A Not-So-Arbitrary Arbitrary Collection - Decade By Decade

So here we have the last page in this mini-collection - showing the zero year from each decade of Topps. I'll be adding another card to this page in a few months, but will I ever finish the page? Will there still be Topps cards in 2040? 2030?

A look at the backs, to give a clear idea of how printing and design has changed over the decades. I may opt to swap out card #70 at some point, as the backs of most 1970 Topps cards have a different look to them. The 1980 set is my favorite design of these 6, but I have to say that 1990 Topps has grown on me a little after repeated viewings. 1960 Topps is of course known as the last fully horizontal set (though my favorite cards from that set are the vertical Manager cards). What is your favorite zero year set?

A Not-So-Arbitrary Arbitrary Collection - the 2010s

Now we are catching up with the present-day with this series- here is 2011 through 2019. I switched back to double digit numbers to fill this page, which gets us Votto, Devers and deGrom!

Here are the backs, and it looks like Topps has gotten very comfortable with this format- banner on top with name, team, position and card number, followed by a little blurb. A sampling of stats follows, then you've got to give the remaining real estate to the legal department. In my opinion, the 2015 set with its varied colored borders is my favorite of the bunch. The 2019 entry is pretty good too, with a not so subtle nod to the 1982 set. Do you have a favorite set of the 2010s? Do you think the backs are getting stale?

Day Fifteen - 2015 Topps Kennys Vargas #219 (Photo Variation)

Day 15: A Favorite Card From the 2010s

Taking the lead from Tony at Off-Hiatus Baseball Cards this will be the fifteenth of 30 posts, using the prompts provided. I won't necessarily post one every day, but I will do one for each card, toss in a few "insights" (as insightful as I can be, anyway), and usually include an honorable mention or two, just because I'm like that.

Here's my pick - 2 years in and I'm still working on finding all of the parallels for this card. Kennys Vargas happened to be the first Twin I pulled from a pack of 2015 Topps, so I got the idea then to try to build a Kennys Vargas rainbow.  This was a photo variation that Topps loves to insert into the flagship set to both irritate and invigorate collectors. It was an unexpected surprise that Vargas was selected for this, as he'd only appeared in 53 major league games by this point in his career. Vargas crushed a homerun last night to straightaway Center Field and drove in a career high 5 runs on the night. Still my favorite Twin! 

Since these are basically one card posts, why not show the backs as well? One version of it, anyway - like I said, working on a rainbow. This back is nearly identical to the back of the photo variation from Series 1, but this is a Red Chrome parallel numbered to 5. 

Here's a peek at some of the parallels, I should update my progress on this soon.

Uh, yeah, some honorable mentions....

A.J. at Guaranteed Rate Fi- I mean, Comiskey Pa- I mean U.S. Cellular Field.

LaTroy, moments before teaching a baseball all the mysteries of the diamond.

Big Bart's big moment!