Catching Up and Finishing Off

Back in March, I announced that this year would have a focus of putting a bow on some of the collecting projects I've been working on for years. I've fallen way behind in my blogging, so I have a few purchases too share to that end. But first, I would be remiss not to share what a fellow blogger sent me recently. Jon of Penny Sleeve for Your Thoughts was kind enough to send this trio my way from one of his giveaways last month.

The two outside cards were ones that I claimed. But perhaps the best card of them all is the Cracked Ice Cooperstown of Billy Williams that Jon just threw in out of the goodness of his heart.

On to the purchases. I have orders from Sportlots box and COMC that used to try to put bring various projects to an end.

 

These cards from COMC go toward my NFL All-Decade teams. SI for Kids Walter Payton finishes his page on the eighties team, as do Richard Seymour and Joey Porter for their respective pages in the aughts.
 

With these cards from Sportlots, I have filled all but two holes in my All-Decade 2000s binder. I need one each of Alan Faneca and Larry Allen still to finish that project off. The All-Decade 1990s binder project is already complete.

These cards all helped the 1980s All-Decade project. I am so close on this one now. I will never complete a full page of Dave Butz and John Anderson--there just isn't enough in existence to do that. But I am down to just a few Kenny Easley and Nolan Cromwell, along with one Mike Haynes and I'm done with that project.

Sportlots helped me finish off Mo Rivera in my All-Star Games MVP project binders.

Concepcion, Hoyt, Pedro, and Soriano all have completed pages. Ripken was already done, but I wanted the Gallery card. The seller threw in the Donruss as a protector card.

Leon Wagner, at the top of the page, wasn't quite done with this Sportlots order.

But I did finish his page in my COMC order! This scan also features the last cards I needed for Tom Tresh's ROY page (it's the only one of him on the Tigers,  besides an oddball Milton Bradley) and Jack Sanford's page of the same project. I also believe that this is one of only a few cards in existence of Gregg Olson with the Dodgers, so I needed it, too. Sadly, there are couple of teams that Olson suited up for that no card was ever made to document it. There is one card--1996 Hebrew National--of Olson with the Tigers. If I ever find that one, I'll have cards representing Olson with every team that he ever had a card with.

The bottom row of Campaneris, Kaline, and Kessinger are for my All-Time All-Star project.

Miguel Tejada All-Star MVP page=done!

Carl Crawford ASG MVP page=done!

Brian McCann ASG MVP page=done!

Melky Cabrera ASG MVP page=done! The liquorfractor is a nice addition to my collection.

J.D. Drew, Prince Fielder, and Tony Perez pages=done! That Stadium Club J.D. Drew is one of my favorite card images ever.

In case you don't remember, my Rookie of the Year project is to (a) fill up a page and (b) document a Rookie of the Year winner's career by including at least one card for each team he played for. This COMC shipment helped with these ROYs.

And these.

And these. I'm so happy with the variety of teams to help my project--3 teams for Frank Robinson, 3 teams for Ron Hansen, 2 teams each for Tommie Agee, Stan Bahnsen, and Ted Sizemore.

These Rookie of the Year cards came from Sportlots. That finishes off the Jackie Robinson and Butch Metzger portion of the project. It gets me one step closer to finishing Jonathan India--the latest Rookie of the Year winners are mostly the ones I have left. Those and a few active guys who have new teams for me to add, like Jacob deGrom and Justin Verlander.

One of my other projects revolves around the NFL's 100th Anniversary All-Time Team. My goal is one card for each member of this team with the following parameters: the card must be older than me, or a rookie card, or serial-numbered less than 500. All of these cards from my COMC purchase go toward the All-Time Team project.

With these cards, I have filled every page of every ASG MVP except the last three: Shane Bieber (need 3 more), Vlad Jr. (5), and Giancarlo Stanton (10). My ROY project is complete except for the last years' winners (India, Randy Arozarena, Julio Rodriguez, and Michael Harris) and cards of Kyle Lewis, Cody Bellinger, deGrom, Jose Abreu, Wil Myers, and Evan Longoria, and Verlander with the teams they joined this offseason. There are a few old-timer ROYs that I need for a team or two, but some of those cards don't exist. So I'm calling those complete unless I happen upon something that I don't yet know about

My NFL All-Time Team is now 74% complete. My All-Star project (mentioned only briefly in this post) is now at 1375/1939 all-time All-Stars (71%). That number will probably change in about a week and a half, as some first-time All-Stars are bound to be named.

I love completing a set. But my collection to me is about the history I'm telling with my cards. Each of my projects is a different piece of the history of the sport. And as good as it feels to finish off a set, it feels even better seeing these major goals of my entire collection be completed.