Ok, Topps206 is out in hobby shops at least. I'm sure you can find a whole crapload of lots on eBay too. I picked up two packs today and was fortunate enough to pull a Chipper in the second pack, so he's card of the week. I'm still peeved at Topps for their black border bait & switch, so normally I wouldn't be giving them free advertising, but for this set I'll make an exception. Topps206 is Topps' tribute to the T206 set which came out 100 years ago. They also did a tribute in 2002-2003, but that was a warm-up. A warm up that looks a little better than this set, but I digress. The set constuction appears to copy the A&G formula with 350 cards, 50 of which are short printed. Nobody knows which cards are short printed because Topps is a real pain in the ass when it comes to releasing that sort of information. Far as I can tell from a five minute search on eBay, the base set is 1-300 and the short prints are no numbered variations with the player name on back and nothing else. Please let me know if this is not the case.

The design is basically a rip-off (the classy dames call it an 'homage') of the 1909 T206 set from the American Tobacco Company. A photo of the player is retroized and surrounded by a bronze line with the player name and team in the same color at the bottom. Very elegant and very classy, except when the retrofication went horribly awry which it did on several cards I've seen. The Chipper looks great, which is all I care about. The patch on his uniform shows the photo was from 2006, but I'll let that slide. A nice close up with magic hour sunset colors in the background makes up for it. I'm too lazy to go check my 2002 Topps206 cards, but the back design is extremely similar if not exactly the same. The card stock is a sturdier white stock instead of the clay stock used in the 2002-3 set. The stock matches more closely the original T206 cards and is pretty robust so I approve. Note the little smudgy bit in the middle on the card right on top of the "of the" in the text on the back. That little smudge is printed onto every single card back in the set from what I can tell. After sorting a couple of boxes, that smudgy bit can drive a sensible person stark raving MAD.

This is my favorite thing of the whole day other than pulling a Chippah.

I scanned that at 300 dpi, click on it and enjoy the back variation goodness. Look at it closely. Savor it. That's the only Carolina Brights back you're ever going to see from this set so take it in while you can. I absolutely adore that they made the backs a design element on the wrapper. TOTAL CLASS. This also made me happy:

Ya see that? That says Hobby EDITION. Not Hobby Exclusive. That leads me to believe that there shall be a RETAIL Edition. And my broke ass needs a retail edition of this stuff like you wouldn't believe.

This was another pleasant surprise. After reading everywhere that there would be 7 cards per pack here we have 9 cards per pack. That makes me very happy. Especially since one of the cards is wasted by a thick bronze border parallel. And a mini, I suppose, but minis are never a waste. So there are 7 base cards per pack after all!

Here are the odds. Everything spelled right out in black and white. Piedmont is confirmed as the common ad back, Polar Bear is now found 1:10 packs, Old Mills are 1:20, Cycles are disturbingly not much harder to find at 1:22 and the 1:1 Carolina Brights are one in every 56 boxes or so. That seems a rather low number to me, I hope Topps didn't short print this stuff, causing me untold anguish as I try to complete a set after packs get jacked up to 10 bucks a throw. This disturbs me more though:

Blugh. so much for completing the 350 card set. I'll shoot for the 300 base cards, thankyouverymuch.

IN REVIEW: Best set ever, no discussion. If you don't agree, buy a few boxes and send 'em to me, I'll take good care of them.

The month-long posting of packages was scheduled to begin tomorrow, but I got two in the mail today so I'm getting an early start. First up, a box of Stuff from Todd.

Todd threatened to send a few hundred '85 Topps cards but fortunately kept it under 30. The pile included a Doc Gooden card I have but can't find, a downgrade to my Tiffany version of the Cory Snyder USA card and my spiritual guru here:

There was also a big hunk 'o Allen & Ginter. I'm somewhat sad to be building the set in a sensible fashion instead of uying a ton of boxes and blasters, but economic times demand frugality. Now I have some money left over to buy a whole mess 'o Topps206. There were some base cards including Escobar here:

Also a Hoax, Bamboozle, Etc. that actually doesn't involve white collar crime! This card here may have won back the goodwill this set lost when I pulled that Enron card.
The rest of the box included a hefty stack of Heritage. This is another set where I would have liked to have ripped a couple of hobby boxes and a half dozen blasters but now that High Numbers is out, it's time to move on. This Bako card struck me as being a card that would not have been out of place in the original '60 set.

Also included was THE 1960 Highlight.

I love the two kids trying to shake the hand of Maz as he rounds third. Today, they would be tazed and thrown in a cell for the weekend for illegal expression of unauthorized joy. Yay progress!

Flea Market Dude was back this weekend and I felt it was my civic duty to go and buy a whole bunch of cards from him. Sadly, it turns out he was laid off earlier this year so it really was a civic duty to keep his economy rolling. I'll be so glad when 2010 gets here, this year has been dreadful. As usual, I bought such a large pile of stuff that I'm going to post it all in easily digestible chunks.

There was a 75 cent box of inserts and rookies there, when I started looking through it I found something I did not expect. A whole flop-ton of autogamer cards. I'm not shure where the word flop-ton came from (or the word shure, for that matter), it just seemed to be the best way to describe that amount of relics in a 75 cent box. Flea Market Dude mentioned he had recently picked up cards from the US Mail auction, and I think he may have gotten the cards there. Most of them had a big ding on the upper right corner, leading me to believe that they were all shipped in a package without enough padding, and one drop later the whole lot was dinged and insurance was claimed.

I had that happen to me once when a huge lot of football rookies I won off of Yahoo Auctions was sent in an 800-count box through the mail. I pulled it from the mailbox, walked into the garage and immediately proceeded to drop it right on a corner, ruining the whole 800 cards in one fell swoop. Those David Boston rookie cards were going to fund my retirement too...

I care not about dings on relic cards so I picked up a lucky seven jerseys out of the box. The goal was to pick up 1) players I didn't have a relic of already and b) players actually worth the 75 cents. Results were mixed. This is why I have been posting and printing out wantlists like crazy recently. The Relic list is next to be printed.


I didn't have a relic of Cy Young Carpenter yet, so I did very well here.


The first of three that I had already. This one is an upgrade from the '08 Upper Deck relic that was in the binder so I'm happy. There are quite a few Chone fans out there as well so this is a good addition.


I probably have a Kotchman jersey floating around the Braves boxes, but this one is shiiiiiiiiny. Serial numbered too. You can really see the ding on the top corner in this scan.


I had a Nick jersey but didn't care because I know at least three people who will be e-mailing me about this card in 3... 2... 1... It's madness to pass up a Markakis jersey for 75 cents anyway! Plus: no ding!


This is the one I regret. I already had a better looking Schmidt jersey and there aren't a whole lot of Jason Schmidt Supercollectors out there. I suppose I could send it to Night Owl or gcrl since it says Dodgers on it. As long as I didn't mind getting the internet stink-eye from them for a few months.


Heh, Billy Wagner is an Antiquity. I laugh now, but he'll probably be the Braves closer in '10.


This is the SHINY version of the Schmidt card which makes all the difference.

10 Lou Brock
19 George Brett
20 Bob Watson
46 Walter Alston50 Fred Lynn
55 Gaylord Perry
68 Joe/Joe Jr. Coleman
70 Roy/Roy Jr. Smalley
80 Jim Kaat100 Jim Hunter
118 Darrell Johnson
120 Rusty Staub
172 Frank Lucchesi
179 George Foster
180 Rich Gossage
185 Dave Parker
196 Lynn/Mayberry/Scoot
205 Gossage/Hrabosky
240 Pete Rose262 Checklist 133
321 Jose Cruz
340 Jim Rice341 Lou Gehrig AS
342 Rogers Hornsby AS
345 Babe Ruth AS
347 Ted Williams AS
362 Will McEnaney
421 A's Team427 Kurt Bevacqua
441 Gary Carter
443 Giants Team
462 1975 World Series
477 Frank Robinson
481 Rudy May
500 Reggie Jackson
504 Danny Murtaugh
519 Steve Brye
531 Joe Frazier
542 Keith Hernandez
550 Hank Aaron
556 Gene Mauch
564 Kurt Bevacqua Gum
573 Bill Travers
593 Andrsn/Crsby/Ltl/Mtz
650 Thurman Munson
659 Ben Oglivie


612/660 - 92.5%

Thanks to: gcrl, Slangon, some guy, That 70's Card, Chris Mays, Captain Canuck

300 Pete Rose



 (no one will get the reference)


Thanks Mark, Atlanta Sports Cards, Tom, Scott Crawford, Chris Mays

Have 659/660 -99.9%
updated 10/12/14

missing from the binder for whatever reason:
1 3 29 161 164 183 215 227 272 300 332 346 374 439 450 483 504 544 590 634

And why not?


Series 1 -- 130/132
63 Bench/Allen LL
84 Rollie Fingers

Series 2 -- 122/132
140 Lou Piniella
175 Frank Robinson
199 Bert Blyleven
201 AL Playoffs
202 NL Playoffs
206 World Series Game 4
220 Nolan Ryan
243 Angels Team
245 Carl Yastrzemski
260 Gary Nolan
264 Checklist 133

Series 3 -- 86/132
270 Luis Tiant
271 Tom Hutton
273 Chris Speier
279 Mike Strahler
290 Cesar Cedeno292 Jose Cruz
300 Steve Carlton
308 Skip Lockwood
310 Dick Allen
318 Jim McGlothlin
320 Lou Brock
324 Al Downing
329 Ed Kranepool
334 Freddie Pate
336 Tom Bradley
347 Royals Team
349 Dick McAuliffe
354 Billy Parker
355 Mike Marshall
358 Jim Nettles
360 Joe Rudi
362 Eddie Watt
364 Rick Wise
365 Rico Petrocelli
366 Brock Davis
368 Bill Buckner
369 Lerrin LaGrow
370 Willie Stargell
377 Expos Coaches
378 Lenny Randle
380 Johnny Bench
384 Don Baylor
388 Ben Oglivie
392 Dick Drago
396 Grant Jackson

Series 4 -- 82/132
397 Dave Cash
398 Rich Hand
401 Clyde Mashore
402 Jack Hiatt
405 Cesar Tovar
408 Jim Colborn
411 Ray Corbin
416 Paul Schaal
18 Bobby Grich
429 Jim Fairey
430 Vida Blue
432 Dan Frisella
433 Willie Horton
434 Giants Team
439 Eddie Fisher
451 John Vukovich453 Checklist 397
454 Tom Haller
457 John Strohmayer
458 Jim Mason
461 Mike Corkins
465 Dave Giusti
468 Tom Griffin
469 Dan Monzon
472 Lou Gehrig LDR
480 Juan Marichal
481 White Sox Team
483 Dal Maxvill
484 Ernie McAnally
486 Phillies Mgr/Coaches
487 Bruce Dal Canton
489 Jeff Burroughs
493 Duffy Dyer
495 Tommy Helms
497 Cardinals Mgr/Coache
498 Graig Nettles
499 Bob Moose
508 Gates Brown
509 Jim Nash
511 Sam McDowell
518 Bob Veale
520 Mel Stottlemyre

Series 5 -- 52/132
529 Milt May
530 Jim Kaat
531 Ron Woods
532 Steve Mingori
538 Jim Hart
541 Bob Bolin
544 Von Joshua
545 Orlando Cepeda
547 Bobby Heise
549 Rangers Mgr/Coaches
551 Mike Kilkenny
552 J.C. Martin
553 Mickey Scott
554 Dave Concepcion
555 Bill Hands
556 Yankees Team
557 Bernie Williams
558 Jerry May
559 Barry Lersch
560 Frank Howard
563 Larry Haney
567 Bob Fenwick
568 Ray Newman
569 Walt Alston Mgr
570 Bill Singer
571 Rusty Torres
572 Gary Sutherland
576 Expos Team
579 Tom Grieve
582 Darrell Porter
583 Bill Greif
584 Chris Arnold
585 Joe Niekro
586 Bill Sudakis
587 Rich McKinney
589 Ken Forsch
590 Deron Johnson
592 John Boccabella
593 Royals Mgr/Coaches
596 Red Sox Team
599 Ed Crosby
601 Pena/Robls/Stelmaszk
602 Behney/Garcia/Rau
603 Hughes/McNulty/Reitz
604 Jefrson/O'Tool/Strmp
606 Mathew/Paciork/Roque
611 Cogins/Wohlford/Zisk
612 Lawson/Reynold/Strom
617 Rich Chiles
619 Billy Wilson
620 Tommy Harper
621 Joe Ferguson
623 Steve Renko
624 Astros Mgr/Coaches
631 Tom Matchick
632 Dick Selma
635 Gene Alley
636 Rick Clark
637 Norm Niller
638 Ken Reynolds
639 Willie Crawford
640 Dick Bosman
641 Reds Team
643 Al Fitzmorris
644 Jack Heidemann
647 George Stone
649 Rich Folkers
650 Felipe Alou
651 Don Carrithers
654 Twins Team
655 Clay Kirby
656 John Ellis
657 Bob Johnson
659 Jose Pagan
660 Fred Scherman

Have 471/660 - 70.9%

Pack #6 - This Belongs To the 1974 Red Sox

When your team's entire season depends on one pass.

From Chris Redman.

Thank GOD for Roddy. So now the countdown finally moves from 4

to 3

And it may never move to 2 since Matt Ryan and Michael Turner are hurt. If it does, I need some help choosing the uniform for #2. Help me out here. Should I choose Matt:

Or Prime Time:

It's all academic anyway because the Falcups will likely 0-fer the rest of the schedule...

I'm still recovering from too much turkey, chocolate pecan pie and Johnnie Walker Gold. I'll post something good soon.

Here are the results from the '70's poll:

1974 27 (46%)
1976 15 (25%)
1975 13 (22%)
1978 6 (10%)
1977 5 (8%)

So the set I will focus on is....

1974 and 1976 Topps

Yeah, it's a cop-out, but I really want to work on that '74 set and I'm too close to the '76 set to not chase after it as well. Both are now in binders and I'll have the lists posted this weekend. If you have e-mailed me this week, I'll be replying tomorrow. Tonight, if the insomnia kicks in again.

The flea market dude is coming this weekend for the last time this year/maybe ever so I will be putting together up need lists like mad tonight and tomorrow so I can attack his common boxes. Here's a pack of Goodwin to tide you over until we meet again...

Man I like this set, but it's tough when the base common cards are the hardest thing to pull out of a pack.

No writing today. Enjoy the eye candy.