Not an old fogey yet

There's something incredibly dull about a collector whose ways are set in stone, and I've always had a vague fear of becoming that person.

To me, baseball cards exist in a seemingly never-ending universe that's a blast to explore, the good with the bad. If you only live in a small corner of that universe, then you'll find yourself with nothing to do after you complete those three sets you love, or chase down all the cards you need of your favorite player.

As much as I love chasing that eternal string of cardboard, I sometimes worry about my tastes never changing. But lately I've noticed a shift in my opinions of a few sets. While there's a certain horror in all that lost time - why'd it take me so long to come around? - it's also kind of a thrill to rediscover something you'd long relegated to the background. It's a sign that our tastes are ever-changing.

A prime example for me is 1970 Topps - a set I'd always considered bottom-of-the-barrel but has recently been growing on me to the point where I'm starting to further cherish the ones I own.

I think I relegated '83 Fleer to also-ran status for the same reason as '70 Topps: drab, boring borders.

A good border is the first hurdle for a design - I've been guilty of immediately assigning sets with dull borders to "blah" status. But like '70 Topps, I've started to come around on '83 Fleer - it's really a fine set once you get past the edges.

By no means am I saying that it's a top-tier Fleer offering, but it's at least deserving of more love than I've given it throughout my collecting life.

I really don't know why I never liked '88 Fleer - you certainly can't accuse this set of being boring with those barbershop borders.

My only guess is that it falls in the general overproduction-era of cards I've seen a million times. I don't remember '88 Fleer grabbing me much when I first saw it as a kid, and I've never really given it a second look in that time.

I unabashedly love '91 Fleer and its yellow borders, but now I'm wondering if Fleer might've hit upon another treasure I'd long overlooked three years prior.

I know perfectly well why I never gave '92 Upper Deck much respect - it's sandwiched between two of my very favorite UD sets, and any set that has the misfortune of coming right before the legend that is '93 Upper Deck is doomed for failure.

Unlike a lot of my shifts in taste, which tend to happen gradually, I looked at this Craig Biggio card last week and a light instantly switched on in my head - wait a minute, this set is great!

I distinctly remember being disappointed when I first opened packs of 2008 Topps as a teenage collector.

I think it's harder to change one's opinion on a set they experienced in real time, and that's probably why I've always tossed '08 Topps aside. I can't help but flash back to that "meh" feeling I had when I first saw it.

I still think the design here crunches the photos in a little too much, but those loveable dotted team names have the distinctness and pizzazz that's been missing from so many modern Flagship sets.

When you get down to it, I don't know that I've had a bigger shift in opinion over a single set than 1998 Topps.

There was a time not long ago when I ranked this as The Worst Topps Set Ever. I can understand why - the player names can be unreadable, and what was with Topps's obsession with bronze borders around the millennium? It's not conducive to 

But oh, the photography! In addition to producing my all-time favorite Vlad Guerrero card, it's obvious that Topps went through great lengths to produce some memorable cards for us collectors here. Given how much stock I can admittedly place in photos over design, it's weird that it took me so long to see the greatness here.

So every time I worry I'm becoming that unshakeable old fogey, remind me to go back and remember the harsh words I had for sets like '83 Fleer and '98 Topps once upon a time.

White whales come in many forms

When you think of the term "white whale," I bet a lot of collectors conjure up images of a T206 Honus Wagner or a '52 Topps Mickey Mantle.

While a few such vintage Goliaths are indeed on my "white whale" list (anyone have a spare Roberto Clemente rookie?), some of my most-wanted cards seemingly aren't anything out of the ordinary. My most recent COMC order helped strike down one such behemoth with a...1990 Topps TV Bill Buckner? Certainly not white whale material, you'd think.

Yet every major card company somehow ignored Buckner's largely forgotten second stint with the Red Sox in 1990, leaving only a few scarce oddballs as the only trail of evidence. This Topps TV issue was so rare that I'd never even seen a copy for sale in the 5-6 years I've been looking for it, until a copy randomly popped up on COMC one afternoon.

White whale, speared!

Is it possible for an entire set to be a white whale? Often seen, but never captured?

That's what 2012 Heritage High Numbers is for me. For some reason, Topps made this set an online-only release for a few years, and I believe this one had a print run of a mere 1,000 copies (many of which I'm convinced are still being hoarded for the Bryce Harper rookie). It's sad because this set happens to have a lot of dudes I collect and/or guys in weird uniforms.

Twelve years later, I finally have my first four cards from this set in the binders (the quartet cost about $10 on COMC, which is somehow a fantastic price) - O the glorious Dodger Bobby Abreu sighting!

So many Japanese cards feel like white whales because of their geographical distance from me here in suburban Illinois - somehow managed to grab that Shota Imanaga BBM issue for under $2 before the seller regained their senses.

If I ever win the lottery, I'm going to Japan just to make a tour of their card shops.

Ichiro with a goofy mascot! Ichiro in a "42" jersey! Ichiro with the media! Ichiro on the Marlins!

All hail Ichiro!

COMC is always good for a wonderful array of weird oddballs.

Those "Jewish Major Leaguers" sets are shockingly expensive (I check all the time, hoping in vain that an affordable one will slip through the cracks), but once in a while I can find singles on the cheap.

A TCMA extravaganza!

(I'm especially fond of the Charlie Robertson - he's probably the most obscure guy to have ever pitched a perfect game, and you don't see many cards of him.)

I buy minor league cards knowing full well that the few I'm lucky enough to find are really just the tip of the iceberg of all the ones I need.

Always love a Red Sox Jeff Bagwell sighting, and that's my first minor-league issue of Dime Box Favorite Bo Hart.

A few horizontal gems here, including a Max Scherzer photo variation and a nifty Beverly Hills 90210-themed Joey Votto.

(Also, how often do I get to show a new Burleigh Grimes card??)

I fully admit that I'm just as prone to bells and whistles as anyone - shiny cards and oddly-cut cards and (Wonderful) 3-D cards and all!

Neat oddballs of a few favorites here - how often do you see cards of Nolan Ryan hitting?

A handful of SPs, photo variations, and other Topps shenanigans that are only available to me through COMC.

(I really wish we got to see more of National Chicle.)

I want any and all Babe Ruth Braves cards, and given how big of a Black Sox collector I am (and how much Panini Golden Age I bought back in the day), I'm a little shocked I didn't already have that Swede Risberg.

Those 2009 Topps Legend SPs don't come cheap - at a whole $7, the Maris was actually the most expensive card from this order - but I still can't help myself from buying 'em.

These seem like a couple cards I've had in my collection since I was a wee vintage collector...

...but when you flip them over you'll find they're not what they appear to be.

The Piersall is an OPC, the Gates Brown a Topps Venezuelan - and both are wonderful additions to a couple of my favorite old-dude collections.

Plugging away at the last few '78 SSPCs I need - got to cross a couple more off the list with Bert Campaneris and Sandy Alomar here (who both look weird in Rangers jerseys).

I'm slowly discovering the joys of cataloging my collection - through TCDB, I discovered this was the was the last card I needed to have a complete run of Kellogg's Reggies, and within minutes I'd hopped on over to COMC and secured a copy.

I fully understand why others avoid cracked Kellogg's, but it doesn't bother me much - the fact that it makes them exponentially cheaper certainly helps. (And I certainly never thought I'd own a whole Kellogg's run of someone as huge as Reggie Jackson!)

Only time will tell what the next white whale I spear will be, but I'm pretty sure I'll be leaning more towards the cracked Kellogg's and Topps TVs of the card world than a '52 Mantle.