Featured Cards: 2013 Topps Rookie of the Year Award Winners Trophy #ROY-SR, Scott Rolen; 2013 Phillies Team Issue, Second Edition (no #, uniform number on front), Jonathan Pettibone; 1916 M101-4 Blank Back (no #), Wilbur Good
Four weeks since the last post. For what it’s worth, I’m accumulating ideas for posts — I’ve just lacked the time to work on them, and after four weeks without posting (actually, nearly three months without regular posting), it feels like I should do some sort of “I’m back” post before just jumping in again. So, another quick hodge-podge of stuff today before really getting active again tomorrow…
As of today, I have 417 Phillies cards designated as 2013 issues in my collection (I’ve followed Beckett’s convention and listed this year’s Panini Prizm set as a 2012 release). Even given that there are nearly four months left in the year, I believe it’s very unlikely that this year’s total will reach the same numbers as the first few years of the MLB-sanctioned Topps monopoly. However, as I am now adding MLBPA-sanctioned cards (again, I refuse to use the term “unlicensed”) I suppose that there is a chance that the final number might get closer than I suspect. For the record, I own 596 Phillies cards from 2010, 599 from 2011, and 625 from 2012…
I was kind of sad to see Jim’s report at The Phillies Room stating we will not see an update to this second edition of this year’s team issue set. It’s understandable given the recent crowds at Citizens Bank, and — truth be told — I feel relieved that I don’t have to purchase it again in its entirety just to add a handful of new cards to my collection. On the other hand, Phillies team-issued cards of Cody Asche and a few of the other last-season call-ups would’ve been nice, since I don’t trust Topps to include most of them in the Update set later this year…
Work on the database continues. It now contains 29,085 entries and is now complete through 1992. (Link currently goes to a version that I posted at the end of July). I will post an updated version once it reaches 30,000 entries…
As for the number of items in the actual collection, I am now approaching 18,500. I started this blog in May 2011 while anticipating the addition of item number 14,000. I think it’s safe to say that the growth in my collection over the past 28 months is, for me, both unprecedented and will almost certainly never be repeated. Most of this growth was the result of filling in massive holes in the collection from the 2003-2009 timeframe — a period of (comparatively) very limited collecting. Although I certainly have enough cards to assemble a decent-size want list for those years, I’ve now collected the overwhelming majority of what I want to acquire from that era. I’m now going to devote greater resources to the pre-WW II part of my collection…
Finally, come hell or high water, I will be posting a very belated review of 2013 Topps Archives tomorrow. I actually have something I’ve really wanted to say about the set and the inserts, and damn it, I’m going to.
14,000 Phillies 