I Always Wanted One of These

 Wow, we're already in March. Time moves so fast.

A couple of months ago I did my annual goals and grades post where I also showed off my best pick-ups of 2023. During that haul there was one really glaring omission that I really wanted to add but decided to save so it could get its own blogpost all to itself. I also wanted that blogpost to be after I made the "big" announcement.

Even though I've been collecting since 2011 this is the FIRST ever jersey letter patch relic thing I'd ever held. On top of that I can now call it mine!

In the time since I'd been collecting almost none of the other players I collected ever got cards like this. The prospects I rooted for never got these cards, even after they got to the big leagues they never got these cards. I was hoping they would at some point but I got tired of waiting.

That Kyle Freeland In The Name jersey patch card comes from 2021 Topps. As you can all see it's the letter "L" in his name, a very unfortunate letter to bestow upon a pitcher but whatever, I'd wanted a proper 1/1 for a while now and now this replaces my Blank Back eBay parallel from 2021 Topps Heritage.

After my last post went up, some folks asked me if Kyle Freeland would be my next focus. Let me just say right now, no. I don't want to do a player collection ever again. I am also not going to be actively collecting Colorado Rockies that much longer, mostly because they're a poverty franchise.

The fact of the matter is that I'm a spot where I've gone back and gotten a lot of stuff I wanted that I missed out on the first time (the blogposts are still being worked on). On top of that I don't really want a "collection" in general anymore. Because collecting is just another word for accumulating, which is the opposite of what I really want to do which is to tear as much of what I have down to like a single box housing everything and only make scant, carefully calculated purchases every once in a while when the mood strikes me.

Unrelated Scan (though that's clearly the same pic of Freeland)

The thing about the Freeland cards is that last year, after a decade of prospecting and being relegated to pre-rookie stuff and niche fan favorites, it was a good way to get my hands on some of the stuff given to the biggest names in the sport.

Well okay, Freeland isn't on the same level of superstars who get like a thousand different cards each year but he's at least a notable enough name for a Rockies team that is devoid of any real star power that he got the token Rockies treatment and has a really nice cardboard resume. Which was good enough for me.

Emphasis on was. I already got almost everything I wanted from Freeland's catalogue (up until this point), except for one very specific card which has no copies available on eBay or COMC.

So nice I'm showing it twice!

So for now we've reached the end of the Freeland accumulation era of this blog too. Maybe in the sets to come Topps/Fanatics dishes out some super cool Freeland cards that even I have to immediately whip out my credit card for, but I am very happy with where it is now.

A few of the remaining Freeland pick-ups have yet to make their blog debut, those might just get thrown in as unrelated scans. But as far as actively adding goes, I was able to cap it off with my first letter patch. Perfect place to stop and take a breather for now.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.