Canada?).
So, those last few cards aren't related much to Done, but I think they show I've grown a little in being willing to add some uncertainty in my collecting efforts.
There's still plenty to finish out there for me on the set front, and speaking of that, this post is now DONE.
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