Happy Spring Training Opener everyone! While we in Wisconsin are staring at a winter storm for tomorrow (6-10 inches of snow), it's nice to know I can flip on the radio and hear some baseball being played in warmer climes. What a beautiful thing.

Tuff Stuff's Sports Collectors Monthly does a great job focusing on sports cards, and we'll be adding some interesting articles in 2009. In a series dubbed "Best Vintage Card Sets," we'll review some of what are considered the best trading cards sets in baseball, football and basketball. T.S. O'Connell, editor of Tuff Stuff's sister publication, Sports Collectors Digest, will review the cards' designs, interesting features of the set, notable missing players and other tidbits of the time.

The first one will be 1954 Topps Baseball, appearing soon.

This leads me to ask a rather general question for the hobby, but one that generates some decent debate: What's the best card set that has even been produced?

Older collectors will harken back to the glory days when completing sets was attainable, while newer collectors enjoy the modern bells and whistles of patch cards, autographs and other inserts.

I guess it depends on your preference. Some might argue the older sets are easier to obtain these days than the current offerings since they don't have the parallels and other nuances that drive collectors batty.

So dive in and let me know your thoughts. And watch for those articles coming.