A Fond Farewell to the Supercollection

 My Luis Torrens collection was the defining collection of mine throughout most of my time in this hobby. It gave me focus and something to collect and build in a hobby that's got enough options to make a lot of collectors feel lost. It was to a point where this blog was named after him. Torrens is still to this day my favorite player ever, he was the first ever prospect I followed to the big leagues, he will always be someone special and near and dear to my sports fan heart.

But in the waning days of 2023 I took a really stern and honest look at my collection and I knew I had to make a decision.

I was going to part with it. All* of it.

*except for four cards I kept for myself for reasons I'll go into later

Torrens in 2014

This was not a decision I made lightly. I spent a lot of time and money building this into what was hopefully one of the biggest Torrens collections in the world. It was also aided by the generosity of so many other individuals who simply wanted to help (including Torrens himself!). That's not the easiest thing to move on from.

But honestly the thing is that once 2022 Topps Update hit the shelves, I kinda felt that that was the end of it because I just did not have the drive to keep going. This also wasn't one of those cyclical things where "I might get the itch again and then...", no, whatever kept me going is more or less gone.

I know this because Torrens got a cup of coffee late in the 2023 season with the Seattle Mariners after a series of movements involving the Chicago Cubs/Baltimore Orioles/Washington Nationals, but the urge to go add more missing pieces to my collection just wasn't there.

I was even notified that Torrens came back to the New York Yankees org as a Spring Training NRI and as great as that was, that still didn't quite do it for me to reignite this collection.

Torrens in 2016

Also going on a slight tangent here (but we'll circle back I promise) collecting a player to the degree that I did kinda always led me to the question we all ask ourselves but never want to answer, which is "what am I going to do with this collection?".

Obviously this was never an investment and I am not going to get a major payday off of this. So that wasn't the answer.

But even without that big jackpot payout, I did know that I carried a fair bit of responsibility in terms of making sure this collection reached its end-point safely. You can't be careless with 20+ 1/1's and three rainbows. These are precious (relative to hobby terms) cards that represent a lot of Torrens' first cards as a professional baseball player and then as a major leaguer.

That all said though, I always did have an idea in mind of where exactly I wanted this go. Probably from around the time I decided to make this a supercollection. It's also ultimately the biggest reason I was okay with moving on from this collection.

I gave my Luis Torrens collection to Torrens' family.

Torrens in 2016 (catching this time)

Being on social media in modern times is a trip, not only can you somewhat have access to the players but also their families and friends too. This can be a very scary thing but in this case I decided to use my connections for something relatively better, to get this collection to their home. Maybe it becomes a family heirloom or something, maybe it ends up thrown out, who knows. All I know is that I feel better knowing they're getting these and they can make whatever calls they see fit.

After the initial wave of sadness hit when I finally shipped the box off, I also felt some relief knowing the collection was going somewhere better. I also felt like a weight was off my shoulders when I got confirmation it got to them safely.

As for the four cards I kept for myself, they're as follows.

The Prizm card there was the first ever Torrens autograph I ever got in Staten Island. Not giving that up for the world.

Also kept those two from the 2014 Staten Island Yankees team set and the 2014 New York-Penn League Top Prospects set. Out of all of the cards I got of Torrens during my journey, these represent the apex and when Torrens seemed on top of the world and ready to become the next great all-time catcher. I still smile just looking at these. Keep.

And finally the Bowman Chrome autograph that Torrens personalized to me. Kind of obvious why I kept this.

No I didn't keep any of the 1/1's, not even a single parallel lol.

Torrens at the 2014 NYPL All Star Game

So that concludes that chapter of my collecting life.

Nearly a decade of collecting Torrens, over 200 cards for a former top prospect but still someone who made it to the big leagues and stayed there. There's a lot that I wish could've gone differently/better for Torrens the baseball player, but what he was able to accomplish in spite of a lot of BS thrown his way is nothing to scoff at.

10/10 collecting experience. I'm glad to have been able to have this much fun for as long as I did.

Buena suerte Luis Torrens!

Torrens catching Ty Hensley in 2014

Before I end my post let me just give some thanks to people who really deserve them.

Big thanks to Luis Torrens for being the awesome baseball player he is and always will be. I'll still continue to root for him.

Big thanks to Torrens' family for taking on my collection.

Big thanks to the collectors out there who gave my collection huge boosts. The die-cut numbered to 5 from Bob Walk the Plank, the other die-cut numbered to 25 from Baseball Card Breakdown, the printing plate from Wes, the countless cool parallels from P-Town Tom, and plenty of odds and ends in between from various other people.

As always big thanks to you, the readers, for stopping by and reading my log as a player collector from the very start to the very end. Take care.

Note: This blog is not ending, this is just the end for this collection.