My Top 5 Largest Player Collections

On Wednesday, Dime Box Nick pointed out the triumphs and challenges associated with being a player collector, particularly nowadays where we appear to be living in yet another overproduction era. Some of the best points made by Nick were yes, we are living in a time where it's incredibly easy to find cards of players we collect, even if they are retired. There are now hundreds of cards made of certain players each year which usually end up in the dime bins relatively quickly.

However, he also added that considering how many cards are made, once again going back to the possibility of a neo overproduction era, the total number of cards one accumulates may not seem as impressive. Nick used Kris Bryant as an example, and I'm going to bring up my #1 priority player collection, Craig Kimbrel.

As of the last time I updated the list, I have close to 110 cards of Craig Kimbrel. However, there are nearly 700 Craig Kimbrel cards listed on COMC. Furthermore, Beckett has a complete inventory of over 2,300 cards of the Red Sox star closer. So, as great as it is to reach these impressive player collection totals, Topps has made it so no matter how many cards you get, there's still so much to chase.

In the spirit of player collectors everywhere pursuing their favorite players' cards even when it seems impossible, I've decided to make a list of my 5 largest player collections in terms of numbers of cards. Doubles are included.

#5 David Ortiz -163 Cards

Beating out his teammate Pedro Martinez by a grand total of 1, yes one card is undoubtedly one of my favorite players of all-time, Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz. For as long as I've been collecting baseball cards, I remember collecting cards of the 10-time All-Star and the 3-time World Series Champion. It's going to take him another 2-3 years to see him put into sets like Allen & Ginter and Stadium Club when you consider that Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter are popping up more and more in checklists as of late. I'm expecting 2018 and 2019 to be fairly quiet years for me in terms of adding to my Ortiz collection but pretty soon, I'll be acquiring cards of his just like I did when he was playing. 

#4 Rickey Henderson -173 Cards

When I thought of doing this post, I have to say that I didn't expect Rickey Henderson to make the list, much less end up 4th, ahead of Big Papi. Sure, I've been collecting Henderson for a fair amount of time and he was well-represented in the 80's, but I thought I'd see Reggie Jackson and Vladimir Guerrero above the all-time stolen base leader. Nevertheless, all the teams Henderson played combined with all his stolen bases allowed him to be very well-recognized and later, well-represented in multiple modern sets. In fact, just as 1 card separated Ortiz and Pedro, there is just 1 card keeping Rickey Henderson from the guy at #3 on the list.

#3 Greg Maddux -174 Cards

As I've said before, it's the Cubs and the Red Sox that have some of the biggest player collections in my entire baseball card collection. Granted, Greg Maddux didn't spend every year of his 23-year career in Chicago. In fact, he won all 4 of his NL Cy Young awards with the Atlanta Braves from 1992-1995. Still, it's the Cubs cards that I constantly see at the card show that has inspired me to build my Greg Maddux collection up to the 174-card marvel that it is today. In fact, the collection is actually 20 cards larger than that of Ryne Sandberg and Andre Dawson, making it my largest Cubs player collection.

#2 Manny Ramirez -213 Cards

It was a card show that I attended in July or August of last year that beefed up my Manny Ramirez collection to become only the 2nd 200-card player collection out of the 200+ players that I collect, trailing just the man at #1. Manny's popularity seemed to stem from his last few seasons with Cleveland and his first few with Boston. There were very few hitters in baseball doing what Manny was doing and although he was busted for steroids on numerous occasions, I don't really have a reason not to like him. After all, he played one of the biggest roles in helping the Sox end the curse in '04 and helped them win once again in '07 despite multiple sources claiming he wasn't the greatest teammate in the world although David Ortiz has strongly disagreed with these reports.

#1 Nolan Ryan -420 Cards

Nolan Ryan's player collection being almost twice the size of Manny Ramirez's player collection speaks volume about the popularity of Ryan that he has maintained since his first full season with the Mets back in 1968. Maybe it's the strikeouts, no-hitters, or his incredibly raw talent, but Ryan has been represented in dozens of sets for decades now. Hence, why there are over 13,000 cards of his listed on Beckett. Personally, I think he is overly-represented on the Rangers and there should be more cards of his on the Angels which is where his career truly took off. However, just to have over 400 cards of a single player is a pretty impressive milestone. One that I truly hope to continue reaching with many of my player collections as I continue to build them up.