Bat Blog Around: My Proudest Collecting Achievements

 If you're in this hobby long enough you've probably been able to do something.

Maybe it was a spur of the moment thing that came together in 5 minutes.
Maybe it was a long grind that took years to accomplish.
Something that when you sit down and think about it, makes you go "yeah, I did that".

So I wanted to try and put this BBA out there to give everyone a chance to talk about stuff they did in this hobby that made them very happy and gave them fulfillment.

Apologies if this topic's already been done and I just missed it.

I've got a top 3 and going in reverse order. For your own BBA's (should you choose to do this topic) feel free to change up how you'd like to present them.

Big thanks to Night Owl Cards and San Jose Fuji for trying to get the word out while Blogger's feeds decided to go AWOL.

#3. Built 8 Rainbows

My time as a Luis Torrens supercollector gave me a prime opportunity to build the 2013 Bowman Chrome rainbow and 2014 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects Chrome rainbow of Torrens.

I also built the logoless rainbows offered by 2014 Leaf Metal Draft, 2014 Leaf Trinity, 2014 Panini Prizm Draft and 2014 Leaf Valiant.

I was so close to the master rainbow lol

The basic rainbow was done but never finished the master rainbow

On top of these 6 Torrens rainbows, my feel for prospects allowed me to swoop in on 2 more rainbows.

Thairo Estrada from 2014 Bowman Chrome Mini.

Everson Pereira from 2019 Panini Donruss Optic.

Also pretty sure I built one Anthony Davis rainbow back when I collected him but I can't remember. Consider that an unofficial #9 rainbow.

None of these rainbows are still with me but I felt very happy each and every time they were finished.

Every parallel that filled a gap was like a puzzle I was building where the pieces were scattered across the world and I had to assemble them myself like a scavenger hunt.

#2. Donated My Entire Luis Torrens Supercollection to Luis Torrens' Family

Reminiscing on the rainbows above did make me feel a bit nostalgic for a second but I didn't feel regretful for letting all those cards go.

All now under the ownership of the guy on these cards' family

Simply because I know they ended up in the best possible spot they otherwise could've, with the player's family.

I still remember exchanging DM's with Torrens' father and trying to simultaneously get updates on the packages arriving at the address I was given, while trying not to bother them too much considering they were likely busy with the unrest in Venezuela (to put it mildly).

It's funny, during the entire time I was collecting Torrens I was super worried about if Torrens had a safe American address to send this to if I ever wanted to, then after all this went down I learned that his wife is a real estate agent in Florida. I was worried about nothing.

The confirmation message from Torrens senior saying Torrens' aforementioned wife picked up the stuff from the post office was quite cathartic. Note: that pic above of the packages is what I took at the post office when I shipped them off. I don't know if the Torrens family took pics of the boxes on their end.

But all's well that ends well as they say.

And before we get to my proudest collecting achievement, here are three honorable mentions.

HM1: Got a Triple Autograph via TTM and IPs

These are tremendously hard to arrange. Luckily all three are prominent signers around the nostalgia circuit (mostly for people who want autographs of the 1978 Yankees).

HM2: Got a Dual Autograph via IPs

This dual wasn't as hard to get as the triple one but I still love this card dearly.

HM3: Completed the 2012 Sega Card Gen set and 2012 Sega Card Gen Rare Foil Yankees Team Set

The 408 card 2012 Sega Card Gen base set, which was the first and only set completion post I ever made on this blog, is no longer with me.

But boy was putting that together fun. I still have the foil Yankees above just because I still kept some stuff for myself.

Okay so with the honorable mentions done, let's get to my proudest collecting achievement.

#1. Built the 1909-11 T206 New York Highlanders Team Set*

*Reminder that my team set does not include every image variation, nor does it account for the card back brands

Probably just case of recency bias, compounded by how this is actually still in my possession but building the T206 New York Highlanders team set* got my collector blood pumping in a way I hadn't in years.

I've built Yankees team sets before but with all due respect to 1979 Topps, 2012 Sega Card Gen, 2012 Bowman Chrome Prospect Autographs and several prospect team sets, 1909-11 T206es just towers over every other Yankees team set by so so much.

What a weird and odd collecting journey I've taken. From hardcore prospecting to one of the most famous vintage sets in the collecting space.

Just endless accumulation where I'm kind of left with nothing by my own choice.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

So anyway I've gone on long enough about my "achievements", I'm hopeful this gives people an opportunity to pump out their chests and share their stories.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

I Forgot What This Felt Like

 So the other day I bought and opened 3 packs of 2026 Topps NPB Stadium Club at a local supermarket.

No particular reason why. I just thought it'd be a fun dumb way to relieve stress during my commute home. Also I could get more package fodder to send to NPB Card Guy and others.

The first two packs came and went with nothing of note.

Then out of pack 3 came this.

Watermarked because scummy people steal pics of collectibles and create fake listings online now

That's an autograph of Yakult Swallows ace Yasunobu Okugawa and is limited to 5 copies.

It's also the first sport card hit I've pulled in a long while, and it's an actual good player!

I was very unprepared for this moment, so much so that I felt time slow down for a moment, then go back to normal. Like that effect they do in the movies.

This was a different thrill because unlike past "hits" I've pulled, those were somewhat guaranteed in that I got one whole hobby box or something similar with had a certified autograph or relic inserted.

This wasn't guaranteed. I only picked up 3 random packs. I didn't even pick them, the cashier got them from the box behind the counter. Yet somehow I (or the cashier?) defied the odds.

I also got the regular base card too which helps serve a nice contrast.

If you're wondering about the rest of cards, they didn't interest me a lick and they're already sealed away in envelopes headed for other people.

Forgive me but I'm not Night Owl Cards, no cards are valuable to me (base/parallels/hits/etc...) because I don't value any of them unless I want them out of impulsive need in the moment. If they don't hit me they can hit the road instead.

Also if you were wondering if the autograph meant Topps/Fanatics put in extra effort in the back.

Nope.

If anything they somehow made something with 0 effort look like it had negative effort.

But then again negative effort is sort of a good way to sum up this post in general.

If you've noticed I took a month off from blogging because I really wanted my last post where I completed the 1909-11 T206 New York Highlanders team set (minus variations) to breathe and rack up a lot of views and comments.

In case you missed it here they all are again.

But while I was thinking of what could possibly follow that up, I used up a year's worth of luck to nab a surprise hit that's of an actual somebody that I don't have to bend over backwards and be like "oh well at least it's a low numbered autograph card".

Sure, I'll take that.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.