Craziness Rules

Good Friday to all, here's looking forward to a great weekend.  I'm going to describe my crazy set in the post; I call it the crazy set because I must be crazy to think I can complete it.  I am going to give it the old college try though.

I started formulating the idea last week when I bought the 2 rack packs of 2011 Topps update and posted my rant on the liquorfractors (the term "cognac parallels" is no longer applicable in the blogosphere).  Out of those 2 packs came a gold parallel of Brandon Belt, #'d 924/2011.  I've seen many people collecting the gold parallels and making sets out of them, but I had no real interest in putting a gold set together, because it's just another version of the base set.

I've also seen posts on other blogs where collectors are putting together their own special sets based on personal interests (WAR rating, Mustaches, etc. )  I developed an itch to do something like that for myself.  I also didn't want to have to look up stats, or find cards with interesting features.

What to do....

I think to myself...I'm a numbers freak.  I love numbers, and I've enjoyed pulling serial numbered cards out of packs (don't ask me why, I am a little crazy).  I also wanted to make the set a challenge as well.  In order to complete this set, which is going to be 1500 cards in total, here are the ground rules:

1. All cards will be serial numbered and from Topps products only.
2. My card #'s will be based on the first number of the parallel (for example, the Brandon Belt will be card #924 in my set)
3. The cards may come from any year or any Topps product (Heritage, Chrome, Base Topps, Marquee, etc.)
4. More numbers for you now, and some math as well.  1500 cards divided by 30 teams=50 cards per team.  Yes, you guessed it, each team will be represented equally in this set, making it more of a challenge.
5. I take a size 52 jacket, so if you have any white jackets with the arms in the back, I'm ready to be fitted now.

Challenges I expect to face in completing this set?  Yes, there are some:

1. Low numbers.  Cards numbered 1-10 will be difficult to find, you really don't see them too often because once pulled they usually end up in personal collections.
2. Round numbers.  This is another sometimes difficult aspect to locate, which is kind of weird, but round numbers like 50, 100, 1000, etc. tend to disappear as well.
3. Highly collected teams.  This will make it more tough, because cards of teams such as the Yankees, Red Sox, Braves and Dodgers are collected by a lot of people, making the available pool of cards smaller, and potentially more costly if bidding wars ensue.  I'm hoping to avoid eBay, or having to purchase any of these serial numbered cards at all for that matter.
4. The last 100 cards.  As the set nears its completion, staying at the 50 cards per team and each card having its own "first number" will become more difficult.  Looking for card # 1125 of a Brewer, or #362 of a Yankee will be a challenge in itself.  (Yes, crazy)

Here are the first two cards in my "set":

2 down, 1498 to go

Numbers 400 (Millar) and 924 (Belt)...Got Em!!  

Have teams in your personal collection that you hate?  Serial numbered parallels of A's or Rays or Pirates or Dbacks that you don't want....I'll take em!  Donations are gladly accepted.  If you'd rather trade, I can definitely try to work something out. 

Insanity, thy name is Robert....

Have a great Thursday, and as always, thank you for reading.