Back during my first year of blogging, in 2008, I jumped into everything about cards that I possibly could. I sampled every kind of pack, explored all the sites and forums, bookmarked every last page, and probably drove bloggers crazy with emails and questions. One of the many things that I did was sign up for etopps. I can't say I fully understood the concept, and now that it is dead, I still don't have a handle on it. Near as I can tell, you could try to land issued cards every week, which were in limited quantity, and then let the card sit in your portfolio -- where I guess it could "mature," I don't know -- or eventually order the card to have for real. You know, like normal collectors do. But the problem was I could never get a card. They were always gone by the time I put in a request. There are thousands upon thousands of collectors who are much more psycho-rabid than I am, I learned. Eventually, I gave up. I assumed I'd never have an etopps ca...
Up all hours talking baseball, cardboard & collecting