It may not look like much, but I love it, as it fills a hole in my collection that couldn't be filled.
I also did a few others. As 2016 Finest came out, I was very happy with the Intimidators set. Sure, I was bummed that it only came in regular, orange, red and super ... (If anyone runs into the superfractor, PM me!) I figured I'd have some fun and make another version of it.
I think it goes well with the others!
Last but not least, I have been wanting to do something like this for a while now. Something thick with a heavy memorabilia piece. Something like 2014 Topps Rookie Cup All Stars. So, here it is! It is a super thick card, and the rookie cup trinket used in the middle is the same one they used for the "real" 2014 Topps Rookie Cup All Star card.
To be honest with you though, that isn't what I have been putting a lot of time into lately. These past several months, I've been working on something huge for my collection. Something that I am very, very proud of.
Something that I hope you will be able to benefit from as well.
Like many collectors, I went through several stages. My checklist started as a handwritten document (which I could barely read anyway, because I have the quite possibly the WORST penmanship on the planet!). Then I graduated to a printed MS Word document. From there, I went to MS Excel. Each stage took a ton of work, but allowed me to easily share with the world what I had and what I needed.
This past year, I took it to another level, and made my entire checklist searchable online. I had dreams of people rushing to their computers to type in
www.CansecoCollector.com to see if they had cards that I needed. While it didn't *quite* go down like that, it did help me to quickly see what I had/didn't have if something cool popped up online. The problem? It took pretty long to load, and was. so. boring. I mean, thousands of lines of text just doesn't do much for anyone.
So, this is where I killed two birds with one stone.
Again, like every collector, I had thought long and hard about how to store my collection. I didn't want to top load ALL my cards and put them in boxes, because they would be hard to see/display whenever I wanted. I wanted to put them all in binders, so I could easily look at them.
On the other hand, I KNEW I wasn't going to put all my cards in pages. I've seen far too many left column cards bite the dust thanks to over stuffed albums. Plus, since I am BIG into organization, what am I to do when I fill up an album, only to find a variation I didn't know existed? Knowing me, that would mean taking out all the cards in the binder to make room for the one I needed (which would probably never get done.)
The solution?
Scan every single card.
Title every single card.
Put them in my own online searchable database.
Make the search capabilities powerful.
So, that is what I did! Thankfully, a former supercollector I purchased a lot off of had several already scanned, but I still had to scan thousands of items, name everything and setup/modify the searchable database.
This scratches two itches for me: 1) It allows me to share a fun visual checklist with someone that can quickly & easily check against to see if they have a card I need, and 2) It allows me to enjoy my cards as if it were in a binder - only better. It also allows me have fun looking at my rainbows, and line up my variations in a row.
I took a pic of all my 1986 donruss rated rookie variations the other day, just to see what I had, and it was a pain gathering them all. I had to go into my 1986, 2001, unopened pack and buyback boxes to retrieve them all. Heck, I even forgot some of them. Now, I can just run a quick search: Then ... BAM! It even tells me the amount of items.
What about the highly coveted 1992 Topps All Star card? Sure, most think regular, gold & gold winner. Here is my run...all 11 of them:
2015 Topps Dynasty?
Of course the most fun for me is to run a search to show only my patch cards, autographs, 1/1's etc. The search capabilities are very flexible, so I can almost pair up anything and everything to show together. It even has the capability of setting tags, so you can automatically call up my favorite cards, very rare cards, customs, etc. Speaking of customs, this has been great to allow me to fully integrate my customs into my collection. They look right at home with the "real" cards!
You can try it out at
www.CansecoCollector.com - if you like it, you are welcome to check out the tutorial I wrote here on how to set it up for your own collection!
tanmanbaseballfan.com/put-collection-online-make-searchable
Oh, and another thing: Want to take a screenshot of an ENTIRE page all at once? Download "Awesome Screenshot" for Firefox. Great stuff!
As collectors, we don't just want to buy cards and shove them in boxes. There is a much more social element to it all. We want to share our treasures and hear the feedback of others - just look at all the "mail day" threads online. Speaking of which, these past 1-2 weeks have been EPIC in terms of PC additions, primarily thanks to these two HUGE hits!
So, without further ado, this is the moment I've been waiting for. The moment I get to finally share my ENTIRE collection with you. Something that I have spent COUNTLESS hours not only assembling, but also loading up online...and I'm glad I did!
My collection simply would not be what it is without you all telling me whenever a cool Canseco pops up somewhere online. I cannot thank you enough! PLEASE keep it coming!
And now, friends ... the heart of my obsession. My collection ... in its entirety. (Until the mailman comes today, that is!) This is what happens when you only collect one player, and are obsessed with baseball cards!
This could possibly be the longest posting in the history of forums....