It took over ten years, but I'm at 50%

[Zach Wheat]

Ben,


Hey good luck and thanks for posting. Nice Podres card. As others have noted I am surprised it did not grade higher. Is there some hard to see defect? Also wonder what 3 cards you anticipate are going to be the hardest to acquire? Just curious. Best of luck on the hunt.

Z Wheat

[Reds Collector]

Quite a goal. Congratulations on your accomplishment. If I could maintain focus on a certain area I might have a few accomplishments like that.

Mark

[toppcat]

Hi Ben- your experience is a lot like mine, although I collect raw. I didn't work on the Bums for a long time so it took me over 30 years to complete the Topps and Bowman runs. Probably 8 years of that was actively acquiring the cards. It's not that easy to win some of the tougher cards in auctions as there is a lot of competition and the 52 Topps highs are not for the faint of heart but it was nice when I got the last card of the run. So good luck and happy hunting!

[dembums]

I appreciate the sense of camaraderie I get from your responses. As I'm sure is the case with many of you, few and far between are the people I can to share these types of milestones with and get any type of understanding or acknowledgement. So to get it from fellow collectors is gratifying. Thank you.

52 Topps highs are not for the faint of heart

Dave - I have one, my Jackie, and no others - so yes I've been holding out on these. Expensive and relatively hard to find. The Pee Wee and Campy are always out of my price range. At least on the low end, high eye appeal spectrum. With the Topps high #'s, I always had a hard time spending that kind of money on a non-HOF player, even if it was a semi-star or manager. I mean, consider the amount of HOF'ers on the Brooklyn Dodger roster (and yes I include Gil on that list) during the years I collect. There are literally over a 100 cards of these HOF'ers. So, in my mind, if I'm gonna spend over a hundred dollars on one card - it should be on a Jackie, Duke, Pee Wee, Campy or in some cases a Hodges. Although the older I get, the more tempting those high #'s become, and the more obvious my avoidance is. Last year, I did splurge on a Leaf Hermansk error so, eventually I'll bow down to the Topps God.

Nice Podres card. As others have noted I am surprised it did not grade higher. Is there some hard to see defect?

Zach - Yup, there are some paper wrinkles on the back of the card, which gives the card it's "technical grade" - but, man, it's a sweet card. I got it at a show a couple of weeks ago from a dealer who played semi-pro hockey. He told me some cool stories about being concussed half a dozen times because they wore no helmets and head injuries were of minor concern. Ah the "rub dirt on it" mantra, and how it was essentially the best years of his life. But it's stories like these, that keeps the hobby interesting for me and makes me appreciate the journey.

Would love to continue to hear about your progress in this venture.

Drew - Like I said before, thanks. You had some good questions that I'll answer next time with some pics of those cards that called out.