A big benefit to the 5,000-post/card giveaway was cutting down on the card clutter in my collection.
I've always been an accumulate-to-appreciate kind of collector. These collectors who have just 50 cards, all on display stands, I don't get. I'm not running a museum, I'm building a collection. A fantastic, ever-growing, awesomely-increasing collection.
But it's pretty clear that my means won't accommodate my desires. "His eyes are bigger than his stomach" has always been a problem for me when it comes to cards. I've also encountered a couple of "you can't take it with you moments" lately and although that never really gets to me, it's at least time to do some weeding out.
The giveaway helped. It will help even more when I finally get to reorganizing the collection based on what I got rid of -- cutting down on storage boxes and finding more binder space, specifically. I'm in the middle of updating my Dodgers binders though, so that's going to have to wait a little.
The Dodgers collection is the one thing where I haven't cut back. I really should but I don't see it happening anytime soon.
So along those lines I received a COMC package several days ago. It was the smallest package I have ordered from there since the early days more than 10 years ago when I was making two-card purchases.
I kept it small because I don't have a lot of cash at this time of year, I wanted to see how long it would take to get the cards, and that focus thing I'm taking about.
They showed up in a month. That's pretty good. And I think the cards also do a pretty good job of fitting into the narrower focus I want to achieve.
For example, 1970s oddballs will never be part of a downsizing project for me. This is one of my primary focuses: Hostess and O-Pee-Chee from that decade, especially OPC cards that magically erase the Rookie Cup off Butch Wynegar's card.
More '70s stuff that is a focus. Wacky Packages -- specifically from the mid-'70s -- will never show up in any giveaway from me, unless I happen to have dupes. I love landing specific stickers that I remember fascinating me as a boy. "Mold Rush" was one of those.
My accumulation of Clayton Kershaw cards seems like something I could cut down on, I mean a lot of these cards are from sets I have no intention of collecting or don't even know what they are. However, the Kershaw card that I bought at Dave and Adam's from yesterday's post was the 995th Kershaw card in my collection. I can't quit accumulating Kershaws when so close to 1,000! Focus, night owl, focus!!
Like I said, Dodgers will be difficult to trim, especially when I'm so excited about new ones. These two cards complete the 1993 Fleer Major League Prospects team set for me. It was just four Dodgers. I've had two of them for a long time, Billy Ashley and Rafael Bournigal. Somehow the above two eluded me.🙄
That's what happens when you're at the mercy of traders when it comes to '90s cards.
"You know night owl, if you want to cut down on cards, you could stop collecting cards from a set you've already completed."
NEVER!!!!
1975 Topps is exempt from all restrictions!!! I will collect this set forever. The dumb buybacks have been a godsend and these three cards get me to 459 from the set in buyback form. I already have my eyes on three more, too.
So that's where my focus lies: '70s oddballs, Dodgers, Kershaws and the 1975 Topps set. Throw in any kind of vintage and I'd be happy if that's all I collected for the rest of time.
We'll see if I stick to that. You know somebody is going to throw a Target gift card at me at some point and then what do I do?
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