More Colors for the Rainbow

I've been extremely busy the past few weeks and haven't been able to post as much as I would have liked. Check Out My Cards has been running their challenge and I have been taking full advantage of that by nabbing a few printing plates for my trifectas, 80 unique Pete Rose cards, an eTopps Homer Bailey rookie, a few odds and ends cards for a new project that I'm starting, and 8 additional 2013 Topps Vottos for my Votto Rainbow. Not a bad haul if I do say so myself. With the addition of these eight, I now have just over half of the rainbow complete. While I'm happy with the progress, I'm a little discourage that I fear from here on out it's not going to be smooth sailing. There are a few cards that I can still pick up that won't be much of an issue, but there's probably about 10 cards that I haven't been able to find anywhere. I guess I'll just have to enjoy the thrill of the hunt...even if it does take me years to complete.

Coming Full Circle

Welcome back,
Your dreams were your ticket out.

Welcome back,
To that same old place that you laughed about.

Well the names have all changed since you hung around,
But those dreams have remained and they're turned around.

Who'd have thought they'd lead ya (Who'd have thought they'd lead ya)
Here where we need ya (Here where we need ya)

Yeah we tease him a lot cause we've hot him on the spot, welcome back,
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.

That's what's been playing in my mind since I've been looking through my recent completion of the year...the 1986 Topps set. These cards were the first that I collected when I got into the hobby, and I won't bore you with the details, but it's always held a sentimental place in my heart. I, like many of you, liquidated my collection in the mid 90s and so it's been quite some time since I've gazed on all of these cards. Sure, I've got the 1986 Topps Reds team set, but it just wasn't the same. Hopefully I can get these in a binder sometime soon so that I can flip through them at my leisure. For your listening pleasure, the complete Welcome Back Kotter theme song is below.

Chasing a Rainbow

Just a quick break from wrapping up my Kahn's Cincinnati Reds team set postings. I'll have my 2007, 2008 and 2009 Kahn's postings next week to wrap that up. One thing about this hobby that I've been on the fence about lately is the fact that there are so many parallels of each card released every year. The amount of colors are endless and it's due to that fact that I decided not to have a player collection of any recent Reds players. However, I had always thought it would be cool if I could complete a rainbow of a player just to say I had done so. Not only that but I think if I were to put the entire run of cards in some ultra pro multi card screw downs and display it in my man cave that it would be a definite show stopper next to my framed jerseys, newspapers, etc. So, I decided that I was going to chase a rainbow of my favorite current Red, Joey Votto. I decided the set I wanted to nab my rainbow from was 2013 Topps since I love the design and I like Votto's photo that Topps used since it appears that he's watching a ball he's just hit. I know it'll take me some time to put this together (I've counted over 30 different parallels between Topps base, chrome, and the minis) but I think once it's done and displayed it'll be one of the crown jewels in my collection. You can follow my progress by hitting the Votto Rainbow link that I've added on the nav bar. Now if I could only stay on track and try to finish some of my original 2014 goals.