Ever Closer... 2010 World Cup Edition...

If you've never seen these cards in person, you're missing out. By far one of the greatest sets to be put out in the last 30 years. 2010 Panini World Cup.
These cards, IF you can ever find them, aren't cheap. Thankfully I don't need too many more, having tackled it back in 2010 until the pack supply dried up. I was soooooooo hoping for another go for the 2014 World Cup, but Panini crapped the bed by putting out Prizm instead. Prizm is probably Panini's ugliest set across all sports. And the feetsball was no exception.

These country cards are so shiny. You could signal aircraft with these things.

 Cameroon

 North Korea

and Paraguay. My crappy scans don't show it well, but the country name is ghosted on the left side going from bottom to top.

 These next two are clear acetate cards. Two of the bigger stars I was missing. Thankfully Rooney, Ronaldo, and Messi are already tucked safely into my binder...

 I always wanted a son named Yaya.

 Wrapping up with two more base cards...

I was grateful to find a single seller with eight cards I needed. And even more grateful that he was having a sale. These set me back just under $9. His normal price was around $27. Yay sales!

I now need #'s 15, 27, 32, 34, 35, 46, 56, 88, 119, 153,

When I finish it, I'm scanning every page for posterity.

Ever closer.... 1976 edition.

It's a hobby, not a race, right? Good thing. Some of these sets have been wanting for quite sometime.  Case in point, my 1976 Topps set.
Recently, I was able to acquire two new pieces of the puzzle.

#19, George Brett. His second year card. (Remember when second year cards were a big deal?)

and #194, The American League Home Run Leaders.

The back of this card is epic, listing the season leader and his team going back to 1901. Bring your magnifying glass.
(I did scan it, but who knows where it is now, and I'm waaaay too lazy to re-scan.)

These certainly look a lot better than the 2016 incarnation. But that's not a discussion for right now.

I'm now..... 10 cards away from completion. (including the Traded set)

If you can help.... #'s 1, 98, 100, 160, 230, 300, 346, 550, 592, 599

10! !0 bottles of beer on the wall, 10 bottles of beer............

A question for set collectors...

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing through ebay and came across a case breaker who was auctioning off base sets of recent higher end hockey. I love those case breakers. Always looking for the hit, and just giving away those base cards. Sign me up.
Anyways, I grabbed an '09/10 UD Artifacts set....
3 base sets of '08/09 UD SPx
and a set of '08/09 UD ICE as well as '03/04 SP Authentic, with an '08/09 ITG Between the Pipes set to finish things off. (I haven't scanned these sets in yet, so no pics for now)

7 high end base sets won at auction for $30 including shipping. I love case breakers.

Here's where I get whiny. Every damn one of these sets is 100 cards. 100 cards! Am I the only one that this bothers the hell out of?

You set collectors know what I'm talking about. Putting them in pages. 9 cards per page. Then you have that last page with one card in it. Or you put that 100th card on the backside of card 99.... either way it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

And why? Why 100 card sets? Seems to me that the printing process was done on 132 card sheets. To me, that screams 99 card sets. Or, 132 card sets, but that's another story. With 99 cards in a set, basic math tells you that with four master sheets, you could print off these cards with no SP's or DP's.

Wouldn't life be simpler?

Am I alone in this? Are there no other OCD set buiders out there?

Box break ...

Yes. I'm still trying to build last years OPC hockey set. It's a tough one to build. 600 cards in the first series (100 SP's) and then another 200 in series 2. I'm not sure how far off I am, but after 3-4 trades, I still felt the need to grab another box.
In it I found a few of these.... shiny!

I got 8 of these shiny inserts.

As for base cards, I gained 56 new cards towards the set. Nice.

I also found 9 gold parallel cards.

Each pack (36 packs per box) also had a '79/80 retro insert. These go on the 'bay for around 60 to 75 cents apiece in larger lots. I figure I could get about $25 bucks or so for these...

Oh, and my one per box Winter Classic hit? None other than Sid the Kid.

I'm glad I picked this one up. The only downside to this box was the SP's... one per two packs. I ended up with 12 doubles. Only adding 6 new SP's to my set. Well, at least I have some more to trade now.

Storage and Organization

I received a couple of emails over the weekend about how I store my collection. Everyone does it differently. Beardy prefers Tupperware. There is no right or wrong way to do it. It also depends on the type of collection you have. A player collector does things different to a set collector. I will cover that in another post. For now, I will show you how the set collector in me does it.

Binders. Lots of 'em. Each binder holds around 600 cards. So each will have 1 - 3 sets in them depending on size. Blue for hockey, Red for Football, Green for baseball. The larger binders at the bottom hold the larger sets. I really need a fourth colour though. That middle shelf is for non-sports.
Each binder has a small number on it. That # will correspond with a checklist that my wife made using excel. She exports the master checklist from Topps/Upper Deck etc... cleans it up, and adds it to the master list. The front page is a complete list of what's in each binder at a glance. Click on the individual set tabs, and it will show you what cards I am missing for a particular set at the top, with the complete checklist further down. As I acquire cards, I check the little box, and it disappears from the top.
That bottom shelf drives my wife nuts... so I can see more coloured binders in my future. Now, as you may expect, financial constraints limit what set can go in pages and what can't. For example, my '88 and '89 Donruss sets, and my '86 Topps set are in boxes. So are my '91 Fleer and Upper Deck sets. You get the idea. To the left of the shelves, you can see a closet. That's what holds my sets in boxes, as well as a lot of my monster boxes for player collections, etc...

On the other shelf, I have supplies and wax.

It's good to have for a rainy day. Always have supplies on hand. Pages, top loaders, sleeves, etc... If you don't, cards will tend to pile up around your desk or computer while you wait to get supplies. Don't tell me they don't. I'm looking at you.

Anyways, the better you store your collection, the better you can catalog it. That way you will be able to find a certain card/set easier.

If only my player collection was this organized....... to be continued....