2018 Topps Cincinnati Reds Team Set

35 cards total for this year's Topps Reds team set (including the short prints and the Votto super short print). I'm still on the fence as to whether short prints should be included in team sets. Honestly, I would be content if Topps went back to producing their flagship without including short prints in the product. Rather, save that gimmicky stuff for Stadium Club or Heritage. Here's the list of players that make up the team set:

14 Amir Garrett
55 Tyler Mahle
57 Zack Cozart
68 Billy Hamilton
68SP Billy Hamilton
95 Eugenio Suarez
137 Scott Feldman
153 Brandon Finnegan
207 Scooter Gennett
209 Michael Lorenzen
301 Jackson Stephens
331 Raisel Iglesias
352 Cincinnati Reds Team Card
354 Robert Stephenson
450 Joey Votto
450SP Joey Votto
450SP Johnny Bench
450SSP Joey Votto
452 Tucker Barnhart
504 Scott Schebler
543 Luis Castillo
574 Jared Hughes
581 Jesse Winker
589 Adam Duvall
589SP Adam Duvall
596 Keury Mella
601 Jose Peraza
694 Anthony DeSclafani
US28 Alex Blandino
US49 Eugenio Suarez
US74 Joey Votto
US87 Thunder & Lightening (Votto & Hamilton)
US135 Sal Romano
US145 Scooter Gennett
US238 Matt Harvey

Hey Batter Batter Batter......

A few days ago I was able to add another card to my t206 Reds team set. I had been looking to land this card for awhile and when a copy came up on eBay I knew I had to try and grab it. This t206 Downey marks my 11th tobacco card of this set. I already had the fielding version in my collection so this will complement that card nicely. Once Downey arrives in the mail I will definitely make sure to free him from his plastic prison to join his teammates in the binder. I'm just shy of having half of the Reds set wrapped up. With 12 cards to go, four of those cards will take a lot of cash to acquire as 2 are of Hall of Famer Clark Griffith and 2 are of Hall of Famer Miller Huggins. For the time being I'll just concentrate on those other 8 cards.

Never Say Never!

Back in June when I was talking about 2018 Topps I mentioned the various Reds short prints that are included in the release. One of those cards I spoke about was this particular Votto Super Short Print. At the time, these things were going for more than $50 a piece and I made the comment that this card would probably never enter my collection with the steep price tag these cards were commanding. Well, fast forward two months later and I was able to snag this card off eBay for less than $30 shipped. Is that still a lot to pay for a card that was produced this year? You bet. However, when you factor in that odds for pulling a SSP is 1:866 packs I think it's a fair price to pay for the card. There are still two SSP cards that I don't have but maybe one day I'll be fortunate enough to add those to my binders as well. The first is a 2017 Votto Gatorade bath and the second is this 2013 Topps Teddy Kremer.

Teddy, who has Down Syndrome, is a huge Reds fan and was an honorary bat boy for the Reds. He was recently honored this past year with his own bobblehead. There were only 1000 bobbleheads produced and distributed on July 20th.

Join the Club!

For the past few months I've been working on trying to complete my 1991 Topps Stadium club set. I'm not talking about the standard set of 600 cards. Rather, what I'm talking about is the 50 card Pre-Production set the company produced prior to launching the actual 1991 Stadium Club set. A "promo" set essentially.








While the front of these cards look just like your standard 1991 Stadium Club cards, the backs of these cards are all the same. They show a Jose Canseco rookie card with a Pre-Production sample blurb.

According to baseballcardpedia, "Not much is known about these cards. It is believed that Topps distributed these cards to their sales team and to major distributors. The set consists of 50 cards and it's believed that 300-600 copies of each card was produced." I think these cards complement my 1991 Stadium Club set nicely. Now that I have this set completed maybe I can get back to wrapping up my 2011 Gypsy Queen set.

A Little Late to the Party

Ok, most of you have already talked about this year's series 2 release of Topps. For better or for worse, I'm just now getting around to it. This past Sunday my wife surprised me with an eBay gift card for Father's Day. Needless to say, within a few hours of receiving it I had already spent it. I was able to purchase a complete set of 2018 Topps Series 2 Reds cards and three short prints. Out of the three short prints this Bench card is my favorite. There's still one more series 2 Reds card I don't have...a super short print Joey Votto card and it will probably never enter my collection. Starting bids on eBay are $50....way too steep for a modern variation card. I'd rather spend that money on a couple of vintage Goudey or T206 Reds cards.

1989-90 NBA Hoops

Ok, so this will be the last time (probably) that I mention basketball cards on a baseball card blog. This set is like a bad penny. It just keeps turning up in my collection. I remember in 1989 when this set was all the rage due to the David Robinson rookie cards. I wanted to purchase packs of this stuff but when the card stores where charging anywhere from $1-$3 dollars a pack, I just couldn't bite. As time went on thought, and these cards became MUCH more affordable I had to add this set to my collection. This is probably the third time I've had this set in my collection after getting rid of it twice because I felt like it just didn't belong. This time it's here to stay for good. Coupled with the fact that I was able to track down the special promotional binder that was released with these cards in 1989, I'm glad to have this bad penny turn up once more.

2017 Topps Cincinnati Reds Team Set

40 cards total in the base set and the update set.

85 Brandon Finnegan
110 Joey Votto League Leader
128 Adam Duvall
185 Raisel Iglesias
188 Caleb Cotham
200 Homer Bailey
253 Tucker Barnhart
288 Joey Votto
297 Anthony DeSclafani
310 Scott Schebler
386 Michael Lorenzen
395 Drew Storen
414 Zack Cozart
473 Eugenio Suarez
506 Jose Peraza
511 Devin Mesoraco
539 Amir Garrett
539SP Amir Garrett
540 Billy Hamilton
599 Cincinnati Reds Team Card
698 Tony Cingrani
US12 Lisalverto Bonilla
US43 Joey Votto
US43SP Joey Votto
US43SP Johnny Bench
US48 Ariel Hernandez
US53 Barrett Astin
US75 Jake Buchanan
US139 Luis Castillo
US140 Sal Romano
US155 Cincinnati Reds Run and Hit
US158 Phillip Ervin
US178 Stuart Turner
US205 Zack Cozart
US205SP Barry Larkin
US211 Rookie Davis
US254 Amir Garrett
US271 Jesse Winker
US271SP Jesse Winker
US285 Scott Feldman

2018 Topps

It's that time of year again! Topps has just released their 2018 flagship cards and, like I've done every year for the past 10 years, I've purchased my Reds team set off eBay. Hopefully by this time next week I should have the cards in hand. Just a couple of thoughts about this year's set. First, I still miss the borders on this set. I'll always believe that full bleed photography should be reserved for Stadium Club. Second, I think there's too much going on in the footer of the card. The color swoosh and pixel disintegration are just over the top for me. Photography is decent but I'm getting tired of chasing short print cards. It's just a pain trying to track these down every year. I feel sorry for those of you that have to track down those dreaded SUPER SHORT PRINTS! Anyway, on a much lighter note, at least baseball season is right around the corner!

Adding Silk to the Rainbow

Wow, it's almost been two months since I've posted to the blog. Just wanted to share with everyone the latest addition to my 2013 Topps Joey Votto Rainbow project. This silk card appeared a few months ago on Check Out My Cards and I knew I had to add it to the collection. Numbered 9/50 this is the first (and will probably be the last) silk card to enter my collection. I'm now up to 34 different Votto cards in this project. I'm still on the hunt for 6 more cards to wrap up this project. In case you're interested they're: 2013 Topps Factory Orange numbered to 230, 2013 Topps Wrapper Redemption Silver Slate numbered to 10, 2013 Topps Printing Plate numbered to 1, 2013 Topps Opening Day Toy's R Us Purple parallel, 2013 Topps Chrome Camo Refractor numbered to 15 and 2013 Topps Chrome Pink Refractor numbered to 5.