“Team Airbrush” For 1973, Plus Weigh-In #73

Since Weigh-in #71 I’ve been sharing cards from the year that matches the weigh-in number… 1971s for Weigh-In #71, 1972s for Weigh-In 1972, etc. This time around I am featuring cards for a goofy idea I had that centers around my Statis Pro tabletop baseball game.

One of the seasons I have Statis Pro player cards for is 1973, and one of the ways I’ve been distracting myself over the past two years is to come up with different ways of ‘drafting’ teams using my Statis Pro seasons. Some ideas get implemented, but many of the ideas are stupid and I know they’re stupid (i.e. a team of Richards – Richard, Rich, Richie, Rick, Ricky and Dick) but I think them up anyway.

The latest stupid idea was to select a team of players who have a card in 1973 Topps that was airbrushed.  Just to make this clear, this would be the best lineup I can make out of the players who got airbrushed, not the best/worst airbrushing jobs. This is something of a rarity… a stupid Statis Pro idea that may become something of a reality, even if it’s just a few games.

In this post, mixed among the weigh-in stuff, I’m going to feature my starting lineup… Starting with pitcher Andy Messersmith, who went 14-10 with a 2.70 ERA in 1973:

Messersmith was part of the blockbuster November 1972 seven-player trade between the Dodgers and Angels, a trade which also sent Frank Robinson from the Dodgers to the Angels.  Another player in this deal who made Team Airbrush was Angels’ starting pitcher Bill Singer.

I’ll scatter the rest of the “Team Airbrush” starting lineup throughout this post, but before I wander too far from the Weigh-In aspect…

For those wondering what the deal is with a “Weigh-In”, here is my official Mission Statement: Posting updates on the organizing and streamlining of my collection gives me a look at the big picture, keeps me honest and helps with motivation and/or guilt.

Changes since the last weigh-in (from 10/1/2021 to 1/12/2022):

Net change in the collection: +116 (200 added, 84 removed)
Net change to the # of cards in the house: -971 (407 came in, 1,378 went out)

The cards coming in came from COMC and from a few blasters which showed up at my local Target. The cards going out were largely cards given away at Halloween and mailed out to other collectors.

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Catcher Earl Williams, a Rookie of the Year two years earlier, was part of a six-player November 1972 trade between the Braves and Orioles.

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Totals since I started tracking on 10/16/2011:
Total # of cards purged from the collection, to date: 15,771
Net change to the collection, to date: +6,455

Total # of cards which have left the house, to date: 54,612
Net change to the number of cards in the house, to date: -13,587

I’m hoping to make more progress on reducing the number of cards in my collection in 2022. After spending much of 2021 trying to organize things, I’ve given more cards and sets the side-eye, wondering “Why do I have that? Would I ever miss that if it were gone?”

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1st Baseman Hal Breeden was acquired from the Reds at the beginning of the 1972 season, but I guess Topps didn’t get any photos of him between April and September.

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Size of the collection:
Number of individual cards tracked in my Access database: 72,057
Number of cards that make up the sets flagged as completed in my Access database: 11,591

…which means I’ve got at least 83,648 cards in my collection

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2nd Baseman Davey Johnson was an All-Star in 1973 and came to Atlanta in the same deal that sent Earl Williams to Baltimore

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Money spent on cards:
This does not count money spent on show admission, shipping, supplies, etc.

This quarter: $112.26

As you can see, my average spending per month in 2021 was less than half of what it was in the previous three years… Will that change in 2022? Time will tell.
Average per month for 2021: $35.64
Average per month for 2020: $76.66
Average per month for 2019: $80.38
Average per month for 2018: $79.03
Average per month for 2017: $43.63
Average per month for 2016: $36.11

I didn’t track my spending before 2016. In 2016 and 2017 I didn’t go to as many card shows because there weren’t any local shows, and I made the 5 hour round trip to a regional card show only once or twice a year.

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Shortstop Eddie Leon was traded from Cleveland to the White Sox for Walt “No Neck” Williams. Shortstop was the weakest position of the bunch and if I included airbrushed rookies, I might’ve gone with Mario Guerrero who appears on a “1973 ROOKIE SHORTSTOPS” card with two other guys

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Size of my MS Access card database:
I track my collection in a Microsoft Access database of my own creation. There’s quite a bit of work involved in keeping it up-to-date, so I like to satisfy my own curiosity by finding out how much information is currently in my database.

My database currently contains 1,007 set definitions (up 3 from the last weigh-in) and
249,786 card definitions (up 615 from the last weigh-in).

It’s important to point out that this is merely the number of sets and cards which are represented within my database; for example, although I have no cards from 1949 Bowman, that set represents 1 set definition and 240 card definitions.

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3rd Baseman Graig Nettles was part of a 6-player November 1972 trade between the Indians and Yankees that, long term, didn’t work out so well for Cleveland

Left Fielder Frank Robinson is a bit of a cheat because he was a DH for most of 1973. He came to the Angels in the trade that also involved Andy Messersmith.

Center Fielder Bill North was traded by the Cubs – you can see a little bit of “CHICAGO” at the bottom of the photo – to the A’s for pitcher Bob Locker (who’s a reliever on Team Airbrush)

Right Fielder Oscar Gamble came to the Indians in a four player deal with the Phillies. His inclusion is also a cheat because he was more of a DH than an outfielder, but my game, my rules.

A couple of more comments about “Team Airbrush”…

In the original search for players I included guys without caps and “Guys looking up” who may or may not have been airbrushed… For example I don’t think Félix Millan was airbrushed in this photo; The Braves wore pinstripes up to 1971 and I believe they wore their 1971 jerseys and pants in 1972 spring training as well.

I ultimately left out anybody from the “Looking Up” and “Capless” camps. The most notable players excluded from “Looking Up” are Larry Hisle – who I could include if I decided that guys who were mainly the DH should not play the outfield – and Millan.

There were fewer capless photos than I would have expected… I came up with just Danny Cater and Joe Decker, and neither one had a 1973 season good enough to make my team.

One other thing that was moderately interesting: There were more than a couple of guys who appeared airbrushed in 1973 Topps and did not play in 1973 (or, in some cases, ever again). Denny McLain is the biggest name of the bunch. The Braves gave up on him in 1973 spring training and his career would be over. The only other example I can remember off the top of my head is José Arcia, who was a regular with the Padres in 1969 and 1970, but would remain in the minors from 1971 to 1976.

1972 High #s And A Waaaaaaaay Late Weigh-In #72

In my last “Weigh-In” post, which was #71, I shared a bunch of newly-acquired 1971 Topps cards… and I figure this time I’d share a bunch of 1972 Topps High #’s that I recently got in a COMC shipment… cards like this one:

Denny Doyle was the Phillies’ starting 2nd baseman in 1972, and his younger brother is Brian Doyle… but not to be confused with Brian Doyle-Murray, older brother of Bill Murray

For those wondering what the deal is with a “Weigh-In”, here is my official Mission Statement: Posting updates on the organizing and streamlining of my collection gives me a look at the big picture, keeps me honest and helps with motivation and/or guilt.

Normally I try to do these soon after the “end date” of the quarter being covered, but this post got kicked down the road a dozen times.

1972 was Rooker’s last year with the Royals before being traded to Pittsburgh for Gene Garber

Changes since the last weigh-in (from 7/8/2021 to 9/31/2021):

Net change in the collection: -511 (143 added, 654 removed)
Net change to the # of cards in the house: +109 (140 came in, 31 went out)

All of the cards coming into the house basically comes down to two retail purchases, mostly 2021 Heritage.  The rest of the numbers are almost entirely from me reorganizing my 1991 cards and removing a whole lot of unwanted cards from my collection.  The 31 cards going “out of the house” were unwanted 1991 Donruss and 1991 Fleer cards which went from my collection to the recycling bin.

“Mary! Mary, don’t you know me?” This Jimmy Stewart played 6 different positions for the 1972 Astros

Totals since I started tracking on 10/16/2011:
Total # of cards purged from the collection, to date: 15,687
Net change to the collection, to date: +6,339

Total # of cards which have left the house, to date: 53,234
Net change to the number of cards in the house, to date: -12,616

Since I still collect current cards, I suppose that the collection growing by 6K cards over 10 years is not surprising… but the goal is still to make the collection smaller, so I’ll have to work on that more.

Chuck Brinkman was the 3rd catcher on the Chisox roster and the 2nd Brinkman in the Majors — his older brother Ed would win a Gold Glove with the Tigers in 1972

Size of the collection:
Number of individual cards tracked in my Access database: 72,000
Number of cards that make up the sets flagged as completed in my Access database: 11,591

…which means I’ve got at least 83,591 cards in my collection

1965 AL ROY Curt Blefary told the A’s “Play me or trade me”… so he was sent to the woeful Padres in May, 1972. Be careful what you wish for.

Money spent on cards:
This quarter (does not count money spent on show admission, shipping, supplies, etc): $42.05

As you can see, my average spending per month is still significantly down from the past few years…
Average per month for 2021 so far: $35.04
Average per month for 2020: $76.66
Average per month for 2019: $80.38
Average per month for 2018: $79.03
Average per month for 2017: $43.63
Average per month for 2016: $36.11

I didn’t track my spending before 2016. In 2016 and 2017 I didn’t go to as many card shows because there weren’t any local shows, and I made the 5 hour roundtrip to a regional card show only once or twice a year.

I would not be surprised if I spend less in 2021 than I have in any year since 1995 (when, as a reaction to the lost 1994 World Series, I bought just a hand-collated Topps set and nothing else)

Reliever Phil Hennigan would be in his last year with Cleveland before being traded to the Mets for two young pitchers… one of whom, Brent Strom, recently became the Diamondbacks’ pitching coach after 8 years with the Astros.  Check out the original Yankee Stadium in the background!

Size of my MS Access card database:
I track my collection in a Microsoft Access database of my own creation. There’s quite a bit of work involved in keeping it up-to-date, so I like to satisfy my own curiosity by finding out how much information is currently in my database.

My database currently contains 1,001 set definitions (up 6 from the last weigh-in) and
247,290 card definitions (up 130 from the last weigh-in).

My database currently contains 1,004 set definitions (up 3 from the last weigh-in) and
249,171 card definitions (up 1,881 from the last weigh-in).

It’s important to point out that this is merely the number of sets and cards which are represented within my database; for example, although I have no cards from 1949 Bowman, that set represents 1 set definition and 240 card definitions.

I haven’t bought much new product this year, so I haven’t yet bothered entering sets like 2021 Stadium Club into the database… but they’ll get in there sooner or later.

Don Mason played just 9 games for the 1972 Padres… but check out the old school Padres cap!

General comments

This isn’t normally a section in my weigh-ins, but I figured I’d throw it in because I’m noticing a shift in my thinking which hasn’t yet been borne out in my numbers… I’ve realized that when I go through cards and ask myself “Do I need this in my collection”, I’ve become much more likely to say “Nah”.  I think part of it comes from not having many cards coming in, so I’m spending more times organizing the cards I already have.  Even when I’m collecting many cards from a set, I find I’m OK with not chasing the entire set.  For example, most of the 2021 cards in my collection are Heritage, but I’ve realized that the majority of those cards are the base cards.  I’ve come to realize that unless the player on the card falls under a team or player collection, I can do without the In Action, Boyhood Photos, League Leaders and Postseason cards.

Alan Mitchell Edward George Patrick Henry Gallagher was also known to some as “Dirty Al” due to wearing the same unwashed uniform every day of a 25-game hitting streak

A Well-Loved Nolan Ryan, Other 1971s and Weigh-In #71

At a recent show I made some unexpected progress towards a two goals involving 1971 Topps baseball.  I made a little bit of progress towards the set, which is a long-term goal at this point because I’m only about halfway done with the set, and I want to complete 1972 (90% complete) and/or 1970 (85% complete) before I get any kind of serious about 1971.

Before I get into that too much, I’m going to admit that a decent chunk of this post is dedicated to one of my “Weigh-Ins”, which tracks my progress in organizing and streamlining my collection… but I’ll get back to that.

At the show I also made unexpected progress towards my goals of completing vintage Mets team sets.  For at least a year or two, all four of my Mets team sets from 1968 to 1971 all had the same status:  “Got everything but Nolan Ryan”.

So I was pleased to run across this card at the show:

It’s got surface wear, it’s got dinged-up corners, it’s got something written on the left-hand side – possibly “AUGIES” – but on the other hand it was under $20 and I don’t care about the rest.

It also goes well with my Steve Garvey rookie I picked up about 10 years ago…

So now that I have completed my 1971 Mets team set, I only need the 1970 Nolan Ryan card to finish off my run of 1970s Mets Topps sets. The 1960’s is a different story between Ryan, Seaver and those tough 1966 high numbers.

So aside from featuring these 1971 cards, I also wanted to go public with a Weigh-In… and it wasn’t until I started writing this post that I realized that this is Weigh-In #71.  I never intended to feature 1971 cards in Weigh-In #71, but it’s a theme I might have to go with going forward… I’ll have to start thinking of 1972 cards to feature for #72.

So here is my official “Mission Statement” for these posts: Posting updates on the organizing and streamlining of my collection gives me a look at the big picture, keeps me honest and helps with motivation and/or guilt.

…and here’s the first of several other 1971s I picked up at this show…

Changes since the last weigh-in (from 4/10/2021 to 7/7/2021):
Net change in the collection: +343 (354 added, 11 removed)
Net change to the # of cards in the house: +466 (522 came in, 56 went out)

My second quarter of 2021 fell into three phases:
1) April through mid-May: Yay, I can find retail! Oh, wait, it’s gone again
2) First card show in 16 months!
3) Organize, organize, organize.

Totals since I started tracking on 10/16/2011:
Total # of cards purged from the collection, to date: 15,033
Net change to the collection, to date: +6,850

Total # of cards which have left the house, to date: 53,203
Net change to the number of cards in the house, to date: -12,725

In my last weigh-in, I said there would likely be an upward trend in cards leaving the house, but that still hasn’t happened. 3rd quarter for sure!

Size of the collection:
Number of individual cards tracked in my Access database: 71,430
Number of cards that make up the sets flagged as completed in my Access database: 12,491

…which means I’ve got at least 83,921 cards in my collection

Money spent on cards:
This quarter (does not count money spent on show admission, shipping, supplies, etc): $244.38

As you can see, my average spending per month is still significantly down from the past few years…
Average per month for 2021 so far: $45.56
Average per month for 2020: $76.66
Average per month for 2019: $80.38
Average per month for 2018: $79.03
Average per month for 2017: $43.63
Average per month for 2016: $36.11

I didn’t track my spending before 2016. In 2016 and 2017 I didn’t go to as many card shows because there weren’t any local shows, and I made the 5 hour roundtrip to a regional card show only once or twice a year.

Size of my MS Access card database:
I track my collection in a Microsoft Access database of my own creation. There’s quite a bit of work involved in keeping it up-to-date, so I like to satisfy my own curiosity by finding out how much information is currently in my database.

My database currently contains 1,001 set definitions (up 6 from the last weigh-in) and
247,290 card definitions (up 130 from the last weigh-in).

It’s important to point out that this is merely the number of sets and cards which are represented within my database; for example, although I have no cards from 1949 Bowman, that set represents 1 set definition and 240 card definitions.\

Weigh-In #70: Lots Of Organizing, Few Acquisitions, Vintage Steelers

(I’ve been procrastinating a post where I recap the progress I’d made in organizing my collection during the first quarter of 2021 — That’s January through March — and I figured a holiday weekend is as good a time as any to put it out there)

It’s just as well that I found almost no retail cards for the first quarter of 2021.

Yeah, there were times when I wanted to open some packs but there was nothing to rip.  Even my “emergency stash” got used up, and I opened the last pack of *anything* I had in the house… which was, for the record, a pack of 1998 Dart Flipcards “Mr. Bean” cards.

Much of what I did do was organize my binders and my cards… One of my main projects was to streamline my 1991 baseball cards.  Before I started I had well over 3,000 cards from that year, which is way too much for any year that’s not one of great personal significance.

They say that a good way to determine what you don’t need is to gather everything like it – clothes, books, etc – and go though it all at once so you can see what you’ve got and what you don’t need. I’ve done this before with a particular year’s cards, and recently gathered all of my ’91s together to see what I can easily live without… for example, I have over 10 different 1991 cards of Ryne Sandberg, a player I don’t collect who played for a team I don’t collect.  Gathered all together, I found I had 10 Ryne Sandberg cards just from 1991, and I honestly don’t need 10 1991 Rynos… I’m getting to the point where I’m questioning whether I need more than 4 or 5 cards of any particular player for a given year.

…But this is all to give background on what I did those three months. Organize, organize, organize. It was also good to spend some “quality time” with cards I’ve owned for 30 years and hadn’t paid much attention to lately.

As for this weigh-in, I’ll spice things up with a bunch of vintage Pittsburgh Steelers cards I’d acquired at the most recent card show I’d been to (February 2020)… Steelers like this 1957 Bowman of Bob Gaona who played from 1953 to 1957 (this is his only football card)

I’ll also kick things off with my “Mission Statement” for these posts: Posting updates on the organizing and streamlining of my collection gives me a look at the big picture, keeps me honest and helps with motivation and/or guilt.

Changes since the last weigh-in (from 1/6/2021 to 4/9/2021):
Net change in the collection: +150 (243 added, 93 removed)
Net change to the # of cards in the house: -30 (171 in, 201 out)

“Net change in the collection” went up because a lot of the organizing involved going through my overflowing “in box” and officially adding past acquisitions into my collection by entering them into my card database and filing them away in the appropriate binders and boxes.

A blaster of 2021 Topps Series 1 makes up the bulk of the inbound cards, but I also bought some cards online from the Tri-City ValleyCats (formerly NY-Penn, currently in the unaffiliated “MLB Partner” Frontier League).

1959 Topps Frank Varrichione, 5-time Pro Bowler with the Steelers and Rams

Totals since I started tracking on 10/16/2011:
Total # of cards purged from the collection, to date: 15,022
Net change to the collection, to date: +6,507

Total # of cards which have left the house, to date: 53,147
Net change to the number of cards in the house, to date: -3,191

Now that I don’t have to hide in my house for months on end, there should be an uptick in cards leaving the house… if nothing else, I’ve got a backlog of cards to donate to Goodwill.

1960 Topps of Pro Football HOFer Ernie Stautner

Size of the collection:
Number of individual cards tracked in my Access database: 71,171
Number of cards that make up the sets flagged as completed in my Access database: 12,491

…which means I’ve got at least 83,662 cards in my collection

1961 Fleer Jimmy Orr, who was with the Colts that year and a Pro Bowler in 1965

Money spent on cards:
This quarter (does not count money spent on show admission, shipping, supplies, etc): $28.95

Again, my spending was that blaster and the minor league cards from the ValleyCats.  (Coming attractions:  There will be a big upswing in spending for the 2nd quarter)

The following will put things in perspective: My spending for the first three months of 2021 was less than the monthly average of any year since I started tracking my spending five years ago.

Average per month for 2020: $76.66
Average per month for 2019: $80.38
Average per month for 2018: $79.03
Average per month for 2017: $43.63
Average per month for 2016: $36.11

I didn’t track my spending before 2016. In 2016 and 2017 I didn’t go to as many card shows because there weren’t any local shows, and I only made the 5 hour roundtrip run to a regional card show once or twice those years.

1961 Topps Junior Wren, who jumped to the AFL’s New York Titans that year

Size of my MS Access card database:
I track my collection in a Microsoft Access database of my own creation. There’s quite a bit of work involved in keeping it up-to-date, so I like to satisfy my own curiosity by finding out how much information is currently in my database.

My database currently contains 995 set definitions (up 14 from the last weigh-in) and
247,160 card definitions (up 2,596 from the last weigh-in).

It’s important to point out that this is merely the number of sets and cards which are represented within my database; for example, although I have no cards from 1949 Bowman, that set represents 1 set definition and 240 card definitions.

1962 Topps Buddy Dial – He was drafted out of Rice by the Giants in the 2nd round, didn’t make the team, was picked up by the Steelers where he make the Pro Bowl in 1961 and 1963

State Of The Streamlining? Purge? De-cluttering? (Weigh-In #69)

I’ve actively collected baseball cards every year since 1974 when I was a wee Shlabotnik.  There have been years I went nuts buying cards, there have been years where I cut way back on my acquisitions, but needless to say there’s never been a year like the one just passed.

For me it was sometimes hard but it wasn’t completely bad.  The sudden downturn in incoming cards allowed for the opportunity to look around my cluttered mess of a mancave and think about what I’m trying to do and where I’m going.

For the nine year’s I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve stated that I want to reduce the size of my collection.  Thing is, I’ve never had a straightforward plan for how to do that.  I’ll admit I envy those people who can make wholesale changes along the lines of “I’m going to get rid of everything but ________” or maybe “I’m ditching anything that was issued after I hit puberty”.

I do have some bits of strategy, though.

One thing I’ve decided on is that I’m sticking with the amount of shelf space that I currently have, and I’m not going to get any more binders than won’t fit in that space.  I can upgrade bindes or change binder size, but I can’t go on just adding binders.  There are binders I haven’t pulled out in years, and what’s the point of having binders if you never look at them?

I’ve also been pulling out some of those binders and realizing that “Hey, I haven’t looked at these binders in years and I didn’t miss a lot of these cards”.

I’ve also started using a variation on a decluttering technique.  They say that instead of going through your clothes in your closet and then going through the clothes in each drawer that you should instead pull all of your clothes out and then put them back, because that’s the only way you’ll realize that you have 527 concert t-shirts (or whatever).

I’ve discovered the same is true for card sets.  I might look at my 1991 Upper Deck cards and say “Well, I don’t collect Wade Boggs but the dude’s a HOFer so I’ll keep the card where it is”, and then later I look at 1991 Bowman and 1991 Leaf and 1991 Stadium Club and say the same thing each time.  It’s only when I pull out all of my 1991 cards and go through them as a whole that I realize “Holy crap, I’ve got seventeen 1991 cards of a guy I don’t collect!”

I’m doing this with a couple of years so far, most recently with 1991 (341 cards removed so far) and 2005 (721 after the first pass).  Not earth-shattering, but it does help me get rid of cards where I wouldn’t otherwise realize the redundancy in my collection.

So that’s what I’ve been doing… As for *how* I’ve been doing, let’s get into the “Weigh-In” numbers for the 4th quarter of 2020.  To visually spice things up I’ve added in some random cards I got at my last card show which, sadly, was a year ago this month.

So let’s kick things off as usual with my mission statement:  Posting updates on the organizing and streamlining of my collection gives me a look at the big picture, keeps me honest and helps with motivation and/or guilt.

Changes since the last weigh-in (from 10/11/2020 to 1/5/2021):
Net change in the collection: -11 (779 added, 790 removed)
Net change to the # of cards in the house: +684 (777 in, 93 out)

Having my collection reduced by 11 cards might not seem like much to you, but this was exciting to me. It’s the first time this number has gone down in a while.

Year-end numbers for 2020:
Net change in the collection: +279 (1,905 added, 1,626 removed)
Net change to the # of cards in the house: +2,113 (2475 in, 362 out)

My “In/out of the house” numbers are stunted because it’s only showing cards sent out in trades and junk wax cards which have gone into the recycling. I normally give away cards at Halloween, but that didn’t happen this year. I didn’t send any cards to COMC because they suspended the cheap procesing option I normally use (I don’t sell many big $$$ cards). I also haven’t dropped any cards off at Goodwill because I just haven’t.

Totals since I started tracking on 10/16/2011:
Total # of cards purged from the collection, to date: 14,929
Net change to the collection, to date: +6,357

Total # of cards which have left the house, to date: 52,946
Net change to the number of cards in the house, to date: -13,161

Size of the collection:
Number of individual cards tracked in my Access database: 71,003
Number of cards that make up the sets flagged as completed in my Access database: 12,491

…which means I’ve got at least 83,494 cards in my collection

Money spent on cards:
This quarter (does not count money spent on show admission, shipping, supplies, etc): $66.54

This quarter’s spending consisted of a 2020 Topps Factory set and a handful of retail packs. Almost all of my hobby time has been spent organizing.

Average per month for 2020: $76.66
Average per month for 2019: $80.38
Average per month for 2018: $79.03
Average per month for 2017: $43.63
Average per month for 2016: $36.11

I didn’t track my spending before 2016.  The spending for the first two years is lower because there weren’t any card shows local to me at that time.

One thing that’s very telling about my spending this year… I spent more in the first quarter ($271.71 spent at two card shows and on still-available retail) than I did the whole rest of the year ($188.23)

Size of my MS Access card database:
I track my collection in a Microsoft Access database of my own creation. There’s quite a bit of work involved in keeping it up-to-date, so I like to satisfy my own curiosity by finding out how much information is currently in my database.

My database currently contains 981 set definitions (up 14 from the last weigh-in) and 244,564 card definitions (up 3,316 from the last weigh-in).

It’s important to point out that this is merely the number of sets and cards which are represented within my database; for example, although I have no cards from 1949 Bowman, that set represents 1 set definition and 240 card definitions.

The More I Organize, The Worse It Seems (Plus Weigh-In #68)

Because we have a maintenance plan with an HVAC company, and because the HVAC tech scheduled for today has to get to the attic by walking through Shlabotnik World HQ (the spare bedroom I took over), I spent part of this weekend cleaning up the large piles of crap that have accumulated.

In cleaning up a bunch of used padded envelopes, I picked up one that didn’t feel empty… and it was from COMC and had a postage date of December 2018. With a sense of dread I looked in the envelope hoping to just find empty toploaders but instead found a small COMC shipment that I’d forgotten about.

This goes both ways emotionally. One on hand, it’s a fun discovery, like putting on a jacket for the first time since last spring and finding $20 in the pocket.

On the other hand, these cards had been forgotten for nearly 2 years, which just depresses the heck out of me, organization-wise.  Every time I think I’ve turned the corner with the organization of my collection I run across a 22 month old package to let me know that I’ve got a long way to go.

Anyhoo, I figured I’d try to make the most of it by making a post out of my newly-rediscovered collectibles (some of which had appeared here when I originally received them), and throw in one of my quarterly weigh-ins because I’m due for one anyway.

I’ll start off with this Japanese 1993 BBM card of former Giant & Angel Max Venable.  Max Venable’s legal name is William McKinley Venable, which makes me wonder if he was named after the 25th president of the United States.  At any rate, this was a cheap Japanese card I couldn’t walk away from.

I’m not much of a collector of recent hockey cards, but five years ago I was watching a college hockey game when this freshman named Jack Eichel caught my eye.  Eichel is currently the captain of the Buffalo Sabres and is probably as close as I come to having a favorite NHL player.  This 2017-18 UD Canvas card was too nice to pass by.

I’m something of a Brian Roberts collector because my wife is a big fan of his (she’ll still make a point of watching Orioles games where he’s part of the broadcast). This 2012 Topps Sticker was filling in one of the gaps in my collection. I think that, excluding relics, autographs and parallels, I was only missing a couple more major issues of his… I guess maybe I should finish that off someday.

I’d already featured this card about 20 months ago, but I’ll share it again because it got the biggest “Oh, that’s riiiiiiiiiiiiight” out of all of these cards. From what I’ve seen on YouTube, Miki Nishimura has an interesting approach, her backswing brings the ball almost directly over her head.

This is my fifth card of a professional bowler, which I think ties it with Cricket in the overall “standings” of sports represented in my collection. Hmmm, maybe I should do a post about that. The top three would be Baseball, Hockey & Football but then there’s a huge dropoff after that. I’m guessing Basketball would be next, but I don’t think I have more than a couple of binder pages of hoops (and that’s counting Harlem Globetrotter cards).

Two more that I’ve already featured in this blog… 1974 Topps Stamps. I was very excited about these at the time, but now it’s kind of “Yeah, I should chase the set at some time”.


I wasn’t prepared for how tiny these are.

OK, one last thing before I move on… Last week I was looking at a local big box retailer to see if they had 2020 Topps factory sets. I didn’t expect to find any and I didn’t, but I was greatly surprised to find jumbo packs of 2020 Topps Archives. I don’t have a huge interest in Archives, but since it had been two months since I bought any sort of baseball product and three months since I bought anything more interesting than Topps Album Stickers, I decided to pull the trigger.

I will admit that they look a little bit better in-hand than they do online. I’m still not a fan of the set in general, but I’m a little more open to pickup up cards from the 1974 “subset”. I only pulled commons from my pack, but here’s my favorite of the bunch.

One of many admittedly picky issues I have with Archives is that the originals are generally very colorful, but something about the way Archives is printed – or maybe it’s the cardstock? – leaves the bright colors very muted. From top to bottom these are 1974 Rany Jones, 2020 Max Scherzer, 1974 Chris Speier, 2020 Brandon Crawford.

OK, I think that’s about all I’m going to say about 2020 Archives here.

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On to the Weigh-in part!  Posting updates on the organizing and streamlining of my collection gives me a look at the big picture, keeps me honest and helps with motivation and/or guilt.

I’ve been doing this for *nine* years! I didn’t fully realize it’s been that long.

Changes since the last weigh-in (from 7/6/2020 to 10/10/2020):
Net change in the collection: +102 (320 added, 218 removed)
Net change to the # of cards in the house: +132 (289 in, 157 out)

If I had another week or two, this number would be much better…. I’ve got a couple of hundred cards which I need to sit down and remove from my database, but I haven’t had a chance to do the clerical work yet.

Totals since I started tracking on 10/16/2011:
Total # of cards purged from the collection, to date: 14,139
Net change to the collection, to date: +6,368

Totals to date:
Total # of cards which have left the house, to date: 52,853
Net change to the number of cards in the house, to date: -13,845

Size of the collection:
Number of individual cards tracked in my Access database: 70,841
Number of cards that make up the sets flagged as completed in my Access database: 12,491

…which means I’ve got at least 83,332 cards in my collection

Money spent on cards:
This quarter (this does not count money spent on show admission, shipping, supplies, etc): $40.90

$40.90 over the course of three months is as low as my spending’s been in years. If you take out the two shows I went to in January and February, my 2020 spending averages out to $20.98/month, which is minuscule for me.

Average per month for 2020: $65.57 so far
Average per month for 2019: $80.38
Average per month for 2018: $79.03
Average per month for 2017: $43.63
Average per month for 2016:  $36.11

I didn’t track my spending before 2016.

Size of my MS Access card database:
I track my collection in a Microsoft Access database of my own creation. There’s quite a bit of work involved in keeping it up-to-date, so I like to satisfy my own curiosity by finding out how much information is currently in my database.

My database currently contains 967 set definitions (up 12 from the last weigh-in) and 241,248 card definitions (up 2,954 from the last weigh-in).

It’s important to point out that this is merely the number of sets and cards which are represented within my database; for example, although I have no cards from 1949 Bowman, that set represents 1 set definition and 240 card definitions.

One more card from that COMC shipment… THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!!!!

 

 

 

 

Waning Interest in 2020 Baseball Cards, Plus Weigh-In #67

It’s not like it takes much to take the wind out of my sails these days, but…

Maybe it’s because of the lack of baseball up to now, maybe it’s because there’s so little product out there in the stores after the locusts descend, but my interest in this year’s cards has taken a pretty significant hit.

Going into 2020, based on images I’d seen, I didn’t have a lot of interest in flagship Topps but I did expect to chase after the Heritage set (since it’s based on a 1970’s set) and I liked Big League and I considered chasing that set as well… and then for anyone still not represented in my ‘Current Rosters’ binders with a 2020 card, I’d fill in the blanks on an ad-hoc basis, or maybe just buy a Topps factory set just to save myself the time of chasing down Homer Bailey, Stephen Vogt and the 200+ other guys who are in Flagship but not in Heritage or Big League.

…But right now, two days away from Opening Day… I’m finding that my general reaction to current year cards is as poor as it’s been since 1995, when I was pissed about the lost World Series, replacement players and all of the other nonsense associated with that labor dispute… Only this time around I’m down on MLB for going with a 60-game season, for threatening Minor League Baseball as it’s been doing… and probably for everything else going on which is out of MLB’s control but still contributes to a lack of enthusiasm.

And even before my interest in this year’s cards fell off, I’d realized that I’ve become pretty base-cards-only over the past few years. Parallels never interested me that much, but even insert sets have generally become “See if any of my buddies want this” propositions.

…But I enjoy opening packs… or I generally do, but even that’s been up in the air this year.

So I’m not sure where I’m going with this bit of rambling.  It’s entirely possible that I just need a break, or that having regular season games again will boost my enthusiasm levels, but it’s clear that 2020, like 1995, will go down as one of those “That was the year that…” situations.

Does anybody else find that they’ve lost some interest in recent cards or cards in general?

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One thing that did perk me up while writing this intro came when I used an online thesaurus to find a synonym for ‘despondent’ – admittedly too strong a word for what I needed – and found the phrase “as sick as a parrot”. I’ve never heard this idiom before, but apparently in the UK it means “to be very disappointed” and seems to have been used a lot within the context of Football (Soccer)… “I was as sick as a parrot after that loss to Sheffield Wednesday”.

I love a good Britishism.

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So anyway, let’s move on to the Weigh-In. I’ve tried to perk this post up with some arbitrary scans of cards I got at shows early this year.

Posting updates on the organizing and streamlining of my collection gives me a look at the big picture, keeps me honest and helps with motivation and/or guilt.

Changes since the last weigh-in (from 4/3/2020 to 7/5/2020):
Net change in the collection: -293 (244 added, 537 removed)

Net change to the # of cards in the house: +528  (631 in, 103 out)

I’ve been pretty good at working on my collection and removing unwanted cards from the collection proper… but I’ve been building up a pile of cards to leave the house at some point. One of these weigh-ins I’m going to have a decent sized number in the “leaving the house” category.

Totals since I started tracking on 10/16/2011:
Total # of cards purged from the collection, to date: 13,921
Net change to the collection, to date: +6,266

As always, I’m working towards making that “net change” number become negative. I’m getting there, but I still have a way to go.

Totals to date:
Total # of cards which have left the house, to date: 52,696
Net change to the number of cards in the house, to date: -13,997

Size of the collection:
Number of individual cards tracked in my Access database: 70,480
Number of cards that make up the sets flagged as completed in my Access database: 12,491

…which means I’ve got at least 82,971 cards in my collection

Money spent on cards:
This quarter (this does not count money spent on show admission, shipping, supplies, etc): $80.79

My spending this quarter is just slightly above my Per Month average of 2019.

Average per month for 2020: $58.75 so far
Average per month for 2019: $80.38
Average per month for 2018: $79.03
Average per month for 2017: $43.63
I didn’t track my spending before 2017.

The Average Per Month isn’t the lowest of any of the years only because of the money I spent at shows in January and February.

Size of my MS Access card database:
I created an Access database and track my collection in there. There’s quite a bit of work involved in keeping it up-to-date, so I like to satisfy my own curiosity by finding out how much information is currently in my database.

My database currently contains 955 set definitions (up 11 from the last weigh-in) and 238,294 card definitions (up 4,080 from the last weigh-in).

It’s important to point out that this is merely the number of sets and cards which are represented within my database; for example, although I have no cards from 1949 Bowman, that set represents 1 set definition and 240 card definitions.

Is that the end of this, Tim Harkness?

Yup, that’s the end,

Four Vintage Commons And Weigh-In #66

I realize that these weigh-ins are not the most enthralling content for everybody, but I know at least a couple of people look at them and if you just want to look at assorted vintage cards I’ve got posted in here, that’s cool as well.

Posting updates on the organizing and streamlining of my collection gives me a look at the big picture, keeps me honest and helps with motivation and/or guilt. Over the past few years it’s been “guilt” and it still is, but with card shows not a possibility right now, and with my retail buying down, I’ve been doing more organizing. However, I don’t expect my numbers to really reflect that until next quarter.

First vintage card!!!! 1957 Topps Dusty Rhodes

My mom was a NY Giants fan until they moved, and I would make a goal of collecting team sets of the Jints… except there’s this “Say Hey” guy making things expensive.  I’m pondering the idea of chasing the 1957 Topps Giants and just getting a reprint of the Willie Mays card… During some dubious future time when I’m sitting in my house and thinking “Y’know, I don’t have enough goals…”

Changes since the last weigh-in (from 1/1/2020 to 4/2/2020):
Net change in the collection: +481 (562 added, 81 removed)

Net change to the # of cards in the house: +769 (778 in, 9 out)

I went a little nuts at the two card shows I went to in January and February, and I’ve got a couple of boxes of cards bound for Goodwill at some point after things settle down.

Totals since I started tracking on 10/16/2011:
Total # of cards purged from the collection, to date: 13,514
Net change to the collection, to date: +6,559

I’m working towards making that “net change” number become negative, but that will clearly take a fair amount of work at this point.

Second vintage card!!! 1961 Post Cereal Hoyt Wilhelm

Solve for x: Post + Orioles + Hoyt = x * awesome

Totals to date:
Total # of cards which have left the house, to date: 52,593
Net change to the number of cards in the house, to date: -14,505

Size of the collection:
Number of individual cards tracked in my Access database: 69,136
Number of cards that make up the sets flagged as completed in my Access database: 14,669

…which means I’ve got at least 83,728 cards in my collection

Third vintage card!!!! 1960 Topps Eddie “The Walking Man” Yost

Eddie Yost falls into my “1970’s Mets coaches” collection.

Money spent on cards:
This quarter (this does not count money spent on show admission, shipping, supplies, etc): $271.71

Average per month for 2020: $90.57 so far
Average per month for 2019: $80.38
Average per month for 2018: $79.03
Average per month for 2017: $43.63
I didn’t track my spending before 2017.

It seems the more I try to rein things in, the more I spend. A big part of this is because 2019 saw the return of a local card show, which I try to support as much as I can without going crazy.

But the thing is, I usually go crazy in the first couple of months of a year. Compared to the first quarter of 2019, my “New Cards Retail” is down $30.44, my “Repacks and Other Retail” is down $11.58, my online spending is down $31.37 (because I didn’t do any in 2020) and my show spending is down $18.00… So yeah, that average spent is going to come down. Even before the pandemic, I was planning to cut back on spending and work on my organizing.

Fourth Vintage Card!!!! 1963 Post Cereal Milt Pappas

Hand-cut by a child? As long as the photo is largely intact, I DON’T CARE!!!!!

Size of my MS Access card database:
I created an Access database and track my collection in there. There’s quite a bit of work involved in keeping it up-to-date, so I like to satisfy my own curiosity by finding out how much information is currently in my database.

My database currently contains 944 set definitions (up 5 from the last weigh-in) and 234,214 card definitions (up 2,296 from the last weigh-in… 2020 base sets, don’tcha know).

It’s important to point out that this is merely the number of sets and cards which are represented within my database; for example, although I have no cards from 1949 Bowman, that set represents 1 set definition and 240 card definitions.

I’ll wrap up with a song I heard the other day and really like… “Keep Your Head Up” by Preservation Hall Jazz Band

 

Not The “What”, But The “Why” Behind My 2020 Goals (Plus Weigh-In #65)

I’ve spent the last two posts talking about how I’m largely giving up on set building, and how I’m looking to reduce the size of my collection.

This time around, as part of my New Year’s Navel Gazing, I thought I’d discuss my goals for 2020… However, it’s not exactly a list of goals, but more the thinking behind those goals. I realize this is not going to set any readership records for this blog, but I kind of want to get it out here and out of the way.

A lot of collectors will talk about entirely cutting out new cards when things get overwhelming, but buying packs is fun and keeps me in touch with “who’s who” and “who’s where” in the Majors. Opening recent packs helps me stay somewhat knowledgeable about less-hyped players coming into MLB, guys like Tommy Edman and Jonathan Loaisiga.

On the other hand, I’ve come to the realization that what brings me joy with newer cards is not set building but, in a sense, “FrankenSet building”. In 2020 and going forward I’d like to have as many different current players as possible represented in my collection, but I’m not chasing entire sets unless I just completely fall in love with 2020 Heritage or something which hasn’t yet been previewed.

In a similar “Unless I’m blown away” vein, I’m not going to spend much effort tracking and chasing after most inserts, online exclusives and unlicensed cards.  If they come my way in packs or trades, that’s fine, but there are just too many to bother building wantlists or looking for them at shows or online.  I’ll admit that, in my case, I’m pretty much dreading the coming onslaught of Pete Alonso cards.

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Quick visual break to feature three 2019 cards I found to be an interesting grouping…

Edwin Encarnacion played in 2018 for the Indians (His Series 1 card is on the bottom), was part of a three-team offseason trade which sent him to Seattle (Opening Day card, upper left) and was traded to the Yankees in June (Update card, upper right).  Not often that you get three different base cards like this.  Sadly, the Topps Chrome card used the same image as Opening Day did.

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Moving on to my goals involving older cards…

I’m not going to have the time, money or frankly the opportunities to attempt anything big, so 2020 is going to be all about smaller projects, team sets and player collections. Since I’ve repeatedly run into budgetary roadblocks with my vintage Mets team sets (Nolan Ryan, high-numbered 1966 Topps, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver rookie, Nolan Ryan), I’m going to focus on the many unfinished 1980’s team set, as well as filling out some of my 1980’s and 1990’s PC wants. For example, there’s no reason why I don’t have every 1980’s Cal Ripken base card other than I hadn’t made them a priority. Now I’m making them a priority.

Since I’ve largely given up on building sets, I need to shift some of my focus towards breaking down some of these partial sets I’m never going to finish. How to handle these is sometimes less than clear-cut.  For example, My database says I need just 17 cards to complete 1989 Topps…

…But you know what? I don’t like 1989 Topps much, I mainly collected it because it’s Topps, but it’s one of my least-favorite 1980’s Topps sets.

I’m also 38 cards shy of completing 1989 Donruss, a set I like much better even while I acknowledge its significant flaws.

On top of that, I’m 97 cards short of a complete 1989 Score set, and I’ve got a complete set of 1989 Bowman (named least-favorite 1989 set in pretty much any poll you’d care to name).

Truth be told, I wouldn’t get a huge hit of satisfaction out of completing any of these sets (other than not having to maintain a needs list)… So do I keep one set largely intact and then break up the other sets? Do I pool them all together and make a 1989 Frankenset done by player & team? Should I even spend much time thinking about it given that any of these sets can be easily and cheaply replaced?

There are other years in a similar situation, but I think that’s enough hand-wringing.  You get the idea.

One final goal which will definitely affect the tens of readers I have… I want to do some updating to this blog’s format and I’m thinking I should make it more mobile-friendly. I also want/need to update and reorganize my Custom Card Gallery.

Any input on changes to the blog’s layout would be GREATLY appreciated.

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OK, as long as I’m boring you all to tears, I’m going to do a Weigh-In for the just-finished 4th quarter of 2019.  Yes, I bored you with a weigh-in just a month ago, but that one was two months late, and this one is on time.

As most of you know by now, I find that posting updates on the organizing and streamlining of my collection gives me a look at the big picture, keeps me honest and helps with motivation and/or guilt.  Over the past few years it’s been “guilt” but things were looking up in 4Q 2019.

Changes since the last weigh-in (from 10/1/2019 to 12/31/2019):
Net change in the collection: -40 (790 added, 830 removed)

Net change to the # of cards in the house: -293 (757 in, 1050 out)

The net change isn’t big on either number, but I’ve very pleased that both numbers are negative.

Totals since I started tracking on 10/16/2011:
Total # of cards purged from the collection, to date: 13,433
Net change to the collection, to date: +6,078

I’m working towards making that “net change” number become negative, but that will clearly take a fair amount of work at this point.

Totals to date:
Total # of cards which have left the house, to date: 52,584
Net change to the number of cards in the house, to date: -15,274

Size of the collection:
Number of individual cards tracked in my Access database: 67,932
Number of cards that make up the sets flagged as completed in my Access database: 14.669

…which means I’ve got at least 82,601 cards in my collection

Money spent on cards:
This quarter (this does not count money spent on show admission, shipping, supplies, etc):  $136.65

Final total spent for 2019: $964.57

Average per month for 2019: $80.38
Average per month for 2018: $79.03
Average per month for 2017: $43.63
I didn’t track my spending before 2017.

I’d spent relatively little in the 4th quarter of 2019, which is why my 2019 Average $ per month dropped over $10 since the last weigh-in. I would expect the outlay to be about the same $1,000 for 2020, but I’m hoping to make it to the 2020 National in Atlantic City, so that should boost up the cash outlay.

Size of my MS Access card database:
A few years ago I created an Access database and began tracking my collection in there. There’s quite a bit of work involved in keeping it up-to-date, so I like to satisfy my own curiosity by finding out how much information is currently in my database.

My database currently contains 939 set definitions (up 1 from the last weigh-in) and 231,981 card definitions (up 291 from the last weigh-in).

In case you’re wondering, the one set added was 1979 TCMA “The 1950’s”. I still need to add Topps Update, Bowman Draft and other late 2019 sets, but I’m planning to make modifications to my database before I do those.

It’s important to point out that this is merely the number of sets and cards which are represented within my database; for example, although I have no cards from 1949 Bowman, that set represents 1 set definition and 240 card.

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GOOD NEWS FOR EVERYBODY!

This is the end of my navel-gazing for the time being.  Back to cards next week!

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COMING ATTRACTIONS

I’ve got a very-long-term project I’m working on, similar in length and scope to a blog devoted to a particular set… but it’s not set-centric and will be a recurring post in this blog.  I’m having fun with the concept so far, and I think you will enjoy it as well… but just to make sure that I can keep this going for a while, I’m working to get a number of posts “in the can” before I start publishing.  Stay tuned!

My Collecting Goals Are Like A Roll Of Toilet Paper (And Weigh-In #64)

There’s a saying, maybe you’ve heard it before: “Life is like a roll of toilet paper… The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes”.

I’ve got a variation on that regarding my collecting strategies: The further along I go, the faster I re-evaluate my goals.

When I was a kid, I wanted every Topps baseball card. Period. And this was the mid 1970’s, so this WAS a relatively modest number of cards… something like 15,000 cards.

Somewhere in the now-distant past I realized that I was far too cheap to spend triple-digits on vintage HOFer cards, so I changed my goal to collecting every Topps set from 1974 (my first set) forward… but I grew to hate several of the Topps sets of the late 1990’s, so that broke me of any desire to see that goal through.

I’ve also come to realize I’m not *really* a set collector, that when I do collect sets it’s more out of love for that particular set than it is about any need or desire to check off all the boxes.  The only set builds I have in mind for 2020 and beyond are 1970’s oddballs like Hostess and Kellogg’s… and I don’t know how hard I’m going to go after those.

Then there’s my team collecting goals, predominantly for the Mets. At one point I’d figured that collecting every Mets card there has been was an achievable goal… But even that goal has taken a beating thanks to HOF rookie cards (Seaver & Ryan), HOF sunset cards (Duke Snider) and ridiculously expensive high number cards of decidedly average players like Lou Klimchock.

The 2010’s saw the advent of online exclusives –Topps Now, Living Set, Throwback Thursday and others – and I gave up on the idea of collecting most of these Mets cards.

Now I’ve crossed into a whole new realm… I’ve come to realize I don’t even WANT all of the affordable Mets cards.  This was brought home to me this past weekend when I was going through a stack of 2019 Mets cards I got from dime boxes. After going through a bunch of samey-same cards of Jacob deGrom at various points in his delivery, I looked at the cards, shook my head and said “What the heck am I *doing*?”

….and this burnout was on just base cards, I’d already given up on most parallels.

So my 2020 goals, on paper, aren’t much different than my 2019 goals – streamline my collection and goals, get things organized – the only real difference is the level of resolve and the “tightening” of my want lists, especially on non-vintage cards.

So that I don’t finish this part of the post on a complete downer… I’ll mention that as part of my online Black Friday shopping I finished an “unofficial” goal for 2019:  I have bought the last 3 commons I needed for my 1979 Topps set, so…. yay, achieved goal!

…or at least “achieved goal” once the cards arrive in the mail and are put in the binder.

And now, on to the long-overdue Weigh-In #64… This should’ve been posted at the beginning of October, but the day after Thanksgiving seems as good a day as any to get this out there (OK, fine, “dump it out on the blog”).

These weigh-ins are part of an ongoing goal of mine to streamline my collection, to get rid of the clutter and leave just the cards that I love, either individually or as a part of some greater project which I love. By posting quarterly updates on the organizing and streamlining of my collection, I get a good look at the big picture and – because I’m making it public – I find that doing this keeps me somewhat honest and helps with motivation and/or guilt.

It’s almost always guilt these days.

Changes since the last weigh-in (from 7/11/2019 to 9/30/2019):
Net change in the collection: +299 (448 added, 149 removed)

Net change to the # of cards in the house: +823 (1118 in, 295 out)

Since I keep talking about streamlining my collection, these numbers should both be negative.  Shame on me.

Totals since I started tracking on 10/16/2011:
Total # of cards purged from the collection, to date: 12,893
Net change to the collection, to date: +6,118

I don’t want to think about the last time this “net change” number was negative.

Totals to date:
Total # of cards which have left the house, to date: 51,534
Net change to the number of cards in the house, to date: -14,981

I always try to focus on these numbers when I’m not making great progress… Even with all the added bloat of the last year or two, I’m still significantly better than I had been at the start.

Size of the collection:
Number of individual cards tracked in my Access database: 67,368
Number of cards that make up the sets flagged as completed in my Access database: 13,817

…which means I’ve got at least 81,185 cards in my collection

Money spent on cards:
This quarter (this does not count money spent on show admission, shipping, supplies, etc) $287.61
Year to date: $827.92

Average per month for 2019 so far: $91.99
Average per month for 2018:  $79.03
Average per month for 2017:  $43.63
I didn’t track my spending before 2017.

The 2019 average should drop in the 4th quarter, as I’ve all but stopped my card buying while I concentrate on organization.

Size of my MS Access card database:
A few years ago I created an Access database and began tracking my collection in there. There’s quite a bit of work involved in keeping it up-to-date, so I like to satisfy my own curiosity by finding out how much information is currently in my database.

My database currently contains 938 set definitions (up 11 from the last weigh-in) and 231,690 card definitions (up 2,248 from the last weigh-in).

It’s important to point out that this is merely the number of sets and cards which are represented within my database; for example, although I have no cards from 1949 Bowman, that set represents 1 set definition and 240 card definitions.