Cast-offs

 

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I've begun thinning out my Dodgers binders.

I've known from the moment I returned to the hobby and restarted collecting my team that my stated mission to "collect them all" and be a completist when it comes to the Dodgers was impossible. Even before the explosion of parallels and super short-prints about a dozen years ago, it was a pipe dream.

Putting that knowledge into action though has been a slow process. I just don't like giving up my Dodgers. But it started almost unconsciously, by ignoring most, if not all, super short-prints. Then I drew the line on many parallels, although the acceleration in number made it easy. No human has time or brain capacity for all that.

Now, thanks to some looming space issues and some bulk sends from Johnny, I've started removing Dodgers from my binders. In many cases this was a long time coming. I didn't actually think that some of these cards were Dodger cards or separate parallel cards. In other cases, I had to take my brain aside and have talk. What are we doing here? We just can't keep acting like there's unlimited space.

 

So, these are the cards that have been removed so far. I happen to be updating my Dodger binders anyway, so as I go along from year-to-year, I remove cards that just don't fit anymore and banish them to this box.

My primary target right now is Bowman sets.

This is 2004-2011. I need to go back to when Bowman started putting guys in its sets that never made the major leagues, I think that's mid-'90s? And I haven't gone past 2011 in my binder updates yet so there's more to come.

I'll leave alone Bowman sets from, say, 2018-present on the chance some of those guys do make the majors. The rule is: if you play in one major league game, for any team not just the Dodgers, then you get to stay in the binders. Otherwise, you're banished and what the hell was Bowman including you in a set anyway, that's not even a real MLB uniform you're wearing.

I haven't done the same for similar sets like Pro Debut. I think it's because in many cases Pro Debut uses the Topps design from that particular year and Bowman's designs are so unappealing. But Pro Debut's time could be coming.

 

Likewise, all of the freakin' ugly Panini sets, Prizm and such, with players who may have been drafted by the Dodgers but didn't reach the majors, are now stashed in the box. Don't matter if it's numbered, stuff like that has no meaning if you aren't in the majors! I don't even know what the Werner Blakely card is doing in my collection, he's been in the Angels organization his whole career.

 

 

 The rules are even more stringent for minor league cards. It's fun getting minor league cards of players in the Dodger organization who are known more for playing for another MLB team, but the shelves in my card room are forcing me to make difficult choices. As much as I like minor league cards, they're not major league cards.

This was a quick turnaround. I think I was briefly brainwashed by TCDB into thinking back variations of this sort was worth page pockets in my binders. I don't think that anymore. If the "variation" is a copyright symbol or an amount of asterisks or a dumb period, you're in the box, baby. That ain't no variation.

These were the first to go. I loved watching Bugs Bunny as a kid. It's cool seeing him on cards. But just because a team's hat was painted on the character doesn't mean it's now a Dodger card. I've stared and stared at these in my binders and wondered what they were doing there, and every time I update the binders, moving these feels like a chore. So now I don't have to move them.

And that's all I've gotten to so far. I'm sure if people could peak into my team binders, they'd wonder why some other cards are staying but these ones aren't but that's why you don't get to peak into my binders!!

I make the rules and it's been overdue for some of these. There will be others.

For now these cards will stay in a box (hopefully just one), but in a lot of cases I have zero use for them -- it's just a pain to remove them from my TCDB inventory. But if anyone wants a Leon Landry card or a Mike Christopher card with no period after U.S.A., I won't turn them down. Just give me a couple weeks.