The New Player Collection Tiers

In an effort to have a complete list of all the players I collect in one document and know all the totals at once, I spent my day off today completing said list in what I call my player collection tiers.

The complete list, which can be found here, is complete with all 245 players I collect and the total number of cards next to them. Those numbers range from as low as 8 total cards all the way up to 447, one wide range if I've ever seen one.

As a way to make it easier to have these 245 names in one place, I developed 4 separate tiers, 1 tier for each player collection to fall into. In this post, I'll be explaining what each tier requires for a total number of cards as well as a brief description of some of the players in each tier and how many made the cut.

Tier #1 consists of just 4 players out of 245 and is the highest tier, for now, on the list. This is what I'll be calling the Platinum Tier, featuring my 4 player collections with 200 cards or more. 

First up, we have the largest out of all my player collections. At 447 cards, the total I mentioned before to be the highest, Nolan Ryan has a comfortable 200+ card margin between him and the next subject on this list. As soon as I find 3 more cards of his to bring the total to 450, the next task will be the once unfathomable feat of having a 500-card player collection.

Maddux recently joined the 200-card club, or I suppose I should say Platinum Tier, as recent as a month or two ago, but he's already catapulted past a heavy-hitter to become my 2nd largest player selection at a grand total of 238 cards and counting. Consisting of mainly Braves cards from the mid to late 1990's, Maddux's player collection is one that typically brings home 5-10 cards from a show.

With 234 cards, Manny Ramirez is anything but far away from the 2nd largest player collection spot that he held for a while, or at least as long as I've been counting PC totals. However, the lack of Ramirez cards in the dime bins and the abundance of Greg Maddux cards likely means the gap between these 2 is only going to increase over the years.

Finally, the newest member of the Platinum Tier just snuck in here after last weekend's card show which delivered 10 new cards for the collection. Ken Griffey Jr., whose player collection currently rests at 205 cards, has been extremely prominent in the dime boxes dating back well over a year. Given that it wasn't too long ago that he was just over 100 cards, it's clear that the last year or so has been good for the Griffey Jr. PC.

Don't worry, I'm not going to go that in-depth for each and every tier. I simply wanted to elaborate on the very first one, since it includes all my largest player collection and consists of just 4 players. Next up, the 2nd tier aka the Gold Tier.

Even if you don't count members of the Platinum Tier as Gold Tier members despite meeting the requirement of 100 cards or more, you still have a tier that consists of 32 members, 36 if the top 4 players from the Platinum Tier are added. From as long ago as Babe Ruth to as recent as Craig Kimbrel and Joey Votto, the Gold Tier is the level that I strive for each PC to reach. 

Within this particular tier, you have a few players closing in on Platinum Tier status. For example, David Ortiz who is just 9 cards away from becoming the 5th player to reach the 200-card mark in my collection.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have 2 members of the Gold Tier who have just recently made it in as they currently both sit at 100 cards exactly. After last weekend's show, Jeff Bagwell and Frank Robinson both obtained the necessary cards to reach the 100-card total, no more and no less. After them, you have a gradual increase all the way up to the top of the Gold Tier.

With 66 players included in it, Gold and Platinum Tiers notwithstanding, the Silver Tier is a mark reached by player collections on their way to higher status. By this point, a player collection has reached the 50-card mark, proving that this player collection is not stagnant but rather one that will continue to grow throughout the near and distant future.

Located directly below the Gold Tier, the player collection Silver Tier encompasses player collections starting at 50 cards and through 99 total cards. As for the players whose collections have yet to reach 50 total cards, their player collections are part of the 4th, final, and tier with most total members; the Bronze Tier.

Made up of all remaining players who have yet to be included in a tier, the Bronze Tier includes a whopping 143 total players, conceivably ranging from 0 cards all the way to 49. However, the lowest number of cards in any one of my PCs is 8, a total belonging to 2 players (Curt Flood and J.R. Richard).

While some players may be stuck in the Bronze Tier forever due to how infrequently I see their cards at the show, other members are young, current players who I expect to make it to the Silver Tier and beyond in the future. In fact, there are 33 total players who currently sit 10 or fewer cards away from the Silver Tier status, including 2 (Stan Musial and Madison Bumgarner) who are just 1 card away, sitting at 49 as I type this post.

When I was making this list today, I created it not with the intentions to become number-obsessed and only care about player collection totals but rather, as a way to have a complete list of all my player collections and their respective totals organized in one place. 

To have this new information on tiers and know who's close to a certain total, that's simply a bonus.