Zeroing In – 2007 Topps Baseball

(Updated to add I’ll be bumping this to the top every day so you get sick of it and help me finish it.)

Originally I was going to launch this feature with 1990 Topps, but things have happened and I needed to change my focus for now. Still, I wanted to start with an easy one, and this set should fit the bill.

I hadn’t touched baseball cards since 1994, when I bought a box of Fleer at a card shop that I had to roller blade for a half hour to get to. It was a hot, sweaty experience, but provided both good exercise and a good distraction from the rigors of college life.

I have a son now, and one of the memories that I have of my father is hearing stories about the guys on his cards. I wanted my son to be able to experience the same kind of thing with me, and for him to look in awe through plastic pages and see some of the legends of the game from both long ago and today. So with that in mind, I bought a box of 2007 Topps baseball.

The cards were nice, and brought back another baseball card memory of my father. We were looking at 1971 Topps cards somewhere and he told me how difficult they were to find in good shape because of those black borders. I figured things had come a long way as my series 1 box provided little in the way of damage and the surprise of a Gold Derek Jeter parallel.

The series 2 box, however, proved disastrous. This one contained more than it’s share of damaged cards, and I seriously considered buying another one to fill in some of the holes. Then for my birthday, my brother sent along a complete series 2 set. Crisis averted, right? Well, no. It, too, contained whitened corners on most of the same cards that I needed already. But I did fill in a number of gaps, too.

I’m starting out 122 cards short of the complete set, and I’d like to finish it quickly.

So here’s my rules for Zeroing In: Until I complete the set I choose to “zero in” on, I cannot buy or trade for cards from any other set on my list. No game used cards, no starter sets, no vintage rookies – nothing until the sharp, seering focus I impose on myself is lifted by the completion of a set. So starting now, it’s all 2007 Topps in both trades and purchases until I get this thing done.

There is one exception, and that’s for hobby boxes of new releases I plan to collect. Those can still be bought and opened.

So here’s the list. I’ll probably create a link on the side to keep you all up to date on sets I choose to do this with. Help me out, if you can, by emailing wants to handcollated at gmail dot com. I promise I’ll give them a good home.

1, 2, 3, 13, 18, 23, 34, 41, 42, 46, 47, 49, 54, 56, 64, 71, 72, 73, 76, 83, 86, 87, 98, 101, 108, 109, 116, 119, 120, 125, 133, 134, 139, 144, 145, 146, 153, 158, 159, 167, 172, 174, 182, 187, 205, 207, 208, 212, 220, 225, 226, 229, 238, 239, 241, 246, 248, 250, 254, 255, 263, 265, 271, 273, 277, 285, 288, 290, 298, 299, 300, 302, 316, 318, 322, 326, 328, 329, 332, 333, 334, 335, 342, 368, 372, 385, 396, 403, 407, 408, 412, 415, 427, 428, 430, 432, 433, 435, 446, 451, 454, 478, 486, 489, 491, 492, 496, 505, 543, 556, 568, 569, 575, 577, 586, 602, 603, 611, 631, 654, 658, 659, 660

Here’s how I finished it:

• 5-22 8:55 – The first three cards removed, 119 to go. Thanks Target Blaster!
• 5-23 10:12 – Another two cards from the Blaster, 117 to go!
• 5-28 9:32 – One card from the Blaster, 116 left…
• 5-30 1037 – a card from the Blaster. 115 more needed.
• 6-2 11:39 – Missorted Eric Wedge, damaged Brad Hawpe. 115 needed still.
• 6-2 8:57 – one more blaster hit, 114 left
• 6-3 9:06 – one final hit from the blaster, 113 to go
• 6-4 9:09 – 5 cards from a jumbo pack. 108!
• 6-17 3 more from a blaster jumbo. 105…
• 6-27 34 in trade from Jim at Tastes Like Dirt… 71 to go
• 6-27 4 in trade with Shane from Shoebox Legends… 67 to go
• 6-30 22 from the Cardboard Junkie… 45 left…
• 8-8 8 in trade from Bill at Trading Bases… 37 left
• 8-13 1 in trade from Tim… 36 left
• 8-18 11 in trade from Bobby Leonard at Trading Bases…  25 left