Two Months Passed

It's been two month since my last post. Not surprising. Travel baseball season hit force the week school ended. 9 am games on Wednesdays or Thursdays and trips to South Bend and Chicago. I looked up and May turned into August!

The 16U season was likely the best yet, which is great considering college is right around the corner. Last year there was little thought that college baseball was an option. After this season, there is much more thought about playing for junior college, NAIA, or Division III school. 

A two way player, he batted .407 (2nd on the team), had a .955 OPS (3rd on team), and amazingly only struck out one time in 63 plate appearances. That's Tony Gwynn territory -- Tony struck out about 1 strikeout for every 23.6 plate appearances.  On the bump, he went 18 innings, with 32 strikeouts (17 looking thanks to the nasty curveball putout pitch). For most of the season, the ERA was around 3.00. 

There was some hobby progress during the two months as well, but not a lot. 837 new cards joined the collection which sits at 32,151. Father's Day, a trip to the LCS with my youngest, TCDb trades, and WhatNot shows, all contributed to the boost.

I continue to read other's blogs as well and have been noticing a lot of cleanup / downsizing. I'm also joining the ranks. Lack of space and renewed focus on interesting cards are all contributing. As a kid 1988-1992 Topps, Fleer, Donruss and Score dominating my prime childhood collecting years. Those take a lot of space and while fun to look at, how many 1991 Fleer Felix Fermin do I need? 

So here are the key things that have been happening:

1. Reorganization

• While I like binders for certain items, I'm running out of storage space. These two row boxes fit perfectly into the Globe Wernicke barrister bookcases, that I inherited from my dad. Binders do not!

• Some cards remain in binders (Cubs Team Sets, All Star Sets, Subsets), I've been busy breaking down into smaller binders. Goodwill is a great space for small binders by the way. Instead of $3-$4 at office supply stores, you can actually find new ones at Goodwill for 99 cents.
• The Junk Wax cards (Fleer, Donruss and Score) that I gathered as a kid are all boxed up and put away. I can't bring myself to simply throw them in the trash, so am continuing to look for ways to give them away or trade them away to other set builders.

2. Player Collection Focus

At times, I can find decent deals on individual players. The key is being patient and finding Vintage Card sellers where the room is below 50. I have a good set of sellers that I now follow and can trust. When cards are over 50 years old, I'm not concerned about soft corners, wrinkles, slight paper loss. Let the speculators dumping their money to PSA worry about that stuff.

I've been much more focused on the handful of stars from my youth (George Brett, Mike Schmidt, Bo Jackson) and a few select vintage guys that I did not see play, but interest me. Brooks Robinson, Rod Crew, Joe Nuxhall are just a few. 

3. Subset Focus

I found a great use for the 4 card binder I received for Fathers Day last year. World Series cards. I knew I had several from collecting as a kid. Now if I'm on WhatNot or at the LCS, I'll pick these up if they're not outrageous. 

Topps Gold Cup Rookies and Topps All-Star cards also continue to be a big focus. For the most part I'm focusing on Topps inserts, but will expand it to Fleer (those SuperStar Series and ProVision cards are awesome). Some of these Gold Cup rookies will be in the shape that this Fisk is in, but I don't mind that at all.

3. Cubs Team Set Builds

These two make collecting 50s and 60s Cubs Team sets a challenge. That and high numbers in certain years of common players that should be nowhere near $10-$20! I just keep my eye out for the well-loved Ernie's and Billy's that show a little wear or printing issues.