Sunday, February 21, 2010

Not long now...

Well it's been just over a week since the 6-Boxes transaction took place on some auction site... I can't remember what it's called... I think it's world famous though.
I expect my boxes to show up either tomorrow or by Wednesday this week. Also, once the dust has settled on those great purchases, I will be hitting that said auction site once again, in search of the great 2008 and 2009 Topps factory sets. Since I own basically every Topps card from 1984 onwards (save the 85 set), it will be with great delight that I add these to my collection, and of course, I eagerly await the 2010 Factory Set release (June/July?) once the season is well under way.
I'm currently sorting my 1994 Fleer cards, and although I've purchased about 8 boxes of this issue over the years, I STILL cannot get my hands on 3 commons to complete my set. Frank Thomas, Ken Ryan and Jeff Mutis. Amazing, considering at least 4 of those boxes were jumbos. Something to be said for Fleer there...

Oh yeah, Piazza for the HOF, 237 cards and counting...

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Card Collection... Catalogue Overkill

Hmmm...

I've been trying to find someone out there who catalogues their own collection quite as thoroughly as I do. I'd like to think there would be no person out there as obsessive as me.

OK, my Baseball Cards folder has some sub-folders, the first of which is 'Team Players'. This has an excel file for each team, listing every player that I have on cardboard for that team, along with the number of cards I have of each player with that team.
Then I have 'Team Sets'. This is pretty much the same, but it has the number of cards from that team, listed by each set + the number of cards for the team that I have! eg. Dodgers has 2009 Upper Deck : 44, 2009 Upper Deck First Edition : 24, and so on.
Then I have every single card listed in Excel files, grouped by surname. EVERY single card! Each card has its own row, with card info. (Player, Team, Year, Set, Card Type, Card #)
I also have an Excel file with the info of every set I have even ONE card from, listed in alphabetical order. If I had the knowledge, I would post screenshots of the Excel files here, but I'm still only learning.

Please tell me you don't know people as overly thorough as this. It's a real pain when I get new cards! But definately worth it!

Nick J

Introduction...

Welcome to anyone who somehow manages to find this!

My name is Nick and I'm from Australia, currently living about 60 miles South of Sydney. I've been collecting Baseball Cards since I visited the 7-11 near Flakey Jakes in Anaheim, 1989. I was all of 9 years old! 5 packs of 89 Topps and 3 packs of 89 Score were all I needed to get going. Plus the Cap'n Crunch cards I received in my cereal boxes didn't hurt either!

As you may appreciate, collecting Baseball Cards in Australia can be a very expensive exercise - shipping normally costs more than the cards themselves! Fortunately over the 20+ years, I've managed to accumulate around 71620 cards - not including dupes - and am still building it to this day. My focus is commons - not inserts, parallels or short-prints, just commons from each set, each year. I'm trying to get at least one card of each player in each uniform he ever appeared in. I think John Candelaria is my greatest achievement. Mike Morgan is proving to be most difficult.

Anyway, I'll be coming back here as often as I can, perhaps even with some news on any goings on in the Baseball Card world here in Australia. Granted, not much does happen, but when it does, I usually find out quickly!

I have just purchased 6 boxes of cards from the 90's on Ebay, for a total cost of just under $200 Aussie dollars. They are :

1994 Upper Deck Series 2 (Western Region)
1995 Topps Series 1
1995 Topps Series 2
1997 Topps Series 1
1997 Topps Series 2
1999 Topps Series 2

Each has 36 packs inside, so it should be a great day when they arrive, considering they're all from the one seller.

For anyone who notices, I will let you know what comes out of those boxes, if it is noteworthy!

Cheers,
Nick J