2002 was the year I decided to get back into the hobby. After taking a hiatus of nine years, the collecting bug hit me again after I moved from Cincinnati to Cleveland and I found a local card shop in Brunswick. I had no idea what I missed being away from the hobby for so long. All the product, inserts, relic cards, autographs... it just blew my mind. With so much out there I was tempted to start collecting Upper Deck since I briefly dabbled with them in 1990 by buying a ton of packs from a long gone hobby shop in Cincinnati. But in the end I stayed with Topps since the pack prices were affordable and I like the design of the card. The gold border was something I hadn't seen before on a standard base issue. The photography and team logos were so sweet compared to the early 1990s, when I left the hobby. But what really did it for me in 2002 was seeing Griffey's Topps card. Being a Reds fan, it was something I thought I would never see. The hometown hero sporting the same threads his dad did a few decades earlier. The sweet swing the kid always had. So many things Topps did right with this set and it helped to rekindle a passion for a hobby that I once thought too old to be a part of.
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