The Joyless Collector

If there's one thing I never want to become, it's The Joyless Collector.

I see them all the time at card shows: the people who walk around grumbling, flipping through boxes in a huff, and just generally not appearing to have much fun. But isn't that why we're here? For fun? I'm not saying there aren't things about the hobby that frustrate me, but in the end there's a reason I'm still here: because the thrill of collecting simply beats out all the negatives.

I don't trade on the blogs nearly as much as I once did - writing this means I'm all somehow caught up with my trade posts! - but I don't want to give the impression that it's due to a lack of fun, because people still surprise me on a regular basis.

Take a package I received from new(ish) blogger David of "Card Boredom" recently - a gift that saw not one, but two 1952 Cubs come my way!

I've been blogging for nearly 13 years now, and I don't think I've ever had someone send me anything from '52 Topps before (with a '54 Bowman thrown in for good measure) - so yes, the surprises are still here.

David also threw a '65 Topps Embossed Ernie Banks my way - while I'm not particularly thrilled with this set (is anyone?) and I already had Mr. Cub, David's copy (left) is clearly better than mine.

Because I've learned there is a minor thrill in the joy of a decent upgrade.

Our friend Mark from "The Chronicles of Fuji" recently stumped me on his blog with these cards from something called Topps Clear - basically straight Topps reprints with different numbering on the back given away at select airports.

Mr. Fuji even generously sent a few my way - David Bote is still a favorite in Dime Boxedonia! - and had me wishing for a quick moment that I still worked at the airport (god, that job sucked).

I've developed more of an obsession with minor league cards over the past few years, and I've learned that these Line Drive sets are particularly good for mini-collection hits (even posed ones count!).

This quartet of pitchers pretending to hit and outfielders pretending to catch came via a fun little envelope from Bo of "Baseball Cards Come to Life!".

Bo also hit a Dime Box Dozen need of mine with that Eckersley (send me all the Cardinals Ecks!).

I specifically requested that Zoilo Versalles from Bo, because in addition to being a coveted Zero-Year Card...

...it's also an OPC!

(Still not sure why '69 OPCs seem to be particularly tough.)

Ho-hum, a couple more Sega Card-Gens from everyone's favorite Japanese cardboard supplier: Mr. Zippy Zappy of "Torren' Up Cards."

He's responsible for about 97 percent of the Card-Gens I own, so my collection is almost singularly in debt to these hallowed Zappings.

Most of my trading these days consists of an informal give-and-take with a few longtime friends of the blog, one of whom is our resident scribe Greg of "Night Owl Cards."

On the one hand, I think Topps ruined Big League with their dumb tiered-rarity base sets - but on the other hand, actually getting one of the super rare Blue Foil Kershaws from Greg certainly shocked me!

  

Greg is always good for a few curated want list hits - reminds me why I keep a want list in the first place - and there's yet another airport-themed set that I kinda like with the Trout.

I've said it time and time again (probably to convince myself more than the rest of you): I'm not a team collector, I'm not a team collector, I'm not a team collector.

Still, seeing a stack of random Cubs waiting for me in trade packages from Greg has routinely brought a smile to my face for years.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the generous souls of the blogs would just send Ohtani cards to one another for nothing, but that's exactly what Mr. Shlabotnik of "The Shlabotnik Report" did!

While Ohtani might be cool, that "All Aces" Catfish Hunter is even better - seriously, I don't think Topps got enough credit for the mastery of those inserts.

Mr. Shlabotnik also finished off my "Stars of MLB" needs from Series 1 - are people still hoarding Elly De La Cruz cards?

In addition to a few other want list hits came my first look at 2024 Donruss, accompanied by the usual "meh" reaction (what uniform is PCA wearing there?). 

I throw Heritage SPs on to my want list with the expectation I might knock one off the block every eight months or so.

Which is why I was floored to see an "All-Time Leader" Ty Cobb short-print fall out of this Shlabotnik PWE (why did you have to make these SPs, Topps?!).

If nothing else, it's simply good to be thought of in regards to the things I collect.

Longtime trading buddy Jim of "cards as i see them" apparently ordered multiple copies of this early 2024 Topps Now card, and graciously sent one to me for my beloved "42" mini-collection.

Speaking of mini-collections, there's a neat parallel of a longtime favorite "Pitcher at the Plate" with that Trevor Hoffman (has a batting helmet ever looked more awkward on someone?).

Pair that with a flurry of other cool needs in this PWE, and you have a fun little batch of randomness...

...and that was before a Babe Ruth variation fell out!

If I remember correctly, Jim came into a few of these on the cheap recently, and by the goodness of his heart passed this one on to me. The early-2010s Legend SPs are incredibly tough, and that's even before the added tax that a lot of The Bambino's cards seem to carry. In short, not anything I'd expect to fall into my lap.

So, yeah, I'm eons away from becoming The Joyless Collector - if you can't find something to love about baseball cards, you're not trying hard enough.

Not an old fogey yet

There's something incredibly dull about a collector whose ways are set in stone, and I've always had a vague fear of becoming that person.

To me, baseball cards exist in a seemingly never-ending universe that's a blast to explore, the good with the bad. If you only live in a small corner of that universe, then you'll find yourself with nothing to do after you complete those three sets you love, or chase down all the cards you need of your favorite player.

As much as I love chasing that eternal string of cardboard, I sometimes worry about my tastes never changing. But lately I've noticed a shift in my opinions of a few sets. While there's a certain horror in all that lost time - why'd it take me so long to come around? - it's also kind of a thrill to rediscover something you'd long relegated to the background. It's a sign that our tastes are ever-changing.

A prime example for me is 1970 Topps - a set I'd always considered bottom-of-the-barrel but has recently been growing on me to the point where I'm starting to further cherish the ones I own.

I think I relegated '83 Fleer to also-ran status for the same reason as '70 Topps: drab, boring borders.

A good border is the first hurdle for a design - I've been guilty of immediately assigning sets with dull borders to "blah" status. But like '70 Topps, I've started to come around on '83 Fleer - it's really a fine set once you get past the edges.

By no means am I saying that it's a top-tier Fleer offering, but it's at least deserving of more love than I've given it throughout my collecting life.

I really don't know why I never liked '88 Fleer - you certainly can't accuse this set of being boring with those barbershop borders.

My only guess is that it falls in the general overproduction-era of cards I've seen a million times. I don't remember '88 Fleer grabbing me much when I first saw it as a kid, and I've never really given it a second look in that time.

I unabashedly love '91 Fleer and its yellow borders, but now I'm wondering if Fleer might've hit upon another treasure I'd long overlooked three years prior.

I know perfectly well why I never gave '92 Upper Deck much respect - it's sandwiched between two of my very favorite UD sets, and any set that has the misfortune of coming right before the legend that is '93 Upper Deck is doomed for failure.

Unlike a lot of my shifts in taste, which tend to happen gradually, I looked at this Craig Biggio card last week and a light instantly switched on in my head - wait a minute, this set is great!

I distinctly remember being disappointed when I first opened packs of 2008 Topps as a teenage collector.

I think it's harder to change one's opinion on a set they experienced in real time, and that's probably why I've always tossed '08 Topps aside. I can't help but flash back to that "meh" feeling I had when I first saw it.

I still think the design here crunches the photos in a little too much, but those loveable dotted team names have the distinctness and pizzazz that's been missing from so many modern Flagship sets.

When you get down to it, I don't know that I've had a bigger shift in opinion over a single set than 1998 Topps.

There was a time not long ago when I ranked this as The Worst Topps Set Ever. I can understand why - the player names can be unreadable, and what was with Topps's obsession with bronze borders around the millennium? It's not conducive to 

But oh, the photography! In addition to producing my all-time favorite Vlad Guerrero card, it's obvious that Topps went through great lengths to produce some memorable cards for us collectors here. Given how much stock I can admittedly place in photos over design, it's weird that it took me so long to see the greatness here.

So every time I worry I'm becoming that unshakeable old fogey, remind me to go back and remember the harsh words I had for sets like '83 Fleer and '98 Topps once upon a time.

White whales come in many forms

When you think of the term "white whale," I bet a lot of collectors conjure up images of a T206 Honus Wagner or a '52 Topps Mickey Mantle.

While a few such vintage Goliaths are indeed on my "white whale" list (anyone have a spare Roberto Clemente rookie?), some of my most-wanted cards seemingly aren't anything out of the ordinary. My most recent COMC order helped strike down one such behemoth with a...1990 Topps TV Bill Buckner? Certainly not white whale material, you'd think.

Yet every major card company somehow ignored Buckner's largely forgotten second stint with the Red Sox in 1990, leaving only a few scarce oddballs as the only trail of evidence. This Topps TV issue was so rare that I'd never even seen a copy for sale in the 5-6 years I've been looking for it, until a copy randomly popped up on COMC one afternoon.

White whale, speared!

Is it possible for an entire set to be a white whale? Often seen, but never captured?

That's what 2012 Heritage High Numbers is for me. For some reason, Topps made this set an online-only release for a few years, and I believe this one had a print run of a mere 1,000 copies (many of which I'm convinced are still being hoarded for the Bryce Harper rookie). It's sad because this set happens to have a lot of dudes I collect and/or guys in weird uniforms.

Twelve years later, I finally have my first four cards from this set in the binders (the quartet cost about $10 on COMC, which is somehow a fantastic price) - O the glorious Dodger Bobby Abreu sighting!

So many Japanese cards feel like white whales because of their geographical distance from me here in suburban Illinois - somehow managed to grab that Shota Imanaga BBM issue for under $2 before the seller regained their senses.

If I ever win the lottery, I'm going to Japan just to make a tour of their card shops.

Ichiro with a goofy mascot! Ichiro in a "42" jersey! Ichiro with the media! Ichiro on the Marlins!

All hail Ichiro!

COMC is always good for a wonderful array of weird oddballs.

Those "Jewish Major Leaguers" sets are shockingly expensive (I check all the time, hoping in vain that an affordable one will slip through the cracks), but once in a while I can find singles on the cheap.

A TCMA extravaganza!

(I'm especially fond of the Charlie Robertson - he's probably the most obscure guy to have ever pitched a perfect game, and you don't see many cards of him.)

I buy minor league cards knowing full well that the few I'm lucky enough to find are really just the tip of the iceberg of all the ones I need.

Always love a Red Sox Jeff Bagwell sighting, and that's my first minor-league issue of Dime Box Favorite Bo Hart.

A few horizontal gems here, including a Max Scherzer photo variation and a nifty Beverly Hills 90210-themed Joey Votto.

(Also, how often do I get to show a new Burleigh Grimes card??)

I fully admit that I'm just as prone to bells and whistles as anyone - shiny cards and oddly-cut cards and (Wonderful) 3-D cards and all!

Neat oddballs of a few favorites here - how often do you see cards of Nolan Ryan hitting?

A handful of SPs, photo variations, and other Topps shenanigans that are only available to me through COMC.

(I really wish we got to see more of National Chicle.)

I want any and all Babe Ruth Braves cards, and given how big of a Black Sox collector I am (and how much Panini Golden Age I bought back in the day), I'm a little shocked I didn't already have that Swede Risberg.

Those 2009 Topps Legend SPs don't come cheap - at a whole $7, the Maris was actually the most expensive card from this order - but I still can't help myself from buying 'em.

These seem like a couple cards I've had in my collection since I was a wee vintage collector...

...but when you flip them over you'll find they're not what they appear to be.

The Piersall is an OPC, the Gates Brown a Topps Venezuelan - and both are wonderful additions to a couple of my favorite old-dude collections.

Plugging away at the last few '78 SSPCs I need - got to cross a couple more off the list with Bert Campaneris and Sandy Alomar here (who both look weird in Rangers jerseys).

I'm slowly discovering the joys of cataloging my collection - through TCDB, I discovered this was the was the last card I needed to have a complete run of Kellogg's Reggies, and within minutes I'd hopped on over to COMC and secured a copy.

I fully understand why others avoid cracked Kellogg's, but it doesn't bother me much - the fact that it makes them exponentially cheaper certainly helps. (And I certainly never thought I'd own a whole Kellogg's run of someone as huge as Reggie Jackson!)

Only time will tell what the next white whale I spear will be, but I'm pretty sure I'll be leaning more towards the cracked Kellogg's and Topps TVs of the card world than a '52 Mantle.

I'm becoming Rickey Henderson

Sad news from Dime Box HQ: come November, I'll be out of a job again.

My bosses at the bookstore have decided to retire from the book business, justifiably so since they've been selling books for almost as long as I've been alive. Selfishly, I'm bummed because this has been the best job I've ever had by a wide margin, and after three years at the place I never had to think twice about looking for anything else (which is more than I can say about my other jobs). And I figured I wouldn't have to for a while. But alas.

Simply put, I have no idea what I wanna do next, but at least I have a few months to think about it. When you flip over my baseball card, you'll find that I've had five bookish jobs in just about nine years in the book trade. If I were a ballplayer, I'd be safely described as well-traveled. 

If I've become a bookstore nomad, I like to think I'm less of the obscure journeyman and more of the Rickey Henderson variety - Rickey's an all-time great who weirdly played for nine different franchises and switched teams a staggering twelve times (he had four different stints with the A's alone!).

Time will tell at this point - bookstore jobs are hard to come by regardless, and that's not even factoring in the question if I wanna work retail again.

This is all a somber tie-in to a wonderful batch of cardboard I received from blog legend John of "Johnny's Trading Spot" a while back. If you've ever received cards from John in the past, you know he deals in volume, and though there's admittedly a lot of dupes, you'll also find a bunch of stuff you didn't even realize you needed.

John took aim at my autograph mini-collection this time around - with the  much-needed (Angels!) Rickey at the top of this post came a plethora of other new signees.

One thing I like about parallels is that they allow me to enjoy cards I've had forever all over again - the base versions of these have been in my binders for a long while, but you bet I want the Silver Signatures, Gold Parallels, Home Team Advantages, etc.!

I feel like a lot of people have tried to get me to start a bubble-blowing mini-collection, and I've been able to resist that temptation...for now.

I also keep all the bubble cards I get, which is probably a sign that I should just start the darn collection already.

No matter how big my player collections get, I'll probably still need obvious cards for a lot of 'em - how did I not have that '95 Donruss Jim Abbott already?

John is a known connoisseur of Random, and that comes across in his mailings - how often do you see people sending Eddie Grant and Mickey Vernon cards?

(Not sure what that Ruben Sierra is, but it's kinda frightening.)

I haven't been able to find much info on these, but John also sent me a complete reprint set of a neat obscure '40s "Sport Thrills" issue that packed a hefty amount of star power.

More cards that have absolutely nothing in common other than the fact that I need them.

(Not even a loud Star Wars-ish design can ruin a Ron Santo card.)

MLB's not the only one making fun baseball cards - there's an awful lot of Senior League cardboard out there considering the league itself only lasted a little over a year.

(Always love a chance to show anything of Dime Box Favorite Lyle Overbay around here too!)

I've gone on record saying I never quite know what to do with oversized cards, but that doesn't mean I won't welcome them with open arms.

They often end up becoming display pieces in the front pockets of my binders because I've yet to find a way to store them that vibes with my sorting system.

Tying it all together is an oversized card featuring, you guessed it, an autograph shot! (I wonder if that little kid even remembers meeting Jim Edmonds.)

One of the many joys of collecting is the refuge it allows from our uncertainties. It doesn't subtract from the very real stress I'll have about looking for a job in the next few months (please don't ask me to describe my strengths and weaknesses), but I don't know what I'd do without an island for my pleasures and distractions.

In the end, all I can ask out of the time I spend with my cards is to ease the headaches a bit.