2004 Chrome black refractors mile$tone

Welp, I knew if I was ever to finish my quest for a full set of 2004 Topps Chrome Baseball black refractors that I was going to have to pony up for the big rookie card of the set that I regrettably hadn't secured years ago in the early days of this project. After a couple close second-place bids in recent years (and a relatively cheap buy-it-now that I tragically missed out on), I jumped at it when one popped up at the ceiling of my targeted price range. I ended up paying as much for this card as I did for both my previous two "priciest pickups" combined (a certified Clemente cut-auto and a Cognac Trout). (Oh, and I bought a sealed case of cards that was more expensive-- with a very long post about it that I should publish one of these days.) But no regrets! I had some birthday/xmas money from last year still holed away in savings, so I figured I could justify the financial frivolity as a "gift to myself" since we're in December and all. 

 Boom!

Yadier Molina was the game's top catcher for many of his 19 years in MLB, helping the Cardinals to a pair of Championships along the way, and you gotta assume he's a shoe-in for the Hall as soon as he's eligible. Glad I secured this card before the HOF hype puts him back in collector's minds. Also relieved there were no delivery issues to stress me out, as it seems the USPS hasn't been at their best lately. For safety, I'll keep it slabbed, though a grade of 8 is only "just ok" when it comes to modern cards. But yeah, fine with me. Just happy to be done chasing this card.

The heavy lifting is done now, but I still have a dozen cards left to go, five of which are /25 prospect autos (Kyle Davies, Estee Harris, Kyle Sleeth, Logan Kensing, and Korey Casto), and among the non-autos (which aren't serial-numbered but likely have a print run around 220 or so), the biggest name is Chase Utley, followed by Ervin Santana and a handful of lesser players that just haven't popped up much over the years. But I'll keep up with my frequent eBay searches and hope to sweep up these last remaining pieces before too long. Patience is nothing new to me when it comes to collecting 2004 black refractors, as I'm still waiting for another '04 Retired Alan Trammell ref to pop up so I can finish that set that I've been obsessed with since this blog started back in 2013, which became the impetus for branching out into the non-Retired baseball players who got 2004 black refractors. Sure would be crazy if I finish '04 Non-Retired (487-cards deep per my checklist) before I finish '04 Retired (only 76 total cards), but that's the quirks of the hobby for ya.