1941 Play Ball

Anytime I can purchase a pre-war card for less than $20 is a win in my book. It's been over a year since I've acquired a vintage card for my collection but I think it was worth the wait. Out of all the Play Ball sets, this is my favorite. I think the colors on these cards are fantastic. I'm not a fan of the 1939 or 1940 sets since they're just black and white photos so I won't be chasing those cards. This is the first 1941 Play Ball card to enter my collection. Luckily there are only four cards that make up the Reds team set for this release. With this Bucky Walters now in hand I already have 25% of the set complete. Maybe sometime next year I'll be able to track down the other three cards at a reasonable price and mark this set as complete.

What I'm Thankful For

It's crazy how this year has almost come to an end. Only a little over one month until 2023 is history and the start of 2024. The holidays always seem like a blur to me now that I'm older but I have come to realize over the years that next to Christmas, Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday. Part of it is the food, but the majority of it revolves around the many blessings I have and seem to take for granted. The day helps me to get grounded and remember just how blessed I am. Family, friends, my health, a home, a great job are the top five on my list but I'm also thankful that I was able to watch a guy grow into a great player on my favorite team. Not only did I appreciate all the things he did on the diamond but also his involvement with the community off the field. To me, he just seemed like a very classy guy and I'm going to miss seeing him in a Reds uniform. With that being said, I'm thankful that I was able to complete my Joey Votto Rookie Album project this year. I've also decided to start one more small Joey Votto project, a 2011 Topps Chrome Votto Rainbow. There's 13 different parallel variations in 2011 Topps Chrome but I'm not chasing three of those (Red, Gold Canary Diamond, and Superfractor) since I think it'll be next to impossible to track those cards down and I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for those. If the Red ever comes up for a reasonable price then I'll consider it. For now, the ten variations I'm chasing are: Base, Refractor, X-Fractor, Orange Refractor, Purple Refractor, Atomic Refractor, Blue Refractor, Black Refractor, Sepia Refractor, and the Gold Refractor. So far I've acquired six of the ten and two (Purple and Orange) will be easy pickups for me. That just leaves the Black and Gold to track down. I think it'll look nice to display in one of these 10 card frame displays from Amazon once I complete it. If you're curious about seeing what cards I have so far, you can view the page here or over in the navigation menu titled: 2011 Topps Chrome Votto Rainbow. I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

I Never Thought I Would See Another One Again!

Have you ever gotten rid of a card only to regret, almost immediately, doing so? That was the case for me with this 2008 Topps Chrome The National Joey Votto. I had a nice collection of 2008 Votto rookies that I had amassed a few years ago but decided to get rid of them. There were a few Upper Deck rookie autograph and low number Topps Triple Threads that I parted ways with, but this Topps Chrome National was a heartbreaker. According to baseballcardpedia.com "it's believed that only 300 copies of each base card were produced for this promotion". Earlier in the week I happened to stumble across a listing for this card on Beckett Marketplace. I felt the asking price was ok and I went ahead and purchased this card since I don't know if I'll ever be able to stumble across another one again. With this purchase I now have 90 different Votto rookie cards in my collection (five 2002 Votto cards and eighty-five 2008 Votto cards). I can now mark this project as complete. If you're interested, you can view all the cards I have for this project here. 

2022 Topps Cincinnati Reds Team Set

42 cards total in the base and update set 

45 Sonny Gray
60 Mike Moustakas
81 Jesse Winker
96 Cincinnati Reds
11 Tony Santillan
175 Tyler Stephenson
203 Wade Miley
290 Joey Votto
290SP Joey Votto
314 Eugenio Suarez
392 Luis Castillo
448 Nick Castellanos
448SP Frank Robinson
485 Jose Barrero
485SP Johnny Bench
536 Mark Kolozsvary
546 TJ Friedl
549 Shogo Akiyama
553 Jeff Hoffman
557 Kyle Farmer
557SP Barry Larkin
563 Jonathan India
563SP Jonathan India
619 Reiver Sanmartin
631 Vladimir Gutierrez
US21 Tyler Mahle
US26 Tommy Pham
US28 Colin Moran
US43 Jake Fraley
US80 Tyler Naquin
US124 Nick Senzel
US135 Alexis Diaz - Daniel Duarte
US159 Hunter Strickland
US160 Hunter Greene
US160SP Hunter Greene
US160SSP Hunter Greene
US161 Lucas Sims
US249 Nick Lodolo
US267 Hunter Greene
US298 Nick Lodolo
US298SP Nick Lodolo

2021 Topps Cincinnati Reds Team Set

42 cards total in the base and update set

52 Archie Bradley
55 Nick Senzel
82 Michael Lorenzen
96 Brian Goodwin
124 Amir Garrett
137 Trevor Bauer League Leader
153 Tyler Stephenson
153SP Tyler Stephenson
174 Raisel Iglesias
190 Sonny Gray
245 Aristides Aquino
271 Luis Castillo

274 Freddy Galvis
275 Joey Votto
275SP Joey Votto
281 Jesse Winker
333 TeJay Antone
365 Nick Castellanos
368 Mike Moustakas
374 Jose Garcia
347SP Jose Garcia
580 Tucker Barnhart
580SP Johnny Bench
582 Dwight Smith Jr.
587 Cincinnati Reds
627 Eugenio Suarez
638 Wade Miley
647 Shogo Akiyama
US34 Tyler Naquin
US36 Wade Miley
US37 Ryan Hendrix
US92 Tyler Stephenson
US129 Sean Doolittle
US145 Jonathan India
US182 Ashton Goudeau
US189 Jeff Hoffman
US213 Jose DeLeon
US285 Vladimir Gutierrez
US286 Jonathan India
US286SP Jonathan India
US307 Tyler Mahle
US319 Kyle Farmer

2020 Topps Cincinnati Reds Team Set

47 cards total in the base and update set

20 Aristides Aquino
20SP Aristides Aquino
20SSP Aristides Aquino
30 Jesse Winker
58 Josh VanMeter
107 Luis Castillo
140 Trevor Bauer
140SP Trevor Bauer
172 Sonny Gray
186SP Johnny Bench
197 Raisel Iglesias
209 Derek Dietrich
217 Amir Garrett
267 Joey Votto
267SP Joey Votto
287 Jose Peraza
290 Nick Senzel
368 Wade Miley
376 Shogo Akiyama
377 Phillip Ervin
431 Cincinnati Reds
460 Tyler Mahle
465 Eugenio Suarez
465SP Eugenio Suarez
496 Lucas Sims
510 Michael Lorenzen
533 Nick Castellanos
533SP Nick Castellanos
601 Tucker Barnhart
673 Anthony DeSclafani
685 Freddy Galvis
685SP Frank Robinson
U-6 Mike Moustakas
U-29 Aristides Aquino
U-29SP Aristides Aquino
U-31 Curt Casali
U-35 Kyle Farmer
U-43 Alex Blandino
U-51 Matt Davidson
U-109 Pedro Strop
U-153 Robert Stephenson
U-204 Eric Davis
U-215 Joey Votto
U-258 Todd Frazier
U-272 Joey Votto
U-272SP Joey Votto
U-281 Joeyl Kuhnel

2019 Topps Cincinnati Reds Team Set

43 cards total in the base and update set.

29 Eugenio Suarez
107 Scooter Gennett
107SP Scooter Gennett
145 NL Nails
146 Jesse Winker
156 Luis Castillo
164 Billy Hamilton
218 Scott Schebler
284 Joey Votto
284SP Joey Votto
304 Michael Lorenzen
343 Sal Romano
374 Alex Blandino
374SP Joe Morgan
375 Cody Reed
399 Tyler Mahle
454 Matt Kemp
464 Alex Wood
465 Raisel Iglesias
468 Anthony DeSclafani
558 Phillip Ervin
573 Tucker Barnhart
573SP Johnny Bench
590 Jose Peraza
590SP Barry Larkin
620 Jared Hughes
691 Cincinnati Reds
US3 Curt Casali
US35 Derek Dietrich
US35SP Derek Dietrich
US46 Tanner Roark
US50 Nick Senzel
US50SP Nick Senzel
US50SSP Nick Senzel
US71 Queen City Kings
US81 Jose Iglesias
US95 Nick Senzel
US106 Yasiel Puig
US126 Luis Castillo
US154 Sonny Gray
US180 Josh VanMeter
US182SP Johnny Bench
US288 Amit Garrett

A Huge Pickup For My 2018 Topps Olympic Set Build!

Another set I've slowly been working on, that isn't baseball related, is the 2018 Topps U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Team Hopefuls set. I already have the base set and the majority of the insert sets complete with the exception of the auto and relic sets. I'm still missing 15 relic cards from that set but I'm hopeful that I can get those cards in hand by the end of the year. The autograph set, however, is going to take a long time to complete. That's ok though because I when I'm able to land a huge card like this it makes the chase that much more enjoyable. This Vonn autograph is numbered to 30 and I think I got it for a decent price. Sure it's a sticker graph but I don't care. Now if only I can track down a Chloe Kim autograph from this set.

It Took 20 Years, But I Finally Completed It!

Last week while I was out of town I got a notification on my phone from one of my saved searches on eBay that this card was FINALLY listed. This was the first time I had ever seen this card listed and luckily it was still there when I went to the site. This was the last card I needed to complete the 2003 Fleer Authentix set. In addition to the base set I also completed the Ballpark Classic, Game Bat, Game Jersey, Game of the Week, Hometown Heroes and Ticket Studs insert sets. I also grabbed one autograph of each player that signed in the set (Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter and Nolan Ryan). Finally, I was able to get the two promo cards that were given away at that year's All-Star Fan Fest. I did not chase after the base parallel sets nor did I pursue the "unripped" Game Bat, Game Jersey and Game of the Week inserts since they were identical to the other inserts with the exception of a low print run and barcode at the bottom of those cards. I'm happy that my perseverance finally paid off and that this set is finally completed.