Top 15 Most Wanted?

Yep, my Top 10 has been expanded.  Ultimately I decided to do this because there were just too many cards I really wanted that I wanted to keep track of.  I am in kind of a difficult position right now.  I have most of the cards that are easy to find, with just a few random oddballs still out there that I have not yet added.  So I have to wait for rare cards to pop up on Ebay and other sites.  There just are not enough places to find stuff because I certainly do not have much in the way of card shops or shows around here.  I think about going to a national show or even to Cleveland at times to see if the rarer cards are more plentiful there.  That is not likely to happen with my current homelife.  You would think with the internet being so huge and all-encompassing that some cards would not be so difficult to find.  But they are.  

So here it is, the new list:

1.  Remaining 1998 Tek cards.  There are just 18 cards that I still need from this set.  But most of the cards have seemingly dried up.  It has been quite a while since I have added any cards from this set.  There is an ongoing thread on one of the forums I go to that is dedicated to helping collectors find their missing Tek cards, unfortunately I have not had any luck with it lately.

2.  1997 Flair Showcase Masterpiece.  This is one of those cards I am not sure I will be able to find.  1997 Flair was the first set with 1/1s which is why I wanted this one.  Any of the three 1/1s actually.  I suspect it will cost a pretty penny too.

3.  1997 Topps Stars All Stars.  These were apparently quite rare, falling just one per box.  I have never even seen a scan of this card.  Any card involving Alomar's 1997 All Star game is noteworthy as it was a major career highlight for him.

4.  1997 Pacific Baerga Softball.  This card commemorates the celebrity charity softball game that Alomar played in for former teammate Carlos Baerga in Puerto Rico.  The cards were released at the game so they are exceptionally hard to find.

5.  2002 Topps Chrome Traded Black Refractor.  This is the last card of Alomar with the Colorado Rockies that I need.  I have yet to actually see a scan of this card too.  This is one of several teams that Alomar played just a very short period of time with.  Couple with the fact that he was a backup catcher for his entire tenure with every team but the Indians and a couple of seasons with the White Sox means that he has very few cards with most of the teams he played for.

6.  2005 Topps Rookie Cup Blue.  I really like the Rookie Cup set and I have most of the more common colors.  The gold and silver will be very difficult to find.  But the blue is numbered out of 50.  It should be out there somewhere.

7.  2005 Topps Total Printing Plate.  I don't care if it is the front plate or the back plate.  I don't care which color it is.  This is pretty much it for cards of Alomar with the Rangers other than a team issue card that will be difficult to find.

8.  2003 Donruss Rookies Recollection Autograph 1989 Rookies.  There is not much in the way of Padres stuff still out there for me either.  This is one of two remaining autograph cards with the Padres at this point.  There are just two copies of this card ut there so it is another one that will be very hard to find.

9.  2006 Upper Deck Special FX Purple.  I only need the red and purple Special FX cards.  Night Owl has this card.  It is numbered to 150 so it should not be that hard to find.  Yet here we are.

10.  2003 Topps Chrome Silver Refractor.  For reasons I can only begin to guess, the silver refractors were only available via redemption.  I have a Kevin Millar in my Red Sox collection but that is the only one I have ever seen.

11.  2004 Upper Deck Going Deep Bat.  This card used to be on my Top 10 but when I picked up the gold version I dropped it off.  I always felt a little bad about dropping a card I did not actually receive.  Because I am weird. 

12.  1998 Leaf Rookies & Stars Longevity.  I hate losing out on cards.  I lost out on this one a couple of weeks ago and I still get mad about it.  This is a parallel numbered to 50.  It should not be that hard to find either.  But I have seen only one.  And I missed it.

13.  Any of the Recollection Autographs for the 1991 Diamond King.  I have an irrational love for the Diamond Kings from Donruss.  So getting a buyback autograph of the Diamond King card is a major goal.  There are three variations of this card.  I just want one of them.

14.  1998 Fleer Tradition Vintage '63 Classic.  I saw this card on Sportlots once.  I was pretty sure it would be just the Vintage, the non-foil, non-serial number version.  But I took the chance that it was the serial-numbered card numbered to 63.  It wasn't.  I was not expecting it to be, even though it was listed as such, but it would have been nice if it was.

15.  2004 Donruss Timelines Recollection Autograph ROY Card.  There are two variations of this one.  I got this idea when reading a thread on a forum talking about how happy the writer was that he got the 1987 Topps buyback autograph of Jose Canseco because the 1987 Topps card was his first Canseco.  Well, the 1991 Donruss ROY card was my first Alomar.  I would love to get the buyback autograph of it.  Someone had it on another forum and showed it off, but he was not willing to move it.

So that is the Top 15.  For now.  Hopefully some day I can add these to my collection.