Digital Card (And Wider Collecting) Dilemma

As some of you already know, I’ve spent a fair amount of time on the Topps Digital apps since last summer, collecting digital trading cards (ridiculous concept that they are). I mostly collect Topps Bunt (their baseball app), but I also do Star Wars, Huddle (American football) and Kick (football) as well. (I also do the non-Topps Kitten Cards, which is a hoot, and has a really fun community.)
I’ve run up against a dilemma of late with Bunt, though.
A screenshot from the iOS Topps Bunt app, of a digital trading card of baseball player Vladimir Guerrero, Sr., from the Cannon Series subset.
A screenshot from the iOS Topps Bunt app, of a digital trading card of baseball player Vladimir Guerrero, Sr., from the Cannon Series subset. Vlad, pictured at center, has black skin, is smiling, wearing a brown leather glove, a blue Montreal Expos cap featuring their red, white and blue logo. His jersey is grey with red and white trim, and has a number 27 on it, along with the red, white and blue Expos logo on a patch on his left sleeve. Above his head, a red banner that reads “CANNON SERIES” in white letters is present, with a black cannon pointed away from the center on each side of the banner. The background is blurry, but mostly blue. At bottom, a white bar has “VLADIMIR GUERRERO” written in black text. Just above the bar, to the left, in semi-transparent white lettering, a small “Topps BUNT MARATHON” logo is visible. The card is centered in the app in front of a blurry background that looks like a 9 pocket baseball card storage page.

I got the one card I really, really wanted, above all others. I mean, look at this card. Look at how happy Vladimir Guerrero looks to be on this card. That’s pretty remarkable, considering that digital trading cards didn’t really exist back when ol’ Vlad was still on the Montreal Expos. How did he know? It’s a great card, and I’d love to actually have a physical copy of it, but if I can’t, this is still pretty cool.

Now, this is a dilemma in any hobby, whether you’re collecting JPEGs or antiquities from lost civilizations. What do you do after you get the best thing you can get? I will say that 2016 Topps Bunt is leaving me cold in terms of both card designs (kinda lackluster) and in-app bullshit (they’ve stacked the deck against free players like myself, complicated the app needlessly, and they keep running into glitches in the app that make it pretty easy for people to amass a ton of cards and game the in-game contests at least short-term), which really isn’t helping matters much. But even with that aside, there’s kind of a hangover period in any collectibles hobby when you get the best thing you can get (in your own view, anyway), and aren’t sure where to go next.

The other apps I use are far more casual, because they’re not baseball, and baseball’s kinda my thing. I do collect build-a-ships in Star Wars, but I’m up-to-date on the complete run of the base variant there, so mostly I’m just sitting around, waiting for the next one to be released. Football and, well, football, I don’t really follow, so I gather those mostly to trade for baseball. I could start trading these things for Kitten Cards, but while Kitten Cards are awesome, I’m not especially completist or committed to being where they’re concerned.I’m curious as to your thoughts on this. Feel free to comment here, and, if you want to know how to find me on Topps Digital or Kitten Cards (to trade cards and whatnot), drop me an email.

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save