My collecting timeline

I had a thought the other night: if I were to put together a timeline of my collecting life, what would it look like?

Instantly my mind went back to notable firsts, big moments, dream cards acquired -- but after a while I came to realize that my collecting timeline really starts on the day I was born: February 19th, 1992. I like to say I acquired my collecting genes from my parents: my dad collected baseball cards as a kid and has collected records basically his whole adult life. Both my parents enjoy hoarding books, as most of my earlier memories involve being surrounded by bookshelves (it would be much longer before I acquired that particular collecting gene from them).

My dad has told me that he bought a pack of 1992 Topps to celebrate my birth -- he doesn't know what happened to it, nor have I ever opened a pack of my birth-year Topps in the years since, but in my head I like to imagine that pack contained  a Carlton Fisk or a George Brett, one of those few hangers-on from my dad's youth, still in the game when I was born.

1999 -- My first pack of baseball cards

I don't exactly recall when I bought my first pack of cards, or what they were -- but my most educated guess places it as a pack of 1999 Topps, purchased when I was seven years old.

Admittedly, it isn't the greatest starting off point -- '99 is easily a bottom-tier Topps set -- but it got the collecting juices flowing, and I'm sure I got a huge kick out of pulling cards of guys on those weird new teams called the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays.

2000 -- My first binder

I collected all the major sports in my early collecting years, and I vividly remember the little blue binder I used to put all my "good" cards in as a kid (including this minor league Kerry Wood that I thought would make me a millionaire one day).

That binder multiplied into two binders, then three, then four...all the way up to the 80-plus binders spread across my room right now -- and while I don't know what happened to that first little blue binder, it'll always loom large in my collecting memory.

2001 -- My earliest collecting memory

My first pack of cards and my first binder exist as hazy memories in my mind -- I don't recall many specifics about them, but I know they existed.

Looking back, I have to say my earliest clear, vivid collecting memory is sitting in the backseat of my mom's car, ripping open a pack of 2001 Upper Deck...and pulling an Ichiro rookie(!), still one of the most treasured cards in my collection today.

2001 -- My first card show

Here's another unclear memory: I don't specifically remember my first card show, but I'm guessing it was one of the big convention hall gatherings in town (the same convention hall show I still attend, in fact).

I have an image in my head of digging through a box of discounted vintage with my dad, the spoils of which resulted in some of the first heavy hitters in my collection (including the '58 Killebrew you see here) -- I guess even then I knew I was destined for the grimy, well-loved cards of the world.

2002 -- My first trip to Graf's

I've mentioned it many times in the past, but the card shop of my youth was a place called Graf's, an unassuming little store on a street corner a few towns away.

I bought some of my first binders there. I bought my first cheap boxes there. I think I dug through my first dime boxes there. I slowly built up my vintage collection there -- I bought my '65 Ernie Banks from Graf's, a card that, personally speaking, is probably the most iconic card I own because of the memories held within it.

Before Graf's, I think I treated baseball cards like any other hobby -- I collected Hot Wheels and Beanie Babies and many other things over the years -- but that little shop, more than anything else, truly convinced me how fun a lifetime of collecting cards could be.

2005 -- I start collecting...hockey cards?

For some inexplicable reason, I completely ditched baseball cards in favor of hockey cards for a single year -- every time I went to Target or Kmart or wherever else in 2005, I bought...hockey cards.

While I still like hockey, and don't mean this as anything against its fans, this odd year-long foray remains one of the great mysteries of my youth and adolescence: baseball is the sport I was born to follow.

2005: Graf's closes

I try not to have too many regrets in life, but here's one: the last time I went to Graf's, I bought almost all hockey cards.

Sure, I bought some baseball for old time's sake during that last fateful trip -- including this still-treasured Julio Franco rookie from a 6/$1 box -- but the vast majority of my purchases were cheap hockey packs and boxes. I don't remember if my parents and I read that Graf's was closing, or if we simply tried going again and found boards on the doors, but either way that wound up being the last time I ever saw card shop of my youth. And I bought hockey cards...

I've been to other card shops in the years since, but none of them can so much as light a candle to the heaven that was Graf's.

2006 -- Back to baseball...kinda

I don't remember what shocked me back into sanity, but I started collecting baseball cards again right around my freshman year of high school.

Trouble is, I brought my hockey card tendencies with me -- that is, I continued to hoard jersey and autograph cards. I still bought packs and chased singles of my favorite players, but I treated jersey and autographs as the real treasures. As a high schooler on the almost non-existent budget of a high schooler, I still wonder how I did it, how I continued to convince myself I was getting the most out of the hobby this way.

I still have a good amount of the bats and jerseys and autographs from those days stowed away in a binder -- including this Ty Cobb bat card I received from my dad as a Christmas gift many moons ago -- but it's probably the least flipped-through binder in my room right now.

2007 -- Joining the trading forums

Technically, my forum days began a few years prior, when I joined an MLB Showdown forum, but that was mainly to discuss the game, not trade the cards.

I joined my first trading forum not long after I got back into baseball cards -- and while I look back upon those days with a fair amount of anguish (oh the infinite book value-for-book value trades!), truth is it did introduce me to the online community that would soon play a larger role in my collecting life, as well as add quite a few notable cards to my collection (like my '71 Bench!).

2010 -- What the hell am I doing?

I can remember the exact moment I became the type of collector I am today.

I was flipping through a dime box one card show morning when I came across this Bernie Williams, a brilliant piece of cardboard I'd never seen before. I didn't buy it. Great card, sure, but Bernie Williams isn't really a guy I collect and isn't collecting only about chasing cards of guys you collect? Repeat: I DIDN'T BUY A BASEBALL CARD OF A GUY PLAYING GUITAR. After days and weeks and months of thinking about it, I went from maybe I should've bought that card to Yeah, I should've bought that card to WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING?

Player collecting, set collecting, and all types of collecting are fine and good, but at that moment I realized that in the end, collecting should be about anything that gives me pleasure, and of course a baseball card of a guy playing guitar gives me pleasure (oh, and happy ending: I eventually found a different copy of that Bernie Williams card!).

2011 -- I start a blog

I started this blog on a fateful December night in 2011, mostly on a whim.

At first I mainly intended it to be a place to discuss baseball and the weird quirks of my own collection -- like if it was too early to start casting my Hall of Fame votes for Tim Lincecum -- but over time it's become so much more than that: it's become a trading post, a sounding board, a community I never knew I needed.

2013 -- The garage sale find

One thing I love about blogging is that a blog itself kinda acts as its own timeline.

Every turn, every swing of my collection is documented right here so that I don't have to rely on fuzzy memories and imperfect images -- the packs I've opened, the people I've traded with, and, in an unprecedented stroke of luck, even the time I found a Mickey Mantle in some dude's basement.

2017 -- My ultimate white whale

Thanks again, Dad!

2020 -- Still here

A whole 21 years later, and I'm still here.

My collection, like all collections, has ebbed and flowed, but I've never stopped collecting since the day I bought that first pack of baseball cards in 1999. It's been a joy, an addiction, a connection, a passion, a whatever-you-want-to-call-it ever since. Baseball cards are a part of my life. Always will be. I just bought a couple blasters of Opening Day last week, in fact, and I felt that youthful joy all over again, breaking the seal on each and every single pack, hearing that quiet crinkle and pop.

It'll never get old.

COMC quarantine

My work finally decided to close to the general public this week.

I can't say I'm surprised. I love bookstores, but there's far more essential businesses right now, and I'm honestly shocked we stayed open as long as we did (we even went forward with a huge sale last weekend which is pretty much the opposite of how to approach a pandemic). I'll still be able to work a few days a work answering phones, shelving books, mailing orders, etc., but for now it looks like I'll be staying home more often than not for the near future.

You know what that means: more time with my baseball cards!

This comes in handy because I still haven't put away the cards I received from my latest COMC order a few weeks ago -- a stack of cards that included a nice boost for my new Ted Simmons collection.

I took care of most of Simba's common base cards with a large Card Barrel order, but COMC helped fill in some of the obvious gaps, as well a few more oddball items that weren't available over there. I usually only use COMC to find stuff that isn't readily spotted in the wild, but that '76 Topps at the top of the post was too gaping of a hole to leave in a collection of a classic '70s dude like Simmons.

Throw Kellogg's and a '75 mini into the mix and I think I'm on the right track -- now if I could only find a cheap copy of his '71 Topps rookie...

Obscure cards for some of my oldest player collections here.

The Ichiro is an action variation, and the Vlad's from one of those weird player-curated online sets (Tatis Jr.) that I can't decide if I like or not.

Mini-collection madness!

Famous dudes in not-so-famous uniforms.

What's more, this COMC order even helped pin down a few new faces for my zero-year collection -- the Astros traded to Zobrist to Tampa for half-year rental Aubrey Huff in 2006, while Tatis Jr. for James Shields could go down as one of the worst trades in White Sox history.

Ah, who am I kidding -- it's already one of the worst trades in White Sox history.

What I love about COMC orders is that they're a physical record of all the different kicks and excitements I was feeling at all the different times I logged on to the site.

Just from this scan alone, you can see the rabbit holes and randomness of so many different searches: Permagraphics, phone cards, Rocky Colavito, and yes, even the Monkees!

Someone must've been purging their '80s Star collection, because these were all obscenely cheap.

Each of these sets focus on a single player, which can be a huge hit-or-miss concept, but I really like the Stars because they tend to feature photos you rarely see in mainstream sets -- Fernando hitting! Fernando being interviewed! Fernando signing autographs!

I also binged a bit on those super shiny silver pack singles because they were so cheap -- they go nicely with the obligatory liquorfractors I seem to add with each passing COMC order.

Sports Illustrated for Kids, always a throwback to my youth.

COMC is where I go to sample most of the online-exclusive stuff I never see in-person -- the Davis is another fun one from that Tatis Jr.-designed set, and the Ryu is from the Throwback Thursday series I can't help but love (even though '72 Topps isn't exactly an oddball design).

The top two are from the membership-only Montgomery Club set -- and while I hate the idea of having to buy a membership for baseball cards, fact is those just look a helluva lot better than most of what Topps is putting in packs these days.

Thick cards, pointy cards, and other stuff that's just generally hell on binder pages (but were too cool to pass up).

Other randoms -- I've had my eye on that Wills for a long time now, and the Wally Rank has to be my first card of an auto dealer(!).

Legendary players on legendary cards -- seeing Jackie Robinson on the awesome '97 Ultra design just about made me swoon.

I've yet to find a place that can even light a candle to the sheer mass of oddballs available on COMC.

Box bottoms, regional minor league releases, Canadian exclusives -- it's all there.

Oh yeah: they've got vintage oddballs too!

The Kranepool and Hrabosky are from the more scarce '75 and '78 SSPC sets, and somehow I never knew a Burger King verison of that '78 Fidrych existed until now.

These '71 Topps suspects are easy enough to find in the wild...

...but not the OPCs!

The Tony C is a classic Short Term Stop/sunset combo, and I have no idea why an OPC Cesar Cedeno rookie was available for all of a couple quarters -- buy now, ask questions later.

There wasn't a ton of classic vintage in my order, but -- and this has become a common theme with this post -- I couldn't believe how cheap Luis Aparicio's cards were.

Finally, I decided to treat myself and shell out a whopping four bucks for this '57 Harvey Haddix, a former member of my "Keep Dreaming" list and the most expensive card of this order.

I have a special place in my heart for otherwise obscure/forgotten players who enjoyed one glorious moment in the sun (Bobby Thomson, Philip Humber, etc.) and Haddix might be the king of the hill there. Better yet, his cards go for almost nothing: with this one (the first and only card I've seen of his brief time with the Phillies) even this cheap collector now owns all of his Topps commons (1953-65) aside from his '53 rookie. It'll be a pleasure to add it to my binders, probably sooner rather than later since I'll be holed up with my baseball cards for a while.

Sometimes I look upon unsorted cards with despair, but not now -- with all the spoils of this COMC order, I'll be there right along with you, playing with my cards under the quarantine.

The (Second) Dime Box Frankenset Bracket: Cowan Region

Last week's votes are in!

#11 (Page 47) -- 1993 Upper Deck #415 Denny Neagle (22 votes)

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#6 (Page 28) -- 1983 Fleer #249 Aurelio Rodriguez (12 votes)

#3 (Page 35) -- 1995 Upper Deck #312 Steve Buechele (19 votes)

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#14 (Page 53) -- 1991 Score #475 Andy Van Slyke (14 votes)

#7 (Page 33) -- 1963 Topps #294 Bill Rigney (27 votes)

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#10 (Page 15) -- 2001 Ultra #132 Matt Stairs (7 votes)

#2 (Page 74) -- 1992 Upper Deck #666 Bob Ojeda (20 votes)

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#15 (Page 26) -- 1973 Topps #231 Bill Parsons (14 votes)

What was an insane week for the rest of the world ended up being a fairly drama-free round of frankenset voting -- none of the matchups were all that close, and even the lone upset (Neagle over Rodriguez) was an easy victory.

It's also nice to know that the only manager to win a frankenset page (Bill Rigney) survived into the second round, given that most managers don't get the most exciting cards.

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And with that, the first round is complete!

Much thanks to everyone who voted -- now, without further ado, let's go all the way back to the Cowan Region to kick off the second round of the frankenset bracket.

#1 (Page 68) -- 1972 Topps #611 Rich Reese

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#8 (Page 37) -- 1996 Stadium Club #333 Jay Buhner

#4 (Page 62) -- 1973 Topps #555 Bill Hands

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#5 (Page 58) -- 1996 Collector's Choice #522 John Smiley

#6 (Page 61) -- 1999 Fleer SI Greats of the Game #53 Joe Rudi

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#14 (Page 32) -- 1998 Stadium Club #284 Sean Berry

#2 (Page 10) -- 1992 Studio #86 Jose Lind

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#7 (Page 29) -- 1977 Topps #255 George Scott

That's it for this week's matchups -- the polls are now on the sidebar.

Happy voting!

The world is ending, but at least I have my cards

Okay, so the post title might be a bit extreme, but there's a hint of truth in it.

There are many reasons we collect cards: some of the obvious ones being pure fun, love of the game, etc. But I think there's another big factor here that doesn't get discussed as often. Comfort. I collect cards because they are a reliable source of joy, a backbone for it all. I've been doing this long enough that I literally can't imagine my life without my collection, and over time it's brought me so much comfort in what can often be a mad, mad, mad, mad world.

Enjoying my cards -- simply sorting them, or looking through them -- has helped pass countless bad moons, and will surely pass many more in the future.

Even better: a collection is never complete, always growing, which provides all the more opportunities for joy and comfort.

I've received a few packages from loyal readers as of late that did their fair share in bulking up my binders. One came from a reader named Arthur who reached out and said he had a bunch of stuff from my various Opening Day want lists...and boy he wasn't kidding.

He took down about 90 percent of all the inserts listed on my OD need lists from 2015-present -- including some I've long loved ("Superstar Celebrations"), some I rarely see ("Team Spirit"), and others I'd completely forgotten about ("Hit the Dirt").

That also came with a similarly decimating attack on my recent OD base want lists as well, which I was happy to see.

I still have a soft spot for Opening Day, and I'm way more excited than I probably should be about (hopefully) finding some of the 2020s on Target shelves soon.

Jeff B., a reader who's sent me cards a few times now, knocked this '79 Topps Ted Simmons off my Dime Box Dozen list recently.

I'll probably have more in this in a future post, but I righted a longtime wrong and started collecting Simmons after his election to Cooperstown. Thankfully, I was able to secure most of Simba's base cards off Card Barrel, though a few obvious ones -- like this '79 Topps -- weren't available there and thus became gaping holes in said collection.

I've noticed a kind of awkward beauty to a lot of Simmons's cards, and this one definitely has that going for it.

Jeff also sent a couple parallel mini-collection hits along for the ride -- '90s Dufex rules!

I came home one night to find an entire box of cards from longtime reader Mike W. waiting for me -- I can't help but think I'm really not worthy of this whenever a big box o' cards arrives in the mail.

And after I opened it, I soon declared myself totally unworthy of the '91 BBM Hideo Nomo(!) Mike had so graciously included.

And if I'm unworthy of that, then how can I even begin to describe how I felt when I found second(!!) and third(!!!) BBM Nomos in there?!

Though they might take a bit of a backseat to the Nomos, don't sleep on the other oddballs Mike sent me (including my first Blues Brothers card!).

The perfect collision of books and baseball cards, my two favorite hobbies.

Announcer cards! Damn Yankees cards!

Nifty player- and mini-collection hits here, although I probably still have something like 8,454 of those Olerud Topps Tek patterns to chase down.

Finally comes some cards from Wes W., a generous reader I've known long and well from the insane kinds of packages he used to drop on me -- and while Wes settled for a much more modest PWE this time around, it still packed a heckuva punch.

Leading off was this '56 Topps Jack Meyer -- no, I have no idea who Jack Meyer is, but when someone sends you a free '56 you need not ask such questions.

Most of the PWE consisted of these excellent Target Dodgers even though I'm probably about the 186th most prolific Dodger collecter in the blogosphere.

I like big, sweeping team-issued sets like this because a lot of the cards in them (including almost all of the ones Wes sent) feature guys who were much more famous playing for other teams and/or were only Dodgers for a short time.

But one Target Dodger easily stood out among them all -- and that's the immortal Hoyt, of course!

There aren't many Dodger cards of Hoyt (this is only the sixth one I own), which kinda makes sense because he was a Dodger for all of 25 games at the tail end of his Hall of Fame career. And despite my many Hoyt-collecting years, this particular one lurked in the shadows until it arrived on my doorstep, which really is a fantastic way to discover a baseball card you never knew you needed.

So, sure, if the world is ending, so be it -- with all these cards waiting be sorted and loved, I'm willing to hole myself up in my room until need be.