New Year, New Card Collecting Goals

A yearly tradition that I've maintained throughout each full year that I've been blogging, setting card collecting goals is an excellent way for me to set some sort of parameters for how I'll be collecting and allocating funds for the hobby across the next 12 months.

I set achievable goals in both 2018 and 2019, though I did a little better in accomplishing them the first time around. Each year, I tried to include goals that were both specific and general: challenging and slightly easier so that I'd have a wide variety of tasks to keep in mind.

This year, though I have 1 fewer goal than years past, is no different. I did, however, try to learn from my mistakes from last year and set goals that I not only feel are feasible but also work well with my collecting habits.

If there's anything about Baseball cards that 2019 taught me, it's that you can never quite predict how I'm going to collect or how much of a given product I'm going to buy. Instead, it's more of a case-by-case type of thing where I assess where I'm at before heading to the card show or purchasing another Chronicles blaster.

That's part of the reason why I didn't set a goal like "complete any year of Topps Heritage (2016-2019) like I did last year.

After all, I have no clue how much Heritage I'm going to end up purchasing in 2020, so it wouldn't be wise to create a goal that's dependent on my spending a certain amount of money on this product.

I'm entering the new year with 6 card collecting goals that will guide me through shows, online shopping, trips to my LCS, and strolls through the Target trading card aisle. Hopefully, I can give myself a perfect 6/6 at the end of December this year.

#1 Actually reach 500 Nolan Ryan cards

I actually set this goal back in 2019 as well without knowing that, by the end of the year, I had ridden all 264 of my player collections of duplicate cards. As a result, virtually every player collection experienced a setback, some more than others, and Nolan Ryan was no exception.

However, now that the Ryan PC is free of duplicate cards, I actually think that reaching the 500-card mark is feasible in 2020. I'm currently sitting at 414 total cards, but I haven't done a dime box haul in a while, so that could be just what I need to get back into the swing of things as far as Ryan and all my other player collections are concerned.

#2 Catalogue my Red Sox and Cubs collections on Google Sheets

The next objective of mine has less to do with card collecting and more to do with organization. I'm looking to do for my Red Sox and Cubs team collections what I did for my individual PCs a few years back: create a detailed online inventory using Google Sheets.

The process of doing this is rather tedious and boring, even if I turn on a Basketball or Football game at the same time. I still, nonetheless, believe in the importance of getting this done, so I'm urging myself to do so before the year is up.

#3 Prioritize player collections

Each year, I've listed some variation of "focus on player collections" as a goal and, each year, I've ended up accomplishing it. That's because, as I've said before, my player collections are my #1 priority, and I'm constantly taking steps to add to them, no matter where I am or what I'm buying.

This year, however, prioritizing player collections is even more important because of the recent and previously mentioned project to remove all duplicate cards from my PCs. It's imperative for me to get my player collections back to where they were and then some, making goal #3, arguably, the most important of them all.

#4 Choose when to buy hobby vs retail

I'm not saying that impulse purchases won't be a thing for me when it comes to card collecting in 2020, but I do believe there's a better way to go about allocating funds. Some products are better in the hobby format whereas others are superior retail products; my job is to deceiver between the 2 and to make wise decisions going forward.

There are some products, like Topps Heritage and Panini Chronicles, that are personal favorites of mine to rip as hobby boxes. Others, like Stadium Club and Archives, aren't necessarily high in value, meaning that retail is a better option.

If I can make a smart decision for each new product that piques my interest, I think I'll easily be able to accomplish this goal.

#5 Complete 1976 and 1979 Topps: make progress with '61

The screenshot below shows the missing cards, featured on my want list, from 1961, 1976, and 1979 Topps. My major set-building card collecting goal for 2020 is, in some ways, a 3-parter. I'm looking to complete both '76 and '79 while, simultaneously, making significant progress with '61.

If I remember correctly, I'm 38 cards away from finishing 1976 Topps up while only 48 stand in my way of completing '79. These sets aren't necessarily easy to find at the show, but giving myself 12 months to track down 86 cards is fairly reasonable.

As for 1961 Topps, I envision making this set a reasonably high priority of mine when I attend the 2020 National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlantic City, for that's where I know I'll be able to find the best prices.

#6 Attend my local card show more frequently

Even if it's just to pick up supplies at can't beat prices, chat with the vendors, and pick up a gorgeous $2 Sammy Sosa card that I still can't get out of the screw-down Toploader, I'm pledging myself to attend my local card show more frequently in 2020.

After all, it's quite rare for a card show to set up every single week (aside from Sunday holidays and the Shriners show dates), and I've been going there for well over a decade. There are cards for everyone, no matter one's budget, and even if I'm not feeling particularly inspired, I always return home with a haul that I'm content with.

I'm not going to always have this show at my disposal, so taking advantage of it while I can is essential, and that's why I set this goal for myself in 2020.

Another Player Collection Tiers Update

Over the last couple of years, my process of organizing and categorizing my player collections has grown increasingly complex, though it's also provided me with more insight as to where each player stands in comparison to all the others.

Initially, I started by creating a complete inventory of all the cards of players I collect on Google Sheets with one spreadsheet designated for each player. Each row lists the year, card number, set name/info, and the team name. This process is repeated for every card of all the players I collect, and that number can be anywhere from 8-460.

Next, I introduced the idea of player collection tiers roughly a year ago. Using this process, I list all of my PCs in one Google Sheet from largest to smallest and, along the way, sort them by 4 separate tiers: Platinum (200+ cards), Gold (100+), Silver (50+), and Bronze (49>).

Through the player collection tiers, I'm able to see where each player collection, by the total number of cards, ranks in comparison to all the others. For example, I know that Fergie Jenkins, a player collection with 81 total cards, is #74 on my list of PCs.

Last April, I wrote an update on player collection tiers in which I detailed the changes that occurred since I began this endeavor. Considering how much has changed over the last several months, I figured it was time to craft an update once again and that this could be a reoccurring post a few times a year.

Unsurprisingly, Nolan Ryan remains #1 on the list by a long shot and, to be honest, I don't believe that any of the other player collections will ever catch up.

Ryan's 482 total cards (excluding a small handful that I haven't added in yet) beat Ken Griffey Jr's 280 soundly for the #1 spot on the list. Since there's no real competition rivaling Ryan's #1 spot, I'm instead looking to make steady additions to the player collection.

Specifically, I'd like to have 500 total Nolan Ryan cards by the end of the year, a goal I set for myself back in January.

Ken Griffey Jr may trail Nolan Ryan by over 200 cards for the #1 spot, but there's always a fair amount of competition between him and Greg Maddux to see who will earn the "runner-up" position.

When I updated you all on the player collection tiers back in April, Maddux occupied the #2 spot on my tiers list, but he has since been usurped by Griffey.

At the moment, Maddux trails KGJ by just 3 cards to round out the top 3. After that, there's a pretty significant drop (~30 cards) before the #4 PC, Manny Ramirez.

Last time, the platinum tier, reserved for player collections with 200 or more cards. had just 7 players, but that number has grown by 3 in the subsequent months. Vladimir Guerrero and Randy Johnson have added their names to the list, cementing each of my top 10 player collections at 200+ cards.

With these two additions, the closest I am to adding another player to the platinum tier is both Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg at 180 cards. Even though I come across their cards somewhat often, it'll be a little while before the top tier expands to encompass 11-12 players.

The gold tier, featuring players with totals anywhere from 100-199 cards, has grown to include 35 members over the last few months. Specifically, I've seen a fair number of active players cross the threshold as of late.

The additions of so many active players to the gold tier are somewhat surprising, considering that it used to be Craig Kimbrel, Joey Votto, and Miguel Cabrera not too long ago. Now, that group includes Anthony Rizzo, Clayton Kershaw, Andrew McCutchen, and Buster Posey.

At any given time, there's always at least 1 player on the cusp of moving up to another tier, whether it's silver, gold, or platinum. At the moment, Evan Longoria is the closest to making this happen at 99 cards, just 1 away from becoming the 46th PC to reach 100 cards or more.

I thought this would happen following my previous trip to the card show, but the Longoria card that I picked up (shown above) was a duplicate. Thus, I'll have to wait a little longer before the 3-time All-Star moves up.

The more progress I make with this endeavor, the higher the bar is raised for players to achieve a certain ranking on my list of 260 player collections. For example, to make the top 100 out of all the players that I collect, a PC has to have at least 62 cards.

Still, players are moving up the list constantly, and players have been consistently reaching the silver tier mark of 50 cards since my last PC tiers update. Currently, 84 of my player collections find themselves between 50-99 cards.

Of course, the majority of my player collections (135/264) are part of the bronze tier, meaning I have fewer than 50 cards of that player. Since this tier encompasses more players than any other, there's an extensive range of players who are apart of it.

Some, like Wilbur Wood and Mickey Lolich, may never move up enough to join the silver tier simply because of how few cards have been produced of these 70s pitchers. 

Other guys' totals, like Alex Bregman's, have increased since I began collecting them, and it's only a matter of time before they reach 50 and maybe even 100 cards.

In fact, there are roughly 30 players within 10 cards of silver tier status, so needless to say, I don't think that the overall growth of my player collections is going to plateau anytime soon.

$5 Cards; Card Show Recap #25 Part 2

In what will likely be my final Baseball card haul until Black Friday (I'll either buy cards on COMC or head to the Mansfield show), I decided to vary in what I purchased so that I ended up with a wide range of different cards.

After initially picking up a stack of 90s oddballs and 2010s Red Sox cards, I wandered through the show floor with nothing particular in mind that I was searching for. As is often the case, I didn't have to look that long before I came across something of interest, a 2-row box of cards marked at $5 each.

Once I'd spent several minutes searching through the stacks of $5 cards, I knew where I'd be spending the rest of my time and money at the show. The bin didn't consist solely of Baseball cards, but there were, nonetheless, gems scattered across the 2 different rows.

Whereas I sometimes have to narrow down what I purchase to fit a certain budget, there were exactly 8 cards that caught my eye. Thankfully, I didn't have to swap any of them out and was able to secure every one of them.

The first one I chose was a 1960 Topps card of Brooks Robinson, one of my favorite Flagship designs of all-time. Robinson is one of my gold tier player collections, meaning I have over 100 cards of the 15-time All-Star. This new pickup, however, is now the oldest card that I own of Robinson.

While each of the other 7 cards in this lot is a base card, the Joe Morgan card above is actually the only relic in the group, a bat relic numbered out of 99 from 2016 Panini Pantheon.

I purchased this card with a full understanding of the fact that relics aren't what they used to be because I believed that a $4 HOF relic was too good of a deal to pass up. The concept, however, is where I'm a tad confused.

This bat relic is from a subset called Gallant Gloves, so wouldn't it make much more sense for the memorabilia to be from one of Morgan's game-used gloves? Or if Panini can't get enough gloves to produce these cards, name the card something else.

Still, I purchase inexpensive Hall of Fame relics whenever I get the opportunity, and the Joe Morgan bat relic, despite the contradictory name, fits the bill.

2011 Topps Update is obviously known for the iconic Mike Trout rookie card, but the set is also home to first-year players such as Jose Altuve, Paul Goldschmidt, and Anthony Rizzo.

Though I'll likely never come across a Mike Trout rookie card for a reasonable price, I can at least say that I have some of the other top rookies' cards from the highly sought after set, those players being Jose Altuve and, now, Anthony Rizzo.

Rizzo has been one of my favorite players in the game over the last several years. His consistency, both offensively and defensively, is truly remarkable, and I can only imagine what today's Red Sox team would be like if he was still a part of their organization.

His rookie card might not be the most valuable of the bunch, but I'm, nonetheless, thrilled at the price I paid to add this card to my Rizzo player collection.

The $5 price point was to steep for me to take a risk and purchase a card that I may already have in my collection, so I decided to check my player collection spreadsheets before adding this 1974 Topps Nolan Ryan card to the stack that I was amassing. Sure enough, I didn't have the card, but I do now.

This card, along with a few other .50 cent cards from yesterday's show, is getting me even closer to the 500-card mark that I'd like for the Ryan PC to reach by the end of the year.

The current total, with the additions from the card show, is around 485, and I'd like to get to 500 without explicitly buying 15 Nolan Ryan cards on COMC.

Because league leaders cards, particularly those from the 1960s and 2010s, often feature multiple players whom I collect, I need to have some way to decide which player collection the card will go towards.

I have a rule that the card will go to the highest-ranking player who also happens to be one of my player collections. I don't have a PC for Sandy Koufax (though I really should), so this 1967 Topps card, noting the '66 NL wins leaders, will go to Juan Marichal.

There's something about rookie cup cards, particularly those with the tall trophies from the 1960s, that never fails to captivate my attention. Plus, vintage rookie cup cards are a nice, inexpensive alternative to rookie cards, yet they're a tad more interesting than just a simple base card.

The condition of this 1968 Topps Tom Seaver card might not be too stellar, but the All-Star rookie trophy along with the extremely fair price helps me look past the crease down the middle of the card. Not to mention, the '68 Topps base set design happens to be one of my favorites.

The final 2 cards from the 8-card purchase are set needs, the first of which I have been trying to track down for quite some time now. I'm talking about Hank Aaron's final Topps Flagship card, an iconic shot of the true home run king as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers.

As is typical for the 1976 Topps set, the card features a daring color combination (pink and purple) that Topps was, somehow, able to pull off. Before Sunday's show, I hadn't seen a fairly-priced '76 Aaron card, so it was huge for me to check such a major card off the list.

Now, as far as I know, there isn't another big card like Aaron's standing in my way of completing this set.

 The most critical pick up from yesterday's show, undoubtedly, would have to be the 1961 Topps Willie McCovey card above, another major set need, of mine that I can now cross off the want list.

Unlike '76 and '79 Topps, there are several expensive veteran and 1 rookie (Juan Marichal) cards standing in my way of completing the 1961 Topps set. While I was able to make progress at The National, there's still a long way for me to go if I want to complete this 589-card set.

Adding this McCovey card to my collection is huge because it's another Hall of Famer, not to mention a high number, that I don't have to worry about.

But with Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and most of the All-Star cards still on my radar, I'll have to hope that another bargain like this comes my way.

First Dime Box Haul in a While; Card Show Recap #23 Part 2

Despite how much I prioritize my ~250 player collections as the center point of my card collecting habits, it's been many months since I've come back from the card show with a dime box haul.

Though they used to be a common feature on the blog, my card collecting habits over the last several months simply haven't allowed for a proper all-dime card purchase. I took many weeks off leading up to and following the National, and I didn't make the dime bins a priority while I was in Chicago.

I know I have access to terrific dime boxes at my local shows, so I wanted to branch out at the NSCC. Even upon returning, however, I found it challenging to return to my old ways. Thankfully, a trip to my weekly card show, much smaller than the one in Mansfield, allowed for just that.

After all, it's hard to beat coming home with a bag full of dime cards following a card show, just waiting to be sorted, categorized, and properly stored.

Within a few minutes of scanning through the dime boxes, I always get a reasonable idea of what player, on this particular day, is going to appear frequently. Almost right off the bat, while searching through the bins on Sunday, I concluded that one of those players was Ken Griffey Jr.

The 13-time All-Star currently trails Greg Maddux by 8 cards for the #2 spot on my list of largest player collections, and these cards will definitely help to close that gap. I did, however, pick up a few Maddux cards, so we'll have to see where the chips fall, though I doubt anyone will ever catch Nolan Ryan (474).

I don't know when or if I'll ever bite the bullet and add the iconic 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr card to my collection. I know that I either want the card to be graded or in good enough condition to come back at an 8.5 or above.

With that being said, my collection, per usual, is all over the place, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to commit myself to add this prized piece to my collection.

Following my complete reorganization of the Red Sox and Cubs PCs over the summer, I'm now able to actively collect cards of my 2 favorite teams besides my player collections.

I don't have a PC for Heyward, nor Ty Buttrey, but these refractors were only a dime each, and I figured they'd be perfect for the PCs. The way I organized the various binders allows me to find any card I want fairly quickly. The next step? Categorize them all online.

Another of my projects from over the summer was the creation of new player collections to add to my already extensive list. Most of the newcomers are rookies from 2018, like Ozzie Albies and Rhys Hoskins, though it also includes superstars like Alex Bregman, Freddie Freeman, and Javier Baez.

Though I haven't made these new player collections official yet, I'm working to accumulate as many cards as I can just like any other PC. For a dime each, these 2 rookies are a heck of a deal.

Though I try to sample almost every available retail product as it's released, I still miss out on the majority of player collection cards. As a result, I frequently depend on the dime bins so I can hunt these cards down, whether it's a set that I buy a fair amount of (Archives) or a product that I've never opened a pack from (Diamond Kings).

Even though I purchased and opened a fair share of 2019 Topps Stadium Club upon its release, I still missed out on a few key cards for my player collections. Before the show, I wasn't familiar with Rivera nor Bank's card from this beautiful set.

I can sufficiently say that if I had known of the Banks card back when I first opened 2019 Stadium Club in June, it would've been strongly considered for the top 10.

As I mentioned, some players are simply more common than others when it comes to a given dime box haul, and this trip to the show was no different. In addition to Ken Griffey Jr, Padres legend Tony Gwynn showed up several times.

I haven't been collecting cards of the 15-time All-Star for all that long, but Gwynn seems to show up in dime boxes no matter where I go. I've only been collecting his cards for a few months, but he's already surpassed 30, not bad considering my hiatus from dime cards.

There's something so drastically different about each of these Roberto Clemente cards that makes me like them all the more. On one end, you have a classic black and white photo paired with a simple design, reminiscent of a fairly high-end product.

On the other hand, you have a retro-style card all about the 1970s. The design, uniform, and even the set name emulate the era incredibly well.

Oddly enough, these 2 cards were produced by the same company, Upper Deck, in the same year, 2001.

After not making much progress for a little while, I'm back on track to reach 500 cards of Nolan Ryan, my largest player collection, by the end of this year. Taking Sunday's purchase into account, I should be hovering around 480 cards, leaving 20 for the next 3 months.

I hope, obviously, to reach this goal and reach the 500-card mark for the first time, but I hope to get there with something besides Texas Rangers cards. Though the best years of his HOF career were spent in California, Topps loves to depict the all-time strikeout leader with the Rangers at every chance they get.

Even with the surplus of Nolan Ryan cards on the Texas Rangers, it felt great to pay the dime bins a visit again. After all, I don't know if I can go this long without them ever again.

Die-Cuts and Gold Cards, Courtesy of My LCS

It's almost become a routine for me to pick up a handful of individual cards at my LCS every time I head over there to pick up supplies to store my collection. 

I appreciate having multiple Baseball card shops near my house, for they make it incredibly easy for me to purchase penny sleeves, sheets, and other supplies for the card collection. 

I've always had at least 1 LCS within 25 minutes of my house and judging by what I've heard from other collectors and bloggers, this isn't common across most of the country.

Specifically, my favorite sports card shop is about 20 minutes away from me in Framingham, MA. In addition to the typical hobby boxes that you can expect to see at an LCS, this store has a plethora of framed memorabilia, a few dime bins, and cards on display cases throughout the entire shop.

Ever since my Dad and I discovered this shop back in Fall of 2017, we've routinely visited the store to scan through the dime bins, pick out a few individual cards, ranging from 50 cents to a few bucks, and, of course, purchase much-needed supplies for our ever-growing card collection.

And on today, Father's Day, we just so happened to need some thick top loaders and penny sleeves, so we decided to take a trip to the LCS together. While we were there, we continued our tradition and searched through the various Baseball card boxes scattered throughout the store.

I gave my Dad the last say in everything that we purchased today, and we ended up with some nice cards from some recently released products as well as the needed supplies and a box of cards that he chose for himself to celebrate this day together. 

Directly next to the Baseball dime bins was a 2-row box of 50 cent cards from all 4 major sports. The box featured predominantly Baseball cards, especially cards from 2018 and 2019 sets. The sepia Adam Jones card is exclusive to Topps Chrome blaster boxes, so I'm intrigued as to how the card ended up at this card shop. 

The 2 cards at the bottom of the photo above are from the recently released 2019 Topps Finest set, a high-end product. Both inserts, to my knowledge, recreate a past Topps Finest design from the 90s Baseball and Basketball products.

Given how beautiful these chrome cards look, it was a no-brainer for me to pick up 2 awesome inserts of 2 of my favorite modern day players to collect.

Speaking of recently released sets, I selected a few die-cut cards from the brand new 2019 Panini Leather & Lumber set, another high-end product that debuted this year. 

Due to the exorbitant hobby box prices and that the set doesn't appeal all that much to me, I made the decision to completely stay away from buying packs of this new product.

Even though I'd never buy a pack of Panini Leather & Lumber myself, the die-cut cards from the hobby boxes look phenomenal, for I watched a few box breaks around a week ago. The cards above feature 2 of the game's best sluggers, Judge and Bellinger, in a design called Knot Hole Gang.

The set features a surplus of different die-cut cards, and they all, from what I've seen, have leather or wood-like finishes. The cards that I stumbled upon seemed to embody the lumber part of the Leather & Lumber product, including the Ken Griffey Jr and Yogi Berra cards above.

For only 50 cents-$1 each, I didn't hesitate whatsoever to pick up these 2 HOF die-cut cards for their respective player collections. While I appreciate the silver and yellow color combo on the Benchmarks card, I absolutely love Griffey Jr Naturals die-cut, from the font to the color combinations.

The price range for all of the cards that we purchased today was extremely reasonable, but perhaps the greatest bargain of them all was paying just a buck for this 1968 Topps team card of the Oakland Athletics, commemorating their first year in Oakland.

Not only is their '68 team card a high-numbered card in the set (#554), but the card is also from one of my favorite Topps Flagship sets of all-time. 

The "burlap" bordered '68 design ranks as one of my 10 favorites base sets ever produced, and the combination of the burlap with the purple name and the beautiful uniforms make for a winning card.

I know not everyone is as fond of the 1968 Topps set as I am, but you have to applaud Topps for taking a risk. When I see cards like this, I believe even more strongly that the gamble paid off. 

None of the cards that we purchased up until this point had been particularly expensive, and that barely even changed when we found 3 different gold cards of Nolan Ryan in another 2-row box. It just so happened that they were slightly more expensive than the previous cards that we settled on, but they were still a bargain, especially as far as Nolan Ryan cards are concerned.

I was impressed to see all 3 cards from this 1992 Bleachers mini-set, featuring gold cards of the all-time strikeout leader and the largest PC in my collection, Nolan Ryan. The 3 cards all feature him on a different minor league team, and the backs are practically identical with the same serial numbering.

I recall picking up a 3-card panel of Ryne Sandberg in this same design many years back at the Baseball card show, so I assume that these 3 cards originally came from a panel as well. 

The images, especially on the card above, might not be the most flattering, but I'm an avid collector of all things Nolan Ryan. These cards are going to help me towards my goal of having a 500-card Ryan PC by the end of the year, and now I'm inching even closer.

I had a great time today, doing what I usually do with my Dad, acquiring some individual cards for our player collections in addition to much-needed supplies. Moreover, the fact that we were able to do this on Father's Day made today's quick visit to the card shop even more special. 

An Update on Player Collection Tiers

Last November, I developed a new method to help better organize the main focus of my Baseball card collection; my 250 different player collections. 

Given how many PCs I have, it's become rather difficult to keep track of all the different players that I collect. Thus, I created player collection tiers, separating my PCs into platinum, gold, silver, and bronze tiers according to the number of cards in each collection.

A complete list of all the players that I collect and their respective placements on the tiers can be found here. Now, in addition to adding PC additions to my online inventories, I also adjust the player's rankings on the tiers list.

Of course, because I dedicate lots of time and resources towards boosting my various player collections, the card totals and rankings have changed quite a bit since I created the tiers in mid-November of 2018. 

Because so many changes have occurred, I thought it'd be worthwhile to do an update on the progress that each tier has made, something I could see myself doing twice a year or so. 

Since I created the player collection tiers, many changes have been made regarding player collection totals and rankings. In what has recently a vital part of my card collecting habits, let me update you on the player collection tiers.

Unsurprisingly, Nolan Ryan is still my largest player collection with an almost unreachable total of 461 cards. Perhaps more impressive than the number of cards in Ryan's PC is the 197-card lead that he holds over my 2nd largest player collection, Greg Maddux.

Going into 2019, one of my Baseball card collecting goals was for my Nolan Ryan player collection to reach 500 total cards. At this rate, it's going to be a close call, so we'll have to wait and see what happens. 

Still, even if Ryan's player collection doesn't reach 500 cards this year, I highly doubt that Maddux or any other PC will come close to rivaling the 461 cards that I currently have of Nolan Ryan.

As I explained in November, the very top tier on my list is called the platinum tier, and the only PCs eligible for this tier are those that have eclipsed the 200 card mark. Certainly, only a select number of player collections will achieve this total, yet 3 players have done just that since I created the tiers list.

Recently, Rickey Henderson and David Ortiz joined Ryan, Maddux, Griffey Jr, and Manny Ramirez and officially became members of the platinum tier. I focus more on my player collections than any other aspect of my collection, yet very few players have achieved the 200-card mark.

This proves that, although we are arguably living in a neo-over-production era, how difficult it is for any player collection to achieve 200 total cards. At the same time, there are currently 3 players within 7 cards of that total (Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, and Vladimir Guerrero).

The 7th and final member of the platinum tier also reached the 200-card mark in the 5 months since I created the player collection tiers. Ichiro has since passed Ortiz and Henderson to inch his way to the #5 spot on my list. 

Although there's a sizeable gap between Ichiro, Griffey Jr, and Manny (who are tied for the #3 spot), there are a few gaps in my Ichiro PC that I could potentially fill to boost his total more so than I currently am. For example, out of the 213 cards that I have of the future Hall of Famer, I have just 2 from 2013-14. 

Not including the 7 players who have reached platinum tier status, the gold tier encompasses 33 players with 100-199 total cards. As I mentioned when I introduced the PC tiers in a blog post, the 100-card mark is what I would like each player collection to eventually achieve.

Although some gold tier PCs are closing in on the 200-card mark, I've seen a respectable number of player collections achieve gold tier status over the last few weeks. In particular, star players from the 2000s and 2010s have reached the 100-card mark, including the 4 players above.

Anthony Rizzo and Miguel Cabrera are just 2 of a few active players whose PCs have reached 100 total cards. Other players featured on that list include Craig Kimbrel, Albert Pujols, and Joey Votto.

If you count the platinum tier, I have 41 player collections with 100 cards or more. In addition, there are 9 total players who are within 10 cards of reaching gold tier status.

If a player collection achieves the silver tier mark (50 cards), there's a high chance of that same player reaching gold tier status in the future. Because of that, I don't expect certain players to remain in the silver tier for long. One of those guys is Mookie Betts who just recently reached the 50-card mark.

In addition to Mookie, active superstars like Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Justin Verlander, and Giancarlo Stanton are all members of the silver tier. There is also a wide range of retired players who also encompass part of this tier as well. 

Typically, members of the silver tier are commonly found in the dime boxes, meaning it's easy to boost these player collections whenever I go to the Baseball card show or my LCS. Thus, I fully expect many of my 75 silver tier PCs to eventually reach gold tier status, especially Harmon Killebrew who is currently just 1 card away.

Speaking of 1 card away, Bernie Williams' player collection currently sits at 49 cards, 1 card from the 50-card mark and silver tier status. The final of the 4 tiers is the bronze tier, encompassing the most players out of any PC tier with 134 members. 

Theoretically, any PC with as few as 1 card qualifies for the bronze tier, but the lowest total out of any of my bronze tier players is 9. While the range of player collection totals isn't very large, the bronze tier features tons of different players from various eras of Baseball history.

Some of these guys, like Curt Flood, may stay in the bronze tier for as long as I collect cards. Others, like Xander Bogaerts and Jacob DeGrom, will likely reach silver tier status in no time. 

A wide range of factors contributes to whether a player will remain in the bronze tier for years to come or reach silver and even gold tier status. However, it's unlikely that current players, such as Kyle Schwarber, will stay bronze tier PCs so long as I actively boost my various player collections. 

Thanks to Topps' emphasis on rookie cards and the availability of the veteran base cards, I can easily add to player collections like Schwarber's without much trouble. On the other hand, I don't come across cards of Andres Galarraga very often, so it'll be much more difficult for his PC to reach 50 total cards.

Out of the 134 bronze tier player collections, a whopping 36 of them are within 10 cards or fewer of achieving silver tier status. As I have recently discovered, my player collection tiers run in a cycle. 

There's always going to be a player on the brink of platinum, gold, or silver tier status, and I like that quite a lot. While they haven't necessarily changed the way that I collect, player collection tiers have helped make being a player collector much easier.