Going Atomic?

Here's a guy you may have seen in the news lately.

The 2011 Topps Chrome Atomic Refractors might be my single favorite parallel from the past five years or so.  I love the look of these refractors every year, but 2011 is the most practical to collect since they were serial-numbered to /225, vs just /10 most other years.  I've grabbed one or two on COMC over time whenever there was a bargain to be had.  This left me with a half dozen of them; Ichiro here...

...a trio of Red Sox in Adrian Gonzalez...

...closer Jonathan Papelbon...

...and Kevin Youkilis.

In addition to those I also had Johnny Damon...

...and Paul Konerko to round out my half dozen.

Well, with "only" 220 cards on the 2011 Topps Chrome checklist, I started to wonder if it might be practical to attempt to make an Atomic Refractor set over the course of the next few years.  I'm still undecided there as I have plenty of other hobby projects in the works, but in the meantime I couldn't resist when I found a bunch of lesser players for between 50 and 75 cents...

I remember this guy as a Cleveland Indian a good decade or so ago now, looks like he's still kicking around with Seattle.

Aneury Rodriguez got in 8 starts, plus a good amount of bullpen work, with the Astros in 2011.  After just one start in 2012 he never pitched another MLB inning though.

Hasn't pitched in big league ball since 2014, though he did sign with Baltimore last winter.

Finally, a more well-known name.  Hudson made close to 500 career starts, and finished with a very respectable 3.49 career ERA.

A guy with a rough injury history, Johnson will miss the entire 2016 season after his third Tommy John surgery.  At what point would you just pick a new career?

Finished off his career with 3 appearances with the Twins back in 2014.  I remember Jason most as a Tampa Bay Ray though.

After bouncing around a few different franchises, Danny Valencia seems to have found a nice home in Oakland.  He's swatting over .300 with 13 home runs so far this year.

Last card for today, and a guy I believe has a shot at the HOF someday.  A nice card, even if it is just a photo-shopped version of his Red Sox card from the 2011 Topps flagship set.

That puts me at 14 of these now, still not enough to seriously consider chasing the set.  With that being said though, I have no buyer's remorse when it comes to these cheap additions!