The $200/pack high end craze? I can always skip it. Numbering every card to /25 or less, but making 800 color variations? I pick the pretty colors. But these damn photo variations? They're this gaping hole in my binder pages of otherwise easily completable team sets, staring, laughing, mocking my unwillingness to shell out $15 on a base card.
But I've slowly been chipping away at the cheapest and coolest of the bunch. There are probably four years of cardboard that will always be special in my collecting life:
2000 - the year I started seriously collecting
2001 - the first year my dad and I got a season ticket package for the newly opened PNC Park
2006 - the summer Pittsburgh hosted the All-Star game and I started college, and thus watched way too much baseball
2013 - I'm introduced to the concept of playoff baseball in Pittsburgh.
And for that reason alone, I don't mind breaking the bank a bit. Not that this card did - it onbly ran me $3 or $4, after waiting for prices to settle a bit. And it carries some good memories of the Pirates sending more than one player to the all-star game. And better yet...one less blank slot in my binder.
I touched on variants on my blog too. I'm terrible about noticing them. It doesn't matter how much I research I will push it to the side. A few weeks back I found the Mariano Rivera variant from 2013 Topps Update. It would have sat in a monster box for years if I hadn't searched for some Yankees for a trade.
ReplyDeleteI actually didn't mind the retired player SP's. But sprakle, photo variations, super sp photo variations...it's just overkill.
DeleteSince I'm a set collector, I only consider base cards as part of the set. Therefore inserts, variations, SP's, etc., I don't consider to be part of the set. If I pull them, I generally keep them with the set, but I don't chase them. I also don't pay much attention to what the variations are, so consequently I could have one and not realize it.
ReplyDeleteI was heavily debating just ignoring them completely, and filling in my team sets in the binder without them. But I ultimately decided to leave space for the SP's, in case I ever hit the lottery.
DeleteI've got the McCutchen / Alvarez variant. I also have the 2012 McCutchen All-Star game parade "street clothes" variant. I really want to find the /62 black-border version of his '13 base card though….and trade those two variants for it.
ReplyDeleteThe street clothes SP was actually one of the ones I didn't mind, and I was able to snag a copy on the cheap. I'll keep an eye out for a Cutch black border for you.
DeleteI like the photo variations better than the retired player ones that we had for a few years. If I feel like getting the photo variants, I can. If not, there's always the standard card of player X to fill that spot. But the retired player short prints were a whole new card - different player & photo - so they're harder to ignore even though I don't see much of a point to having them in the set.
ReplyDelete