What I’ve tried to do in 2016 - my PCs

At the start of the year, I had a set of collecting goals I never got to posting - maybe it's a little too long-winded to try and go over what I did and didn't do, so I'm just going to summarize some of the things I've tried to prop up as far my own collecting projects.

Collecting is always a thing, but for much of the year, things were kind of meh and I was just muddling along - I think it's fine to leave some interests / projects alone ‘as is,’ even for a prolonged period of time, with the idea that I’m coming back to them at some point.

I needed to focus inward, in putting away things I’ve picked up, so I can transition towards another year of collecting - as much as I would worry about feeding the best, I’ve tried to ‘reset things’ to straighten out some of the interests, so my intentions are a little clearer with what I want to as well as dealing with the state of interests that may have gotten away from me.

1.) Personal collection project - I get the idea of having a PC to showcase a select number of showcase cards from my entire collection.

As is, I’ve left my PC cards ‘as is,’ through 2016 and after watching a YouTube video or two in November [basically another collector's 'top' collection] - did my interest in revamping my PC really pick up.

I've already added a few stand alone cards over the past couple of years to kind of rework what my collection of my best cards look like - I can't compete with the guys hoarding super premium cards, so instead I've set out to add PC cards that are old school, like your basic rookie cards from the at least 20 years ago and older, including the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. #1, a 1992 Bowman Mariano Rivera #302 and a 1984 Donruss Don Mattingly #248.

I had created a Google Sheets file for my four PCs I've established [Top 30 PC, Top 30 alternate PC, a Top 50 common PC and a Top 50 fun PC] and tried to re-jigger the listings around - adding cards as well as weeding out ones I felt were outdated.

I went on some ‘supply runs’ to my LCS, to buy up some new holders - to give me peace of mind that I’m cycling in some newer individual card holders as opposed to using dingy, old toploaders from 2000.

I’ve really been in a daze as far as having regional collection of PC cards and to just see what I maybe able to cobble together, I decided to add a regional component [#’s 31-50] to my Top 50 common PC - to make things easier as far as filling out my Top 50 common PC with no pressure in making a separate 'Top 30' list for just the team I'm collecting.

I’ve listed out miscellaneous Angels cards and while I feel the content falls a bit short, especially with regards to everyone's favorite Angel in the outfield, it’s the cards I’ve picked up - so I need to see if there is something to build on, so there maybe a foundation to funnel better cards, better players where I could eventually branch out into some sort of ‘stand alone’ regional PC.

I think I can add a few of the Angels certified autographs I’ve picked up - that I will double count towards my PC and my all-time Angels collection.

Featured autograph - Trevor Story

With at least 3 home runs in his first three MLB games - it will be hard to move the Colorado Rockies shortstop if and when Jose Reyes is ready to play.

If Story continues to play well further into the season, how are the Rockies going to dump Reyes with $47 million left in his contract - there is no way the fans are going to be happy seeing Reyes ever take the field at shortstop for the Rockies.

When Story was playing for the Modesto Nuts against Lake Elsinore in 2014, I remember telling a fan at a minor league game that Story was the opposing team's best player - however, I think Story's path to the big leagues got a little blurry because it looked like Troy Tulowitzki was going to be a lifelong Rockies player.

Though random as anything else to come mind when referring to particular players - I think about the scene in the movie Shallow Hal, where Hal's best friend Mauricio explains that he literally has a tail.

- What is it?

- l have a tail.

- A tail.

- What do you mean, like a story?

No, a tail. lt's like a waggy tail.

2011 Bowman Draft four pack recap

2011 Bowman Draft [$3.00 each x4 at a card shop] - after busting approximately two hobby boxes and these loose packs, maybe I'm a little underwhelmed.

I grabbed these packs on impulse and pulled bupkis - maybe I don't know what I was expecting when this product came out a week or so ago; maybe I was hoping to be able to find some easier to pull pull refractors or colored parallels in every other pack?

It seems like for sheer entertainment value 2011 Bowman Draft is sort of a snooze fest - I realize they are two completely different products, but why can't something like 2011 Bowman Draft be more like 2011 Topps, where I sort of feel like I can pull at least a couple of OK looking inserts / parallels out of a multiple pack purchase.

Pack one
#7 Charlie Blackmon
#17 Andrew Brown
#59 Zack Cozart - Chrome
#BDPP 70 Lance Jeffries - Chrome
#BDPP 59 Anthony Meo
#BDPP 101 Hunter Mercado-Hood
#BDPP 38 Taylor Guerrieri

Pack two
#15 Ezequiel Carrera
#8 Brian Broderick
#82 Henderson Alvarez - Chrome
#BDPP 55 Brandon Martin - Chrome
#BDPP 71 Matthew Budgell
#BDPP 33 Tyler Goeddel
#BDPP 76 Josh Parr

Pack three
#39 Graham Godfrey
#30 Rubby De La Rosa
#32 Jarrod Dyson - Chrome
#BDPP 67 Henry Owens - Chrome - he was a pretty big deal coming out of an Orange County high school in 2011 and while he's been in various USA releases over the last couple of seasons, this is first base card as a pro.
#BDPP 5 Pratt Maynard
#BDPP 30 Michael Fulmer
#BDPP 46 Adrian Houser

Pack four
#75 Josh Rodriguez
#50 Craig Kimbrel
#27 Tony Cruz - Chrome
#BDPP 27 Alex Dickerson - Chrome
#BDPP 89 Keenyn Walker
#BDPP 19 Harold Martinez
#BDPP 68 Joe Panik

Card show trip #3 the finale - 2011 Bowman Draft hobby box recaps

I wanted baseball cards of young professional players, guys drafted or signed this past year by Major League teams I've never heard about before - I think I got a stampede of them in the 2011 Bowman Draft boxes I picked up for $58 each as my 'main' hauls from my card show trip.

It remains to be seen which various base prospect cards I'll be able to get signed and which ones I'll be stuck with for a while - hopefully for the guys that do 'wash out,' I'll be able to get their cards signed sooner than never.

There are also cards of 2011 MLB rookies and USA players featured in this set - I think the USA players are from the U16 team, so it maybe a couple of years away before we find a particular guy is either going to play professional baseball out of high school or go to college of some sort.

The black borders on the non-Chrome prospect cards remind me of the black bordered wrapper redemption cards from 2010 Bowman Chrome - I like how these prospect cards came out for 2011 BDP, though they maybe more condition sensitive than the plain ole' white border prospect cards from regular Bowman.

I don't know if the stated odds really bear it out - but I was expecting to pull more 'color' as in various refractors. There is no sugarcoating the fact that the refractors / colored parallels I pulled were a bit 'lackluster.'

My two autographs were two Chicago Cubs - Javier Baez [9th overall] and Dan Vogelbach [68th overall]; I didn't realize Baez was picked within the first 10 overall picks and I've seen Chris Farley lookalike Vogelbach from his Power Showcase highlight video.

Box one
#14 Matt Carpenter - Chrome refractor
#BDPP 91 William Abreu - blue parallel serial #'d 217/499
#BDPP 108 Dany Toussaint - Chrome refractor
#BDPP 99 Jake Jarvis - Chrome refractor
#BDPP 35 Todd Frazier - Chrome refractor
#BCAP-DV Dan Vogelbach - Chrome refractor certified autograph; serial #'d 187/500
#6 Bruce Billings - Chrome refractor
#BDPP 8 Matt Barnes - Chrome refractor
#85 Everett Teaford - Chrome blue parallel serial #'d 095/199

Box two
#BCP-JBA Javier Baez - Chrome certified autograph; not numbered
#39 Graham Godfrey - Chrome; blue parallel serial #'d 052/199
#13 Mark Hamburger - Chrome refractor
#BDPP 33 Tyler Goeddel - Chrome refractor
#21 Henry Sosa - Chrome refractor
#BDPP 49 Scott Woodward - blue parallel serial #445/499
#BDPP 42 Nick De Santiago - Chrome refractor
#BDPP 81 George Springer - Chrome refractor
#5 Pedro Beato - Chrome refractor