This will probably be my final group break for a while. Not because of lack of participation, I'm just not real interested in anything that's left. I haven't gotten into Allen & Ginter like most people so I'll probably just pick up the Cubs. I've always been a flagship set kind of collector which is how I ended up with so many holes in my Cubs collection. It was always nice building 25+ card team sets and while my wallet is happy I'm not a Yankees fan with their billions of base and insert cards, it is getting a little tiring seeing the same players for the Cubs. Here are the full base sets for Cubs in the 2012 Opening Day, Archives and Bowman sets:
Yep, three cards in each set and all three the same players. No offense to Castro, Garza and Soto, but c'mon! I know the Cubs are one of the worst teams in baseball record wise but Topps didn't necessarily know the full extent of that when making these sets. Sure Marlon Byrd got traded and I'm pretty sure nobody needs anymore Alfonso Soriano cards but what about Darwin Barney? Jeff Samardzija? Brian LaHair? Tony Campana? Ryan Dempster? Maybe I'm biased, but these guys are putting up decent numbers for as bad as the Cubs record is. These 200+ card sets should average about 6-7 players per team and the Cubs get half that? At least Series 2 has a bunch of these guys that should have been making appearances elsewhere.
This break from new releases will allow me to focus on some more ATCRCS cards. I'll probably also spend the rest of the summer working on my checklists as well as selling and trading excess cards to fund a trip to the National which is being held in Baltimore this year. I hope to knock out some big chunks of different brands and years while I'm there.
Don't forget to pick up your team in my Topps Series 2 break. I'm sure your team will have more cards than the Cubs!
I feel your pain. 3 Padres in Topps Opening Day, 2 in the Bowman set, and 2 in Topps Archives (neither of which is currently with the Padres). Luckily (?) they put Tony Gwynn into the Gypsy Queen set, so that makes a whopping 4 Padres for that one. This is one of the reasons that Heritage has been my favorite set of the year, so far (11 Padres? Is that even allowed?).
ReplyDeleteI back you in believing that Dempster, Campana, and LaHair deserve cards. Only Dempster had any sort of track record before this year though.
ReplyDeleteHopefully Rizzo and B.Jackson find their way into Series 1 in 2013! (implying that they would have to fulfill some of their promise later this season to be worthy of a 2013 card)