I've failed you and did not take a picture of my reorganization of my giant Dodgers box of dupes -- and accompanying satellite boxes of dupes.
It took three days to finish and was conducted entirely while sitting on a hardwood floor. Needless to say, breaks were mandatory.
I normally conduct this exercise once a year, in September. But life got busy and the dupes piled up and I finally found a little time last week. Normally I use the dining room table, but there were too many people about for that. So I commandeered the spare bedroom and started piling stacks of cards by decade that needed to join the rest of the dupes.
Some may wonder why I go through such a tedious routine for cards that are duplicates. Why do I organize stacks, then ad those stacks to the box, then pull out more cards from the box, and join more cards from the stacks to the more cards from the box, and repeat the process over and over to a mind-numbing degree, more mind-numbing than reading this paragraph.
It's simple. I've said it before. I always find a card that I need from that giant box of dupes.
This particular time wasn't as successful. I average discovering maybe 5 or 6 or more cards that I need per dupes reorganization. This time it was just two cards.
This was one of them. It's a forgotten insert from 2007 Topps, one of those "Hit Parade" leaders cards.
Luis Gonzalez had such a short stint with the Dodgers that I automatically assume I own most of his Dodgers cards. How many Dodger Gonzalez cards could be created, let alone in a single insert set?
The answer to that is "two." There are two Luis Gonzalez Dodgers cards in the 2007 Topps Hit Parade insert set. We must recognize all of the hits and RBIs accumulated by Gonzalez, 98 percent of which did not come in a Dodgers uniform.
I don't know what made me look at the Hits card and realize that it wasn't a dupe. The two cards look practically alike. But thank goodness for the back of my brain, it's filled with all kinds of baseball card nuggets.
The second card that was unearthed was actually one that I searched for myself in the dupes box, searched for in a panic.
While the dupes box reorganization was going on, I was also updating all of my Dodgers binders (I don't know why I do all this at once when I have no time). The Dodgers binders update is still going on and likely will through the new year.
While updating, I reached the 1989 Topps portion of my Dodgers, a well-tread portion of my collection. Cards I've owned for decades, sometimes 20 of the exact same card. I came to the page containing the "H"s for the Dodgers and saw the Danny Heep card.
Except it looked like this:
But there was no Danny Heep card without the ridiculous "Rediscover Topps" stamp on it. I started to freak out.
I looked behind the surrounding cards on the page -- sometimes I slip a card behind another card by accident. But no luck.
OMG! OMG! OMG!!!!!
There better be a Danny Heep card in the dupes box!!!
I started to think of all the terrible things that could happen if I didn't find a Heep in the dupes: actually purchasing a 1989 Danny Heep card online, placing a 1989 Danny Heep card on my Nebulous 9 list, actively begging for a 1989 Danny Heep card! The shame. The ridicule. The removal of my 1980s Master Collector badge. So many thoughts. None of them good.
I somehow managed to hold off in looking for the card until I reached the 1989 segment of my reorganization. When I finally arrived there, I found it:
One 1989 Danny Heep card in the dupes box. One. Not 12. Not seven. One. I do not remember there being a run on Danny Heep cards, but apparently there was.
Of course, I do have other versions of the '89 Topps Danny Heep card. There is one in my completed 1989 Topps set binder. There is another one in another completed set of '89 Topps in a box.
But you collectors understand that neither of those would do. The Heep had to come from the box of extras. And it couldn't feature A BLASTED STAMP.
We're all good now.
The reorganization is done and some cards were unearthed (I also found a few cards I could reassign, potentially trade and/or sell). I've returned the spare room to its original pristine state and the dupes box and all of its satellite boxes are back under the card desk where they belong. Another reorganization is scheduled for next September.
I hope it isn't quite as panic-inducing as this time.
It took three days to finish and was conducted entirely while sitting on a hardwood floor. Needless to say, breaks were mandatory.
I normally conduct this exercise once a year, in September. But life got busy and the dupes piled up and I finally found a little time last week. Normally I use the dining room table, but there were too many people about for that. So I commandeered the spare bedroom and started piling stacks of cards by decade that needed to join the rest of the dupes.
Some may wonder why I go through such a tedious routine for cards that are duplicates. Why do I organize stacks, then ad those stacks to the box, then pull out more cards from the box, and join more cards from the stacks to the more cards from the box, and repeat the process over and over to a mind-numbing degree, more mind-numbing than reading this paragraph.
It's simple. I've said it before. I always find a card that I need from that giant box of dupes.
This particular time wasn't as successful. I average discovering maybe 5 or 6 or more cards that I need per dupes reorganization. This time it was just two cards.
This was one of them. It's a forgotten insert from 2007 Topps, one of those "Hit Parade" leaders cards.
Luis Gonzalez had such a short stint with the Dodgers that I automatically assume I own most of his Dodgers cards. How many Dodger Gonzalez cards could be created, let alone in a single insert set?
The answer to that is "two." There are two Luis Gonzalez Dodgers cards in the 2007 Topps Hit Parade insert set. We must recognize all of the hits and RBIs accumulated by Gonzalez, 98 percent of which did not come in a Dodgers uniform.
I don't know what made me look at the Hits card and realize that it wasn't a dupe. The two cards look practically alike. But thank goodness for the back of my brain, it's filled with all kinds of baseball card nuggets.
The second card that was unearthed was actually one that I searched for myself in the dupes box, searched for in a panic.
While the dupes box reorganization was going on, I was also updating all of my Dodgers binders (I don't know why I do all this at once when I have no time). The Dodgers binders update is still going on and likely will through the new year.
While updating, I reached the 1989 Topps portion of my Dodgers, a well-tread portion of my collection. Cards I've owned for decades, sometimes 20 of the exact same card. I came to the page containing the "H"s for the Dodgers and saw the Danny Heep card.
Except it looked like this:
But there was no Danny Heep card without the ridiculous "Rediscover Topps" stamp on it. I started to freak out.
I looked behind the surrounding cards on the page -- sometimes I slip a card behind another card by accident. But no luck.
OMG! OMG! OMG!!!!!
There better be a Danny Heep card in the dupes box!!!
I started to think of all the terrible things that could happen if I didn't find a Heep in the dupes: actually purchasing a 1989 Danny Heep card online, placing a 1989 Danny Heep card on my Nebulous 9 list, actively begging for a 1989 Danny Heep card! The shame. The ridicule. The removal of my 1980s Master Collector badge. So many thoughts. None of them good.
I somehow managed to hold off in looking for the card until I reached the 1989 segment of my reorganization. When I finally arrived there, I found it:
One 1989 Danny Heep card in the dupes box. One. Not 12. Not seven. One. I do not remember there being a run on Danny Heep cards, but apparently there was.
Of course, I do have other versions of the '89 Topps Danny Heep card. There is one in my completed 1989 Topps set binder. There is another one in another completed set of '89 Topps in a box.
But you collectors understand that neither of those would do. The Heep had to come from the box of extras. And it couldn't feature A BLASTED STAMP.
We're all good now.
The reorganization is done and some cards were unearthed (I also found a few cards I could reassign, potentially trade and/or sell). I've returned the spare room to its original pristine state and the dupes box and all of its satellite boxes are back under the card desk where they belong. Another reorganization is scheduled for next September.
I hope it isn't quite as panic-inducing as this time.
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