You got me on the database, not so much the trading

 

Hey, guys! I've joined Trading Card Database!

 

I know, you never thought you'd see the day. I was the same way.

 

I wasn't eager to add another card thing in my life, especially not one that involved more filing of my collection as well as interacting with even more people on the interwebs.

 

The fact that certain collectors were pushing it like Amway members didn't help. Nor did the memory of other online card database systems disappearing forever.

 

But I decided to join anyway. Ever since my desktop computer died a couple of months ago, and my ancient spreadsheet that inventoried my collection along with it, I haven't had a good way to keep tabs on my entire collection.

 

I do keep track of certain key totals on the blog. I know the total number of cards I have and I know which players are represented the most in my collection. I'm good with knowing the amount of cards I have for maybe the top 200 or so guys.

 

But if you were to ask me "how many cards of Salvador Perez do you have?" I would have no idea without spending a half hour I don't have counting them up.

 

This wouldn't bother a lot of collectors, but I have a blog and I'm doing research all the time and stuff like this comes up all the time. I should have it available somewhere that I can view at the click of a button or two.

 

So I've come around on the database part. I'm not very enthused about entering all my cards. It's going to take months. But TCDB makes it a little fun (I think the members have been underselling that point a bit). You get to view stats on your collection every time you add new cards and which players have the most cards, what percentage of a set you have completed, etc. It makes the mundane nature of inventorying a bit easier to digest. But it's still going to be 2022 by the time I'm done.

I tackle it bit by bit, with the little time that I have. For example the next cards I will inventory are probably the smattering of current cardboard that I recently received from reader Dana. He's always nice enough to send a card and a note with the cards. There were about 20 cards that were some extras from some sets he's collecting.

I welcome the 2021 Gypsy Queen. I don't buy it, therefore I always need the Dodgers. It's horrid-looking as usual and this time the image is confined by a mirror-shape and I hate it when the players are all facing the same way (see 2020 Topps flagship's Dodgers).

But they're cards I need, so weeeeee!

Dana also threw in a couple of GQ Nationals who are now Dodgers. I don't collect cards like that, but both players are performing exceptionally for the team so I'll try to find a place of honor.

 

Here are the same two players from this year's Stadium Club. I don't know what's going on with hitters and their equipment. Turner looks like he's lost both hands.

 

Back to some Dodgers with the last couple years of Stadium Club. Red parallels of a couple of pitchers, one revered and one reviled.

 

So, yeah, I'll be adding these to my TCDB file. I'm still learning my way around things -- how TCDB categorizes sets and inserts and all of that Bowman confusion -- so it's very slow right now. But I think it will help me keep better track of things like what cards I need to complete a set. It's already pointed out a few variations that I didn't know about (TCDB seems to be all about the variations and errors, which is both helpful and annoying -- I don't care about copyright symbols).

For quite awhile I think that's all TCDB will be for me, a database. The trading part that everyone talks about isn't appealing to me right now. I'd rather do trades with the bloggers I know, and when the time suits me, I don't want to get into discovering new people's foibles and demands. I don't have time for it.

But you never know. Heck I'm on TCDB, which I figured would never happen.

And sometimes people like Dana send me stuff like this:

I don't know what to do with those. And, chances are, a fellow blogger or the other people I trade with may not be interested either. I know as well as other bloggers that the trading scene on the blogs isn't as healthy as it once was.

TCDB would be the ideal spot for stuff like above.

But I'm not ready for that. And if TCDB has communicating features and all that, don't try to find me on there, I'm not interested. I'll talk on the blogs or on Twitter (or in email). That's enough for me.

So, there I go, another new chapter.

You better not disappear like the others, TCDB.