Google Sheets glitches

I can fake working on spreadsheets and Google Sheets files in particular to account for the cards in my various collections - it makes me feel good to feel like I'm curating and cataloging all sort of cards in the files I've created, but maybe I'm doing something wrong.

As I'm trying to list out my last 'runs' of awesome action collecting topics subset adds for the year - I've discovered numerous instances where either Google Sheets or 'user error' is causing the information I've added to cells [to further classify cards in my Google Sheets file] to be displaced or disappear entirely.

There maybe instances where information is added in the right place where my 'batting' cards are grouped as such - but why do I find instances where the 'batting' tag is under subsets, when they should be grouping tags.

Bear with me, but everything listed under the subset column should be under the grouping column - I don't know if I'm putting the information in the wrong place all this time, but I feel like there are gremlins messing around with my Google Sheets file.

It maybe a case where the file is bloated with all sorts of entries from at least 15 years ago- so when I try to load the file, it lags and somehow jumbles things up.

What I've resorted to doing is seeing if I can copy over the main file and see if the apparent mess ups show there - I'd really like to see if I can just work on adding to a previous version where I feel like things are intact [through a certain point].

The nuclear option was to create new related files for a fresh start - even if it means breaking up the bulk of the listings of different mini-collections under my 'awesome action' umbrella.

I hope using separate files will be easier to look at and add listings of cards into without the worry about mushrooming file size - but it maybe a case where the transition will begin some time in 2022.

collecting topics - AA - pitching - 12-6-21

collecting topics - AA - fun - game - personality - 12-6-21

collecting topics - AA - unique perspectives - 12-6-21

collecting topics - AA - fielding - 12-6-21

collecting topics - AA - batting and baserunning - 12-6-21

collecting topics - AA - celebrations - confrontations - curtain calls - 12-7-21

collecting topics - AA - strictly other sports - 12-7-21

Another screen shot of a Google Sheets file

As far as I know, I've mostly gotten specific cards from my awesome action collection jammed together - it may have been the only thing I've thought about as far as collecting cards go.

I added a column to the Google Sheets file where I could 'tag' listed cards I had in-hand according to a sport - I'm always a 'baseball first' guy, but I want to account for cards from basketball, football, hockey, etc.

As far as cards from other sports, I'll have cards I'll physically add to the end of specific classifications / groupings that were made for my baseball collection - but there will also be a stand alone collection of cards for each sport.

Basketball - actual on court action - in the air; stick this with my baseball ‘in the air’ collection

Football - skill players - quarterbacks, receivers, running backs, tight ends

Football - special teams - running backs, defensive backs

Football - offense - kickers, linemen

Football - defense - cornerbacks, linebackers, linemen, safeties

Football - unique perspectives - celebrations

Hockey - actual on ice game action

Hockey - unique perspectives - celebrations, photo ops

Classifications / groupings for my stand alone cards may be just a little different from my baseball ones - I was trying to think of some unique themes for the football cards, but stuck with trying to arrange them by position.

Awesome action projects - classifications and groupings

I'm all about trying to stretch my interests out as far as playing with my cards and off what I'd started last year, there has been a push towards trying to see where specific cards off my awesome action collection can be jammed together - for the longest time, my awesome action collection was a mashup of assorted cards, but maybe I've been influenced by other cards bloggers to get even more specific as far as pooling together cards that show similar, unique images.

I added a column to the Google Sheets file where I could 'tag' listed cards I had in-hand according to a classification - I might have around 1,000 cards listed in my main awesome action collection and so I don't get overwhelmed, I'm only grabbing a certain number of cards at a time [like all the cards of players with the last names A-B, B-C, etc] to get through the year.

To dig a little deeper perhaps, I added a grouping column where I want to label cards within the main awesome action subset and classification - so far, I only have my A-B cards off my main collection and awesome action cards I had in my temporary setups to classify.

I’ve tried to conjure up groupings that come up as I’ve played and listed out cards in a specific classification - as is, it was a little confusing to sort what I had all over again, going in different directions, trying to herd into one place, that might fit better in another place, etc.

I worry the names of the groupings sound too basic, where there isn’t really have a ‘bite,’ but the cards that are tagged under an occasional boring sounding grouping - were collected within the awesome action umbrella.

Actual on field game action - baserunning, batters bunting, batting, celebrations, confrontations, curtain calls, fielding, in the air, making the throws and pitching.

Dirt fetish - maybe not as specific as long as I see dirt

Fun cards - goofing off, gum cards, having fun, mascots, mugging it up, oddities and props

Game face cards - focused, men at work

Personality shots - fired up, tributes

Unique perspectives - angles, event captured, horizontal, interviews, lounging around, majestic / panoramic, multiple-exposure manipulation, posed photo shoots and signage.

Maybe by the end of the week, things got more clear cut - where I was able to organize by classification and grouping, though it is just the start.

I wish I didn't care as much or at all

The boxes to the center and to the right are where I store a part of my mini-collections - I've mostly been working on listing out [and physically putting away] collecting topic subset cards for the past couple of weeks.

I maintain a loose box of cards to stash 'adds' to count towards my year end achievements and a stash of 'haves' that may have been loose cards otherwise already in my collection - it's kind of 'grunt' work to empty the box but I get the satisfaction of playing around with my actual cards and making sure they are 'officially' part of my collection as opposed to just not giving a hoot.

I’ve started to put away some cards for the following but I think I’ve got to stop somewhere - there has to be a time where I can say I’m done with something at the moment, where I can catch my breath and pat myself on the back.- I’ve got to stop somewhere and there has to be a time where I can say I’m done with something at the moment, where I can catch my breath and pat myself on the back.

I can take myself through a ‘trip’ as a collector flipping through cards that belong to particular themes perhaps - but it feels irrelevant, where I’ve objectified strangers’ [regardless of their status as professional athletes] cards [like having a snapshot of someone else’s personal achievement] that mean bupkis to my life.

It’s because I’m a collector and one-time in-person autograph hound that thinks chasing ink got me closer to the game than it actually did - going through the cards or scrutinizing them because a bit more important because I was looking to get them inked up.

Not to get too dramatic, but maybe through collecting, I’ve kind of marginalized my own life where I wonder if trying to do something with miscellaneous cards are a waste - once in a while, maybe it’s peculiar to see ‘dead cardboard’ I flipped through and passed over at one time ‘archived to oblivion’ like commons from 10-15 years of once ‘current’ players that have moved on [when I haven’t].

Awesome action collection subsets

Probably influenced by other uber specific theme collectors, I want to see if I can classify certain cards within a main collecting topic subset - in the Google Sheets file where I list my ‘AA’ collection, I added a new ‘classification’ column, where I’ll tag each card listed with one of the following ‘labels.’

Actual on field game action
Dirt fetish
Fun cards and personality shots
Game face and unique perspectives
Other sports

At times, I don't want to spend time playing with my cards so maybe it is a bit tedious to go through my cards one-by-one to see which subset they belong - does this new classification 'deal' complicate things or help 'stretch things out' as far as my interests in any one particular mini-collection, forcing me to do what I might not feel like doing.

I have to worry about some overlap, but I feel like I can still play around to determine where my pulls or my finds go - I've started with my latest 'AA' adds and look to tag the cards featured on my sampler pages.

Trade with Baseball Cards Come to Life!

I got over 300 assorted cards from Bo at Baseball Cards Come to Life! as sort of a blind trade - on my end, the most important thing was getting a mini-collection 'boost' at the end of 2017 when I thought I'd accounted for all the cards I was going to get.

Besides all the mini-collection adds, including ones knocked off my wantlist and others I tacked on for 2017, I may have counted out 140 miscellaneous cards - regardless of the substance, I think it's fun to go through a jumble of cards like these once in a while, even though I probably needed to pace myself, so I didn't get burnt out being preoccupied by all the randomness.

I like trying to make sense out of the cards as I sorted them out - selected other cards were added as mini-collection ‘haves,’ where I might have had the card or a card for a player pictured, but felt I might as well list them as part of a particular mini-collection.

Other cards went into my various ‘loose card’ interests including:

School ties - I have a multi-sport collection of alumni players from a selected number of California colleges.

Cards of MLB/MiLB coaches - usually former players who maybe currently working or have worked for a MLB organization in 'recent' years.

Cards for team boxes - I have a collection on the side featuring assorted cards from all the 30 MLB teams.

A-Z archive filler - the least I will do is see if I could file these cards away 'as is.'

My favorite cards out of the box include the following:

1991 Topps Stadium Club Alex Cole #392 - pictures Otis Nixon; this made me do a double take when I saw the nameplate because I thought it was Nixon's card...Nixon has a more pronounced, weathered face [to put it kindly] while Cole always wore those goggles.

1992 Fleer Rookie Sensations Phil Plantier #19 of 20 - the butt shot captures his unique stance perfectly; Plantier was indeed a rookie sensation with the Boston Red Sox in 1991, hitting .331 with 11 home runs in 175 at-bats, but just wasn't destined to be a star.

Images courtesy of COMC.com

1992 O-Pee-Chee Premier Mike Bordick #5 - pictures Scott Brosius

1992 Donruss Triple Play Greg Vaughn #122 - I love how Vaughn’s cap is flying off as he checks if he has made the catch at the wall; a couple of teens along the railing above him check to see if they possibly have a beat on the ball as well.

1996 Pinnacle Denny’s Kevin Seitzer #26 of 28 - I bought this set years ago so I have this card somewhere, but to have it in-hand at the moment is nice; I don’t know if the holographic animation of the player shown was ever such a big deal, but I like shining the image up to the light and playing around with the card.

1996 Upper Deck Charlie Hayes #436 - I like how he is playing with a camera with a big lens.

1998 Fleer Tradition Ben McDonald #40 - this image sticks out as Fleer immortalized the longtime American League pitcher's only big league at-bat during the first year of Interleague play in 1997.

FWIW - the Milwaukee Brewers moved from the American League Central to the National League Central the year after.

2016 Donruss The Famous San Diego Chicken #151 - is this the most recognizable baseball mascot of all-time?

2017 collecting topics achievements

I've tallied up all my mini-collection adds for this year - from 2016, it looks like I've picked up 202 less cards, though with a month to go, the numbers are subject to change

My cardboard of doom - organizing inserts

Presumably my collecting life will be over at some point - so what would someone make of the remains of what animated me?

Would the snapshot be of someone who managed to have some cool stuff and knew what he was collecting or would the picture be less flattering - where I built upon scattered interests that have left my collections incomplete, unfinished and abandoned?

I may have good intentions, I may have a plan but maybe the focus isn’t there - things fall kind of flat and I end up feeling like a hoarder at times, which maybe the truth.

At the most basic level, I want to be able to go through the cards I've collected and feel like I'm not such a hoarder at times - as is, one of the things that bug me are the countless inserts I've pulled over the past five or six years.

I don't really think I bust enough of anything to have all sorts of inserts - but I may have assorted cards 'all over the place,' maybe squirreled away to give them the most minimal of protection, but otherwise loose.

Which ones I do list out in their own A-Z archive of sorts to be jammed away in a box and which ones can I just add to my 'binder collection' of decade stars - I think the most common inserts associated with a particular decade star can be stored with the players' other cards because it's not like I'm going to need some random, cheapo insert.

Anything that ends up falling under 'misc' where it's kind of a more notable card nicer than a common insert and/or base card - can be listed in a Google Sheets file and put away.

I guess the biggest benefit of having a list and also keeping up with the physical collection is for trade purposes, which I don't really do because the hobby is really self-absorbed for me - still, in order to feel a little bit more organized, to be a 'pro' if you will, I'd like to harp on accounting for inserts coming into my hands.

Angels all-time autograph collection

It's a thing where I want at least one autograph of players who've played for the Angels - as is, I've been content to collect loose autograph cards / items [TTM/in-person, certified and purchased] while not really putting them together in a tangible way.

Just to get organized, I want to see if I can count out about 200 different autographs in-hand and list them out in a Google Sheets file I created - to straighten things out as far as knowing which players' autographs I already have, what kind of card, how it was picked up, etc.

I'm not a completist when completion may not be realistic, though I wanted to settle on a numerical goal [of 200] - so at the very least there is something I can point to as far as a collection to build on.

I read it somewhere that trading cards are the easiest to find and store in any sort of quantity - so baseball cards are usually what I've gotten for this collection.

I'd like all the autographs on cards / non-card items for this collection to picture subjects as Angels, though that may not always be the case - as a way to make distinction, I've split the physical collection of signed cards between Angels cards and non-Angels cards.

I still need to scrounge around for random autographs I might have - to account for various autographs still out in the wild.

Setting up assorted files on Google

For the card related projects I’m working on, I’ve gotten a little crazy trying to create and/or update Google Sheets and/or Google Docs files - I think it gets the ball rolling as far as getting organized and seeing what I have / need.

• Angels autograph wantlist [Google Docs] - trying to list out players I still need...will create a Google Sheets file to account for the autographs I already have.  
• 2016 collecting topics worksheet [Google Docs] - place where I list out the cards I can pull from my collection and also ‘new’ cards I can seek out.
• To do list [Google Sheets] - I’ve probably sought to create various incarnations of a ‘to do’ list, but I want to look at something like a concise ‘set of plays’ to run through.
• Regional collections [Google Sheets] - consists of my team A-Z singles and my PC cards.
• A-Z singles [Google Sheets] - I want this file to use as a spot to list out applicable cards.
• Angels Opening Day starters [Google Sheets] - I’ve gathered some assorted cards and intend to list them out.