The Mega Master Set

I've documented my collecting habits over the last seven years on this blog, following an arc from the scattered, massive accumulation of decades-worth of baseball cards to new-card musings to a realization that in terms of collecting, less is more: that it's better to collect with a purpose and a goal rather than to simply collect because it fills the time.

As it turns out, like many collectors, I have a lot of different focuses. One goal is to get a card of every player that has ever played on the Boston Red Sox (my Soxlopedia). Another is a small player collection of Fred McGriff. And collecting printing screw-ups, like miscuts, blank fronts, blank backs, doubleprints, and those cards missing gold foil or some other mistake. And cards from the 1967 Topps Who Am I? with their disguises still on (unscratched). Another is completing sets.

And it's here — completing sets — that I want to highlight today. The other day I was at my local shop (Kenmore Collectibles in Kenmore Square, Boston) and mentioned to its owner (Peter) that I was thinking of going for the mega master set of 1965 Topps. He didn't know what I meant, which I thought was weird, since I assumed that this was something that other collectors did. The mega master set would be collecting every card made in a particular design. So for 1965 Topps — the one with the pennants — that would mean not just finishing the regular set, but then pairing it with 2003 Upper Deck Vintage, which co-opted the design. And then adding 2014 Topps Heritage. And 2014 Topps Heritage Chrome, Refractors, High Numbers, and whatever else Topps creates next year for this design.

But wait, there's more! There's the 2001 Gallery Heritage insert set. And whatever cards were included in the multiple Topps Archives and All-Time Fan Favorites sets. And various cards in the Shoebox, the 50 years, 60 years, and Cards Your Mother Threw Out insert sets, the Vintage Legends Collection, the Bill Russell Missing Years card from Topps basketball... And I'm sure there are others that I haven't listed here.

I've put together traditional sets before, but the idea of the "mega master set" appeals to me. I've decided to do this for Topps sets from 1965 (with Embossed, but maybe not Transfers), 1976, 1984, 1986, and 1987 for starters (but not including the Tiffany sets from 1984, 1986, or 1987).

So...is this a thing that other collectors do, or have I stumbled onto something new?

Fantastic Card of the Night: Supersonics at Your Service

Has there ever been a more self-reflexive team card? This could only be topped by the Utah Jazz striking up the band with a few guys strung out on heroin in the background, or the Orlando Magic sawing each other in half in front of a group of bored kids. Actually, you know what they should do. They should make a subset of Team Tableaus, where the team has to act to out the team name. I see the Trail Blazers in furs and pelts, getting high out in the woods with Sacagawea, Golden State Warriors fucking each other up on the streets of 1970s New York City...wait, wrong Warriors...Knicks crowding a back room all dandied up with watch fobs and pince-nez, slapping each other on the backs and surrounded by servants, Chicago Bulls in black and white striped shirts and red ascots 'round their necks, fleeing for their lives down Michigan Avenue. You get the idea.

I wouldn't be surprised if you could have found this image on the inside of a matchbook, or on a male escort postcard tacked to the inside of a public phone booth in London. Seriously, the only thing that's missing is that the team isn't wearing tuxedos. Slick Watts is wearing his headband and wristbands, the white guys all have bushy mustaches, and Bill Russell's out front like Ricardo Montalban from Fantasy Island.

Hello all you foxy ladies. If there's anything you need--anything at all--just call upon my team of Supersonics. They're here for your pleasure and convenience. Spencer! Archie! Slick! Help make our beautiful guests a little more comfortable. I'm Bill Russell, but you can call me Captain Wonderful. Next stop: your wildest, most basketball-related fantasies.

By the way, do you think Slick Watts wore his headband and wristbands at all times, on and off the court? I'm thinking the answer is Yes, with a capital 'Y.' And by 'at all times' I'm including when he showered, slept (hair net and oven mitts for protection), sat in jury duty, bought groceries, built computers in his garage with his dorky friends and attended black tie events with other pillars of the community.

I mean, they were the source of his powers, right?

O-Done

Today I feel bad: for Greg Oden, for Blazers' GM Kevin Pritchard and for the Topps Company, who made Oden their poster boy for 2007-08. Pritchard and Oden may have known about the big guy's physical problems going into the draft, but what about the embattled Mothership? It's never a good thing for your spokesman to suddenly go off the national stage, but for it to happen right after your rival backs off from hostile takeover threats? While out of their control, the timing really couldn't be worse.

Oh, sure, collectors won't be finding Oden's cards in the ten-cent bin just yet, and because he's a young player, many news media outlets are already predicting a full recovery.

Who knows? Maybe an off-year will help give more collectors opportunity to pick up his cards at a lower price. But the question at the back of everyone's mind lingers: are we looking at the next Bill Russell (as Topps would want you to believe), or the next Pervis Ellison?



More Goudey Trade-away posts coming this evening, and all through the weekend. So far we've got 62 trades lined up, but there's plenty left if you'd like to get in on the fun. Email me if you're interested.