nearing set completion - in 3d!

i am stumbling towards completing a set that i already consider to be complete, if that makes sense. if not, i'll explain. back in the early 2000's, with topps introducing heritage and fleer co-opting the 1954 topps design for one of its "tradition" sets, i got really excited about set collecting beyond the topps flagship and the sets put out focusing on retired players. in 2003, upper deck used the 1965 topps design for its "vintage" set, and i was all-in.

there were some short prints but the hardest cards to find were cards 248-277 which comprised a 30 card set of 3d cards. not one player from each team as you might imagine a 30 card subset would be, but rather a smattering of current major league sluggers. appropriately, the subset was called "3-d sluggers". since the lenticular design seemed out of place, and the cards were really hard to come by, i declared my set complete even though i had only found a couple of the 3d cards.

over twenty years later, i am still missing some, although i've only really been paying attention to them over the last few years. in the last several months since my last post on the topic, i've added five more to the collection.

jim thome

thome was indeed a slugger. he led the league in 2003 with 47 dingers a year after he hit 52.

the joneses - chipper

and andruw

i mentioned that i had added chipper's card in that previous post, but the andruw came later.

mike piazza

piazza missed most of the 2003 season and hit only 11 homers as a result

luis gonzalez

gonzalez was coming back to earth after his 2001 57 home run campaign. he hit 28 in 2002 and 26 in 2003.

barry bonds

2003 was still peak barry as he hit 45 home runs while pitchers were avoiding pitching to him at almost all costs. he had only 90 rbi on the season which is crazy with 45 dongs.

i think the cards of these better known players are easier to come by than some of the others. these are the eight cards i still need to fully complete the set

248 troy glaus 

255 magglio ordonez

257 ken griffey jr

261 lance berkman

263 mike sweeney

264 shawn green 

270 mark mcgwire

277 albert pujols

and four of them are "lesser" stars for whom i've only seen one or two of their cards pop up in the last few years. i actually need two of the shawn green cards (one for the dodger collection) but i may forego a second one as i did for vladimir guerrero and feed only the set build. first, i have to find one. stay tuned!