Quality vs. quantity

I very much used to operate on the philosophy that quantity beat quality, every single time.

I vividly remember one card show a while back - right around the time I started this blog - where I didn't spend more than a dollar on any single card, and was quite proud of that. Dime boxes rule, of course, and their sheer mass has helped build the scope of my collection over the years. But while I'm by no means opposed to a good dime box dig that ends with me taking home 500 cards, I've come to realize that sometimes one great $10 card is just better than 100 decent dime box cards.

I like to think it's one of the ways I've matured as a collector, if such a thing is possible for this insane thing I call a collection.

But that's not to say there isn't a place for sheer quantity in this weird, wild world of baseball cards.

Take two different boxes (yes, boxes) I've received from Johnny of "Johnny's Trading Spot" in the last couple months. Anyone who's traded with Johnny knows his propensity for quantity. In fact, I can't remember many mailings from him that didn't show up on my doorstep in big ol' boxes. But the great thing here is that there's a good deal of quality within the quantity, like these neat '60s oddballs I found nestled within the giant trench of team bags Johnny stuffed into this box.

Send me all your Senators, and I'll certainly take that Bunning even though I've never been big on those '65 Topps Embossed cards (is anyone?).

The current era of cards seems to produce an inordinate amount of sets I not only haven't seen, but have never even heard of.

Don't know what Panini Absolute is(?), but I suppose any set that has an Edd Roush card in it can't be all bad!

I always appreciate when people go mini-collection hunting for me, because while sorting extras by player or team is fairly commonplace, I can't imagine many people have their spare "autograph" cards grouped at the ready.

Along with pitchers at the plate, throwbacks, etc., this is one of my favorite mini-collection projects - which is ironic because I've never been the sort to hunt autographs at ballgames.

As Johnny is always apt to do, his second box contained A LOT of Cubs - and while I say over and over again that I'm not a team collector, I can't help but smile at such a large lot of cardboard from my favorite team.

Only a stack of Cubs cards can get me excited over perennial greats like Greg Maddux, as well as incredible busts like poor Brett Jackson (and that's also the first of those orange factory-set parallels I've added to my binders!).

Cubs oddballs are often my favorite oddballs.

(Why do so many mascot heads insist on scaring the crap out of me?)

Shiny Cubs!

It should be noted that Johnny slipped a little non-Cubs flavor into this giant ocean of Cubs - most notably a couple excellent Negro League pogs, and one of the paltry few sportscaster cards I can say I own(!).

There are definitely arguments to be made in favor of quantity in this hobby - I treasure this "1st Day Issue" Olerud even though all that separates it from the normal base card I've owned for years is that little sparkly stamp on the left side.

I know there are many collectors out there who add like three cards to their collection a year. I've seen others who easily add tens of thousands. It's hard for me to imagine either, and I think my personal key to true cardboard enjoyment lies somewhere in that middle mass. No matter how much my dime box-crazed mind doesn't want to hear it, quality should and does win out over quality a lot of the time.

But if these boxes from Johnny are any indication, sometimes there's room for both.