Completed insert set – 2002 Topps Own the Game

Somehow I went 2 weeks without a post, have been trying to stack them timely to avoid that – but life has been busy and I got in a hole again!  This is another 2002 insert set – completed at the end of last year.

Info about the set:

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Set description:  Own the Game was an insert set that came back from 2000 after skipping a year.  It was basically a league leaders set – the first 18 cards are hitters who led in categories like homers, RBI, stolen bases.  The last 18 cards are pitchers.  These are the only super-shiny foil insert cards, that actually scan a little bit better than they

Set composition:  30 cards, 1:10 (2002 Topps series 1)

Hall of Famers:  6. Roberto Alomar, Jim Thome, Greg Maddux, Mariano Rivera, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez

How I put the set together:

• 3 cards from my series 1 Hobby box
• 1 card from the 2015 NSCC
• 3 cards from COMC
• 23 cards Sportlots

Thoughts on the set:  These shiny hologram background sets that Topps was doing back in the early 2000’s look better when scanned then when you see them in person.  This one is OK; I will say, it’s a trip down memory lane seeing some of these league leaders from the 2001 season.

Card that completed my set: #OG26 – Mariano Rivera

I got this card from Sportlots at the end of last year.

Best card (my opinion): #OG13 – Luis Gonzalez

This Luis Gonzalez card definitely jumped out when I looked through the scans.  I’m big on the photo working with the design, and this one does – it shows his full uniform, the name plate overlays the bottom part of his photo but not in a way that detracts from it.

Best Reds card (my opinion): there are none.  The Reds had gotten to be pretty mediocre by this timeframe.

Here’s the whole set.

Completed insert set – 2002 Topps Hobby Masters

Back to back on the Hobby Masters – this was the 2002 version.

Info about the set:

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Set description:  I’m not sure if it was the same as 1997, where Topps reached out to hobby dealers to pick 20 players who had the most hobby impact.  But these are cards printed on very thick card stock with a grid background.  The word Hobby Masters is printed in block capital letters on the left-hand side.  Player name is in much smaller Italics type next to that.  Player pic is on the right.  There’s a write-up on the back – next to another photo – describing how this player has had a hobby impact.

The set was (weirdly) not a hobby exclusive, and was available in retail, hobby and HTA packs.

Set composition:  20 cards, 1:25 odds (2002 Topps series 1)

Hall of Famers:  9 – Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones, Vlad Guerrero, Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, Ivan Rodriguez, Mike Piazza, Pedro Martinez, Jeff Bagwell

How I put the set together:

• 1 card from my series 1 hobby box
• 4 cards from card shows
• 2 cards from Sportlots
• 4 cards from Beckett Marketplace
• 9 cards from COMC

Card that completed my set:  #HM9 – Albert Pujols

I got this card from COMC last Black Friday (with the shipment coming in late December).  I had 15 of the 20 cards through 2016, then finished it very slowly after that.

Thoughts on the set:  Seems weird it isn’t hobby only?  Not a bad design, like the thicker card stock.  It does have the feel of a premium insert.

Best card (my opinion): #HM18 – Pedro Martinez

I like the fit of this photo with the design of the card.  And it’s Pedro at the height of his powers.

My Favorite Reds card: #HM11 – Ken Griffey Jr.

As the saying goes – it beat out all of the competition.  Of which there were no others.

Here’s the scan of the full card set:

Any other tidbits:  Whenever I get to the last of these – I’ll want to put together a list of who made the most of these sets.  But so far – guys that are in all 3 I’ve completed (’97, ’02, ’04) are:

• Randy Johnson
• Mike Piazza
• Chipper Jones
• Barry Bonds
• Derek Jeter
• Sammy Sosa

Completed insert set – 2004 Topps Hobby Masters

Keeping it moving with finishing some more insert sets.

This is my second completed insert set from 2004 Topps (after Hit Parade).  This was another one finished via a Black Friday purchase from COMC.

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Info about my set:

Set description:  Hobby Masters was a set Topps had done a few times before this (1997, 2002 and 2003 being the other years).  they’re supposed to be a bit of a higher end insert, not as common as some other insert sets.  It’s Hobby exclusive.  The cards have a black border with the player highlighted over a greyed out background with some elegant cursive of the first letter of the player’s last name as a background overlay.  There’s a short write-up horizontally on the back.

Set composition:  20 cards, 1:12 (2004 Topps series 1 Hobby)

Hall of Famers:  5.  Derek Jeter, Jim Thome, Mike Piazza, Randy Johnson, Chipper Jones

How I put the set together:

• 3 cards from the series 1 HTA box
• 6 cards from Sportlots
• 5 cards from a card show
• 3 cards from Beckett Marketplace
• 3 cards from COMC

Thoughts on the set:  The earlier sets of Hobby Masters seemed to be a little more special – they were thicker card stock.  It’s kind of middling in my opinion, though it certainly isn’t a bad design.  I think if it was a thicker card stock I’d like it a lot better.

Card that completed my set:  #HM3 – Alex Rodriguez, #HM14 – Randy Johnson, #HM19 – Chipper Jones (purchased on COMC)

I got all these cards as part of a big Check Out My Cards purchase at the end of last year.

Best card (my opinion): #HM8 – Ichiro, #HM10 – Thome

Great photos of these 2 guys in their notable routine measuring the pitcher up.  Wish they were side by side in the set, but I can show them that way here!

Best Reds card (my opinion):  #HM15 – Adam Dunn

As is oft the case – the only one!

Here’s the whole set.

Completed insert set – 2012 Topps Archives In Action

One more of these 2012 Archives insert sets.  This one I give an A for the idea, a B-minus for the execution.

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Info about the set:

Set description:  10 subjects – a few current players, a few retired inclusions – in the design of the 1982 In Action subset.

Set composition:  10 cards, 1:32 (retail only)

Hall of Famers: 5- Cal Ripken, Ichiro Suzuki, Ken Griffey Jr., Roberto Clemente, Tony Gwynn

How I put the set together:

• 1 card in a trade (from the illustrious Night Owl)
• 4 cards from Sportlots
• 1 card from eBay
• 4 card from COMC

Wish I could say I pulled one card from a retail pack, but I bought 2 hobby boxes back in the day from this product and I think the 1 or 2 retail packs was more than I should have gotten anyways.

Thoughts on the set:  I like revisiting the design of older subsets, particularly this one – the 1982 In Action subset is awesome!  However the photos Topps picked here weren’t necessarily the greatest out there.

Card that completed my set: #82IA-JE Jacoby Ellsbury

I picked up this card from COMC in December last year.

Best card (my opinion):  #82IA-JK John Kruk

The Ichiro card has the best action shot, and the Griffey card is neat because his father actually had a card in the set.  Clemente had a card in the 1972 In Action subset, and Ripken is the only guy in this set who actually has a 1982 Topps card.

Those are all interesting – but Kruk is one of my favorite players from when I was growing up and I’ve liked him even more as a media member.  I love that he’s in a smaller set like this.

Here’s a post I did that compared the provenance on these retail sets.

My Favorite Reds card:  There were none.

Here’s a scan of the whole set.

Finished what I wanted! – 2012 Topps Archives Autographs

I have a little bit of a different post this time.  It’s not a complete set or anything – but I did finish off all the autographs I was collecting from this set.

Here’s my original post about the Autographs from this product.  The gist of it is – there are 41 short printed regular cards at the end of the base set.  One of them is the stupidly Short Printed Bryce Harper in the 1984 design that basically makes it impossible to complete that set.  If you don’t count that card – the 40 SP’s are all retired players on designs from their playing career.  So these are alternate photos of cards these guys previously had.  These are called Fan Favorites.

I always think stuff like that is cool.  So I have the full set (minus the Harper), including those cards.  All of those 40 cards have an autographed version, however there were 33 other Fan Favorite cards that were autographed that weren’t in the set:

Dick Groat (61), Bobby Richardson (66), Bud Harrelson (69), Cleon Jones (69), Maury Wills (70), Boog Powell (71), Mickey Lolich (73), Hank Aaron (73), Bill Lee (74), Gary Carter (75), Al Oliver (77) George Foster (78), Greg Luzinski (78), Amos Otis (79), Bob Boone (79), Doug DeCines (80), Bobby Grich (80), Buddy Bell (81), Ben Oglivie (81), Joe Charboneau (81), Willie Wilson (81), Steve Rogers (83), Ron Kittle (84), Steve Balboni (86), Tommy Herr (86), Wally Backman (86), Carney Lansford (90), Bobby Thigpen (91), Doug Drabek (91), Jack McDowell (91), Denny Martinez (92), Jimmy Key (96), Ray Lankford (98)

I decided I would be collecting all of those except the Gary Carter and Aaron.  The Aaron was just exceedingly rare, and the Carter was more of a separate special card – he had recently passed away and the card was in the 1975 design.  Carter’s rookie card is a 4-player prospects card from that set.

So I have been collecting 31 cards from here.  I got the last of those – Willie Wilson – from COMC late last year.

Here’s the scans of those:

I also got a few other cards because they were interesting to the set, and to round out the binder pages – which were 7 short after all the inserts.  I got 2 of the Fan Favorite Autos that were in the regular set.  First was Ken Griffey Sr., just because it’s fun to get an affordable member of the Big Red Machine.

I also got Sid Bream’s card because he wrote bible verses along with his signature, which seemed kind of neat.

I got one card of the 1983 mini framed autographs just to have an example of that one – Bert Blyleven, think I paid $25 for a number of years ago.

Then I got one gold version from each of the 4 sub-sections of the base set that was also “time appropriate”.

Last – I got Orlando Cepeda’s relic card from the 1956 relics subset.  This isn’t time appropriate – his rookie card was 1958, and he started with the Giants – but it’s the closest I could get other than the only card that is, which is the uber-expensive Roberto Clemente card.

Anyways, no completed set type info since it’s not a completed set – just fun to show off!