The most tedious aspect of collecting

I just mentioned that I don't find sorting tedious at all. While some people agonize over organizing a giant lot of cards, I find just about every aspect of sorting relaxing and a good way to detoxify.

I'm a bit of a strange bird in that way. I seem to have patience for hobby particulars that provoke groans in other collectors.

I don't really mind scanning cards. Yeah, it can take awhile but my brain automatically categorized scanning into the work needed to create a post. It's required if you want your blog to have pretty pictures and, you know, have people look at it. It's part-and-parcel for the whole operation.

Same deal with cropping. This can get laborious but I don't whine about it -- not even when the card comes out crooked and I have to scan it again and I drop the scanner lid too forcefully and the scan is crooked again ...

I stay chill.

But I have found what I consider the most tedious part of the hobby. It is so tedious that I'll probably be working on it the rest of my life.

It's upgrading my want list.

Some of you may know I lost the entire want list off my blog a year-and-a-half ago. I've rebuilt a portion of it, mostly Topps cards and other sets that I'm working on currently, and that took awhile.

Right now I'm at the most tedious part: recreating want lists for all of the sets that contain Dodgers cards.

I'm going back in time with those. So for Upper Deck, Fleer, Donruss, Bowman, Pacific, Score, etc., I'm trying to find every Dodger in the set and whether I need it or not.

I've been doing this for over a year. It's as painful and staking as painstaking can get. Many times I'll ignore updating the list for like two months because I. Can't. Take. It.

I've gotten through all of the sets from 2018 through 2008, with most of the 2019 sets updated, too. I am currently in the middle of 2007 and I'm pretty damn close to throwing my collection of 2007 Upper Deck cards out a second story window.

It turns out I had no idea how much I was missing for Dodger cards when I created my initial list. Here is what I typed in yesterday, relating to Upper Deck's "Predictor" cards from 2007:

Predictors: 
Green: 23-Young, 252-Gonzalez, 280-Pierre, 345-Garciaparra, 346-Furcal, 347-Betemit, 349-Martin, 350-Ethier, 351-Kemp, 352-Lofton, 353-Penny, 354-Lowe, 355-Billingsley, 356-Maddux, 357-Saito, 358-Broxton, 437-Schmidt, 492-Garciaparra
Blue: 23-Young, 252-Gonzalez, 280-Pierre, 345-Garciaparra, 346-Furcal, 347-Betemit, 349-Martin, 350-Ethier, 351-Kemp, 352-Lofton, 353-Penny, 354-Lowe, 355-Billingsley, 356-Maddux, 357-Saito, 358-Broxton, 437-Schmidt, 492-Garciaparra; 
Purple: 23-Young, 232-Gonzalez, 280-Pierre, 345-Garciaparra, 346-Furcal, 347-Betemit, 349-Martin, 350-Ethier, 351-Kemp, 352-Lofton, 353-Penny, 354-Lowe, 355-Billingsley, 356-Maddux, 357-Saito, 358-Broxton, 437-Schmidt, 492-Garciaparra, 
MVP: 50-Garciaparra, 51-Drew, 52-Furcal; Postseason: 15-Dodgers
Silver Parallel (stamped): 767-Biemel, 768-Brazoban, 770-Hendrickson, 771-Kuo, 772-Schmidt, 773-Tomko, 774-Wolf, 775-Lieberthal, 776-Anderson, 777-Kent, 778-Martinez, 779-Saenz, 780-Gonzalez, 781-Pierre, 782-Repko, 783-Garciaparra, 784-Valdez, 785-Schmidt, 796-Clark
MVP Potential: 27-Garciaparra

Yikes.

Many of those cards are just the same card with a different colored set of bars on the side (or elevator doors, since 07 UD is the Elevator Door set). It's pretty obnoxious, although not unusual at all as any collector of current cards knows.

So it's a super-slow process and keep in mind I don't even include most relic or autograph cards because I'm not interested in them enough to pay the prices for those.

When Bo of Baseball Cards Come To Life came into some Dodgers cards from around 2000-05, he asked whether my want list had been updated for those years. No, Bo, they haven't, I responded, because I'M STUCK IN 2007 HELL!

I told Bo that I wouldn't get to fully updating 2000-05 until sometime next year and I could hear how far too optimistic that sounded. I'll be lucky if I get through 2006 next year.

So I told Bo just send whatever he has, chances are something will stick. It's still a period for which I didn't collect a thing.

Here are the cards (plus the Edwin Jackson above) that I needed:

A few of those cards are actually from the late '90s, but it's still a time period for when I didn't collect and I personally lump those years all together.

I like 2000-05 better because that was when the retro cards craze began and there are plenty of interesting sets from that time. I have less to say about current players from those year though. The Dodgers weren't all that exciting then. Only so much you can say about your 151st different Kaz Ishii card.

But they are definitely appreciated because they are Dodger cards I need.

I won't be crossing them off of any lists because those lists don't exist yet.

Who knows when I'll get to them.