Topping the 1K Ryno Mark

Just when I was contemplating making another Sportlots purchase to push my Ryne Sandberg count over the thousand card threshold a mailer arrived at my doorstep. 

Peter, the proprietor of Baseball Every Night, rounded up a dozen cards and forwarded them my way. Lots of Sandberg cards coming... you've been warned!

Topps Marquee starts things off with a nice double dip. 

Topps Museum is fancy and I appreciate a good base running photo. 

Marquee, Museum and now Topps Tribute? Peter went all high class on me here.

A mustachioed Sandberg in front of the ivy. This artwork must be based off the Ryno's flavor saver from early in 1987. 

Greats of the Game, from Fleer, was a great set idea. I would totally buy a box of this or two if there was a modern day iteration. 

In a similar vein as Greats of the Game, Donruss had Team Heroes, which I believe only lasted one year. 

I had one of these Baseball Heroes cards in my collection, but I had no idea there were two more. Nice!

2002 Topps Tribute sure does photograph well!

This is the 2001 Topps Through the Years insert, which just shows Topps has been paying homage to its own designs for at least two decades now. 

Here it is, this is card number 1,000 in my Ryne Sandberg collection. 

I suppose I could have chosen any of the above cards to be the milestone card, but I gave this one preferential treatment because it glows in the dark. Behold:

Here's the lone non-Ryno card in the package, but I think it sums up how I feel about reaching the 1,000 mark. 

For what it's worth, my first pass through the hobby was from 1988 through 1994 and the first card in my collection was the 1988 Topps Glossy All-Star card of Ryne Sandberg, which came one per every rack pack. I added another 750-ish unique Sandberg cards before school, sports and girls put my cardboard hobby on the back burner. I returned to the hobby in 2009 and I've slowly finished the countdown to 1,000 over the last 11 years with help from fifty-one different bloggers. In fact, Peter has contributed thirty-two Sandberg cards to my binders just by himself.  Very cool.

Thanks for help, Peter!