Going through the closet: 2006 Topps

I'm not sure if it was on the blogs, or somewhere on twitter I saw someone mention that when they finish putting together their sets they just end up placing the cards in boxes and stowing them away in the closet, never to be seen again.

That got me to thinking; I could honestly say the same thing.  A lot of the sets I've completed over the past few years have wound up in cardboard boxes just to sit on my closet shelf.

I figured what better way to keep myself writing than to go through all of these boxes and see what enticed me to collect these sets.  The first set up is 2006 Topps, a set that I completed not too long after I started blogging.   I remember getting a big portion of the set from the Night Owl to help me along the way.

I looked through all 660 cards and scanned a few for some entertainment...

Sleeveless jerseys seemed to be a really big thing at the time as I spotted 7 teams with multiple cards that featured no sleeve jerseys.  The Rays, Reds, Pirates, Indians, Diamondbacks, Rangers and Royals were the teams I spotted without sleeves.

By the way, I don't remember the green(?) that the Rays had back then.  Or am I just choosing to forget it...

Team photos.  Loved seeing these in both series.   The AL team photos were in series 1, while the NL team photos were in series 2.  What I found interesting was...

The NL Manager cards were in series 1 with the AL team photos, and the AL Manager cards were in series 2 with the NL team photos.   Wonder why Topps did that?   No matter, as I loved seeing all the old manager cards. 

I had to do a double take when I was going through the cards and came across this one.  This was the only team that didn't have a photo of the players together.  I'm sure there's a reason, anyone know why this happened?

I really like the Gold Glove cards, these were part of series 1 along with the Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and MVP cards.  I wouldn't mind seeing these every year.   But that's just me.

Card no.7  Actually it's quite a good photo of the Mick at Yankee Stadium.  I'm glad that they use #7 for current players now, honoring Mantle was a nice touch, but I think it had run its course.

Lots of good photos in the set, double plays, tough catches in the outfield, etc.  But this Corey Patterson card struck me as interesting.  It appears that Corey is sliding into nowhere in particular.   No base or player in sight on the card. 

Tons of rookie cards.  No shortage of good players on their first Topps cards.  Kinsler, Verlander, Zimmerman, Matt Cain and many others had their first base set appearances here. 

Finally, my base set for 2006 Topps will always be considered complete at 659 cards.  Card 297 of Alex Gordon will never be something that I chase after.   Here's an ebay auction if you can't remember why....

Hope you enjoyed this stroll down memory lane.   I have plenty more complete sets where this came from.

thanks for reading, Robert