It's been a year since I became a member of Trading Card Database.
I'm pretty happy I joined. The site speaks to the compiler and categorizer in me and while there are some minor annoyances with it (I don't care about your copyright variations please stop!), overall it's helped my collection quite a bit.
The TCDB numbers tell the story though, so let's see some of them:
Total cards in my collection: 92,110
Total baseball cards in my collection: 89,119
Total Dodgers in my collection: 25,342
Player with most cards in my collection: Clayton Kershaw, 996 (No. 1,000 is already in the house.)
Where that ranks among TCDB Kershaw collectors: Fifth. (I used to be 4th and will probably drop more in this category. Kershaw collectors are getting rabid, I just got an offer on there asking me to sell a Kershaw atomic refractor, which I'm not doing).
Top 10 players in terms of total cards: Kershaw, Mike Piazza, Hideo Nomo, Shawn Green, Matt Kemp, Eric Karros, Raul Mondesi, Adrian Beltre, Jackie Robinson, Orel Hershiser
Top 5 years with the most cards: 1990, 1991, 1989, 1988, 2009 (I expect 1989 to surpass everything eventually)
There are a lot more numbers that I could relay but I'm still not quite finished adding my collection to the site. And then there's the whole matter of whether I should add duplicates.
I said I wouldn't trade through the site until my full collection was on there and I haven't. Even when it is, I see myself trading with mostly known bloggers at least in the early going. TCDB is not immune to scammers as well as the old trading forum annoyances, as much as people have talked up the site for trading. It's still in the extreme minority of cases but I try to avoid those headaches.
So my number of TCDB trades is still: 0.
For me the best part of TCDB is finding out exactly what I have in my collection. That part has been a joy as I have always wondered. I have started to rely more on TCDB to find out what I have for certain sets and players than my own want lists. That tells you something right there because I have worked hard on my want lists and they have served me well for many years, as prone to human error as they are.
Just the other day I received another excellent package from Nick of Dime Boxes and instead of going to my want lists first to track down what I needed, I let TCDB do the heavy lifting. TCDB was so much more effective.
TCDB told me that these were the Dodgers I needed. The Heritage foil Kemp is super-appreciated and that Adrian Beltre card in the bottom corner is from an unlicensed set -- Scoreboard -- that I have never heard of before.
TCDB also told me that Nick sent me a complete set of the 1990 Bakersfield Dodgers and that I had owned only one of the cards previously.
This is not a flashy minor league set at all, in fact it's pretty dull even for 1990 standards. The Bakersfield team doesn't help as Tom Goodwin and Billy Ashley in the front are about the only notables in the entire set, unless you're a Dodgers fan and remember the disappointment of Jamie McAndrew.
TCDB also told me that I have these Dodgers already but I can reassign them to set quests. Thanks, TCDB!
You don't fully appreciate how helpful TCDB can be until you come across an oddball-laden package from Nick. I'm pretty much an expert in '80s-era food issues, but sometimes I get confused by the year of a late '80s product and TCDB is there for me.
My favorites here are the Pete Rose box bottom -- which features the best cutting job I've ever seen -- and the Gary Carter 1984 Glossy Send-In. I LOVE Glossy Send-Ins!!!! Put Glossy Send-Ins against the '80s Glossy All-Star rack pack cards and I will take the Send-Ins every time.
I won't forget about the Reggie Jackson Sonic card up there either, it's just that another Reggie card caught more of my attention:
This is the Fleer Sports Illustrated Covers card that I had meant to purchase when I was trying to land the cards that featured the SI's from the first year I had a subscription to the magazine. I confused it with another Reggie SI Covers card. Nick to the rescue! Saved me a buck or two as well!
Nick is also good for O-Pee-Chee cards which I will always want. They fit nicely into the back of the binder for the respective Topps set. Great fun.
Finally, in keeping with the Bills season beginning in a couple of days, a passel of Buffalos, none of whom are active with the team (there were mini Chrome cards??).
Like I mentioned recently, the days of needing Bills and Sabres are waning, just not enough space for more. I also don't enjoy updating nonbaseball cards on TCDB as much. In fact, some football and hockey cards are the majority of what I still need to get on there to finish my collection upload.
Participating in TCDB is pretty fun. There are a fair amount of activities you can take part in besides trading. I even enjoyed uploading card images from my collection for which they didn't have a photo yet. Unfortunately, TCDB only takes scans and my scanner doesn't work no more.
It's been a solid year, so if you're on there, look me up (I'm "night owl," of course) and I'll friend ya. But I'm not selling my Kershaws.
Comments
I cut that Rose box-bottom myself, and that's a high compliment for me since I've never been great with scissors! And happy I could get those Bills a good home - they were part of my giant garage sale haul recently & eased my "what the heck am I supposed to do with THESE?" reaction whenever I stumble into non-baseball stuff.