Collecting outlook through 2025

Collecting baseball cards occupies a weird headspace where it ends up being a ride-or-die hobby - on the other hand I feel like cards I've taken in end up literally sitting around, piling up where I get self-conscious, yet don't do much about it most times.

I continue to think about cards, claim cards through online sales, rummage for cards in-person when I make card show trips - but any sort of pulse of the hobby has passed me by, where I might as well be on my own little island somewhere.

I've kind of wished that there was a part of the collecting scene that revolved around what I did - but that never was the case at all and I'm just plodding along, peeking on everyone else doing their thing online.

I’m too far deep into it through at least parts of the past four decades to pull out or pull back just a little for a reset - I feel like all my interests have been spelled out to an extent somewhere, where it shouldn't be the case where I feel down and out, but I really need those occasional reminders why certain things animate me.

It's not really all doom and gloom here and maybe it shouldn't be - there are at least a few things I would to be doing or thinking about going forward, where a part of me is emotionally invested.

1.) Making home brewed sets - from my all-time Top 100s to my so-called curated sets teasing various themes [mini-collections, stadium cards, uniform cards, Angels, etc], there is something about turning random bulk cards into something that I can sort of personalize.

I'm planning to make it where being pickier [all-time Top 100s] and doing more of roundups of themed bulk cards [curated sets] - end up being what I try to work on, in order to keep me sane.

2.) Mini-collections purge - maybe this ends up being a big deal for me, where I've been content to build up my various themed collections as part of a monolithic archive.

The inability to gather up what I've hoarded over the past three years to list and put away has left me in this perpetual bind - it might not be a solution at all, but the plan is to refer to my mini-collection cards as more of a feeder collection towards my home brewed sets.

This ultimately means seeing where I can break down a substantial number of undocumented bulk cards, to turn into Top 100 fuel for my all-time sets or using them to make themed curated sets - maybe it has never made sense to seek out all these bulk themed cards, without really looking to make them part of my own set to display and/or talk about.

One of my goals is to be able to list such cards out again in a spreadsheet - where I have a list to look at and occasionally check in case I might be picking up dupes.

3.) Decade / binder stars material - this is my catch-all collection and I have a tally of the subjects I have most cards of separated mostly by decade debuts.

I can't stop picking up odds and ends for one or more players as binder material - at some point I might need to get the actual cards in pages to update my player binders.

An idea in mind was to list out all the cards I had for 10-15 subjects - where it might be a thing to have something like 500 cards in-hand for any one particular subject.

4.) Regional collections - I'm not a team collector where I'm scoping out all the cards for one team, but having one team I do collect in general just makes sense.

I don't know if I have ever bothered to rein in my Angels collections - but for 2025, it might mean making a curated set out of random team cards, trying to keep up with my regional binder stars and updating loose card projects [Opening Day starters, all-time autograph collection, all-time register and frankenset].

5.) Loose card projects - maybe much of what I'm doing is considered 'loose card projects,' but I think I need to keep up with or revive ones that end up being neglected.

Maybe I need to keep tabs on my Hall of Fame collections, milestone numbers collections and award winners collections - where I can tally up new additions and see where updated numbers.

6.) A-Z singles - it's been a long time since I thought about maintaining this collection where maybe the idea was have a temporary collection of cards that might be keepers, but not at the same level as my personal collection cards.

As is, what I may end up doing is turning my A-Z singles collections into sort of my loose card PCs - where I am able to round up a number of miscellaneous cards that might be misfits at the moment.

7.) Personal collection cards - I don't know if I've maintained an update in recent years, but may end up doing so, just so PC cards do not get lost in the shuffle.

Some mini-collection odds and ends

Maybe I was feeling idle, so I wanted to see if I can knock out some scratch the itch cards - nothing high brow, but maybe a mix of cards that hit some of my mini-collection needs.

Trying to go through my memory banks, a flagged cards folder on my phone, my eBay watchlist, my blog Top 10 and saved TTM fuel images to round up random cards to hunt for - having my possible wants material in scattered formats ends up leaving me feeling a little messy.

I found a seller online I was willing to buy around 20 cards from, but then past $1.99, shipping was going to be around $7 - maybe there was no budget option despite saying so otherwise on the seller's postage chart, so after spending about an hour crafting up a probable 'buy list,' I ended up throwing my hands up in the air.

I ended up cutting the number to the bare minimum that would ship for $1.99 - where I wanted the following cards in-hand and committed to picking them up for a little over $0.50 each.

1988 Colorado Springs Sky Sox CMC Jeff Kaiser #4 - Awesome action; Oddities - I love how a pitcher is all dressed up in catchers' gear, mugging it up for the photographer.

2007 Upper Deck Gary Matthews Jr. #225 - Awesome outfield action - I've wanted this card because it captures his greatest play in his pro baseball career and probably helped put him on a lot of people's minds, where he had kind of just moved from team-to-team.

1994 Fleer Update Rico Brogna #U156 - Broken bat shots - I found this while trying to scan through someone selling cards on Twitter; at times, I find mini-collection cards by just digging through card images others have posted.

1993 Milk-Bone Super Stars Dog Food Issue Will Clark #7 - Facial hair - I fall under being a 'junk wax guy,' but for all the Clark cards I've seen, there might only be a couple that features a stache on The Thrill.

1991 Topps Woolworth Baseball Highlights Bert Blyleven #7 - Inking it up - I had to have this card featuring a player in the twilight of his big league career, taking the time to sign autographs; the copy I received looks like it might hava burn mark, so it might be a filler copy for now.

1990 ProCards A and AA Darrin Chapin #19 - Pitchers hitting - I guess he's not actually hitting, as much as he's posing with a bat in his hand, but it's kind of an odd image I end up counting.

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

My first card show in a while

I saw a flier posted on an Instagram account for a card show and since it was otherwise local, thought it might be worth my time to check things out - there is always a fear I might get stuck in some kind of weird swap meet atmosphere where the are only a limited number of tables with mostly vendors who might not actually be selling cards.

There is still the COVID-19 pandemic to worry about, so I haven't really entertained thoughts of going to any card show in the past year or so - maybe I shouldn't make a big deal about stopping at a place where there might be like minded vendors selling their wares.

As I got to the spot, I was afraid there was an entrance fee but it was only a lady checking temperatures - it looks like everything was outside.

There might have been 30-35 tables and with at least several customers crowding around many of the tables, where it was hard to squeeze into looking into the loose non-showcase cards put out - I was probably looking for more of an old school baseball vendor with dated material I can dwell on, maybe some junk wax / mid 1990s uv-coated era repacks just to see if I can get a bunch of cards as a ‘teaser’ purchase for not much money.

I ended up at some random booth to dig into and started leafing through $1 cards just left out on the table - nothing in card holders, probably off-condition scraps from at least the 1950s through the mid 1980s.

For the most part I ended up grabbing many of the assorted vintage Topps World Series subset cards I could find - as opposed to the regular cards of the related years / players, the WS subsets actually pictured actual action and various cards can be funneled as 'awesome action' adds.

I grabbed these rookie cards and/or XRCs [by 1980s Beckett definition] to my stash - a Hall of Famer in Boggs, a pair of fan favorite types [for the most part] in Guillen and Coleman and a pair of pitchers [Gooden and Hershiser] who had era defining runs as superstar pitchers in the mid 1980s.

I started building up a stash of cards here and while I didn’t know what I was looking for, was worried the stack had mushroomed to more like 60-70 cards - I didn't even realize I ended up with a pair of 1978 O-Pee-Chee Willie McCoveys, but I found a 1973 Topps Al Kaline, a 1977 O-Pee-Chee Tom Seaver, a 1980 Topps Joe Morgan, a pair of 1982 Topps Traded cards of Ozzie Smith and Reggie Jackson and a pair of 1989 Upper Deck Nolan Ryan cards [I think I already had the multiple exposure version, but not the throwing football version from the high series].

I couldn't leave 1954 Topps and 1955 Topps cards because they feature a pair of catchers - while my tools of ignorance collection cards might be more of a 'side project' compared to other collector (s) whose similarly themed focus is simply more comprehensive, its pretty cool to have catcher cards that are at least 65-years old.

I also found a 1991-92 Topps Stadium Club Michael Jordan, 1965 Topps Tony Kubek and a random card from the 1959 Fleer Ted Williams set - maybe it was tough to decide which were my keepers as I had make some choices on what to put back, but least I found that one booth to get into.

When I whittled things down, I relented to pay $40 straight up for my mash up of cards, which still may have been too much - but after a long year or so, it was fun just to rummage through random cards in-person.

For the rest of the time I spent [maybe an hour or so total], I was walking around looking to see what I maybe able to grab - I was hoping to find someone selling plastic pages and/or magnetic trading card holders, but it didn’t look like there was one table set-up for supplies.

The story I've commonly heard is because of supply chain issues from China through the pandemic - the demand for supplies have intensified where once common items like top loaders command a premium.

Peeking in on cards displayed in showcases, I was impressed with random cool things like vintage 1953 Topps Mickey Mantle, a supposed Babe Ruth cut [I think that is what I saw] that was inserted as part of an autograph repack product, a couple of Michael Jordan certified autographs and a PSA 10 2018 Topps Update Juan Soto gold parallel- maybe not the cream of the crop of sports collectibles, just 'wish they were in my collection' cards I quickly made note of.

There were tables with your typical retail flipper material and I relented to pick up a 2021 Topps Series I Mike Trout tin for $25 - presumably 'new in box,' shrink wrapped with the cards still inside.

The Trout tin might have been a no brainer buy, even if they retailed much less - another booth may have sold similar tins [no Trout] for $35-$40 each.

Out of a small sample size of two vendors I bought from, no bags were provided - I might already be planning my next time and I need to bring something to carry what I purchase.

Some assorted odds and ends

I was looking on doing something on Christmas eve and found some cards online - I ended up with these to amuse me as part of a 27-card order that was mostly 1984 Donruss base cards for my partial set build of sorts.

The holiday mail was a cluster, so I had to wait 3 or 4 weeks for these cards to come in from an online seller - these were not the most important thing in the world to fret about, but in my little space, might represent some sort of lifeline as far as having something to look forward to.

1988 ProCards Denver Zephyrs Paul Mirabella #1258 - pitchers posed in a batting position maybe a playful thing pictured through random minor league teams sets through the late 1980s.

Around this time, Mirabella was a big league veteran who had intermittently pitched in the minor leagues - when a big league opportunity wasn't quite there for him.

1989 ProCards Cedar Rapids Reds Chris Lombardozzi #935 - this was a scratch the itch card I had to get my hands on, where the 6-year minor leaguer is pictured along the dugout railing with an Arby's roast beef sandwich and a drink in his hands.

1990 Best Stockton Ports Frank Bolick #7 - I don't think the one-time late 1990s Anaheim Angel has cards picturing him with the team, but I wanted to have a pair of cards to send to him in a possible through the mail autograph request.

1990 Leaf Gary Sheffield #157 - when he really had his first superstar season with the San Diego Padres nearly 30 years ago, this may have been his best mainstream card along wish his 1989 Upper Deck rookie card.

Through the junk wax era, there might have been a distinction where if a player's rookie cards were from your typical Topps, Donruss, Fleer or Score brands - there might a premium attached to something like Sheffield's first card [but really a second year issue] from a high-end, in-demand set that came of age through the early 1990s.

1997 Fleer Terry Steinbach #540 - I tried to make sure this was the card that pictured him as a Minnesota Twin where he is signing autographs; the inking it up version is an update from his other card in the set, still picturing him on the Oakland Athletics.

1956 Topps Bill Sarni #247 pick up

This was the oldest card in my COMC delivery and was purchased because I wanted something random and vintage to add to the mix - I now have this 65-year old Topps card where I can make out the familiar image of the MLB icon, Jackie Robinson as a 'bonus baby,' making a cameo on another player's card.

New pitchers hitting pick ups for me

The Darvish and Tanaka were part of lots I found on eBay - I thought I might have bought the cards from a local stateside seller, but the cards looks like they were actually mailed from Japan.

They are only really checklist cards but it's a novelty to see these big league pitching imports at bat in games - for the teams they played for before coming over to the United States.

The other cards were part of my BaseballCardStore.ca acquisitions - the 1986 Fleer Classic Miniatures Gooden [#19] is sweet while the other two were nice finds as well.

The freelance R&D with mini-collections

Through pandemic 2020, all I’ve done from April through the middle of May is cheat sheet / wantlist R&D - I wonder how the work translates into actual cards in-hand?

I’ve got 25-30 mini-collections - as it goes, have I set myself up where I can’t keep up, where I might find myself all over the place?

I haven't actually made much purchases, but do remember worrying about not finding a 1996 Pinnacle Bob Hamelin #289 card listed f/s last week - just the type of random thing that I'd forgotten already, but shows how random my mind gets as I try to come up with a possible addition.

I think I've been working on some specific ‘to do’ topic, namely trying to add to my nations collection - trying to fish out possible additions and haves to be accounted for to try and have a representation of players from different countries.

I'd like to think mini-collections are my flagship loose cards interests - I try not to miss obvious names for ongoing subsets while I strive to add new names and new cards.

Odd lots

It's not a card shop or card show rummage, but I've looked up eBay auctions lots to find random subjects and cards to add to offline cheat sheet - I listed out some possible beyond the glory adds like Luke Kuechly [NFL], D’Angelo Russell [NBA], Kevin Love [NBA], Tyrann Mathieu [NFL] and Shaquem Griffin [NFL].

Maybe I'm pushing past baseball guys but I like an assorted collection of pro athletes represented - while most pros have a ‘beyond the glory’ narrative to what they do for a living, there have been guys that have stood out more than someone simply being a jock.

For other mini-collections, I found some individual cards to list on my cheat sheet somewhere - I like looking at lots on eBay because they can be so random, where a listing can show multiple cards and it’s an Easter egg hunt to find a mini-collection quality card I need.

I try to find the baseball card lots picturing junk wax era or mid 1990s UV coated era cards - for a moment, the temptation is there to make a purchase until I see the s/h cost and figure would have to make multiple purchases off same seller to make these bottom of the barrel purchases make sense.

An apparent downside is all the eBay spam emails generated from my searches - the app’s algorithms do a job on tracking your browsing habits and/or even letting sellers know who has looked at their listings.

1987 ProCards Waterloo Indians Lenny Randle #27

I’ve been looking for this card on the down low ever since I saw it on a blog breaking down the Waterloo team set - the particular blog may have been ethered to oblivion so I wouldn’t be able to figure out which it was.

Randle is obviously 'posed' to mimic that time as a player in the 1970s where he blows a ball into foul territory - I know little about Randle except for that ‘feat,’ which sort of made him a cult baseball player for a little bit.

This minor league card probably isn’t as cultish like the one where Keith Comstock makes like he gets hit in the nuts - but it falls under the same silliness theme.

Card show rummage - tools of ignorance

I assume collecting catcher cards is a more of common 'thing' where I have seen at least a few other collectors post their pickups or display their cards - to me the cards are fun to look at because catchers stand out with their equipment, whether stationary or involved in some game action.

It wasn't the plan, but I ended up with 50 tools of ignorance cards during a card show run - I'm never going to get every card that applies to a collecting topic subset, but it's nice to build up a quantity 'adds' for one particular theme and actually take them home.

1982 Fleer Gary Allenson #287
1982 Fleer Marty Castillo #265
1982 Fleer Rich Gedman #294

1982 Fleer John Ellis #316
1982 Fleer Jim Sundberg #332
1982 Fleer Bruce Benedict #429
1987 Fleer Record Setters Rich Gedman #11 of 44
1988 Fleer Mike Heath #56

1988 Fleer Chris Bando #601
1991 Topps Stadium Club Mike Fitzgerald #128
1992 Bowman Brian Harper #149
1992 Bowman B.J. Surhoff #481

1992 Topps Stadium Club Junior Ortiz #727
1993 Score Select Joe Oliver #235

1993 Score Select Matt Nokes #368
1993 Topps Greg Olson #708
1993 Topps Stadium Club B.J. Surhoff #711
1993 Upper Deck Pat Borders #149
1993 Upper Deck Joe Kmak #782
1993 Upper Deck SP Tom Pagnozzi #77

1994 Donruss Dan Wilson #388 - I stumbled upon this card showing the Seattle Mariners catching great wearing the tools of ignorance; I might have left the card for another time, but I wouldn't ever think back of looking for this random catcher, especially with the picture on the reverse showing where the real 'action' is.
1994 Fleer Tony Pena #37
1994 Topps Darren Daulton #380
1995 Donruss Top of the Order Matt Walbeck #NNO
1995 Topps Pat Borders #424
1996 Donruss Mike MacFarlane #119
1996 Fleer Darren Daulton #494
1996 Pinnacle Ivan Rodriguez #59

1996 Pinnacle Terry Steinbach #284
1996 Skybox Metal Tony Eusebio #177
1996 Topps Ron Karkovice #52
1996 Topps Stadium Club Chris Hoiles #219

1997 Topps Stadium Club Mike MacFarlane #281
1997 Topps Stadium Club Sandy Martinez #371
1997 Upper Deck Scott Servais #33

1997 Upper Deck John Flaherty #491
1997 Upper Deck Charlie O'Brien #517
1998 Fleer Tradition Eddie Taubensee #493

1998 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice Brian Johnson #229
1999 Fleer Tradition Brad Ausmus #324
1999 Fleer Tradition Scott Servais #492
1999 Topps Javier Valentin #104
2000 Skybox Brad Ausmus #103
2000 Skybox Dominion Brad Ausmus #129
2000 Skybox Impact Dan Wilson #72
2002 Topps Jason Kendall #555
2004 Upper Deck Toby Hall #57
2005 Fleer Ultra Jason Varitek #136

2005 Topps Ramon Hernandez #424
2008 Upper Deck Gerald Laird #216

Enjoying a quaint card show rummage

My buddy took me to a card show and the last time I was there was when Albert Pujols hit his first Angels home run in 2012 - I also remember looking at a showcase that afternoon where I saw a BGS 9.5 2009 Bowman Sterling Mike Trout autograph for $100; I wouldn't have $100 to spend at any one time, but I'll wait and see if the hype falls down to earth; Trout is going to be a good player, a great player for the Angels but even the top prospects are going to be up-and-down; Harper is still the guy that is going to be a once in a generation superstar.

The place has never been anything big time, but I was glad it’s still around with 5-10 dedicated tables and some curious foot traffic - I didn't actually get to walk around much, but when I first tagged along with my friend to make trips there starting in the mid 2000s, the atmosphere was like a morgue.

Not knowing where to start, I immersed in working through the six or seven 5,000 count monster boxes from a familiar seller - I don't know if I ever bought anything from his booth, which has been set up for the longest time, but back in the day, maybe my mindset was to find loose cards I'd try to get inked up in-person or through the mail, but no junk wax era drivel.

With the emphasis on mini-collection adds however - I'm more game about trying to see if I can round up a good number of cards for cheap [maybe 25 for $1], particularly cards I wouldn't look to buy online outright.

1988 Fleer Ken Dayley #30

1995 Upper Deck SP Championship Series Ken Caminiti #89

I obviously couldn’t go through the boxes card-by-card, but I still tried to add many cards that caught my eye - I worry about going nuts over cards, because I don't want to overvalue cards that are virtually commons.

Maybe in-person is where I give myself license to freelance within reason, where I shouldn't worry about being picky - I probably wouldn’t remember the cards I pass up if I didn’t set them aside as a probable pick up; I needed to live a little, be daring in snapping up those collecting topics subset cards with some sort of quality that wasn’t obvious i.e. maybe what makes the card unique is an image on the back or the card features a player who I've never heard of.

Despite a few stragglers from other sports, I stuck to baseball otherwise - my afternoon would never end if I actually went through the football and basketball cards, knowing I'd be poring over them as well.

1996 Topps Stadium Club Chris Zorich #184 - picturing him *trying* to tackle some random running back with the last name Sanders while two other teammates close in.

1995-96 Topps Stadium Club Predrag Danilovic #313

The seller gave me a 800-900 count box to fill and maybe that’s the challenge for next time - my buddy was lurking on standby mode and I had him count out the loose piles of cards in multiples of 25.

He counted out 325 cards and after looking at what I had, the seller charged me $10, which seemed reasonable enough - the majority should be collecting topics subset adds, though there might some cards designated to go to other projects or maybe dupes I probably had.

I was able to cross off 11 cards from my wantlist - giving me a little bit of satisfaction, even I didn't really look for them outright.

1994 Upper Deck Collector's Choice Jeff Blauser #53 - Will Clark

1997 Topps Stadium Club Sandy Martinez #371

1997 Upper Deck Andy Benes #465

1993 Topps Stadium Club B.J. Surhoff #711.

1995 Upper Deck SP Steve Finley #108 - ended up being the Silver parallel

1997 Upper Deck Collector's Choice Fernando Vina #148 - Tim Salmon

1997 Upper Deck Charlie O'Brien #517 - the blurb on the back of the cards tells the entire story.

1996 Topps Stadium Club Robby Thompson #359