Organizing my Player Collections

I have a question that I hope some people can help me answer. How should I organize my player collections? So far I have determined that:

In toploaders will be:

-Autos

-Jersey cards

-Serial #d

-RC cards of the ones likely to make the hall of fame

In semi-hard protectors will be:

-all other RC cards

-nice inserts

-higher end base cards

-SPs

-Variations and parallels

However, this is where the conflict arrises. I currently have all other cards of the players that I collect in individual penny sleeves. They are then organized by the priority in which I collect the player, and then finally by year.

This makes for a disjointed looking collection that is difficult to view. How should I change this?

I have formulated a couple ideas:

The first being: Keep the organization similar except have the cards in 9 pocket pages rather than penny sleeves.

Advantages: Cards are easier to view, I can leave blank spaces to indicate where cards that I am missing should be, and players can be separated by binder.

Disadvantages: Still reasonably disjointed, sets may end up divided across two pages in cases where the player has multiple cards in the set.

The second being: Using 9 pocket pages and binders, divide my collection predominantly by set and year rather than by player. Then organize the cards of each set by priority in which I collect the player.

For example: I would have a binder for 2009. This binder would be divided into sections for each of the 2009 sets. Then within the section for each set I would place all of the Derek Jeter cards first, the Ichiro cards after those, the Joe Mauer cards after those and so forth.

Advantages: Unified look, easy to identify which cards I need, spaces can be left for players that I am missing from each given set.

Disadvantages: The collection for each player will be scattered across multiple binders

I am leaning toward the second idea for the simple reason that this organization will serve only for the base cards of lower end sets. These are the cards that I don't care to "show off" as much and therefore it hardly matters that not all of the Jeters or Ichiros, or Mauers will remain together because the more rare and flashy ones will remain in their nicer protectors, and will be sorted by player.

What does everyone think? Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Is anyone confused?

A Merry Christmas to Me

For Christmas I was given a total of FOUR hobby boxes! I was sooo excited for every one of them. Before Christmas this year I had never before opened a hobby box, so you could imagine my sheer joy to now have 4 to open. They were all boxes that I had really wanted; however some of the turn outs were better than others.

The first of these boxes was 2007 UD Masterpieces. A year ago I had opened a blaster of this set and instantly fell in love with these cards. Hopefully I would come close to finishing the set with this hobby box.

I'm just going to show pics of the bordered parallels, the game used and the autos because I have a lot of other posts to get up. But I will be posting a needs list for this set very shortly.

The extra large box topper:

Wow, I had no clue that they were autographed!!! That's awesome! Sure, I don't have too much interest in Andy LaRoche but I really like this card. The painting looks that much better when enlarged to this size.

Btw, you can see the edge of a regular sized toploader on the right side of this picture, which will give you an idea of how large this card is.

I got a total of 5 green bordered parallels.

These are 3 that I was particularly excited for:

Tim Lincecum RC

Phil Hughes RC

and a Reggie Jackson

These are the other 2:

Jered Weaver

and Ryan Howard

I also got a blue sparkly bordered parallel

(not actually sure what this parallel version is called)

Delmon Young (RC) #d/50

Then there is the Auto:

Huh? I have never heard of Justin Hampson before. I love this auto set so I was disappointed to get an auto of someone that I had never heard of before. Oh well, them's the breaks

Ever since buying a Mariano game used card from this set on ebay I had been itching to get my hands on some more of them.

Darn, Scott Rolen is a little less than exciting pull for me. He was a premiere third baseman for a while but has since dropped off.

This one is pretty cool though, Gary Sheffield on the Yanks with a pinstripe right down the middle. Too bad they write that he is on the Tigers, kinda ruins the card for me a lil bit.

Woohooo, Ryan Zimmerman baby. I collect this guy. I was really happy to get this card!

Overall I thought that this box was definitely worth it. Great set of base cards and a couple nice hits. Even though it was a gift, I would definitely say that this box was worth the $45 that it was marked at on dacardworld.com

Thank you Mom and Dad

I will be posting a needs list shortly for the remaining basecards that I need to complete the set. In that post I'll be certain to include pictures of how great the cards in this set are.

Catch-up

I have a ton of stuff to post. There are several trade packages to post not to mention that I still need to get the return packages in the mail. My family is non-stop action during the holidays so forgive me when it comes to falling behind. I also had an awesome christmas filled with many baseball cards. Can't wait to show them off to everyone. Tonight I plan to have a trade post and a hobby box break post for you. Stay tuned

Calling all Diamond Kings

I'm kind of embarrassed for needing to post this want list because these are some of the most readily available baseball cards ever but here goes.

Donruss 1988: 1, 2, 3, 6-11, 13-17, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24

Donruss 1989: 1, 3-11, 13-20, 23, 24, 25, 26

Donruss 1990: 1-6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22-26

Donruss 1991: 1-4, 6-11, 14, 19, 22, 23, 26

I'd love to trade for these cards if you have them available

Need List: 2008 Topps Wal-Mart Dick Perez

I have a huge pile of 2008 Topps so I'm trying to avoid buying another blaster, but I'm still trying to put together the rest of this small set of inserts. My mistake was buying loosie packs instead of going with the blasters right off the bat.

Here is one of the cards that I need:

The ones I need are in red, while the ones that I have are in black

WMDP1 Manny Ramirez

WMDP2 Cameron Maybin

WMDP3 Ryan Howard

WMDP4 David Ortiz

WMDP5 Tim Lincecum

WMDP6 David Wright

WMDP7 Mickey Mantle

WMDP8 Joba Chamberlain (on its way in a trade)

WMDP9 Ichiro

WMDP10 Prince Fielder

I only need three more, help a brother out and offer a trade

Mail from JD's Wild Cardz

Finally I'm back with a new post. Finals last week were killer but I made out pretty well overall. And of course as soon as I got home pa dukes had a pile of yard work for me to do. But I have taken the time to become reacquainted with my "home collection" and now I'll be posting a bunch of stuff. First we have some mail to post.

The other day I received a package in the mail from Mike from JD's Wild Cardz. I was only expecting a Roy Halladay jersey card, but it ended up being a hugely generous package. Let's get right to it then.

Four cards to add to PC's. I was actually surprised to find that I kinda like the UD Icons cards. It never before had struck me as something to delve into, but I'm certainly happy to have them for my PC's.

Three more cards to add to my 2009 Turkey Red collection. Slowly but surely I will collect them all. I really like the Wold Series Heroes cards below those. I have the 5 card set commemorating Roger Clemen's 300th win in this card design but never actually realized that there were more cards to the whole set. Always love to see DiMaggio, Gehrig and Mariano especially as world series heroes. Cool stuff

Then of course there were some cards from some of my favorite sets. The Ichiro will go toward building the 07 Masterpieces set, but the Jeter, Crawford, and Mantle will go to my player collections. I really like that Mantle insert, really nice looking card.

These were definitely exciting cause they are players I collect plus they will fill holes in my Goodwin collection. This way, if I ever throw up my hands and decide goodwin was too tedious to complete, I'll still have these beauties. I've bought 16 packs of goodwin and I down even have 45 base cards, and that includes the 6 from this package. That is an average of about 2.5 base cards per pack! Isn't that a lil ridiculous? Never mind the fact that I'll eventually start pulling crazy amounts of doubles. That's where you guys come in...

These cards are so nice looking! Way better than the Sweet Spot base cards of the past. All players that I love to collect.

And then of course, the finale....

Woah, awesome. Quad swatch #d/400 of Verlander, Billingsley, Carmona, and Chamberlain! Not to mention the Halladay and the Kendrick swatches. Great stuff!

Mike, Thanks so much for the cards man. Some really great stuff. It might take me a little while to pay back the quad swatch, but I'll definitely get you something nice. If for some reason you haven't seen Mike's blog, JD's Wild Cardz, go check it out.

I should have some more posts later today, and then some more throughout the week. Stay tuned

Mail from Chris OK

Thanks to Chris OK of Budget Baseball Cardboarding, I have completed my first trade. Chris helped me get my blog started and was the first to subscribe, so I owe him a big thanks. I sent him a package a while back and this what he sent in return.

Of course when it first arrived at my school mailbox I was away on thanksgiving break so it was great to return to find a package waiting for me. So here it is (it's a beauty):

2 Ichiros

1 Roy Halladay

3 Evan Longoria

This is pure generosity because Chris collects both Longoria and Ichiro, I sure hope he had doubs. I particularly like the Longoria Goudey; the Black border and the Halladay are also pretty cool.

1 Ryan Zimmerman

1 Mariano Rivera

1 Nick Markakis

3 Joba Chamberlain

More great stuff. I really like the Joba Heritage Chrome and the Mini Joba. I was really lacking when it came to my Joba Chamberlain collection but not any more.

Mantle, A-Rod and Hughes for my PCs

Chris must have seen my comment on his post about the Clemente card, cause here it is. This is one of my favorite cards of 2008. Awesome photo of an all-time great and great printing quality to boot. Can't get much better than that in terms of base cards.

In the top row we have some of my favorite Yankees ever! Tino, Paulie, and Pettitte. Gotta love Paul ONeill's intensity. The Justice art card is also a great touch; being an artist I dig these type cards.

Chris must have psychic powers cause this package hit the spot. He did a good job with variety, for some reason I always like to see a little bit of everything. Chris, come mid December when I'm home be on the lookout for another package. I'll have some good stuff for your player collections.

Decisions decisions

Decisions decisions. I am going to pose a question to everyone out there in the blogging world and I'm gonna hope that some people decide to read and comment on it, crossing my fingers.

I am in the process of making my xmas list, and I am realizing that there aren't very many things on it. Most of my clothing needs are currently met, I don't have that one big gift that I am asking for like in past years (i.e. ps3 or a snowboard). So this leaves some good gift opportunities for baseball cards. I don't want to burden my family with the task of scouring ebay for singles that I might be interested in so I would like to ask for a couple of hobby boxes as gifts because I don't particularly have the money to invest in those myself. But deciding on 3 hobby boxes to ask for is a tough job, there are sooo many options.

So here's the question: If you were to ask for three hobby boxes from the past 3 years what would you put on your list, and why?

However, there is one stipulation, you must take price into account when making your decision. You can put a $100 hobby box on your list if you desire but that means you need to justify why you would choose that box over any of the others that have a much lower price ticket.

Did somebody say CONTEST

Here's a link to an great looking contest, go check it out:

http://tradedsets.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-contest-win-free-relic-card.html

I'll probably post another little something later.

Ebay: Apparently I was the only ebayer to find these Sweet Spot cards to be Sweet

Last week ebay got the better of me, and I won a couple auctions from two sellers. Anyone who has ever used ebay to add to their collection knows how addicting it can be. It always starts with an innocent web search for info on a card, then you accidentally click a link for an ebay auction regarding this card. Next you spot a must have item in one of the many auction links that come up. Before you know it you've snagged the item and are looking for others from the same seller to make the shipping cost more economical.

Here are the results from that progression:

Ok, so it's not a Sweet Spot Auto but it went for dirt cheap and this was the day after Cliff Lee's game one gem in the World Series. I had to get it.

Now the search was on for another item to buddy up on the shipping.

In this second auction I got:

SS-VW Vernon Wells

SS-TH Trevor Hoffman

SS-SH Shin-Soo Choo

And...

Sweet Beginnings: James Parr Auto #d/699

I liiike. Cool on-card auto. The baseball graphic at the bottom of these cards is fantastic, great effect. Surprisingly, this lot went for even cheaper than the Cliff Lee, I wasn't sure that was possible.

O yeah, the second lot also came with this stuff:

I'll hold on to Mr. Berkman for my PC but the other two are w.e.

Hopefully the loot that I won from the other seller will arrive shortly.

Pulls: Paper Thin Packs'O Goodwin

I kinda like this set but these are quite possibly the thinnest packs I have ever felt! Four cards of relatively thin stock, one of which isn't even a full size card. But hey, the turn outs after opening 5 packs haven't been too bad.

2 Derek Jeter

12 Matt Cain

36 Lyndon Johnson

67 Josh Beckett

70 Chuck Liddell

90 Jonathan Toews

My man Jeter; it's a good card of him. Jonathan Toews, who's he? I don't follow hockey. That's awesome that UFC fighters are starting to appear in these Baseball+ type sets. I love UFC and Chuck Liddell was pretty darn exciting to watch for the longest time. Last night I watched the Couture vs. Vera fight on Spike, Couture had me scared for a while but he pulled it off. He really is Capt. America, 46 and still going strong! Anyway...

96 Paul Molitor

111 Kevin Garnett

115 Smarty Jones

121 Dustin Pedroia

128 Bill Rodgers

159 Howie Kendrick

So far the ratio of baseball vs. "other" seems to be 1/2 and 1/2. Ehh I personally like to pull mostly baseball out of my baseball card packs, o well.

Now for the Minis:

27 Derek Lee

102 Curtis Granderson

218 Adam Wainwright

234 Carmeron Maybin

248 Carlos Gomez

I don't normally collect Carlos Gomez, but I might hold on to this card, I like it.

And my favorite card from the packs:

222 Mariano Rivera (Mini Black Border w/ Gypsy Queen Background)

Ok, so the list of attributes is much longer than the card is rare, but it is Mo after all! A great addition to my Mo collection.

Overall, the players in this set look nice. Great art or art-esque look to it. They look like paintings but I believe that they are pictures that have a painted effect digitally applied to them. The backgrounds are so-so. Definitely worth the $2.25 I paid for each pack.

I've heard mixed reviews on this set, what does everyone think?

Ebay Purchase: Gotta Love Ebay

So recently I did some scouring of ebay to bolster my player collections. I found this one really great ebay seller. Every one of his auctions was a "buy it now" for either $1 or $2 in which he allowed you to pick a specified number of cards that he had available from the auction category. I felt like I was in ebay heaven, I didn't even have to outbid anyone.

YR19 Alex Rodriguez

YR13 Roy Halladay

AR20 Ivan Rodriguez

AR48 Manny Ramirez

240b Phil Hughes

240a Phil Hughes

On the right are (2) 2007 Bowman Heritage Phil Hughes. the one without the facsimile auto is the SP.

The four cards to the left of Phil and the 6 in the scan below are a lot of 10 2009 Topps inserts that I picked out, in one of my purchases. When I first saw the All-Rookie Team 50th Aniversary cards I wasn't impressed, but they have grown on me so I decided to go with mostly those cards in my selection. Also, he had a lot of these inserts that would contribute to my player collections.

AR13 Alfonso Soriano

AR42 Ichiro Suzuki

AR44 Todd Helton

AR46 Derek Jeter

AR52 Ryan Zimmerman

AR54 Joe Mauer

All 6 of these are going toward player collections.

Topps photography is disappointing time and again, when will they get it right?! The Ivan Rodriguez card in the first scan and some of the others are crystal clear but the Ichiro and Zimmerman are really fuzzy. Do their photographers use point and shoot cameras, ones that don't have a setting for motion photos? Step it up!

US6 Roy Halladay

US23 Joe Mauer

US25 Ryan Howard

US11 Shane Victorino

US33 Ryan Zimmerman

US47 Grady Sizemore

I love these inserts because of how hefty the card stock is; that and the Allen and Ginter art has such a great touch. I got to pick 6 of these for $1! How is that even fair; I felt like I was stealing. The hobby shop back home sells these for $1 each. I might actually try to collect the set of these inserts. I don't have money or patience to put together the full 08 A&G set but I can handle this insert set for sure.

29 Alex Rodriguez

35 Ichiro Suzuki

42 Ryan Zimmerman

60 Lance Berkman

70 Derek Jeter

80 Carl Crawford

I kinda like the 07 UD Elements set. The top row has cards from the Light Effects portion of the set. The second row has cards from the Foil Board portion of the set. I like the Light Effects most out of the three technologies used.

112 Derek Jeter

113 Alex Rodriguez

122 Carl Crawford

126 Ryan Zimmerman

These 4 are the PETG cards from the set. Blehh. No good. The poses are dull, and the stat box on the back shows through and sits right in the middle of the picture. The plastic card stock is pretty neat though.

I've seen one good use of this technology and I believe it was by Skybox. Half of the card had a pic of the player in motion, it was opaque and raised; while the other half was clear and recessed so that the player's pose jutted out into the clear section. The stats were hidden behind the opaque half of the front.

Now for the best part...

SZ-RH Roy Halladay

CC-MR Mariano Rivera

These are my first game used cards of both Halladay and Mo.

My favorite set is the 2007 UD Masterpieces, so a game used Mo card from this set for $1.50 was the perfect find!

What I Collect (official list)

So here is the list of cards I collect:

Veteran Players: Others (Casually collect):

• Derek Jeter -Lance Berkman
• Ichiro Suzuki -Carl Crawford
• Joe Mauer -A-Rod
• Mariano Rivera -Alfonso Soriano
• Robinson Cano -Cliff Lee
• Roy Halladay -Mark Teixeira
• Ryan Zimmerman
• Andy Pettitte

Retired/ All-Time Greats:

• Mickey Mantle
• Don Mattingly
• Paul ONeill
• Bernie Williams
• Wade Boggs
• Mike Mussina
• *any card of an all-time great

Newer Players (Rookies 2006 or later):

• Evan Longoria
• Tim Lincecum
• Phil Hughes
• Joba Chamberlain
• Hanley Ramirez
• Nick Markakis
• Ian Kinsler

Insert Sets:

• 2006 Topps: Rookie of The Week
• 2008 UD Spectrum: Derek Jeter Retrospectrum (haven't started but would really like to)
• 2008 Topps: Wal-Mart Dick Perez
• 2008 Topps: Trading Card History
• 2008 Topps Chrome: Trading Card History
• 2009 Topps: Legends of the Game

Sets: (don't really have the money or patience but these are what I would collect if I did)

-Really this should be called: "Sets I like to get cards from"

2007 UD Masterpieces (I actually am trying to put this one together)

200* Turkey Red (any year)

200* Allen & Ginter (any year)

200* Topps or Bowman Heritage (any year but 2009 is my favorite)

---- Any quality set, I have an eclectic collection cause I get bored of the same type cards

I figured posting this would come in handy in terms of trading. I'm going to link this post to menu bar on the right for future reference.

Pulls: (4) 7 Card Packs of 09 Chrome

Hey, I have some 2009 Topps Chrome to show off today. I like the chrome product, mostly because they are hardy cards and I like the refractors that are reasonably plentiful. I bought 4 packs of 7 cards at Wal-Mart and this is what I got:

The Basic:

22 Justin Morneau

42 Kosuke Fukudome

70 Scott Rolen

70 Scott Rolen

78 Joe Crede

95 Stephen Drew

109 Aramis Ramirez

115 Todd Helton

137 Travis Hafner

145 Nick Swisher

159 Jake Peavy

169 Cole Hamels

I love Todd Helton and Jake Peavy, and the Nick Swisher photo really does suit his style.

BTW, what's happened to Cole Hamels? He's gone from 08 World Series stud to 09 Postseason dud.

The Rookies:

177 James McDonald

209 Chris Jakubauskas

211 Walter Silva

211 Walter Silva

214 Gordon Beckham

215 Anthony Claggett

I might hold on to this Beckham card, I've heard he's supposed to be good but I don't much about him. Anyone want to fill me in?

RF and PC:

144 Jimmy Rollins RF

180 Phil Coke RF

215 Anthony Claggett XF

94 Joe Mauer RF (PC)

163 Robinson Cano (PC)

67 Ian Kinsler (PC)

This is definitely a great group of cards for me. As a Yankees fan, I like the Phil Coke rookie refractor, and even though I've never heard of him, the Anthony Claggett x-fractor is pretty cool too. The Mauer refractor is a really cool addition to my PC, and Robi Cano and Kinsler are also always welcome.

Inserts:

W57 Po Yu Lin

W84 Nelson Cruz

Ehh, the WBC inserts aren't my favorite. They seem pretty dull and I really don't like the WBC logo. They are definitely up for trade if anyone is collecting the set.

I also got an Auto in these packs but I can't show it here cause there apparently is a five photo limit per post. It wouldn't let me add a 6th pic so you guys are going to have to wait until my next post to see it.

Pulls: Upper Deck Spectrum 07 & 08

I thought I'd post some Spectrum cards I pulled the other day. I had bought a pack of the 2007 Spectrum from dacardworld.com along with some other stuff that will be posted at another time. Then I got the 2008 Spectrum cards from a pack that was in a repack box in Walmart. It's really a bummer that while I'm at school my collecting is limited to whatever I can find at the local Walmart. I'm really interested in trying to collect the Derek Jeter Retrospectrum insert set from the 2008 Spectrum packs, so if anyone has some for trade or knows where I can find some more of these packs just let me know. Here's what I got...

2007 UD Spectrum:

8 Jim Thome

25 Justin Morneau

4 David Ortiz

92 Omar Visquel

and an Insert:

Rookie Retrospectrum: Chris Demaria

2008 UD Spectrum:

60 David Wright

31 Matt Holliday

78 Greg Maddux

65 Robinsn Cano

Well I got a Cano for my PC, it's actually one I really like.

I wish the 08 Spectrum pack had one of the Jeter retrospectrum cards but overall I like both of these products. What can I say, shiny cards are nice; maybe it's just because I grew up during the Pokemon craze. One complaint that I have is that the 07 Rookie Retrospectrum insert cards look too much like the base cards. I'm definitely planning on buying more of the 2008 Spectrum packs though.

Pulls: Three Pack Re-Pack

I was at Walmart and decided to buy this three pack re-pack cause it was cheap and I saw that one of the three was 07 Turkey Red. I always like the look of art cards. So here's what I got....

2007 Topps Turkey Red:

I figured I'd start with the rookies:

186 Yovani Gallardo

153 Andy LaRoche

141 Kevin Kouzmanoff

On to the vets:

138 Shawn Green

95 Derek Jeter

150 Ken Griffey Jr.

78 Curt Schilling

And then... those retired:

167 Mickey Mantle

I'm definitely pleased with this pack, a Derek Jeter and the Mick is always a good turn out.

I did notice though, that the Jeter painting doesn't share much of a resemblance with it's live counterpart. Oh well, they can't all be perfect.

The other two packs were a 2008 UD First Edition and a 2007 UD Series 1

These two were pretty disappointing, and the only card really worth showing was pulled from the 08 First Edition

SQ-19 Jose Reyes (common)

I usually like the Star Quest cards, but this one does nothing for me. The green seems too saturated and Reyes' head blends right in with the background. The scan actually does this card a favor.

At least the Turkey Red made up for the other two packs.

PS: My apologies for the first few scans being mirror/reverse images, I have to figure out the correct way to put them in the scanner so that I don't have to rotate the image afterward.