Do you track your card collection?

 As I have said before, I started collecting cards back in 1981 and was pretty active for about 5 years. Then life happened and it became sporadic. I really got back into it about 5 years ago. All that time, I never really thought much about tracking my collection. I mean, to almost anyone else, its not worth a lot of money, but to me...that's a whole other story. 

About the closest I've come to tracking my collection was a checklist that I made for all of the sets I wanted to collect. I'm pretty good with Excel so I created these checklists. 

                                                                   

The thing about it, these checklists don't even come close to listing all of the cards I have. They are great for tracking what I have/need for a particular set, but don't do anything for any doubles, inserts or cards that I have that aren't set related. So, after watching some Youtube videos, I think it might be a good idea to start some kind of inventory of all of my cards. I'm just not real sure the best way to do it. 

First of all, I need something free. Which leans me to Excel. I tend to be a little old school which is why I printed the checklist books. However, I can see how that would not only be extremely time consuming, but will kill a lot of trees. Plus, I'm not sure I see an easy way to update it. Once again, I'm leaning toward Excel. 

I know that there are a ton of collectors who use TCDB and I actually listed a want list for 2022 Topps that I needed to complete a set, but I'm just not real sure about it. I would gladly take any feedback that you'd like to share about it. 

I've heard a lot of people talk about PSA set registry...doesn't apply to me because, I don't do graded cards. To be honest I'm not 100% sure I understand it anyway. I do know that whatever I do, it will take a ton of time to get it all done. 

I'm open to suggestions!

Peace, 

 Michael

Isaiah 40:31     

My Latest Card Show

There's a big card show in the DFW area every other month and I try to go every time. It doesn't always work out that way and it almost didn't work this time either. 

Normally when I go to the show its a Saturday and always jammed packed. This time my Saturday was full of baseball and things that had to get done at the house so, my trip to the show was Sunday after church and lunch with the family. I got to the show a little after 1:00 and the show ended at 4:00. 

Having not been on Sunday, I wasn't really sure what to expect. The best part was there wasn't a ton of people so it was easy to walk the tables, browse, and talk to the dealers without having to fight for space. The worst part? A lot of the dealers had already packed up or were packing up to leave. I'm not sure what I like better, the laid back smaller crowd on Sundays or the crowded floor but a lot more tables with cards to see. 

I picked up my 2023 hobby box to really get started on my 3 sets. I'll give an update on those sets in a later post. I picked up some Mike Trout cards and a Shohei Ohtani out of a dollar box but ended up with a really good deal on these cards.

I know there's a lot of these cards out there, but it's hard to go wrong with Mike Trout and Shohei.

I also got a really good deal on '75 Fergie Jenkins and '78 Reggie Jackson. Both of these cards help complete the sets I'm building.

. 

One of my goals for my collection is to collect the base sets from 1972 to the present. I haven't really started my '72 set yet, but I do have a few of them. I picked up the '72 Clemente at the show. 

I'm a huge Clemente fan. I don't have a lot of his cards, but I'm always looking. I've been searching for a '57 for quite some time now. I actually found one in my price range, but I walked away from it...been kicking myself ever since!

As I was heading out, I went into a side room and found these two cards for a really great price. I have the feeling this was a "the show is coming to an end and I need to sell a couple more cards" deal, but I'll take it!

I am becoming a fan of the '60s cards and the 1957 cards are my favorites from the '50s. I decided a couple of years ago to try and get Hall of Famers as I can and these two fit the bill. I really like the looks of these cards. 

Peace,

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

Credit cards, but not your normal credit cards.

 I got an email the other day saying my ebay order of a rookie Juan Soto had arrived. In my neck of the woods, we have a a community mailbox kind of like you would find in an apartment complex. I absolutely hate it and we really don't check it that often. When I opened the box, it was jammed full of all kinds of junk mail. I kept thinking to myself, "That card better not have gotten damaged in that packed box." Sitting at my desk in front of the computer, surrounded by stacks of baseball cards, I began going through all of the mail. There were no less than 10 credit card offers in the mail. What a waste of time and money! All of those offers and being surrounded by baseball cards got me thinking about a credit card set I had. 

When you collect cards haphazardly for over 40 years, It takes awhile to go through everything and even then you keep coming across something that you forgot you had. As you can guess, my collection is a mess. It's kind of organized, but I'm pretty sure there's no way I can find everything...yet! I'm working on getting things organized and I've started to put some stuff on Buysportscards.com, mostly inserts, to help clear things out and maybe get a little money to help add to the collection. As I was going through yet another box that I had no idea what was in it, I came across the limited edition Perma-Graphics Super Star Credit card set. 

I picked this set up at a card show probably 40 years ago as a throw in on a trade/purchase for $20. How I remember it was $20 I have no idea, but I do. I thought these were so different to cards I'd started collecting. 

These cards have sat in the bottom of a shoe box ever since I got them. Yeah I know, its not like finding an old shoe box with a '52 Mantle or '53 Mays, but still it was a cool find. 

There are some really big names from youth on these cards like Rose, Ryan, Bench and Henderson, but there were no Rangers. Probably, because in those days, the Rangers weren't very good. 

The 32 card Perma-Graphics Super Star Credit Card set was released in 1981. In the Fall of that year, they also released a 18 card set of the NL and AL All-Star starters. I think Perma-Graphics released sets for the next 2 years. I haven't seen any of those in person and I can't remember seeing any more of the ones I have in a really long time. 

I just thought I'd share a little of my collection. 

Peace, 

Michael 

Isaiah 40:31

P.S. The Juan Soto card was perfect!