Like many of you, I sometimes reflect on collecting in the days before the beginning of the Toppsopoly. Day after day, week after week, seeing the same old blasters and packs on aisle 10 gets me thinking of a time when we had literally dozens of choices each year. I start to wish it was like that again and then it hits me - I can't afford it!
If you read my post this morning, you know about my past issues with overspending on cards. If there were 5 or 6 companies putting out a dozen different products each year, I'd be in deep trouble. Sort of like I was back in the day when you could get these.
1998 Leaf Randy Johnson Fractal Matrix. I bought box after box after box of this stuff. I can't even tell you what I was hoping to get.
1998 Pacific Omega Alex Rodriguez. So, you think 2012 Archives is printed on thin card stock? Get ahold of one of these things and you'll know what thin stock really is.
1998 Upper Deck SPX Ryan Klesko #6342/9000. Back in the late '90s, a card numbered to "only" 9000 was pretty limited. At least we thought so.
1998 Upper Deck UD3 Greg Maddux. This is one of the most confusing sets I've ever seen. This card is "Technology" FX 75, Set 75, Subset TE15. Whatever.
1999 Black Diamond Bernie Williams Diamonation. No comment.
1999 Bowman's Best Todd Walker. That dirty scanner rears it's ugly head again.
1999 Fleer Brilliants Shawn Green blue. Dirty dirty Blue Jay. I like the blue parallels and must admit it looks good for the Blue Jays.
1999 Topps Gold Label Troy Glaus Class 3. You'll find base as well as black or red parallels for Class 1, 2 and 3. Don't forget the 1/1 cards. Don't forget your abacus to figure out this set either.
2000 Fleer Focus Mike Piazza green parallel #30/300. I bought quite a bit of this too and pulled my only true 1/1, a purple Masterpiece Shawn Green. I sold it on Ebay for $350.
2000 Pacific Vanguard Ben Davis. I don't fully understand Pacific, but I bought it anyway.
2000 Topps HD Mark McGwire. Maybe it should have been Topps PED.
2000 Topps TEK Brett Myers #1383/2000. This is another very confusing set. I think there are color AND pattern variations. Insanity on acetate.
2000 Upper Deck HoloGrFX Alex Rodriguez. This is a great example of the overproduction problem that plagued the hobby in this era. Not too many cards, too many different products. This is hideous and I probably bought a whole box of it. Ugh.
2001 Bowman Yhency Brazoban. Proof positive that I was out of control. I hated Bowman and I've never been into prospecting, but I still bought it.
2001 SP Legendary Cuts Brooks Robinson. Yes, I bought a box. No, I did not get a cut auto.
2001 Topps Finest Dave Winfield Finest Moments. I'd never plunk down the cash for Finest these days, but I did in 2001.
These were just a small fraction of the cards I have in my rolling cart. The next time I write something about how much I dislike the Toppsopoly, refer me to this post and remind me that I can't afford to chase after a bunch of different products. I can't even afford to chase after all the Rangers Topps is producing all by themselves.
I was just getting into collecting as a kid during the end of that craziness in the late 90s/early 2000s. Just like you, when I look back at that era, I start to think that the Topps monopoly isn't all bad.
ReplyDeleteI think the perfect market was in 2006 when there were three companies in the mix with Topps, UD, and Fleer. It wasn't too much, but it gave collectors a choice.
I always did like the Topps Gold Label. It was a pretty sweet card. I have a bunch of the platinum parallels from that year too!
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen any of these before. Crazy, odd cards. I know what you mean about too many products. I think even with just Topps doing baseball there is still Obak doing football and baseball and UD doing some football. If you're collecting two different sports it still can be a lot.
ReplyDeleteA post that features Jackie is a post that I will comment on.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if those companies would've made all those '90s cards if they knew how poorly they were going to scan?
ReplyDelete