OHB Completes Me

It was a few years ago that I made a coupe collecting decisions. I had too many collecting interests, and was accumulating too many cards I really didn’t want. So, I made two big decisions. I would only collect cards from the Topps family of brands. (So, you can imagine my relief when they were the ones who got the exclusive license a few years back.) I would also only collect Red Sox cards. 

But, that still left so many questions.

Would I collect every Topps brand? Every subset of every Topps brand? How about test issues, or stickers, or food issues with the Topps name in the corner?

AAARRGHH!

How was I ever going to keep track of it all? How was I ever going to even make up wantlists for it all? How did I expect to actively pursue all those cards?

More decisions.

I wouldn’t. 

I wasn’t going to worry about hunting them all down. There was so much out there, that I was just going to do what I can, and have the cards find their way to me. I put together some easy to create wantlist for people who wanted to trade, or donate. Base sets of a few of my favorite brands. But, frankly I’d take whatever Red Sox cards people wanted to send me. Most important, I was going to be OK with the fact that this method might mean I never complete any team sets. There were so many cards from so many brands, that the chances of coming across all the cards of a specific set were slim.

Until Tony of Off Hiatus Baseball came along. He would have none of that.

He Completed Me.

A lot.

In fact, in a recent shipment, he finished off six different team sets. Six! Sets from three different decades. All now complete, thanks to this one shipment.

Amazing!

So, what did he send along? I’m glad you asked.

Cards from the seventies! I’ll always have a soft spot for the 1976 set, so it’s great whenever I can add one of those. Those 1977 Hall of Famers? Yup, the 1977 set is now complete!

Cards from the eighties! More Hall of Famers! The 1980 set? Now complete! 1982. Now complete! 1984? Complete! 1989? Yup. Complete. 

New shiny cards. 2014 Bowman? You guessed it. Complete!

Of course, not every card can complete a set. Some just get me a little bit closer. Here are some cards of grumpy players staring down the camera.

A Red Sox legend.

Quotes Pedroia.

It was a wonderful package, and I had a great time going through it. I had an even better time writing “Complete” on all those wantlists.

Imagine that.

Thanks Tony!