What I've Been Up To

One of the things that I find most interesting about card collecting is that there's never any shortage of projects, large or small, or any other tasks for me to perform to enhance my collection and how it's organized.

Over the last number of years, I've moved my player collections from binders to boxes, cataloged them online on Google Sheets, developed tiers to organize them, and begun collecting a plethora of new players.

Not to mention, the projects I listed above involve only my player collections. I've also constantly worked to organize my card room and complete other tasks, from organizing singles numerically by set and re-doing my entire Red Sox and Cubs PCs.

My most recent undertaking is one that I'm not exactly keen on doing, but it's necessary for my collection going forward. Currently, I'm in the process of removing all duplicate cards from my player collections.

Up until the beginning of 2019, I would add cards to my player collections even though I already had 1 (or more) of the card cataloged beforehand. Why I did this, I cannot say, but upon realizing the error of my ways, I stopped the process.

I knew, however, that I'd eventually have to go back and remove all the duplicate cards from my player collections to make things right. However necessary it may be, this change will affect almost every player that I collect, but last weekend, I bit the bullet and began the necessary changes.

Basically, the process consists of my going to each player collection online inventory and deleting all duplicate cards. After adjusting the total on both the spreadsheet and the tiers list, I remove the previously mentioned cards and place them in a box labeled "player collection dupes."

At this point, I'm finished with players whose last names begin with A-G, so I'm just over 1/3 of the way through the project. Again, it's not necessarily something I want to do, but I can watch box breaks on YouTube or listen to music all throughout, so I suppose it's not all that bad.

Some players, understandably, are affected by the removal of duplicate cards more than others. Usually, the gold tier PCs with over 100 cards lose around 10-20 cards whereas smaller player collections are impacted less substantially.

The 2 Hall of Famers shown above, Johnny Bench and George Brett, are upon the most affected by this project of mine. The former's PC lost just over 30 cards while Brett's total went from 143 to 121.

Interestingly enough, one of my top 3 largest player collections, Ken Griffey Jr, didn't lose all that many cards considering the total, going from 280 to 264.

Certainly, card collecting, for me, is not fixated on totals and placements on a tiers list, but the numbers give me a better idea of where each of the ~260 players that I collect stand. For that reason, I began keeping track of the totals over a year ago.

The only players not impacted by this substantial change are the new additions to my player collection list, guys like Ronald Acuña Jr and Javier Baez.

When I began collecting cards of these guys a few months back, I made sure not to include any duplicates so that, going forward, I wasn't repeating any of the mistakes I've made in the past.

As I mentioned earlier, I haven't reached the 40% mark of this project, yet I already have almost 1 row of a 2-row box filled with player collection dupes, including a vintage Hank Aaron staring right at me.

Given how many more player collections I have to get through and the fact that I have another small stack of dupes from the past few months, it may be best to get a 4-row box so that all the cards can fit at once. Plus, it should give me some excess space for the future.

The 1970 Topps Hank Aaron card is just one of several vintage duplicates that I've placed in the box, uncertain of where else to put them. Speaking of uncertainty, I have no clue what I plan on doing with all these cards when all is said and done.

There's not anything insanely valuable, so I don't think selling is my best option. They could be used in trades, sent to bloggers, or donated, but I've yet to develop any concrete plans. If anyone has a suggestion, I'm more than welcome to hear it.

Certainly, this isn't a project that I wanted to undertake, but I deemed it necessary to complete going forward with my collection. Because I prioritize my PCs above virtually everything else, ridding them of all duplicate cards is essential.

Now, figuring out what to do with all these excess cards is another story, but I have another ~60% of my player collections to get through before I have to worry about that too much.

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.

The Process

Aside from the retail and hobby packs that I rip, most of Baseball card purchases that I make go towards my player collections, a collective list of 250+ players whose totals and inventories I'm constantly looking to build.

With PCs ranging from 9 cards to 479, there's no telling what I'll find when I search through a bin at the card show or an LCS. My dime box hauls consistently bring home a wide range of different players while paying more per card allows me to zero in on a few guys in particular.

No matter how much I pay for the card, where I go to purchase it, or how many I buy, every addition to my player collections goes through the same process. These steps keep my collection somewhat organized and provide me with up-to-date totals for each PC.

I've talked about my player collections, specifically the online inventories that I always seem to be updating, on numerous occasions. Because of that, I thought that I'd take some time today to share the process by which I obtain, categorize, and store each card that goes towards one of my player collections.

Step #1; Purchase the card(s)

Before I can complete any other step on this list, I have to actually purchase the card(s), whether I do so at a card show, online (COMC, Sportlots, eBay), or an LCS.

I usually buy player collection cards in groups, particularly when I look through dime or quarter boxes, though I don't refrain from buying a smaller selection of desireable cards. After all, look no further than the recent LCS visit from last weekend.

Whether I purchase 1 card or 500, the first step of the process is always the most exciting. No matter how many times I visit a card shop or look through boxes at a show, buying cards for my player collections will never get old.

Step #2; Organize the cards alphabetically by their last name

My player collections, both physically and digitally, are organized by last name, a change that I made back in July that has made the organization unbelievably easier. Before I can actually put any of the cards away, the new pile of cards needs to match how I store the existing PCs.

By taking 15 ish minutes to sort the new additions alphabetically by the player's last name, I save a substantial amount of time, since I'm not forced to go totally out of order when completing the subsequent steps on this list.

Step #3; Add the new cards to the online inventory

My player collections are made up of thousands of cards, all of which are categorized online in Google Sheets. There are 2 documents, one for player collections A-L (last name) and another for M-Z.

Each document houses one sheet for each of the players that I collect where the cards are organized chronologically, then alphabetically. This allows me to, if need be, find a specific card in virtually no time.

Though I am looking to filter all duplicate cards out of my PCs in the coming month or so, the organization, as well as the 3rd step of this process, will not be affected by this change.

When I add a card to one of my player collection sheets (I'll continue to use Hank Aaron's 2018 Topps Museum card as an example), it appears at the very bottom of the page. Moreover, the numbers on the side tell me exactly how many Hank Aaron cards I have in my collection.

With the addition of this 2018 Topps Museum card, I now have 128 cards of the 21-time All-Star. Having easy access to this number will prove to be useful for the 5th and final step of the process which I'll describe later on.

The final stage of step #4 is placing the new card in the correct position on the spreadsheet so that it lines up with the other 127, both chronologically and alphabetically. In the case of the '18 Museum card, it falls in between 2017 and 2018 Topps Stadium Club.

Each page of the document has the same format as Aaron's. That is, 1) year; 2) card number; 3) brand and set name; 4) additional info (like serial numbering; 5) team name.

It took me around 6 months to create this online inventory, and it was definitely a painful and frustrating process at times. At this point, however, I'm beyond grateful to have an up-to-date inventory for this part of my collection.

Step #5; Adjust the player collection tiers list

This is a relatively new addition to the process, but the 5th step is to adjust the player collection tiers list after making any additions to one of my player collections. Whether I add 1 new Hank Aaron card or 50, I have to adjust this spreadsheet along with the PC inventory.

On this Google Sheet, all of my player collections, along with their totals, are listed. The different colors indicate the player's tier (platinum is 200+, gold is 100+, silver is 50+, and the bronze is 49-). This gives me an idea of where each player stands beyond the number of cards in each PC.

On the PC tiers document, the numbers next to each entry tell me where each player collection ranks solely in terms of the number of cards. The list starts with Nolan Ryan at 479 and ends with J.R. Richard at 9 total cards. 

With the numerical ranking as well as the player's tier, this spreadsheet is essential to showing me where each player stands in terms of their total number of cards. As you can see, the 128 cards in my Hank Aaron PC puts him at #28 out of all the guys I collect.

Surprisingly, Jeff Bagwell, Nomar Garciaparra, and Hanley Ramirez are also at 128 cards each, so I organize the players alphabetically if there's a tie.

Step #6; Physically put the card(s) away

After doing a lot online when it comes to organization, it's refreshing that the 6th and final step of this process is simple as can be. With the card(s) added to the online inventories and the PC tiers list updated, all that's left to do is to place the card in the proper box.

For example, all players with last names A-B are organized alphabetically in a box together. Flashcards help indicate where one player collection ends and the subsequent PC starts. 

In the boxes, the cards aren't meticulously organized like the spreadsheets, so I can place that 2018 Topps Museum card anywhere in the 128 cards between the Hank Aaron index card and the one that reads "Abreu." 

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.

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.