The Final 50

I've been on a mission to complete (almost) all of my baseball, football, and hockey set builds by the end of 2023. This excludes my 1956 Topps project and a handful of hockey near-sets with too many SPs/rare singles. It kind of excludes the 1988-89 Fleer basketball set, which is not in the budget to be completed this year. But there are some lower-value singles in that set that I can afford to upgrade, so I've added it.


Here's my shopping list for the rest of the year. If I can add at least 50 of these to the collection in the next four months I'll be very pleased (and I'll be able to focus on vintage in 2024 and beyond.)

1992 Donruss Diamond Kings
11 - Jeff Bagwell
14 - Harold Baines
17 - Jay Bell

I offered a TCDB user ten singles from 2023 Topps for six 2023 Topps cards and the Baines DK. He declined 🤷

1993 Donruss Diamond Kings
17 - Darren Daulton
21 - Gary Sheffield
26 - Luis Polonia
29 - Pat Listach
30 - Eric Karros

Really hope I don't have to pay for the Polonia.

2010 Topps
100 - Albert Pujols
327 - Albert Pujols (award winner)
549 - Derek Jeter
637 - Ruth/Gehrig (checklist)

Incoming from Sportlots: 7, 8, 125, 206, 215, 361, 379, 400, 404, 476, 530, 541, 551, 559, 560, 588, 590, 623, 652, 653

2017 Topps Heritage
419 - Francisco Lindor SP
428 - Mookie Betts SP

I've given up on the Topps Game rookies inserts so adding these two 'base' SPs would close the book(s) on this set.

2023 Topps
363 - Logan O'Hoppe RC
524 - Terrin Vavra RC
550 - Mark Vientos RC
557 - Nate Eaton RC

Incoming from Sportlots/TCDB: 334, 385, 417, 425, 446, 469, 482, 526, 559, 645

1989 Pro Set
457 - Sam Clancy RC
459 - Mike Webster
460 - Bob Golic
469 - Vaughan Johnson RC
486 - Deion Sanders RC
493 - Bobby Humphrey RC
494 - Barry Sanders RC
499 - Cleveland Gary RC
505 - Brian Williams RC
511 - Tim Worley RC
526 - Jonathan Hayes RC
539 - James Jefferson RC
548 - Carnell Lake RC
555 - Gary Hogeboom

I picked up the main set (cards #1-440) on eBay for $10 dlvd. I'll have to pay about that much for just Barry and Deion.

2015 Panini Prizm
16 Joe Montana
55 Colin Kaepernick
87 Rob Gronkowski
221 Darren Waller RC
236 Eli Harold RC
237 Eric Kendricks RC
250 J.J. Nelson RC
260 Landon Collins RC
298 Tyler Lockett RC

I bought the Nelson on COMC earlier this summer but those **ckers sent me a creased card 😠

1988-89 Fleer
17 - Michael Jordan
18 - Charles Oakley
20 - Scottie Pippen RC
42 - Bill Laimbeer
43 - Dennis Rodman RC
57 - Reggie Miller RC
120 Michael Jordan ASS

I hated the '90s Bulls. So why did I decide to build this set? Because these were the first basketball cards I ever saw as a kid. Also that's not a typo; MJ is an a-hole. I will die on this hill.

1989-90 Fleer All-Star Stickers
1 - Karl Malone

Ugh.. another jerk. I actually have this card but it's more miscut than your typical All-Star Sticker from this set, and it messes with my OCD. That said, I'd rather pay 50 cents for the Polonia DK than upgrade this.

1988-89 Topps
16 Joe Nieuwendyk RC
25 Clint Malarchuk
33 Randy Burridge
55 Ray Sheppard
66 Brett Hull RC
91 Brian Mullen
105 Andrew McBain
113 Doug Halward
120 Wayne Gretzky
129 Tony Hrkac RC
134 Bob Sweeney RC
137 Petri Skriko
155 Kelly Hrudey
158 Randy Hillier
165 Brian Noonan RC
177 Rick Tocchet
178 Brad McCrimmon
186 Rejean Lemelin
195 Brian Hayward
197 Doug Crossman

Immaculate Grid tip o' the week: 700-goal scorer and Hall of Famer Brett Hull started his career with Calgary.

2022-23 Upper Deck
416 Nick Paul
425 Elias Pettersson
450 Charlie McAvoy/Moritz Seider CL

Incoming from Sportlots/TCDB: 30, 263, 264, 369, 374, 401


Have you seen what Upper Deck plans to do to their flagship hockey set in '23-24?!?? I'm glad I wrote the Young Guns chronicles this year. Between this and Topps Big League's four-tier SP garbage it's getting harder and harder to build a current year set. I can definitely see the end of my collection coming...




Thanks for reading!



~