A new reality realized - collecting Shohei Ohtani

It is a thing where I try not to pick up any old team cards of notable players who end up on new teams for at least a year, until new, updated cards show up - I like to occasionally hoard binder material cards of decade stars guys, but it makes it easier if I can hold off in the meantime for guys who sign or are traded from one team to another.

In Shohei Ohtani's case, it becomes more of a sensitive point, where I do not want to be reminded by his defection to the Dodgers - I would probably prefer to keep him out of sight, out of mind, where I barely acknowledge what he does going forward with his new ride or die team.

I understand Ohtani has always been a special case and will to continue making his random cards [like a no MLB logo 2022 Panini Capstone Velo insert] keepers out in the wild more often than not - I can appreciate the player for what he is, but it's just different when he is now a Dodger and not an Angel anymore.

TTM autographs received: Justin Turner

It happens once in a blue moon, but it is nice to find a straggler TTM request back in the mail box when I least expect it - the free agent infielder / DH signed returned my cards earlier this month after sending out a request c/o Boston Red Sox in May 2023.

I stopped sending out TTM requests last year and just found missing some of the TTM fuel I wanted to send out back then - it might be a thing to see whether I can restart things, just so I have some cheap thrills to look forward to.

Fleshing out some card projects with my loose card finds

I've got piles of cards from purchases I've sat on after giving them a quick look and/or trying to list them out somewhere so at least there is a record I can look at - one of the things I'm trying to do at the moment is sort my decade stars / binder material cards.

I have a cheat sheet [a quick reference guide] leaderboard collection to tally up the most cards I have for players through a single decade - rather than just trying to sort out loose cards 'as is,' by decade and by player, it's a game to see which guys I've ended up overcollecting or undercollecting.

It's hard to keep track of exact cards from my random purchases - but I've been weeding out my decade stars / binder material from the 1980s / 1990s debut guys like from this pile of card show finds [25 dollar cards I was charged $15 for].

For the 1980s debut players whose cards I've shown, it looks like I have the following totals tallied up before further updates - Tony Gwynn - 44 cards, Barry Bonds - 38 cards, Wade Boggs - 21 cards and Sammy Sosa - eight cards.

When think about it, the totals for each player end up changing as I constantly find more scattered cards - at the moment, the leader for my 1980s leaderboards ends up being Will Clark at 68 cards and counting, while Ken Griffey Jr. clocks in at second place with 59 cards and counting.

These are pick ups for 1990s debut guys and before any further updates, it looks like I have the following totals tallied up - Vladimir Guerrero Sr. - 69 cards [current leader for the '90s], Derek Jeter - 45 cards, Manny Ramirez - 29 cards, Ivan Rodriguez - 16 cards and Trevor Hoffman - 11 cards.

At the moment Carlos Beltran is the only player whose card is pictured as one of my finds, but isn't currently on my leaderboards collection - a case where I don't have enough cards piled up to make a page.

At some point, the plan at some point is to take action and put the cards into plastic pages - even when there are more cards out there in the wild.

As it goes, my trigger number for a players' cards to be added for my leaderboards is about seven cards - where I can make a page of nine using the loose cards I've gathered and probably a few more miscellaneous cards stored double sided in a plastic sheet.

I don't know if it is going to take a few more days, a week or even a couple before I move off sorting cards for the 1980s/1990s - I have a leaderboard collection for the 2000s debuts guys and it's going to be more of the same, where there is a race to figure the most or the least cards I might have for certain players.

My last tally was listed as April 2022 and before any further updates, it looks like I have the following totals tallied up - Ichiro [Suzuki] - 23 cards, Albert Pujols - 22 cards and Joe Mauer - 13 cards.

I picked up rookie cards of Kazuhiro Sasaki and Mark Buehrle - Sasaki isn't a decade stars guy for me, so the card might in my nations collection or random team box collection.

Buehrle might be a decade stars guy in my book - but I don't think I've gone out of my way to make his cards keepers.

I'll tease the project here and there, but something I want to do through this year is compile an all-time Top 100 cheap-zz keepers collection - inspired by other collectors who have showcased similar projects, my current collection consists of certain quirky, funny, ironic or personal cards, but I might be on the hunt for unique cards worthy of consideration.

An off-shoot idea would be to have a regional / Angels collection of an all-time Top 100 cheap-zz keepers collection - where I might be looking out of random cards that flesh out this collection; maybe the Pujols refractor doesn't quite make the cut, but I might be able to use a 1993 Topps Gold Jim Edmonds rookie year card.

Through 2023, maybe there has been a nudge towards picking up random cards of more miscellaneous, notable subjects as I come across their cards - despite wanting it where it's mostly baseball cards I'm curating for a collection, maybe the plan is to fill out my Top 100 collection with a select number of non-baseball guys, just to mix things up and add some odd depth to a compilation of cards.

Scattered 2023 thoughts in collecting

I hope to squeeze something in that kind of vents about the past year - before that time to do a recap has really sailed.

It was a long year when I think about it and what animates me at the start of one year ends up being neglected - different things take shape in what I do, where I dwell on other interests and other things get in the way.

I was rounding up goal items for 2022 at some point, but maybe I ended up dropping that, when there were too many items to consider - I don't know how complete my achievements goes and maybe it doesn't matter as long as I have a tease.

After a certain point of the past year, I haven't kept up listing achievements for 2023 when I've been perpetually backed up - trying to catch up with inventory recaps from all purchases I’ve made, where I am obligated to list out every card I got.

Off at least one or two 'card guys' on Twitter, I feel like I was really into the chaos pages idea but couldn't get around to putting things together - I was sorting loose cards at the start of last year, but after a certain time, I just left the loose piles of cards I intended to sort further on the floor in little 'play room,' where I would not even go back in there until the new year.

Tried to get my TCDB account going, where I was trying to create personal galleries for my stadium project, adding some trade bait and listing some wantlist items - despite being a thing for bloggers to trade on there, I couldn't remember what my user name was, didn't want to reach out and have not done a single transaction.

I stopped TTM when I couldn’t find a particular card to send to Steve Garvey - that crashed my operation for the year, along with not getting a response from hit or miss Rick Reuschel or getting an RTS from hit or miss Bob Boone.

I think my last success was from Scott Hemond and to be honest - maybe some of the successes that have come in from mailings end up being clutter of sorts.

I think the card show dates once or twice a month added up - I don't know if I ever have anything to show for it, but I would be bringing back bricks of cards I'd let sit and pile up without getting to doing inventory recaps.

Besides my card show bricks and piles, maybe the biggest thing that affected what I was doing collecting wise was buying into Twitter / X stack sales where since last April, it has been a thing - maybe I never really did Twitter except lurk and see what other 'card guys' did.

The idea of claiming cards on the social media site intrigued me, where to me it was like a free-for-all party - where it was a way for me to get engaged, even if that meant claiming cards I may or may not really need from all these random sellers peddling their miscellaneous inventory, which swung towards the bulk material to some odd singles.

With all the cards coming in, it's been a struggle to keep up with trying to list them all - there are scattered purchases that have not been listed anywhere, though I might have tried to do a better job of catching up with the bigger purchases that need my attention in case there are some mess-ups I need to be aware of.

I can't imagine being a rookie but there were times where I had rookie moments buying cards on social media - because I was impatient with a pending purchase from a seller I'd bought from the first time, I sent funds to a wrong PayPal address that had a similar handle.

I never got a response or that money back from the other PayPal account - I ended up sending funds to the correct PayPal account, but felt really dumb paying twice as much for some odds and ends type claims.

There are the occasional hiccups about missing cards or totals not matching up for whatever reason - I also got held up a bit by a dumb seller [who took a while to ship my first order, shorted me some cards and then ghosted me for at least a few months, before issuing a refund minus the PayPal fees I was charged].