State of the Set: 2013 Triple Play

I feel that there are too many sets on my wantlist that have been sitting there for years while I slowly chip away at them. This year I noticed that a lot of those sets are well within striking distance this year, so I've tried to swing some trades for set needs while focusing my recent Sportlots purchase on sets as well. We'll see how many sets I can kill before the year is out.

For the past few years, I have written a post that summarizes my set completion quests for the year. I still plan to do that for 2020, but I also decided to give a progress report for sets that I'm actively acquiring cards for along the way. I thought this might be more interesting than writing one giant post that tries to tie all the different cards from a trade or a purchase together.

Today we'll look at 2013 Panini Triple Play

Card courtesy of TCDB trade with FSCGrad777

Why I'm collecting this set: Some of you are probably asking right now, "Seriously, why are you collecting this set?" It may be one of the worst sets of all-time. Actually, I'm collecting it because I bought a case of it for about $30. I gave a box to each of my sons, a nephew, a niece, and a bunch of packs to my kid's t-ball team that I coached. Of course, I opened a box for myself. From that box, I put together most of the cartoony base set and a couple of the insert sets. This "When I Was a Kid..." subset is short-printed, however, and only came a couple per box. If it weren't for the fun of chasing down these SPs, I'm not sure I would have even kept the base set at all. I have to admit, though, as bad as this set is, this subset has been fun.

How long has it been on my wantlist (roughly)?: Well, I bought it about the time I was coaching t-ball, which would have been about 3 years ago.

Current state of set completion: The card shown here makes 98 of 100. However, I have two cards already purchased from COMC, ready to be shipped. Barring any shipping disaster, I have to consider this set complete.

Current needs: #91 (Mike Trout), #98 (Stephen Strasburg), both purchased, but not in-hand.

Prognosis: I don't know when I'll request my next shipment from COMC, but it should be this year. I'd say this set will definitely be complete by December.