2023 Topps complete set

Saturday after work, I met Karen and Kyler at Target and the 2023 Topps complete set was finally there. It was a nice bright spot to a week that saw our hot water heater stop working and my car have issues. 

I’m sure you’ve probably seen most of the cards in the set, so I won’t bore you. I got the set with the rookie variation pack and the Chrome rookie variation. I thought it was the relic version, but it wasn’t. 

Of course I got someone from the lucky Rat-Bird team (anyone know a derogatory term for the Orioles?). Rays are just 1 game out and reality is coming for Baltimore. 

The set itself looked crisp and sharp. It just looked so white that I almost thought there was white paper over it that I had to remove. Kudos, Fanatics. 

As for the content of the set, it had a ton of rookies. Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure. 

There are the NL, AL, and PC cards and rookies. NL on the left, AL in middle, and rookies/PCs on the right.

The big stack is AL/NL, smallest one is Tigers/Rays, PC guys, and the last one at the right is rookies. 1/8 of the set is rookies!  Of that, 3-5 of them are actually going to be anything. I’d rather see the set get deeper into rosters, but that’s been the case since 1994. 

They really skimped on the Rays this year. Bottom stack is the last place Tigers, top is the Rays team set. Why do they have less guys than Detroit?  No Zach Eflin, no Josh Lowe, no Luke Raley, no Tyler Glasnow. #RaysHate. I guess they'll be in Update, right?  The sell sheets for Update aren't even out yet. Hopefully that means some of the guys who got traded last month might actually make it in the set, cause I assume the release date has to be in November if they can't get a sell sheet out by now. 

*I wrote this next part last night before falling asleep on the couch*

Tomorrow I will probably call some car repair places and hopefully get in to have it looked at tomorrow or Tuesday, my other day off. It is a 2016 Kia Forte, and it is a manual transmission. About 2 years ago, if I turned the AC on, I would drive home from work (between 5-10 miles), and when I was 3/4 of the way there it would just shake if I was stopped at a red light in neutral, and when I tried to get it back to the speed limit (usually 50 at that point of the drive), I would have to floor it, and it wouldn’t want to go to a higher gear. I took it to the dealership, and that switched a cylinder or something, and it seemed to work. A year or 2 went by, and it is now out of warranty. I took it in 2 weeks ago, and they switched another part, and told me to call them if it gave me trouble. 2 days later, it did. The dealership has given me absolute hell with trying to reach someone, and after 6 phone calls and 5 messages left with 2 different people and no response, I’m through with them.  The latch on my trunk started popping open randomly, and long story short, Kia repaired it, it started popping open again,  rain got in it, and I need a whole new bottom of trunk. I need to order the part, but I need to get ahold of someone to order if. Showing up to the dealership to get the car looked at isn’t a problem, but I can’t get the trunk repaired if they don’t order the part. I don’t remember if I mentioned that Karens Kia van got stolen right out of our driveway in May due to thieves plugging a USB into the console and starting it with an app. Kia knew about the problem for at least 2 years and issued updates in other states and finally in July the issues the update in Florida. They suck people in with the 10 year warranties, but please, DON’T BUY A KIA!!!!!  They won’t return your calls, they just care about selling you a car and won’t back up the warranty because they won’t get back to you. I don’t know much about cars, and I have been letting oil changes go, but I think I learned my lesson. I actually got an oil change 2 days ago, so if that was part of the problem, at least that part is done. My car did the not wanting to upshift thing on the way home from Target on Saturday, and also threw the check engine light, so hopefully I can get in somewhere and they will fix the problem and it won’t cost an arm and a leg, and then we can focus on putting money towards the water heater. I did some pricing, and it looks like they are just a couple hundred (plus whatever it costs for a plumber to install it). I would love to get a tankless water heater and be able to take a 30-45 minute shower without having to worry about the water cooling down. The hotter the better!  

If I get the car looked at tomorrow, I’ll probably bring the laptop and try to finish out designing the cards for the project I’m doing. If I have to wait, I’ll work on some cards at home. I’ll try to input the complete set into TCDB and work on putting my Topps White Sox cards in it as well. 

*UPDATE*

Took the car into a repair shop I have been to in the past. They checked the engine light and looked at the car, and recommended new spark plugs and coils. Kia switched the coils a few years ago, and the mechanic I saw today said they should've replaced them. I called Kia and told them this and gave them alot of info, and they confirmed that I complained about car shaking at stoplights before the warranty was up, so if all goes well, they are liable for that and will replace them for free. The spark plugs aren't covered, but if it's 100 or so, I can live with that, and hopefully that will be the last time I have to deal with those Kia bastards. I'd almost take a Yankee$ World Series win over having to deal with Kia. Well, maybe not...

Unfortunately, they can't get me in until Friday, but I might be able to go there after work. Good news was that while waiting for my car to get diagnosed at the repair shop, I took my 2023 Topps set in along with my laptop, and was able to log in the set, and it is complete. I've barely been home today, but I'll finish logging in some Topps White Sox, and I'll have a whole day to do stuff tomorrow unless a spot opens up for me to bring car in, so perhaps I'll get through Cleveland as well. 

Before I go, here are the sunset cards from the set, since you probably didn't even know they had any because Topps is all about the rookies.

There were only 4 of them. Robinson Chirinos, Yadier Molina, Chad Pinder, and Albert Pujols. 

Well, actually 6 cards if you count these 2.....Too soon?

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy