Where I’m at with the sorting and cards from Johnny

 Today I was finally able to finish organizing the NL cards from the huge lot the Johnny gifted me. I went through all of the Topps cards and uploaded new ones to TCDB and set aside dupes. I still want to go through my binders and pull out non-Topps dupes in order to conserve space for the forthcoming AL sorting, but other than that, the NL is all sorted and combined with my box of cards I’ve acquired in the last few years that needs to go into binders. 

Those cards from the last few years include a number of complete sets (‘85-‘95 Topps Traded, ‘99 Topps Traded, 1991 Topps, 1993-1995 Topps, 1997-1999 Topps, 2021 and 2022 Topps, 2021-2022 Topps Update, 1990-1992 Topps Debut, and 1991 Score Traded. A number of those sets have doubles that I have in binders, so that’s another reason why I want to go through my binders and weed everything out. The NL boxes stand at 3 monster boxes, maybe I can get it down to 2 or 2 and 1/2. 

Next step in my master plan is to separate all the AL cards from Johnny by team. After that, I’ll organize them by year, and then enter all of the Oriole and Red Sox Topps cards into TCDB. That will catch me up as far as all of the AL teams that I’ve entered Topps cards into the site for. Stay with me as the next step is tricky. I’ll take the next AL team (Chicago White Sox, as I organize them alphabetically by city) and go through my binder and enter all the Topps cards into TCDB, while also going through my organized AL box and culling out all of the dupes and entering Topps cards that I find in there. I’ll do that with the rest of the AL teams, and then the last step before putting some the loose cards into binders. 

I’ve done a pretty good job of pulling out multi player/multi team cards and sorting them by years and number. The plan is to put those cards in whatever team the best player is with. If I have multiple cards, I’ll put it with the next best players team. I also want to make a physical typed out list of all of my Topps needs by then as well so I can highlight a card once I’ve acquired it. Probably add the lists on this site as well. By that time, I’ll probably start entering my non-Topps cards into TCDB. It will also be easier for me once the non-Topps stuff is entered because if I get a random pack of cards, as long as I enter everything on the site, everything will be current. Might make this long, arduous process worth it. Almost forgot to mention some sets that are coming out that I might have to add to the boxes soon. For one, the 2023 Topps set was scheduled to release on August 2 last time I checked. I’ll sort those by teams and input them once I get my hands on a set. I also noticed that 2023 Topps Chrome is either out now or by the end of the month. Is Topps Chrome out that early every year?  I always thought it came out in like September or October around the time when Update comes out. I’m ok with it coming out earlier, but just hope it doesn’t mean that Topps just killed Opening Day and other issues just to get higher end stuff out earlier. I want Opening Day back in 2024 and not a SP filled version of Big League geared towards flippers. I guess we’ll see in 2024. 

Living so close to Johnny means that if I am lucky enough to win one of his daily contests, that I receive the cards relatively fast, sometimes before the next post is up if I win on a Friday. That was the case this week as I won last Friday and had an envelope of cards in my mailbox on Monday before the post was up that said I won. 

A bunch of Rays and a Tiger card, which was my first dose of the 2023 Bowman Mojo Mega Box refractors or whatever they are calling those refractor cards that have the almost Diamond plate pattern. The Glasnow card might have completed my 2021 Topps Chrome Sonic Rays set. Once my Topps cards are input, I’m going to input my Rays binders non-Topps stuff first. I’ll be real interested in how many sets I’ve completed and what players I have the most cards of. The Boggs is my first 2023 Donruss card, and the rest are nice Rays cards I believe I have but will be able to throw in my rookie card binder. I’m especially happy with the KK Update rookie and the Baz Bowmans Best rookie. 

Thanks for the nice cards, Johnny. 

That’s about it for me. Now I have to just figure out a way to balance all of the organizing, sorting, and list making along with all of the daily chores and hanging out with family. With this, I just need to enjoy the process and not rush it. It will eventually get finished and I’ll have something new to chase and I will be able to know my Topps needs. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my latest post. 

-Jeremy

Lessons learned

 A few days before leaving for vacation, John from Johnny’s Trading Spot contacted me and let me know that he just acquired a huge junk wax lot and I could have it since he knew I was collecting a number of Topps sets, including junk era ones. All I had to do was drive to Ocala and pick them up. My first off day during the week we got back, I was able to head up there, and I was blown away with the sheer amount of cards. 5-6 monster boxes, 3 other boxes packed full of cards, and about 15 albums full of cards. 

We’ve been back for a month, and Ive been sorting cards for about an hour a day after work on weekdays and most of the days during off days, and Ive separated the AL from NL cards, separated all the NL teams, separated the D-Backs, Braves, Cubs, Reds, Rockies, Marlins, and Astros into years, and took out duplicates and added to my ‘ready to put into binders box’ with the D-Backs, Braves, Cubs, Reds, Rockies, and Astros. I expect it to take another month or 2 to have all the new cards added to my ready for binder box, and then it’s back to inputting Topps cards to TCDB for the last 9 or so AL teams. 

Kyler has had fun helping me sort cards into teams, but he enjoys looking at the backs and finding funny player names, finding birthdays close to his, and finding cities where players were born that he has been to a lot more than actually sorting the cards into teams. 

John mentioned that these cards would be a lesson to me to always look for a better deal and not to jump on the first thing I could find. As many of you know, I’ve purchased a few junk wax sets on eBay and Goodwill Finds. The eBay ones were mostly good deals, I think, but the 1991 and 1993  Topps sets I got on Goodwill finds was probably a bad deal. While they had a low price, the shipping cost me. With the price that John paid for the lot, I would’ve got a lot more. 

Among the cards in the lot were a partial 1981 Topps set, a number of 1982 and 1983 Topps cards, a partial 1993 Topps set, a complete 1994 Topps set, a partial 1988 Topps set, and that was just the Topps stuff. Among partial non-Topps sets, were 1994 Stadium Club, 1993 Fleer, 1991 Score Traded, 1994 Flair, 1994 Select, 1995 Studio, 1995 Summit, 1994 Leaf, 1994 Donruss, 1995 Collectors Choice, 1995 Upper Deck, 1995 Upper Deck Special Edition, and I’m sure I’m missing 1 or 2 others. That was just stuff in binders. The stuff in boxes was also everything you could think of. I found a 1969 Topps Ron Santo and stuff as current as 2022 Bowman. A few rookies, a handful of serial numbered cards, and a good amount of parallels were included. 

Let me just stop right here and show you how whomever originally got these cards out of packs sorted them in his binders. It was very thought provoking for me, and if I didn’t already double bag my cards, this might be the way to go for me. 

Here is a standard page from one of the binders. Your standard 1995 Collectors Choice page, not double bagged, so you would expect to see the backs on the reverse side, but on some you don’t. Why could this be?

Well, whomever got these cards out of packs stored them in numerical order, and if he pulled a parallel of a card, he put them on the reverse side of the card. A really cool idea on how to store parallels, especially if you are going for a parallel set. This guy actually did me a favor by not double bagging, as I’ll have a number of pages (and binders) to store cards in when I get everything sorted out in the coming months. 

There were so many cool cards, too many to show, but just know I have a bunch of new Tigers, at least 1 or 2 new cards for just about everyone in my Favorite Player Collection, and only in a year or 2 when I get all of my cards uploaded to COMC will I be able to finally close the book on this massive haul, and I suspect I will have many junk wax sets (not just Topps) completed or missing just a handful of cards. I would venture to say that my favorite card from the group was this 2009 Topps Pirates team set card of PNC Park. It came just days after seeing a game at the beautiful stadium, and you can bet I’m going to put the date and Karen, Kyler, and the Dickenson’s names on the card. 

These are just a taste of some of the parallels and noteable cards. I had never pulled the Smoltz MVP error after at least 3 boxes worth of ‘90 Donruss packs opened. Now I have at least 3. I found some ‘98 Score Platinum Team cards, and a low #d 2003 Donruss Classics card. Not at all what I expected from a junk wax lot. 

While on the subject of ‘giveaways’ from Johnny’s Trading Spot, I figured this would be a good chance to show the 2 envelopes I got for winning 2 days of his giveaways. 

Some shiny Tigers and a spattering of Bowman Rays. I wish the Rays would call up Mead and install him somewhere in the lineup. Maybe have him DH and put Ramirez, Lowe, or whoever would normally DH in RF and trade Margot away for pitching. God knows with the Rays obsession with spin rate that we will lose at least 1 more starter this year. Here’s hoping Shane Baz can come back before October. 

Well, with all of those sets I acquired, I easily ended up with close to a few duplicate sets. Ones I wouldn’t have had to pay money for if I had been patient. That wasn’t the only lesson I learned. 

While I was at John’s hanging out after picking up the cards, I’m not gonna lie, I got he urge to dig through some of his trade card boxes like I had the last time I came over. Not just being content with the huge lot of cards he generously purchased and gave to me for free, I asked him if he would mind if I dug through any of his trade boxes if he had any accessible. He told me it probably wouldn’t be possible, but kindly let me dig through some Rays he has in the trade box for winners of the blog contest. I want to apologize to you, John, for being greedy and taking advantage of your generosity. I should’ve been happy with what you gave me and not pushed the issue. You taught me a lesson to be patient with card prices, especially junk era, and I hope I can learn another lesson and not be so greedy with cards and be happy with what I have, especially if I get them for nothing. 

I expect as soon as I can update the rest of my AL teams Topps cards, that I will make lists of what I am missing just so I can know if I am close to finishing any sets. Maybe a Just Commons order will be in my future in a year or so. Then I will start with every binder I have and upload my non-Topps cards into TCDB. It will be fun to look at the stats when I am done to see which player I have the most cards of and things like that. It will be cool to do some trades as well. Be sure I’m pulling cards as I see them to trade to some of you bloggers. Not sure when I’ll send stuff out, but I do have some stacks going. 

Thanks John, for the great hoard of cards that you so graciously bestowed on me. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my latest post. 

-Jeremy