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.

50s Topps, A HOF Rookie, & More Vintage; 2019 National Recap Part #2

Moving right along with my series of recap posts from the 2019 National, I have a haul of vintage pickups for both the teams and the players that I collect ready to go today.

While I mentioned that the cards featured in yesterday's post were a part of my only player collection oriented purchase, I still grabbed other cards for my PCs across my 2 1/2 days at the show. 

However, my Dad and I's mission was to go after cards that I couldn't necessarily find back home. A perfect example of this is the card at the top of this post; Nolan Ryan's 1971 Topps card which my Dad tracked down.

Buying vintage cards was one of our main objectives for this year's show just as it was at the 2018 National in Cleveland. We both understand that cards from the 50s and 60s aren't going to be readily available forever, especially at the bargain prices that we often see them going for.

In addition to filling in cards from the 1961 and 1976 Topps sets throughout our time in Chicago, we made multiple vintage card purchases while at the show that, ultimately, added up into an impressive haul, consisting of cards from the early 1950s, 3Ds from the 70s, and even a HOF rookie.

I'll showcase some of the other 1970 Kellogg's 3D cards that we picked up later in the week, but, for now, I'll start with the 4 players above, all of whom I collect. Another project of my Dad's, he has always been fond of 3D cards, particularly the Kellogg's brand. 

Whether they're for our 3D binders or player collections, Kellogg's cards are often on his radar when we attend larger Baseball card shows. This time, he assembled a group of 70s Kellogg's cards, including one of Joe Morgan from his early seasons with the Houston Astros. The headshot and the sky background easily makes Morgan's card my favorite of the lot.

Though Morgan's card happens to be my favorite, that doesn't discount the fact that my Dad found a new card for our Ron Santo player collection, something that certainly doesn't happen every day. 

Although he's a 9-time All-Star and a 5-time Gold Glove award winner, Santo is one of the most underappreciated and underrepresented players in Baseball history. He wasn't inducted into the Hall of Fame until after he passed away in 2010, and his most recent Baseball card (excluding fancy hits), according to COMC, is an insert card from 2016 Topps.

I urge Topps to feature Santo in sets like Allen & Ginter and Archives to give this Baseball legend the respect he deserves. However, if I can't have my wish, at least I have his awesome '70 Kellogg's card.

As focused as I often am on boosting my 250 player collections, my Dad is quite the opposite. He has no qualms about buying cards of non-PC guys so long as there are some parameters to what he purchases. 

Though I likely wouldn't have chosen these cards myself, I'm pleased that he ended up buying some vintage Red Sox and Cubs cards from the 1950s. As many Cubs and Red Sox cards as I have, my collection is somewhat limited as far as the early and mid-1950s are concerned (i.e. anything before 1957).

In fact, I didn't even have a single Topps card from 1952 or 1953 going into The National this year. Thankfully, I was able to make some progress with the absence of those 2 sets.

Though we never got our hands on a '53 Topps card, we finally landed our first ever 1952 Topps base card, and the player of choice is Red Sox catcher Gus Niarhos. I also added another '52 Bowman Red Sox card to my collection (Vern Stephens) to go with my other one (Clyde Vollmer).

Even though the players on and the condition of these cards aren't the greatest, that's not a significant concern of mine when it comes to cards from as far back as 1952. 

Frankly, I'm just pleased to have these in my collection in the first place, for I would have difficulty tracking these cards down at the shows I attend.

Now that I have all the photos scanned for this post, I realize that most of the cards shown were ones that my Dad picked up. However, there is a handful that I chose myself, including the 2 1977 Topps cloth cards above which will fit nicely in the Willie Stargell and Lou Brock PCs.

These cards, along with Hostess and Kellogg's sets, are my personal favorite oddballs from the 1970s. Lou Brock's card, in particular, with the powder blue uniform and funky hat, is definitely a standout. 

I'm sure there's a more technical name for these that I'm forgetting, but, for now, I'll simply refer to them as cloth cards.

Out of all the things that make vintage Baseball cards so phenomenal, my Dad and I, collectively, love the various combo cards the most. Whether it's Mays and McCovey's Fence Busters card or Mantle and Mays' Manager's Dream, combo cards were extremely prominent, particularly throughout the 1960s.

I suppose our collective appreciation of combo cards is what led my Dad to grab a whole bunch of them when he had the opportunity to do so. Most of these cards feature just 1 player that I collect, but the Pride of the NL includes 2 (Mays and Musial). 

After deliberating it for a while, I decided to add this card to the Willie Mays PC for no particular reason other than I haven't bought a card of his in a while.

As pleased as I am with my Dad's choices for vintage cards, specifically the oddballs, I'm especially proud of the vintage cards that I was able to grab for bargain prices. 

Starting off with my final purchase of the show, this gorgeous 1955 Topps Monte Irvin card which ended up being one of the biggest bargains of the entire convention at just $5. 

Though 1955 Topps isn't one of my favorite sets of the decade, Irvin's card is pretty close to perfect, from the blue background to the action shot on the left.

As I mentioned, this card was my very last purchase of the entire show. Earlier on, however, I seized the opportunity and grabbed another of Irvin's Topps cards.

Although the surface leaves something to be desired, Irvin's 1954 Topps card is another fantastic pickup, and I couldn't be more pleased to add it to my collection. Thanks to these 2 cards, I've built up a nice vintage Irvin collection, and I definitely see myself adding to it when presented with the opportunity.

I'm equally glad to have both of these vintage cards in my possession, but there's something about the '54 card that's more organized and refined than the '55 Topps alternative. I don't have strong opinions about either set, but I do have positive opinions on each of these 2 cards.

Despite how fabulous the 2 vintage Irvin cards are, I couldn't think of a better vintage pickup than this 1966 Topps Jim Palmer rookie in terms of bargain vintage cards. 

For less than half the cost of a blaster box, I added this sought after rookie of one of the greatest pitchers of all-time to my collection. Now that's what I call a steal.

At a Baseball card show last year, I purchased a redemption card for a Jim Palmer autograph in which he signed a reprint of his iconic '66 rookie card. Now, roughly 1 year later, it's all come full circle, and I have this treasured card in hand. 

Dollar Vintage and Bargain Hits; Card Show Recap #17 Part 2

I think yesterday's trip to the Baseball card show was the first time in over a year that I didn't purchase a single dime card throughout the entire day, and I'm struggling to tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Leaving the show without a sole dime card even surprised me, especially because I was obligated to stick to a budget yesterday, more so than usual. Typically, whenever I go to a card show with limited spending money, I stick primarily to dime cards.

With that being said, I found it difficult to be inspired while searching through the dime boxes and that's not something that usually happens to me. I put together a stack of around 40 cards or so when I simply decided that I could do without the typical pile of player collection additions that I so often bring back from the show.

Instead, I moved on to a couple of $1 vintage bins located directly next to the dime boxes. As soon as I began searching through them, I was certain that I had made the right decision. $1 vintage cards were definitely the way to go.

I continued to make progress with my 1961 Topps set by picking up 10 new cards to go towards the set, bringing my total number of needs to way below 300 cards. Other than crossing the halfway mark with the product a few weeks ago, I've noticed, time and time again, cards that I already have when searching through bins of 1961 Topps. 

It's definitely helped to validate the progress that I've made towards completing this set, especially since I haven't even been seriously collecting it for a year now. With 281 cards left to go, it's not completing this set that seems to be impossible. Rather, it's finding key cards like Juan Marichal's rookie and Mickey Mantle's base card for the right price.

While I focused primarily on 1961 Topps, my Dad took the opportunity, while searching through the vintage bins, to pick out some older cards not just of guys we collect, like Frank Howard, but other players as well. It's part of what drew me to the $1 vintage card bin in the first place, the fact that I don't need to grab a bunch of cards for my player collections to appreciate these 60s and 70s cards.

For example, we don't collect Pirates catcher Manny Sanguillen, but that didn't stop my Dad from picking up this card for only a dollar. I still have to figure out where these cards will end up, but it's hard to say no to vintage cards for this price. 

Everything about this card, from the uniform to the pink circle, looks pretty awesome and perfectly embodies the Pirates and the 1960s as a whole. When it comes to vintage, it becomes less about the player and more about the card, and I can definitely see why that would appeal to some collectors.

If there was ever such a thing as too much color than this card would perfectly fit that bill, especially since it's a 1975 Topps mini, causing the colors to be far more compact into a smaller space. However, you can never really have a card that has too much color, so instead, what you have is a pink, purple, and yellow card with an awesome action image.

Yeah, the 70s were a pretty sweet time. Honestly, it's pretty much impossible to fault this card, and it proved even more difficult to turn it down for only $1.

I wouldn't think that the team cards that also state the team's division placement from the year before lasted too long during the 1960s. I mean, seriously, who wants to look at a team card to see "8th Place" in big, block letters at the bottom. 

The inclusion serves to take away from the rest of the card, and since we don't have this kind of team cards anymore, I need to appreciate every traditional team card I can get without being told that the Chicago Cubs finished in 8th place in 1965.

After picking up a solid number of $1 vintage cards, my Dad and I realized that we still had some lee-way and could conceivably pick up a couple of hits before heading on home. Sticking with the vintage theme from earlier, we ended up with 2 hits of players from the 60s and 70s and for a great price as well.

In lieu of his recent passing, it seemed right to pick up this stadium seat relic card of Frank Robinson, featuring a piece of an authentic stadium seat from Crosley Field, former home of the Cincinnati Reds. 

At first glance, I recognized the set as 2006 Topps Heritage, a product that featured the 1957 Topps design, the same year as Robinson's rookie card. I believe this is my first relic card of Robinson and even though it's a stadium seat and not a jersey or bat relic, it's a pretty sweet piece nevertheless.

After his time in Cincinnati, Robinson moved on to Baltimore where he teamed up with a couple future Hall of Famers. One of them is a 3-time AL Cy Young award winner whose autograph redemption I picked up for around the price of a Series 1 blaster box.

This card will likely go down as one of the biggest bargains I've ever found at a Baseball card show, and I wasted no time in redeeming it. Upon further research, I learned that the autograph is serial numbered out of 125 copies, and the card features a signed reprint of Palmer's rookie card from 1966 Topps.

An iconic card signed by one of the greatest pitchers of his era? It can't get much better than that, even if I don't currently have the card in-hand. From what I've seen, recipients have already received their copies in the mail, meaning it won't be long until I add a new Hall of Fame autograph to my collection.

Sometimes, sticking to a budget isn't the worst thing after all.