COMC order #2 - Todd Helton

I passively end up making keepers out base cards / inserts and parallels of prominent players to reflect the fabric of a decade / era - this may not mean I actively collect everyone as if they were all my personal favorites, where being obligated to mindlessly hoard 'numbers' seems overwhelming.

On the other hand, besides my regional favorites, I've settled on a short list of 5-10 guys from a decade / era I've chosen to really focus on - Helton is one of those former players who ends up a non-geographical guy for me whose cards I can look for, where it becomes a mission to claim or rummage for his cards I assume I don't have.

Go figure in my COMC order, I only ended up with a couple of Heltons - it could have been a trio of them, but the card that was missing in my order was actually a Helton card.

1998 Leaf Fractal Foundation Gold Leaf Rookie /3999 Todd Helton #184

Helton has his share of rookie era issues, but it's not as big of priority to chase and pay a premium for any one particular card - when his true rookie card [1993 Topps Traded #19T; Team USA] ends up pre-dating his professional career.

2001 Donruss Class Of 2001 Scrapbook /525 Todd Helton #SB-7

Maybe unique design jersey / relic cards might be fun to track down on the cheap - even when it's a type of card that other collectors don't value at all, they fill out my player collections.

Collecting Vlad

Finding a way to add new cards to the teams/types/players [I'm currently collecting] was one of my collecting goals at the beginning of the 2009 - however, I kind of tend to lose track or neglect what types of cards are out there.

I'd probably annointed Vladimir Guerrero my favorite player to collect for the last five or six years - even though I'd conceded he had a personality of a rock when it came to dealing with most fans off-the-field.

However, there will always be mad respect to the guy who has a wacky strike zone and the innate ability to cream the ball a long way - for my home team.

I just don't know if the enthusiasm to collect has stagnated to the point I really don't care anymore if I pick up one more card picturing him - that seems a little odd, but I dodn't have enough interest his in base cards or low-budget [$1-$5] parallels/inserts/GU.

However, I'm less enamored by seeking particular cards out, if I have to pay more than I am willing to spend - that may mean not anymore than $20 on any single card purchase.

I've always wanted one 'nice' Vlad but didn't pick one up in 2009 - maybe a button, superpatch or unique auto card.

I didn't end up finding 25 Vlad inserts/parallels/patches in 2009 - cards picturing him on the Halos.

With Vlad likely leaving the Angels, I wonder if my interest in collecting 'his stuff' will continue - but I guess now, there will be a time period to focus on, as far as collecting Vlad's cards related to the time when he was a Halo.

Maybe I just need to flip through the Vlad cards I have in my collection - just to remind me the moments he had as Angel.

Making sense of my player collections - something to gnaw about during the winter time

Player binders - a lot of my base cards/inserts featuring 'notable' players are stored in binders.

Picking up a small grouping of players' cards [coming out of a pack or from a stack put together from a show or card shop] - to put them away in binders seemed like a ritualistic process I enjoyed.

Now, I don't want to make it more work for myself - however, I may make some gradual changes over time, so I can organize the cards in a relevant way they will last as long as I'm collecting.

The most important goal is to get away from the 'storage aspect' and make the my collection of individual players cards more of a true display - so I can look through the binders like a book instead of a place to dumb my base cards/insters.

I don't want to change things up entirely - I still would like to maintain some order and familiarity.

A.) ABC order by player - doesn't quite work because I don't want it to be too rigid; I probably do need to label binders to figure out whose cards are featured in each particular one.
B.) Realignment - maybe binders need to be updated as far as whether or not I care about collecting a particular player's cards anymore by default. Meaning I might have been picking up cards of a players might not be a personal favorite, but once was an all-star for example. Now the player isn't as relevant and maybe my interest has waned.
C.) Space issues - I store two cards in one nine-pocket sheet as long as I feel like the cards will not damage each other. In many instances, I will store one card in a pocket, if the card is an insert/parallel or rookie/first-year card.
D.) Particular arrangement of cards featured on one nine-pocket plastic sheet - I want to say it doesn't matter [as far as putting them by year, by type, et al], because I don't want to move the cards around too much in order to account for any possible updates.

Personal favorites
I freed up one binder housing a partial set from a 2004 Topps Traded break a while ago, to store my assorted Vladimir Guerrero, Tim Salmon and Jim Edmonds cards - the cards are in no discernable order, but it will have to do.

A.) I'd planned to add seven other 'personal favorites,' but Guerrero, Salmon and Edmonds actually filled out the binder - so those three represent my favorite players.

Realignment
For another, particular binder holding players' cards I've collected for the last five or six years - I realigned the order and also move daround players.

A.) Players' cards removed from binder and place into A-Z archives box - none are 'personal favorites' and basically there is no compelling reason to keep these guys' cards in binders at this point.

Ellis Burks
Brian Giles
Jason Kendall
Kerry Wood
Edgar Renteria
Pat Burrell
Steve Finley
Bartolo Colon

B.) Players' cards added to binder - cards of these some of these players were once stored in a binder, but were displaced.

Carlos Zambrano - from my semistars box
Albert Belle - he is sort of irrelevant these days, but was a beast when he was playing.
Andy Pettitte
Greg Maddux
Mike Lowell
Roy Halladay
Johan Santana - from my semistars box

C.) Holdovers from original binder arrangement

Todd Helton
Adrian Beltre
Roy Oswalt
Lance Berkman
Joe Mauer
Nolan Ryan
Randy Johnson
Curt Schilling
Mike Sweeney
Kevin Millwood
Carlos Lee
Carlos Beltran

D.) New order of players' cards for one particular binder

Todd Helton
Adrian Beltre
Roy Oswalt
Lance Berkman
Carlos Zambrano
Joe Mauer
Albert Belle
Andy Pettitte
Greg Maddux
Nolan Ryan
Randy Johnson
Curt Schilling
Mike Sweeney
Mike Lowell
Roy Halladay
Kevin Millwood
Johan Santana
Carlos Lee
Carlos Beltran