2015 Heritage Baseball

As kids in the 1960s, my friends and I used to collect baseball cards and trade them. If we didn't like a card (“head card!”), we would throw it in the swimming pool and jump on it, torch it, shred it in bicycle spokes, write on it (devil horns and Hitler mustaches, especially if they were Dodgers). This year, Topps is pulling our heartstrings by issuing a 1966 “Heritage” set of 500 cards, using current players with the exact 1966 graphics template. (My brother and I almost completed that 1966 set.) But there is a catch: You can't buy the complete set. You have to actually collect and trade the cards. I've already bought 494 cards (145 are doubles), because I'm obviously a sucker, at 35 cents a card (reflecting higher player compensation, to be sure). Since the 1980s, you could just buy a season set from Topps and shelve it (shrink-wrapped!), hoping for a return on investment, which basically ruined the hobby forever. But now, there's hope. Feel free to contact me if you want to trade. (I'm still in the old-fashioned phone book.) I have an extra Buster Posey. That'll cost you 20 common cards.