Don’t feel like reading this entire post? My 2010 Topps want list is HERE…I know that everyone in the entire Blog-o-Sphere has been waiting on the edge of their seats to hear my take on 2010 Topps. Well, here it is… It was driving me nuts seeing these posted everywhere when I couldn’t find a single pack, but finally they hit Bradenton and now they are everywhere. Topps is my favorite brand ever. It was the first brand I collected and will always be my favorite. I think that many feel this way and I think that the execs at Topps know this and exploit it. Like most of you I have taken several hiatuses from collecting. Each time when I return, I return to Topps. I had not ripped a pack since 1996 when noticed a 20 dollar box of Topps at Wal Mart in 2007. I didn’t look closely and assumed that it was a 24-pack box and 20 bucks seemed like a bargain. It was a blaster, but I didn’t know that at the time. I had some extra cash and I thought it would be fun. The first thing I noticed was the number of inserts in every pack. I hated it. In the mid-to-late 90’s inserts were the craze. Every brand had them and the display cases at card shops were filled with fancy inserts of Frank Thomas and Ken Griffey Jr. I still remember some of the better insert sets from back then. The 1995 Pinnacle set comes to mind.
They had a subset called Red Hot/White Hot. The Red Hot cards were 1:20 in retail packs and the White Hot were the same odds in hobby boxes. It was an awesome set and if you were really lucky you had a shot to get two in one box. I know I went off topic, but that is what I remembered of inserts. They were special because they were tough to pull and you got excited if you got one because it meant you lucked out. When I ripped that first blaster of Topps in 2007 I had 3 inserts in my first pack. I thought for sure I had tapped into a cardboard goldmine. I beat the odds and got 3 inserts in one pack! I did the same thing in the other 10 packs, too. Apparently inserts went from sought after to irritating. I did end up getting back into collecting, but I gave up on Topps base (sort of) and adopted Topps Heritage as my drug of choice. The classic design, thicker card stock, no gloss finish and lack of inserts is what hooked me on that. In 2008 I resisted Topps all together. I didn’t like the design or the flimsiness of them and aside from the U and H that were crammed into packs of Heritage High #s in ’08, I avoided Topps completely. 
I took another hiatus from collecting, but it was less than a year. I fell off the wagon just in time for 2009 Topps series 2. There were things I didn’t like about it, but I fell in love with the set anyway. I ripped a lot of Series 2, but generally traded it away too quickly to build a want list and come close to chasing the set. I thought the ’09 design was the best design of the decade (I liked 2003 a lot, too). I did start ripping ’09 Updates and Highlights with the intention of finishing the set and I am around ¾ of the way done with it. The anticipation was killing me with the 2010 set. It was over a month after I began seeing the product on nearly every single blog out there that stores in my area finally started carrying it. 
My first purchase was 18 packs. As was the case in 2007 I got at least 1 insert in every pack, 2 or 3 in some of them. When you are buying packs to chase the set, nothing is more annoying than getting that many inserts and that few base cards. That is one thing I don’t like about it. It isn’t a new problem; it has been going on with Topps for at least 4 years, probably much longer. Of course the appearance of some of these insert sets is another problem. Last year the Topps Town inserts were hideous. I have been chasing Updates and Highlights for a couple of reasons. One is that it is force-fed to collectors who want Heritage High Numbers and they (I) don’t have a choice. The benefit of that is that you don’t get the inserts in those packs, just 3 base cards in every pack. You would have to open a minimum of 110 packs to get the set, but you don’t have to deal with any Topps Town nonsense. I will say that this year the Topps Town cards are better looking. I got one of these in the first pack that I ripped and in at least 50% of every pack that I opened after the first. Just like a drug dealer, Topps uses this method to hook you. Topps Town is a 25-card subset. 
I have ripped 35 packs and I have 13 of the 25 cards in the set. I don’t like the set at all. I don’t like anything about it. That said, I have over 50% of the set, so I can send away the 13 cards I do have to team collectors OR I can chase it. I will chase it. Last year I probably pulled over 100 Topps Town cards and I sent each away as trade filler. I probably would have finished the set if I had hung onto them. I know that I didn’t get anything good in return for them because no one else likes them either. This year, I will hang onto them. Topps hooked me. I get disappointed with each card I pull, but I am wasting 3 binder pages on these stupid cards and I know have my needs typed up on a list that says that I WANT Topps Town cards. Ergh. By the way, I did rip 35 packs and I have only 13 cards toward the set. That doesn’t mean I only pulled 13 cards. I have 4 copies of Roy Halladay, 3 of Evan Longoria and doubles of several. I went off way too much here. I could write a few pages about each of the subsets, but I won’t tonight. I have made a list of each and every subset. I don’t know which ones I will be chasing after yet, but I resolved to be a more organized list orientated collector, so that is what I am gonna do. I think the list for 2010 Topps that I just made looks pretty good. You can view it here. I will say a few more words about this set. I LOVE the price. 2 bucks for a pack with 12 in it, you can’t beat that. That is AWESOME. Were these 3 bucks a pop, I wouldn’t be nearly as interested. The retail stores around here got Upper Deck and Topps on the same day. I dropped 3 dollars on 1 pack of UD and spent 36 bucks on 18 packs of Topps. 
I haven’t pulled any hits yet. No jerseys, relics, auto or silks. I do LOVE the silks. Those are great. I did get 2 (1:24) original back versions of Cards Your Mom Threw Out. I suppose those qualify as hits. They are 1979 Ozzie Smith and 1999 Ivan Rodriguez. I like the Ozzie card. I have the real one, but mine is WAY off center. This one is much nicer and glossier and sharper looking. I have the real version of the Pudge card, too. They look identical. I don’t have it, but I saw that there is a 2008 Evan Longoria in the set. Really Topps? That is freaking stupid. The set is a cute idea, but it needed to be cut-off at 1983. Having cards from the 90’s in there is dumb. Cards from last year is freaking ridiculous and insulting to all of us. That was a major screw up Topps. My other HUGE issue, and this is an ongoing thing too, is their collation. I don’t expect to finish a set off of 35 packs, but that is because I have LOWERED expectations. You should be able to. 35 packs yields 420 cards and the set is only 330 cards. You should be able to finish the set with one box. 
Instead I have 25 Topps Town cards and a whole mess of dupes. Case in point: From 130-140 we have one card. Not a big deal, but I have 7 copies of that one card. That is a big deal. I have pulled 4 Turkey Red cards and 2 of them are of the same player (Ozzie Smith). I have 4 copies of the Roy Halladay Topps Town card. I shouldn’t get a bippings worth of one player and nothing from the next 10 numbers in the set. Even with the 2 dollar price tag, I expect better than that. That is my biggest issue with this offering. That doesn’t mean I won’t stop buying it, I will because I am a stupid consumer and an addicted collector, but they should really do better, even with their monopoly. 
You may notice that my needs list doesn’t include the when they were young subset. I like the idea, but the cards I pulled were of young players. The idea would work with Randy Johnson or Jim Thome, not Daniel McCutchen and Gordan Beckham. They ARE young. That said I do want to get a copy of the Brian Roberts card… I think that Turkey Red is and always has been a great set. I like combo cards, so I am drawn to the Legendary Lineage cards, but I really only like when the players are on the same team. 
I do NOT own this card, it popped up on a Google image search, surprisingly Shannon Stewart didn't make an appeaarance. Obviously it is awesome, but it would work better with Dick Allen and Ryan Howard. I like the past and present dual-player theory (sounds like an emo band name), but the lineage SHOULD be the same organization. The Peak Performance cards are boring. The History of the Game inserts are (yawning) okay. I like the Tails of the Game cards and I think those are a more difficult pull, too, which I like. I already mentioned that I like the silk cards, those are awesome. I am expecting the Akinori Iwamura card any day now and I will post it as soon as I get it. The Peak Performance relics are neat. I haven’t seen any autos yet. I like the black card versions, but haven’t actually seen one in person yet. I REALLY like the base card design. I like the backs, the easy to see numbers, stats and positions. The swirly wave of color as a border is neat and the giant logos stick it to UD, but make it easy for team collectors, too. It is a winning design and very affordable without feeling cheap. I would give it a 7 out of 10 troll bridges overall. 
Extra points for value, design, franchise history cards and player selection and points lost for poor collation, insert overload and the inclusion of modern and junk wax cards in the Cards Your Mom Threw Out subset. Your Mom threw out your 1987 Bo Jackson because you had 50 of them! Please check out my fancy want list and get in touch if you want to do some trading. Up on the block right now are the 2 original back cards and the Ozzie Smith Turkey Red. I have about 50 base card doubles so far. I WILL be ripping more of this product. Thanks for reading; it’s good to be back. Click for want list. I love this hobby. Oh, as an endnote, there is a contest in the planning stages here at the CT. This blog presently has 89 followers. When it hits 100, there will be a contest. It will be limited to the first 100 followers only. If you are follower #101, you would not be eligible. It could take a year to pick up 11 more followers, but it is something to consider... Go Rays! Troll out.
#326 Bill Swift San Francisco Giants (The pride of South Portland, Maine. 1993 was Bill Swift’s best year by far. He was 21-8 with a 2.82 ERA in 34 starts and finished 2nd to Greg Maddux in the Cy Young vote)
#493 Rafael Palmeiro Baltimore Orioles (After a career year in ’93 where he topped 30 homers (37) and 100 RBI (105) for the first time, Palmeiro cashed those numbers in and signed a 5-year, 30 million + dollar deal with Baltimore. He delivered and started a nine consecutive season 100+ RBI streak in 1995-he would return to the Rangers for 5 more productive seasons before going back to Baltimore for his final 2 years. He hit his 500th homer for the Rangers and got his 3000th hit with the Orioles)
#477 Pat Borders Toronto Blue Jays (Pat Borders was the 1st resident of Lake Wales, Florida to make it to the big leagues-Wade Davis is the only other. Borders is (for now) the only Lake Wales local to make it to the World Series-he did it twice, winning both times. He was the 1992 WS MVP when he hit .450 with a homer and 3 RBI. Incidentally, Lake Wales, Florida is where Esther Gin N Juice and I went for our first date and it was also where we got married-neither Pat Borders, nor Wade Davis attended)
#396 Mark Grace Chicago Cubs (Grace hit .325 in ’93, won a Gold Glove as a first baseman and started the All Star Game as a DH)
#353 Ramon Martinez Los Angeles Dodgers (Insert your own caption HERE)
#473 Jesse Orosco Milwaukee Brewers (Jesse was a little bit past the halfway point in his 24 year career in ’93. JO is the All Time Leader in appearances for a pitcher with 1252)
#534 Mike Kelly Atlanta Braves (1991was the year that the Yankees used their #1 pick (1st overall) on a left handed pitcher named Brien Taylor. Kelly was the second overall player picked in that draft. He was less of a flop, but hardly a success. The Indians used the 13th pick to grab up Manny Ramirez that year)
#389 Ozzie Smith St. Louis Cardinals (The WIZARD!)
#512 Luis Polonia New York Yankees (Polonia played in the WS in 3 different decades for 3 different teams and won 2 of them. He was a member of the 1995 Braves and the 2000 Yankees)
#496 Ellis Burks Colorado Rockies (There were 2 writers this month who felt that Ellis Burks was an Immortal. Really?)
#528 Tony Longmire Philadelphia Phillies
#389 Ozzie Smith St. Louis Cardinals (I think this is the first card pulled of the best fielding shortstop ever! Like Otis Nixon Ozzie was a pretty good basestealer, but never led the league in that category-he never led the NL in any category for that matter… He did win the Silver Slugger Award in ’87 when he hit .303 with 0 homers and 75 RBI. He also stole 43 bases that year… His 580 steals is 21st of All Time)
Joe Torre, his track record as a skipper is pretty amazing, but Esther Gin N Juice didn’t mind questioning him… Some of her unanswered questions included why he wouldn’t leave Orlando Hudson
in the game after his pinch-hit homerun, and the bigger question was why Thome didn’t pinch hit with the bases loaded. “Why did they go out and trade for Thome knowing he can’t play the field and can only pinch hit, why the hell would they not use him in the biggest game of the year with his best chance to drive in some runs???!!!” 
she screamed at the image of Joe Torre inside the TV screen. I can’t say I disagree with her either, hindsight is always 20/20 but looking back, Mr. Torre made than a few questionable decisions in that series and the results were not favorable. Let’s just say that the playoffs aren’t going the way I had planned. Honestly I enjoyed the regular season more this year, especially the last few weeks of the season leading up to the playoffs. That said I really don’t feel like writing about the playoffs either. The Phillies were pretty amazing this week, but that doesn’t mean I like them. I will say that seeing Davey Lopes 
celebrating the Dodgers being eliminated was a troubling image for me… As I write this post (in my notebook, to be transferred later to the blog) it is approaching 7 o’clock, the ALCS should be starting up soon, but I am trapped at work and won’t be able to see it, just the highlights later on. Such is the fate of the outdoors, night-time security guard. My boss (actually the owner) just stopped in. He reads this blog on occasion, so I will quickly state that he is one of the coolest men on the planet… He is a card collector as well, but his collection is on a completely different level than mine. He generally buys just one card a week, sometimes just one a month. He is extremely picky and particular on things like grading and such that really doesn’t matter to me. His latest acquisition, he purchased it earlier today actually, is one of the most iconic cards out there, a 1951 Bowman Willie Mays, graded by PSA as an 8. 
He is okay with an 8 for cards of the early 50s, but it is not up to his standards for the 60’s and beyond. His ’68 Nolan Ryan is just a 9.5, but his ’73 Mike Schmidt and every card from the 70’s and 80’s that he owns are all gem mint 10s. Like I said, our collections aren’t in the same world. Since he pays me my check, he knows I am sure that the price he paid for his ’51 Mays is roughly 8 months salary for me right now. Oh well, he earned his money, he can spend it… It is a beautiful card and it was an honor just to see it in person. It also blends in nicely with the other 8s in his collection, the ’54 Aaron, ’54 Bowman Ted Williams and ’53 Topps Satchel Paige. Combine those 4 cards and you know about what I make in two years. The nice thing is that he does understand the need to spend money on cards, even if dropping 7 bucks is a huge purchase for me. Anyway, even though I took a day off from blogging doesn’t mean that I took a break from collecting; it’s quite the opposite actually. I have been a set-building machine in the month of October. Today was another great mail day for your friend the Troll, I got another great package from Wicked Ortega (I owe you so much already dude!) that included some awesome Rays, but also my first Brian Roberts refractor and I do love refractors! 
I also got a huge package of Negro League cards from the 1950’s from Rob in New York, here is one as a teaser, but I will slowly post all of these over the off-season in reverse order and yes, he did include a couple of ’52 Topps cards! 
The card that I am going to show here though, came all by itself (along with a want list) from a reader in Jacksonville named Sally (which you all know is my awesome Kitty Cat’s name). This plain white envelope didn’t look like much compared to the other two giant manila envelopes, but it contained card #1 from the Troll’s Fab 14 Most Wanted List. The card came with a want list of about 80 different cards from the ’78 set and a short note that basically said: “I need this card for my set, too, but I need a lot of cards to finish off my set, so congratulates on finishing your ’78 set!”. 
Well, congrats indeed to the Troll! After 30 years and a ton of help from the blog-o-sphere, my 1978 Topps baseball set is done!!! Thanks so much Sally! I have about 40 of the cards that you need, but I am going to wait a week to ship them just in case I get any other cards you need in the mail, I can replace the one you sent me. So, there ya have it loyal readers, my ’78 set is finally complete! 
Also in the mail yesterday was another small package from another reader, this one had a few cards from my “upgrayde” list. I am now the proud owner of an uncreased Rod Carew card, can you tell the difference? 
If you haven’t guessed already, the card that Sally so graciously mailed me was in fact card #295 of Red Sox pitcher “Spaceman” Bill Lee! I hadn’t bindered up the last 3 cards that Wicked Ortega had shipped off to me, so the Carew, Bill Lee and those 3 cards 
all hit the binder at the same time to finish it off, complete set, cards 1-726 in the binder! I went in order, so the final card to go in was the Lou Whitaker rookie card. This has been an amazing ride for me, finishing this set, chatting with so many others who have chased it, but mainly the amazing support that I got from the blog-o-sphere was incredible! I still do have a couple of cards that I would like to “upgrayde” (yes, this is intended to be an Idiocracy reference), the list can be found here: 
The Eckersley card on this list came to me in a trade and I didn’t even look at the back of the card. The front is perfect, sharp and centered, but the back has quite a bit of writing that would be inappropriate to post here. Apparently the cards original owner didn’t like the Eck too much, felt like he enjoyed felatio and wrote about it with a heavy dose of profanity and even drew a fallace on the back… I say whatever Eck wants to do in his private life is his business, but I can’t in good faith have that stuff written on the back of a card in this set…. With that, I want to thank Dan from SotCS, Sally, Frank, GreggG, Gene in Ft. Myers and especially Wicked Ortega, as well as anyone and everyone who have sent ‘78s my way over the past few months. THANK YOU ALL!!!! With that thank you stated, I am officially declaring a moratorium on all display of ’78 Topps on this blog, effective immediately! You have all been very patient watching me chase it, but now that it is done, all ’78 scans and discussion will be relegated solely to my new blog, 
1959, 1965, 1976, 1983, 1993 and 2009… The 1978 set was very significant to me, but the year was not. The first set that I finished up this week probably isn’t worth the cardboard that it was printed on, but it is the year that my oldest son Zadeh was born and also the same year that I quit collecting. Actually 1990 was the last set I finished and it was the ninth consecutive childhood Topps set that I was able to finish, but those are long gone. Divorce. Anyway, this worthless 18-year-old cardboard was also the year of Topps 40th Anniversary, it is the 1991 set. This mission started with a pack of ‘91’s that Captain Canuck sent to me a few months ago. 
I liked the cards, the year is special to me and it just seemed possible. When Splatsy Kline moved to Washington, DC a few months back, she left her card collection to me and it included about 300 ‘91s and with that I was on a mission! I purchased the final three cards I needed for the set this week. Coincidentally, Eddie Murray
was one of them. The final card in the set, card# 792 was also needed and the other card was a cool close-up of Cory Snyder, whose ghost haunts the blog-o-sphere. 
This may be the first and last time you will ever see pictures of Mike Greenwell and Cory Snyder on this blog, so enjoy! I was told that this trio of cards was going to set me back 50 cents, but after I bought a binder (used) and a box of pages (new), they ended up being a freebie throw in. The guy at the card shop asked what set I was putting in the binder and I told him 1991 Topps. Well, he fell over in laughter and told me the set was worth about half of what I just paid for the supplies. I really didn’t care, the set meant something to me and there are some really cards in there that I am happy to own. It does have Chipper Jones 
and Pudge Rodriguez’ rookie cards, a bunch of Hall of Famers and a cool 40th Ann logo in the upper corner. Laugh all you want, I like this set! The other set that I finished off this week doesn’t have a binder to go in just yet, but it will need fewer pages as it is only a 440 card set. This one was pretty easy to finish, too. I found 2 wax boxes of this at a card shop a few months back and was able to finish the set off of those with cards to trade leftover. I wish Topps could remember how to collate that well again. I am sick of buying a blaster and getting triples of Hideki Matsui in it. This set is from the birth year of my youngest son Darvey (I only have 2) and it is the 1996 Topps set. These cards are high gloss, have some good quality photography and honestly don’t look too different from the 2009 set. 
There are nice action shots and a lot of the guys in this set are still kicking around the big leagues. I like the 4-person dark and spooky prospects cards.
They had a legitimate future “star” on nearly every card including a few guys battling in the playoffs 13 years later. There were “Future Stars” cards, including a couple of future teammates, also in the playoffs. 
There is a card of the recently fired Quality Control coach of the Tampa Bay Rays, Todd Greene. The back of this card is pretty awesome, I like the full color, full stats and photo on the back, but Greene was a pretty impressive power hitter in the minors. 
He popped 40 homers in 1995 and the card states that he was the first player to hit 40 in the minor leagues since Danny Tartabull hit 43 in 1985. The last card I will show is of a sliding slugger named Ken Griffey Jr. A broken wrist limited Grif’s playing time in 1995 (imagine Griffey on the DL!) and he hit just 17 homers that year after topping 40 the previous two years-as of 1996 Grif had just 189 homers! 
I will probably buy the ’96 set its own binder next week, but it is done as well. That gives me 5 total complete sets (all finished since I started blogging) from 4 different decades-’78.’87,’91,’96 and 2009. So, the set that I am working on at present is the 1979 Topps set. This year is significant because someone that I love very much was born this year, but I can’t reveal who it is for risk of injury. I have to say that this set lacks a lot of the charm that the ’78 set possessed. The photography did get a whole lot better in some cases. I really like the tight close-up 
on Ron Pruitt, the shot of Bert Blyleven on the mound and Reds pitcher Manny Sarmiento getting ready to do something… 
The hair got smaller 
(with a few exceptions) and the facial hair lessened 
as well in most cases. 
I really don’t like the black and white 3-panel rookie cards at all. Color film has been a part of the arsenal of Topps’ photographers since day one, why go back in time for rookie cards? They still have a few goofy cards, like a DH 
making a fake fielding pose with a catcher’s mitt and Mark Lee 
doing his best impression of Milton from Office Space. I like the green, grassy color on the back of the card and I do really prefer the trivia questions to the Play Ball game on the ‘78s. The crop of rookies is a whole lot weaker, too. In 1978 you had Hall of Famer rookie cards, plus you had rookies of some of the best Detroit Tigers of all time, with Lou Whitaker, Alan Trammell, Lance Parrish and Jack Morris in that set. It also included should be HOFer Dale Murphy. The 1979 set has just one HOF rookie, the greatest fielding shortstop of all time, but after that, it falls off dramatically to Lonnie Smith, Danny Darwin and Pedro Guerrero. The main issue I have with this set is the centering. It’s freaking horrible! I have about 85% of the set complete and ¾ of those cards are off centered and off-centered pretty badly. I found an unopened (or so I was told) vending box of these and that is how I started the set. I lucked out and pulled an Ozzie Smith 
rookie with razor sharp corners, but the centering is barely 80/20. I don’t need a lot of cards to finish this one and I will post a list soon. I think I have all of the HOFers covered and I do have a copy of Bill Lee already. 
This post is nearly done, I promise! The one other set that I plan to work on is from the year that I was born, 1974. I like this set for a few reasons. One, the cards seem to be centered much better and there are two great rookie cards in it of the two of the best hitters of the 1970’s, Dave Parker 
and HOFer Dave Winfield. I will post more on this one in the future. For now, enjoy the moratorium on ’78 Topps, look forward to more trading posts, check out my want lists as I post them, keep me in mind for any Rays cards you may pull and please check out my new blog! I still have a ton of amazing cards to post that I have accumulated over the past month. Autographs, relics, refractors, amazing stuff, so stay tuned. Trade packs went out today for Drew, Joe and Brian, many more to come on Monday! Including all the card pics, I think this may be my longest post ever, holy cow!!! By the by, I will not be around to post again until Sunday. We have a 5K Walkathon for breast cancer awareness early Saturday morning and I am proud to say that I raised $660.00 for it. On Saturday night, we are having a blowout party to celebrate-that reminds me, I need to finish this up cuz I have to pick up the keg! Okay back to baseball... That was an amazing game last night, at least what I saw of it, I am rooting for the Angels with all I’ve got! Go Angels! Beat the Yankees! Troll out.
