Two Things...

First Thing

   

As I mentioned before, I've started, albeit very slowly, putting my collection on TCDB. This has been an eye opening experience. I have learned that even though I thought I was semi-organized with my cards, I'm not. It might look like it, but it's not even close. I've got boxes labeled by brand and years and most of the cards in those boxes are in order. However, that's where the organization ends! I have all of these "other boxes" that have all kinds of cards in them. Even cards that should be in the organized boxes. Every time I turn around, I find more cards that should be somewhere else. 

The other issue is every time I sit down and say to myself, let's work on listing cards in TCDB, I get easily sidetracked to something more fun like looking at the cards instead of cataloging them. Also, like last night, the task just seemed too daunting, so I bailed on it. A couple of people have mentioned that its a process and I believe them!

Another revelation to inventorying my collection that has become a bit of a dilemma is figuring out a system to add cards as they come in. Now don't get me wrong, its not like there's a ton of cards coming in the door everyday, but when I do get something, the first thing I do after I look at it is to put in its place in the set...and forget to mark it off the list or put it in TCDB. I did start a list that I need to add to TCDB, but I can already see that its not going to be very effective. I need to start doing a better job of tracking what's coming in, from where and when it arrives so it will be easier to inventory. 

What a mess! The hope is that one day, I'll get it all in TCDB and in it's rightful place. 

Second Thing

This kind of ties into the first thing...

I had to find a starting point in adding my collection to TCDB, so I opened the cabinet and pulled out a year that I only had 2 boxes of and I knew that I didn't have any outlying cards to deal with...my 1991 Topps cards. 

I honestly cannot remember the last time I have looked at these cards. I checked my checklist and found out that the set wasn't complete, which was a bit of a disappointment, but it is what it is. Anyway, I started going through all of the cards that I have and found some really cool looking cards. I will say that not all of the pictures are clear, some seem grainy but I really liked some of the shots they used on these cards. 

Hard to go wrong with card #1 Nolan Ryan. I'm a huge Ryan fan. Almost got to meet him one time. I'll tell that story another day.

      

I was never a big fan of Carlton Fisk. Probably, because my Rangers had the "real" Pudge in Ivan Rodriguez, but I thought this was a cool looking card. You know with Cecil Fielder running he had to be out, but can you imagine what it would feel like trying to catch the throw with that big man barreling at you?

       

Chipper Jones rookie card. I always liked Chipper, but wasn't a huge fan. I have some family ties to the Atlanta Braves, so I always followed them but like I said wasn't a big fan. I have become more of a fan listening to him talk on different broadcasts, podcasts and such. George Brett could flat out hit. Seems like every time the Rangers played the Royals Brett was always on base or coming up with the big hit. I remember in 1980 when got to .400 and finished hitting .390 for the year. I was rooting for him to pull it off. He was so close. 

           

I could go on and on about Cal Ripken, but will save it for another time. I just like the card. Benny Santiago's card is a cool pic and I always like a good action shot like Rickey Henderson's.

I think this is one of the best Roger Clemens cards. The scoreboard on the Green Monster, Strike out, such a cool shot. 

The 1991 set is a 792 card set that celebrates Topps 40th year anniversary. There are two subsets, the Glossy All-Star set and the Glossy Rookie Set.

      

I have a few of the All-Star cards, but not any of the Rookie cards. Might have to look into acquiring some these in the future. 

To wrap this up, TCDB definitely has it's challenges, uploading everything, making me evaluate how I do things and how to get organized, but there's an underlying benefit of revisiting cards in my collection I've set aside and haven't looked at in awhile. 

Oh yeah, one other thing(I guess that makes it three things!)...Shout out to Night Owl Cards for the mention in his blog!

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!

To Grade or Not to Grade

 When I really got back into the hobby I had no idea about grading cards and the different grading companies. Like most Americans these days, I turned to Google, which led me to YouTube, which led me to watching, I don't know, how many different videos on grading. 

Like the majority of collectors, not seen on YouTube, I am on a very fixed budget when it comes to collecting baseball cards. I don't do this for a living and after my original attempt to make a buck(see my first post!), I collect because its fun and something that keeps me involved with baseball, its past and I can share it with my sons and grandsons. So, spending a good amount of money to get cards graded doesn't make sense to me. Also, buying graded cards costs a lot more and that doesn't make sense to me either. 

Now as I understand it, there are three reasons to get a card graded. First, to authenticate the card as real and unaltered. Second, to give the card a grade that everyone can agree on and third, to protect the card in a case. Let's take these one at a time.

Authentication. 

This one makes sense. Especially with all of the people out there willing to cheat someone to make a quick dollar. I get this one. Now, I recently read the book Spotting Fakes by Ryan Nolan. I only read the baseball card portion because, I only collect baseball cards. I thought this was a well written and very informative book and I highly recommend it for collectors. Now I'm not saying that I can recognize a fake from an original, but if I'm spending big bucks on a card I'm telling you I'm checking that card out really good. I'm also telling you that I'm not buying that card online. I want to see it for myself. I have even watched videos where cards that have been graded and then regraded come back as altered or fakes. I do believe that this is a rarity though. All of that to say, this is the one reason I see to get a card graded. 

Card Grades

This one I don't get. I'm the one who's acquiring a card, so I'm the one that gets to say if I think the "grade" of the card is a 10 to me. Even the guys I've watched have said the grades don't matter if you like the look of the card anyway. I cannot tell you how many times I've heard on YouTube videos people complaining about the grades of the cards when they get them back(which, by the way, takes way too long as best as I can tell!). Even better, they are going to resubmit it to another company to try and get a better grade...even more money spent. It's all about eye appeal to the one acquiring the card and not about some number some person who you don't know puts on the card. 

Protect the card

This one doesn't make sense to me either. For a whole lot less money and a lot quicker time, I can get a case to protect the card. There are all different cases to choose from too. I have even seen videos of people cracking the cases without much effort to get the card out in order to resubmit to another company. 

One last thing and I kind of already mentioned it, is the cost. I have never submitted a card for grading and at this point I don't see it happening. The main reason is the added cost. I'd rather spend that money on more cards! 

I didn't write this to bash those collectors who are into getting their cards graded. The great thing about collecting cards is you get to do it your way and you don't have to conform to everybody else. I do hope someone reads this and can share their opinion on grading cards to teach me something that I don't know. I'm open for discussion!

Peace, 

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

How I got started collecting baseball cards

 I decided that I needed an online place for my baseball collection and the opportunity to to talk about baseball, baseball cards and life. 

I've tried this blog thing before and wasn't very successful with it. I'm pretty sure that it was only read by about 3 people. This time I don't have any expectations about who reads or doesn't read it. This is giving me a chance to talk about my views on card collecting, cards I like, baseball and whatever else comes out on when I sit down to type. My goal is to post something at least once a week. This is something that is pretty new to me, so I hope that over time, my writing gets better and the content is something that might actually benefit someone else. 

Okay, enough of that...Let me tell you about about my baseball card collecting! 

It all started many, many moons ago back in 1980 when I got a job working at a card store in Dallas, TX. The store was in an old mall that had reopened as a bazaar type place. The store was owned by two great guys who taught me a lot and not just about baseball cards. Being a baseball fan, I was fascinated by the cards, the players and the people I met who collected. As I was learning about collecting, I didn't get any cards until the new release of cards in 1981. Wow, was that a release. Not only was there Topps, now there was Fleer and Donruss. The biggie at that time was Fleer, but not because of the new cards, but because of the error cards and the release of the corrections too. The card that everyone wanted was error "C" Graig Nettles card. 

                              

It was selling for $10-$15 right out of the pack. Me, being the budding 18 year old entrepreneur, hit the streets in search of Fleer cards at every 7-11 or convenience store I could find. I don't remember what the trick was, but there was someway to tell if the packs were the first release and when I found them, I bought them in search of that $10 Nettles card. I drove all over East Dallas looking for those packs. I opened countless packs and ended up with two. I kept one and sold the other for a lot less than it cost me to find. Needless to say my venture into quick money as a baseball card investor came to a quick and relatively painless demise. However, I was hooked! Topps, Fleer, Donruss, I had to have them all. I completed the Fleer set, all of the error cards and all of the corrected releases, and I had boxes and boxes of Topps and Donruss. I never finished those sets. College came and I was still collecting, but really had no direction in what I wanted to collect. I really liked the 1975 Topps set, so I set my sights on getting that set.    

                              

I finished the '75 set and it was a nice one. When I graduated college, I got married and God decided that I needed to grow up and become a Dad. I wasn't making much money, and with a baby on the way, I decided that it was probably important to put food on the table, so I sold the only thing in my collection worth anything(Still hurts a little today LOL!). 

Anyways, I kept buying packs of cards here and there as I had an extra dollar or two and found them in the stores. I actually accumulated quite a number of cards, but still had no direction in what I was doing. Finally, it happened...I quit buying cards! I went on hiatus for a few years. As my kids grew and their love for baseball grew, I started looking at my cards again and that old itch came back. I started looking for cards at stores again. Next thing you know I'd buy a pack or two, or three and I was off again getting into the collecting again. I was still just rambling through with no direction, no plan, just getting cards. Then one day, I decided enough was enough and I needed a plan. 

So, this is what I came up with...being a huge Texas Rangers fan, I decided that I would collect the Topps base sets from 1972(The year the Rangers began in Texas) to present. I would also collect any players that I really liked and I would collect Texas Rangers team sets. I have a long ways to go to completing all of those sets, but like I've heard on several youtube videos, collecting is a marathon and not a sprint. Currently, I'm focused on two of the vintage sets I need, replacing my 1975 set and the 1978 set. Of course I collect the current set when it debuts. 

I don't just buy sets. I still go out looking for packs, maybe a box or two from a card store, and start putting the sets together. I know that its not the most cost efficient or easiest way to do it, but half the fun is in the chase! 

My first grandson was born in 2019 so I decided that not only would I collect my set, but I would do one for him too. In 2020, grandson number 2 came on the scene, so I do a set for him too. Collecting 3 sets for the current year can be a lot, but I really enjoy it. I can't wait till the boys are old enough and that will be something that they can do with their Papa.

Well, I think that gives a pretty good history of my card collecting. There are a ton of stories and thoughts to write about, but that will be for another time. If you're a collector and happen to come across this, I would love for you to comment and share how you got started collecting!

Peace, 

Michael

Isaiah 40:31