Set Building Season

Summer break started on Thursday afternoon at 12:30 and I've been busy ever since.  Between family, friends, a flea market, and random errands... I have been working in the office organizing and targeting set needs on COMC and Sportlots.

I also opened up the first of three blogger care packages sitting on my desk.  It was from Jeremy over at Topps Cards That Never Were and as luck would have it... he had a few cards for my set builds.

The first set he targeted was my 2022 Opening Day Triple Play set:

Crossing these three cards off of my list leaves me with just one more:

The next set he helped me with is the 2006 Topps Opening Day SI for Kids:

Jeremy crossed off the only hall of famer I had on the list, along with a Padres I'm surprised I didn't already have.

After adding these two, I went over to Sportlots and picked up the final two, so this set will be complete as soon as it arrives in the mail.

He also helped me with a biggie:

It's the 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter set I started back in May.  With the help from a few fellow bloggers, Sportlots, COMC, and Jeremy... I can see the light at the end of the tunnel:

Jeremy also sent me a starter lot of 2025 Heritage Notable Americans:

I absolutely love this set, but it's big (100 cards) and I have never seen any singles sitting in dime or quarter bins.  However with Jeremy's push... I've added an eBay search for more starter lots.  I'm not going to create an actual "want list" until I'm at least 30% of the way though.

Moving along... here are some colorful Oakland A's cards for my collection:

This is the first Brent Rooker card I've added to my collection since his stellar All-Star game performance.  He came so close to becoming the first Athletic to win the All-Star Game MVP Award since Terry Steinbach in 1988.  Damn you Schwarber!

The coolest card in Jeremy's care package was this color-matched Reggie:

2023 Topps Archives Double Headers Green Foil #89DH-23 (#'d 37/99)

Mark McGwire is on the back...

McGwire and Jackson are #1 and #2 in home runs in Oakland A's history and both helped them win World Series titles.

The next card probably seems like a head-scratcher...

1990 Bowman #492

Until you flip the card over...

Check out that glorious gum stain on this Juan Gonzalez rookie card.  I'm pretty picky about which cards make it into the Damaged Card PC, but the rookie card of a 2x AL MVP Award winner definitely meets the minimum requirements.

Thank you Jeremy for helping with all of these set builds... and for adding cards to some of my personal collections.  I'll take a look at your want lists and see if I can help.  Regardless... I know I have some Rays I can send your way.

Happy Monday and sayonara!