2026 Collecting Goals

I'm getting this in just before the end of the month, so I think it still counts as the "New Year" season, and falls in the acceptable window for these sort of post.

The card above is a picture of a 1953 Topps #244.  It depicts Willie Mays of the New York Giants.  I'm keeping things simple this year in 2026.  Obtaining that card is my goal.  It's topped my list of "Ten Most Wanted Cards" every year since 2019, and every year I've failed to make an effort to pick one up, instead going scatter shot for other various cards from 1954-59 Topps sets.  I believe I could snatch a well traveled copy of this card for under $900, which is probably more than double of what I spent all of last year on various vintage singles, but not grounds for a divorce if it's the only card I buy in 2026.  It's still a hefty price tag.  It would be almost triple the most I've ever paid for a card (a '53 Mantle well before covid exploded prices) and nearly four times what I paid for a '52 Mays about 10 years ago.  I don't care, I want this card, and it's the last one I need to complete the 1953 set, which I would regard as the single biggest personal collecting accomplishment of my life.

Will it happen?  Based on last years stated goals and what I actually did, probably not.  I earned a solid "F" grade for my 2025 collecting.  Here's a quick recap of my stated goals and how I did:

1. Acquire More Wallach cards: D

I added a 741 Wallach cards in 2025.  That's a 1,000 fewer than 2024, 800 fewer than 2023, 3,500 fewer than in 2022, and so on.  741 is objectively a lot of cards of one player to add to a collection a single year, it's just not up to the standards I've set for myself since starting this blog.

2. Post on Variants: F

I didn't post on the variants.  Maybe I will one day, I'd like to, but I didn't get around to in 2025 or any of the other years I've posted it as a goal.

3. Swag: F

I didn't make any blog related swag to send out to readers.  Still something I'd like to do, who knows when.

4. Continue to build Topps Sets: D

I bought the 2025 Topps factory set, so I didn't lose any ground in 2025.  I also made some decent strides with 1950's Topps sets, albeit, ones I don't consider myself to be actively building and with card budget funds that would have been better saved and directed towards a '53 Mays.

So for 2025, of course I want to add more Wallach, but this is the year I add the '53 Mays (unless it isn't).  As such my "Goals List for 2026" is brief:

2026 Collecting Goals

1. Finish the 1953 Topps set by adding the Willie Mays

...and if I happen to do that, then these would be my next priorities.

2. Add more Tim Wallach cards

This of course isn't something I'll ignore, I'm just not going to be going out of my way to scour Sportlots looking for lots of various cards to drop $50 or so on a few times a year.

3. Complete the 2026 Topps Base set.

Probably going to go the factory set route again this year.  I just can't justify the costs of doing this by buying packs, in the off chance I can even find packs.

More out of tradition than an actual goal, here my "most wanted" non-Wallach cards.

Ten Most Wanted Single Cards

1. 1953 Topps Willie Mays (last year's rank, #1)

Maybe this is the year.

2. 1962 Topps Bob Uecker (7)

Should I finish the '53 set, I'm not sure what I'll do next.  I don't think '62 would be my focus, but it'd get some consideration.  Regardless, I've long wanted a copy of this card.  But these "Rookie Parade" cards are just really tough to find at a price that I can live with.

3. 1963 Topps Pete Rose (2)

This card drops a spot from last year, I just have less tolerance for assholes at the moment, of which Pete Rose certainly was.  Dirtbag or not, I still want this card in much the same way I still want the G.I. Joe Aircraft Carrier.  The difference is I don't really have anywhere in my house to put the USS Flag.  This card remains seared into my brain as the ultimate card to own from my early days of collecting back in the mid 1980's.

4. 1981 Topps Traded Tim Raines (not ranked)

This is one of those cards I often forget I don't own.  I probably have 30 copies of his actual rookie card in the 1981 set, but I don't own this one.  At some point a few years back, I made an effort to add every one of the little boxed Traded sets, I think I just assumed I'd add it that way, but that effort sort of wained out and I'm still short '81 and '82.  Raines is probably my second all-time favorite player and not owning this card is an enormous hole in my collection.  That said, it drives me crazy that it gets called a "rookie card."  It's his 2nd Topps card, not a rookie.  Ditto for the '82 Traded Ripken.

5. 1985 O-Pee-Chee Mario Liemiuex (5)

This card remains #5 on my list, but by way of attrition, has become my most wanted hockey card.  I've lost my desire for the 1979 O-Pee-Chee Gretzky and dropped it from the lofty perch it's held on this list for years.

6. 1961 Fleer Dolph Schayes Shoots (6)

Dolph is the father of Syracuse Orangemen great Danny Shayes, who was one of the first stars coached by the Legendary Jim Boeheim.  Dolph also also played a little basketball himself, winning an NBA Title for the Syracuse Nationals before they were tragically relocated to Philadelphia.  

7. 1962 Topps Mickey Mantle

Another high dollar card from a set I am allegedly not building.  My father's baseball card collection survived and wasn't thrown out by my grandmother.  Albeit, my much older cousins looted all the Cardinals long before I was born (not sure why kids in New York were Cardinals fans, but that's their problem).  While most of it survived long enough for me to see it, a large chunk of it was sold off around 1988 to finance a summer trip to Disney Land.  I remember my father taking my brother and I to our first card show, and watching in pain as he sold off card after card.  This Mantle, while not the "best" card he sold off, is the one that stung the most at the time.  I'd like to go ahead and finally get it back.

8. 2002-03 Upper Deck Henrik Zetterberg

My favorite NHL player of the last 30 years appears as though he is going to be a snub from the Hall of Fame.  Collector's didn't get the message as his RC still demands obscene prices, that's if you can even find one for sale.  It's literally the most expensive card on this list.

9. 1962 Topps Willie Mays

A third card from a set that I don't think I'm building.  I've just always liked this card.

10. 1956 Topps Roberto Clemente

This is one of those cards that would be on my short list for best looking Topps card ever printed.  Sooner or later I'll add it to my collection.

Thanks for reading.  Hope you have a great year.

2025 Year in Review

I realized, or came pretty close to realizing a life long ambition in 2025.  For the first time in my life I was a season ticket holder to a baseball team.  Not a major league team, but a AAA team, and as the guys on the field can tell you, that's pretty close.  That team being the Albuquerque Isotopes, the Colorado Rockies AAA affiliate.

AAA or not, it did not disappoint and exceeded all of my expectations.  I moved to Albuquerque at the end of 2024, and my house is less than a mile from the ball park, making it possible to walk to the games.  My seats were on the wall on the left field line near the foul poll.  These are actually "premium" seats, as they come with a large, elevated swivel chair and you have a bar top in front of you.  I love them.  Sure I could be behind home plate for the same price point, but I hate sitting behind a net, and most the baseball I played in my life, I watched from the view point of center field (sans one miserable year in high school when I was forced to play shortstop).  The Albuquerue Isotopes don't have bleacher seating in the outfield, so this was the next best thing.  

I also love being on the wall.  My seats I quickly discovered, made it wise to bring a glove.  They get a lot of action, and the balls tend to come in hot.  A lesson I learned early in the season while bare handing a line drive.  Didn't break anything, but I wore a bruise for a week.  A perk of sitting here, I end up with a bucket of balls in my garage by the end of the season. (I feel the need to note, I gave away a lot more balls than I took home, and only kept them if there were no kids in my section)

I used to come to one or two Isoptopes games a season when I lived about a three hour drive from Albuquerque.  As it was, I never bothered to learn the players other than guys I recognized from their time in the majors.  When you go to every game, you get to know everyone down to the middle relievers.  The Rockies, with their struggles, also had a lot of guys going up and down all season, so I learned a lot of different names.  That said, the every day left fielder, well 5 out of 6 days (they play 6 game series in the PCL) ended up becoming my new favorite player.  Sterlin Thompson.  He wasn't on the 40 man roster, so he never got called up and ended having a great season, leading the 'Topes in just about every offensive category.  More in importantly, he was cool enough to acknowledge me with a wave before the start of every game.  The Rockies added him to the 40 man roster after the season to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft, and I'll be rooting for him to make the team in Denver out of Spring Training.  I'll just have to get acquainted with a new left fielder if that happens.

Some other guys I took a liking to were Zac Veen, Sam Hilliard, Sean Bouchard, and Aaron Schunk.  All outfielders but for Schunk.  Veen is a bit of a hot dog, but a lot of fun to watch.  He'll likely be an opening day starter for the Rockies this year.  Hilliard become Albuquerque's personal "Crash Davis" breaking the cities all-time career home record this season (it includes all levels and affiliations in the town's history, Dukes, 'Topes, Dodgers, Marlins, Rockies et al).  Hilliard signed a contract to play in Korea next year, but really endeared himself to the city as just a great ambassador for baseball and carried himself with a lot of class as a ball player.  Bouchard was a once weekly left fielder who I saw a lot of, and Schunk was just a funny guy.  You may have read about him writing "call me if found" and his phone number on the back of his Topps 1/1 pro debut card.  My daughter took a liking to him for his walk up music, "Brass Monkey" by the Beastie Boys, which sounds a lot like "Brass Schunky" through a stadium PA.

I've renewed my tickets for 2026, and am looking forward to Opening Day in a couple months.

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On the baseball card front, Wallach was included in not one, but two different Topps sets this year! At least sort of.  He wasn't actually included in the Topps Archives set, he was just one of the autograph inserts, but he was in the Shoe Box Legends set.  Still, no complaints, it was a welcome surprise, even if it did cause me to blow up my budget chasing "special" insert variations instead of a few hundred more copies of something like his '87 Topps base card.  

Thank to every one who read this blog and to everyone who sent cards this year.  The numbers were a little down in 2025, but I was busy.  I'm sure you understand.  That said, here's a look at where the collection stands heading into 2026 with the annual run down of the numbers.

Current Cards in Collection: 36,324    

Cards added in 2024: 741    

Collection grew by: 2.1%

Top 25 Most Abundant Cards in the Collection

1. 1982 Topps............................ 1,792  

2. 1984 Topps ........................... 1,287

3. 1987 Topps ........................... 1,236

4. 1988 Donruss ....................... 1,224

5. 1983 Fleer ............................ 1,073

6. 1989 Topps ........................... 1,041

7. 1988 Topps All-Star ............... 1,025

8. 1988 Topps .............................. 981

9. 1986 Topps All-Star ................. 820

10. 1990 Topps ............................ 783

11. 1990 Fleer .............................. 712

12. 1990 Donruss ......................... 637

13. 1989 Donruss ......................... 622

14. 1986 Topps ............................. 594

15. 1991 Upper Deck ..................... 583

16. 1989 Fleer ................................ 574

17. 1987 Donruss ........................... 556

18. 1985 Topps ............................... 536

19. 1982 Fleer ................................ 505

20. 1983 Topps .............................. 452

21. 1990 Upper Deck ..................... 444

22. 1991 Donruss MVP ................. 443

23. 1990 Score .............................. 435

24. 1988 Fleer ............................... 428

25. 1991 Donruss .......................... 421

For the first time since I started tracking this, back in 2015, there was no change in the order of the Top 25.  I don't know what the odds of that are, but they've got to be small.  

Top 10 Most Added Cards in 2024

1. 1988 Topps All-Star ........... 46

2. 1991 Upper Deck Checklist .... 36

3. 1982 Fleer ............................... 32

4. 1988 Donruss ..................... 30

5. 1992 Donruss ..................... 23

6.(tie) 1988 Topps .................. 22

6. (tie) 1993 Topps ................. 22

8. 1991 Leaf ........................... 20

9. (tie) 1987 Topps ................. 17

9. (tie) 1993 Donruss ............. 17

There were no huge additions this year, with 46 copies of the 1988 Topps All-Star card leading the way.  

Notable No Shows

1994 Topps, 1983 Fleer, 1985 Fleer

Unlike in previous years, the cards that popped out on this list in 2025 were not obscure inserts or novelty sets.  Three major issue base cards didn't show up in 2025, with not a single copy being added.  We'll see if this trend continues, but I doubt it.

Welcome Back

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These are cards that were added in 2025, after having gone a few years without adding a new copy.  The 1993 Memphis Chicks card leads the way, having added a new one for the first time since 2017.  1990 Donruss Learning Series (first since 2018) was right behind.  There was also a trio of cards that made there first appearance since 2020, those being 1987 Indiana BlueSox, 1990 Sportflics, and 1993 O-Pee-Chee.

Top 15 All-Time Most Sent Cards

1. 1988 Donruss ........................... 531

2. 1987 Topps ............................... 501

3. 1989 Topps ............................... 491

4. 1988 Topps All-Star ................. 465

5. 1990 Fleer ................................ 434

6. 1988 Topps ............................... 432

7. 1990 Donruss ........................... 385

8. 1990 Topps ............................... 384

9. 1991 Upper Deck ..................... 380

10. 1986 Topps All-Star ............... 351

11. 1987 Indiana Blue Sox ........... 332

12. 1986 Topps ............................. 313

13. 1991 Donruss MVP ................ 311

14. 1989 Donruss .......................... 304

15. 1991 Donruss .......................... 291

As always, thank you to anyone who has ever sent cards.  It's really sureal thing every time it happens and is always greatly appreciated.

For those of you still reading this far, I do have a bit more personal news from 2025.  My wife and I had a baby boy, "Rocky," named after my wife's father.  Here is, now at 6 months,

Hopefully he turns out to be a baseball fan.

 

2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures #15A "Wood Stock Auto" #/5

 

Card Review: 9.1

This is the "wood stock" autograph variant.  These are numbered out of five.  This is actually pretty cool.  As far as I can tell, the front of this card is actually made out of wood.  The back is like a normal card, but the front is some sort of balsa wood I would guess.  It's firm enough that I feel like it would fully snap in half if I bent it enough, though I presume its glued to the back of the card in some manner to keep it from literally breaking into two pieces.  It's not any thicker, at least not by much, than the standard base card.

If Topps is going to insist on filling products with an endless onslaught of goofy inserts, then they should do stuff like this.  I've never been one for  "relic" cards with pieces of bats or jerseys.  In large part due to how thick they are.  At some point, it stops being a "baseball card" for me and it just becomes a chunky novelty item.  But if they could shave down bats thin enough to print the base card photo on top of, like this, I could get behind that.

In any event, I can set aside my disdain for inserts to acknowledge that I actually find this one pretty cool.

Number of this card in my collection: 1

2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures #15A "Vintage Stock Auto" #/10

Card Review: 9.1

This is the "vintage stock" variant of the base card, and the autographed version of the "vintage stock" variant.  Still with me?  Both are numbered to ten.  I'm not a fan of autographs on cards, other than the ones I obtained in person as a kid, but this card stays the most true to the base card of the variants I've seen, and the base card is far and away the nicest of all the variations.  If this card wasn't autographed and numbered on the back, it'd be really hard to tell the difference between this and the base card.  The "vintage stock" gimmick is not super apparent to the naked eye or even to the touch.  It's every bit as subtle as trying to identify a 1987 Fleer Glossy from a stack of ordinary 1987 Fleer, and I've missed a few of those over the years while sorting stacks of new Wallach cards.

In any event, I'm making some progress towards tracking all of these endless variations down, but I wouldn't lose any sleep if I end up missing a few.

Number of this card in my collection: 1

2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures #15 "Topps Logo" #/35

Card Review: 9.1

This card is identical to the "Topps Logo Autograph" variant, but for the missing sticker with the autograph on it.  I prefer this one without the sticker slightly, as the only acceptable additions to cards in my book are wax and gum stains.  This one stays truer to the 1988 Topps original.  These again are numbered to 35, like the autograph variants.

Below is a close up of the "Topps Logo" laminate that covers the whole card.  It has a sort of shine to it that makes it look similar to the "rainbow" variations.  You can see the "topps" running across Wallach's forhead.  That pattern covers the whole card with various degress of success as far it's visibility.

Number of this card in my collection: 2

2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures #15 "SSP" Canvas Stock

Card Review: 9.4

I gave this card a 9.4.  I gave the base card a 9.5.  This "SSP" is allegedly on canvas stock, but I can't tell a difference between the two given it's stuck inside the BCW snap case.  My eyesight has been getting a little worse every year, but I'm not blind, and I've looked pretty hard at it.  If I decide to crack this thing, maybe it will feel different to the touch.  So I dinged it a tenth of a point for the confusion it caused me.

These "SSP" whatever that's supposed to mean (Super Short Print, okay Topps) come one to a box, albeit, only to "Collector's Edition" boxes.  They're not in "Single Boxes."  There are no shortage of ridiculous gimmicks and ripoffs in the hobby today, but the different types of boxes is probably in my top three (behind the disappearance of gum and grading slabs.  The mainstream acceptance of autographs on cards still also baffles me).  The pack some kid buys in Target should be the same one Simpson's Comic Book guy buys in a shop.  If these shiny inserts and sharpie damaged cards are actually desirable and what makes modern collecting "fun," wouldn't making the more accessible packs "better" draw in more people?  Admittedly, I'm just a guy in his 40's still complaining about gum, so what do I know.

I'll probably leave this card imprisoned in this case until another one comes my way, but for now they're still being listed at north of ten bucks, and this feels like more of a "I'll give you a buck and the cost of shipping sort of card" (which is what this one cost me).  I have no problem opening PSA slabs (figuratively I have no problem, literally they're a pain in the ass to open), but that's because PSA is just some dudes in a office somewhere and nothing "official."  This case is actually made by Topps, which gives it at least a small air of legitimacy.  So it may be awhile before my desire to page this in my Wallach binder outweighs my misgivings about tampering with a Topps seal.  If it happens, I'll update on what I find inside.

Number of this card in my collection: 1

2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures #15 "Topps Logo Autograph" #/35

  

Card Review: 8.8

This is the "Topps Logo" autograph variant.  It's numbered to 35, but there is also another 35 without the autograph sticker, so they printed 70 of these.  The gimmick here is a clear laminate over the card with with "Topps" printed throughout.  It's nearly impossible to see in the scan, and not much easier to see in person.  Below are two zoomed in screen grabs.  It shows up best in the red letting.

 

Cool.  I'll be in no hurry to track down the other 34 of them.  From what I can tell, I'm currently the only person chasing these on eBay, but the sellers have been slow to get that memo, as I see the same ones go unsold and get re-listed repeatedly.  Guys, you can have my $5-10 or you can keep the card for yourself and pretend it's worth $30-$500, I'll be okay either way.

Number of this card in my collection: 1

2025 Topps Shoebox Treasures #15 "Sepia Autograph" #/50

  

Card Review: 6.5

I'm not much for autographs on cards, at least, ones that aren't obtained in person.  That's actually a generous way of putting it.  I view the whole point of autograph as to serve as a memento of a celebrity encounter.  But to each their own.

And if I may get off my high horse for a moment, and put on my hypocrisy hat, I like this autograph variation of the sepia variation (lot of variations in this set) more than the standard sepia variation.  As previously stated in the original sepia post, the lack of color on an '88 Topps All-Star card is just tough on my eyes.  So the blue sharpie burst is a welcome addition in this instance, even if it is just on a sticker slapped on the middle of the card obscuring it in part.  These are also numbered to 50, which with 20+ individually numbered variations in this set, I think it becomes a little misleading as far as the implied scarcity.  But what do I know.  I'm sure in 20 years the kids will be clamoring for the blue father's day camo variation of Max Muncey and I'll end up having sounded like a fool.

Number of this card in my collection: 1