Collection chaos

I used to take a certain pride in the chaos of my collection.

Don't get me wrong - I'm still an insane collector hoarding cards of 947 different guys, but I like to imagine I've made attempts to lessen the madness recently, or at least control it a bit. I've had physical want lists at various times in my collecting life, but perhaps my biggest step in controlling the chaos has been starting to enter my cards into TCDB, which I've mentioned on the blog recently. 

I envisioned cataloging as something that would allow me to keep track of my own cards, and not necessarily to open up trades with people who see that I want/have certain stuff. However, Bo of "Baseball Cards Come to Life!" was actually nice and enough to comb through my TCDB lists (which, as of this writing, still only has my Angels cards on it) and find cards I didn't already have.

While my cataloging will probably always be a more selfish endeavor, it's nice to get a package of cards and know that everything in there is gonna be a need.

In addition to the Casey Kotchman at the top of this post (proud to say I'm the #1 Kotchman collector on TCDB!) came a few other relatively Angels dudes who I collect for whatever reason.

Don't think I've ever had anyone else send me new Brendan Donnelly or Robb Quinlan cards, which is just one reason I'm deeply indebted to Bo for going through my TCDB lists.

Here's a few of my personal favorite Angels guys, and ones who I own an ample amount of cards of, but that didn't stop Bo from finding a few I needed.

One of the dilemmas I had to face with TCDB was who and what to catalog - was I gonna enter everything, or just the top-tier guys?

I quickly decided on the former, mostly because I figured it wasn't worth the unnecessary mind games of trying to decide who was worthy of cataloging and who wasn't. If a guy's in my binders, that's good enough for me, and he deserves to be a part of my TCDB collection.

Someone like Wally Joyner is a good example - I don't really chase his cards, but as a relatively well-known name, he's earned a place in my binder and I'll certainly take any new ones that fall into my lap.

Bob Boone was the first star of my TCDB want lists - I couldn't believe how many painfully common cards of his I was missing, and Bo helped me close the gap a bit with that '88 Fleer.

(Also, I'm just now learning that, yes, there are actually cards I still need from that incredibly ubiquitous Pacific Nolan Ryan set.)

But it wasn't all just Angels from Bo - he took down three Dime Box Dozen needs in one easy swoop, and a fourth (Adenhart) that was one of the next in line to become a DBD suspect.

More prime player collection needs - I've still never gotten used to seeing Kenny Lofton in a White Sox jersey.

I obviously get great joy out of adding cards of bigger names like Tony Gwynn to my collection, but it's just as much fun to slide a new Jose Lima into my binders - perhaps even more so considering he doesn't have a million different cards like Gwynn does.

But I'll obviously never say no to new Gwynns or Loftons (especially not weirdly die-cut ones!).

This card just flat-out confused me - it's hard to tell from the scan, but both the "Topps Gold" logo and Olerud's name are printed in what looks to be silver foil.

Problem is, I can't find any record of a silver parallel set in '94 Topps, which has me wondering if it's was just accidentally printed without the gold foil. So that: is a misprint a "new" card? Or does it get banished to the doubles box like the rest? Given the way I collect, you can probably guess how I answered that question. It's sitting in my Blue Jays binder as we speak, snuggled next to all the fellow Oleruds for company.

Ah, who am I kidding - I can't help but embrace the chaos that comes with collecting baseball cards.