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The Great Reorganization: Step 27: Bazooka Says Bazinga!

This summer, I have a wide variety of projects that I'm working on, one of which is my complete overhaul of my baseball card collection.  I actually started my Great Reorganization (as I called it) a few years ago, but it seems like it's only been within the past couple of months that I've made any sort of decent headway lately.  In an effort to keep at it (because let's be honest, reorganizing is one of the least fun things about collecting anything), I'm here to take a look at the year 2004.

In 2004, I was one year away from graduating from my undergraduate institution.  I wasn't at all interested in cards (mostly because poor college kids don't have disposable income...and what little income they may find probably won't go to cards, let's put it that way).  Thus, my 2004 stack of cards is fairly small, mostly buoyed by a couple of box purchases that I made well after the year 2004.  However, it's still worth taking a look at the year in cards to see what will stay in my collection and what will leave.

First, 2004 Topps.

This is a shiny Topps Chrome card but you get the basic idea.  '04 Topps was not a particularly inspired set (or at least it didn't inspire me).  I'm sitting out '04 Topps, Topps Chrome, and any other set with a similar design.  Verdict:  Out.

Next, Donruss.

The above card is a nice Inside View insert card from 2004 Donruss.  Unfortunately, much like Topps' offering in 2004, I found Donruss to be lackluster.  Verdict:  Out.

Next, Upper Deck Vintage.

I have had the 2004 Upper Deck Vintage set on my want list for quite some time.  At this point, I'm only 27 or so cards away from completing the set.  I will admit, the set design no longer interests me as much as it once did (vintage designs have been done to death now) but I can't bring myself to give up when I'm this close to the entire set.  Verdict:  In.

Note:  For the '04 Upper Deck Vintage set, I'm only chasing the "base set" which is cards 1 - 300.  The remaining 200 cards are all short printed in various ways...and I'm sick to death of short prints being the reason I can't ever complete a set.  I've already gotten rid of the few high number short prints from this set that I did own...and I won't be chasing any of them!

And finally, probably the cheapest offering that Topps made in 2004, Topps Bazooka.

The 2004 Topps Bazooka set was clearly aimed at children.  However, I'm basically a child at heart so I ended up liking the set quite a bit.  In total, the base set contains 300 cards - or so I thought.  It turns out that there are multiple versions for a number of cards in the base set.  Once I discovered that fact, I'll be honest:  my entire opinion of the set changed for the worst.  In fact, I was going to collect the set (I have a bit over half of the 300 base cards).  However, I don't feel like trying to find all the image variations - especially for a set that is well over a decade old.  Nope, this one went from a "yes" to a "no" in a hurry.  Verdict:  Out.

That does it for 2004.  I surprised myself by cutting out the Bazooka set but the discovery of the many image variations ruined it for me.  As such, I'm only going to try and collect a single set from 2004 (and no sets from 2003).  On the bright side, that should free up some space on my bookshelf full of card binders for other years in which there are multiple sets that interest me!

Comments

  1. Short prints really kill set collecting for me. I like the challenge of collecting a set, but not when I have to buy a case or more of cards to build a full base set (I'm looking at you, Topps Heritage).

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  2. HOLY CRAP I NEED THAT PUJOLS CARD!

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  3. 2004 Topps baseball is one of my favorite designs. Always liked how they matched the little image in the bottom left corner to the player's photo.

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