Inventory Woes

Over the past few days, I decided to go through the laborious task of cataloging every baseball card I own into a Word document, and saving it on a flash drive. Since I've been back in the hobby, I've been buying and selling so much product that I really don't know what I have, exactly. It is time-consuming, to say the least, and it won't get any easier with my 2011 Bowman box coming today. Add another 192 or so cards to the list.

What I'm finding, though, is depressing - I have a lot of "junk". Junk as in many, many commons. I'm taking a guess that when I'm done with this project that I will have somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 cards. Not much by some standards, but enough. And a good majority of those are crap. Almost-complete sets of 1987 and 1988 Topps. 2007 and 2010 Topps Updates. 2008 SP Authentic. Even my vintage years are mostly commons.

I've tried selling cards as large lots, as "U-pick" lots, and as team lots, and nothing is working. It seems everybody is in the market for autographs, serial numbered, rainbows, etc. Which is fine, except that I'm stuck with a lot of flotsam that I can't move.

I have my 1974 Topps set that I'm working on that holds a special place, as it was the first year I really started collecting cards (I was 9). I have my Phillies cards, some going back as far as 1957. That's special because of my fan-dom. And I have my PC's to keep me interested. But the other stuff is just that - stuff.

I can't sell it (because it won't), but I can't just throw it all way, either...as worthless as it is, I find throwing baseball cards away to be sacreligous.

Maybe it's just that I put too much value on the cards. I had my entire 1976 collection up on eBay a few weeks back, $29.99 for 176 cards, and got no takers. That's 17 cents per card - maybe that's too high a price, I don't know. There were a lot of Hall-of-Famers in that lot, too.

Nevertheless, I'm working my way through the inventory and will hopefully come up with a way to consolidate my collection to the things I really care about, without just dumping cards.

Welcome to my Blog

A little bit about me...I've been a baseball card collector since 1974, with lots of breaks. For example, I went from 1979 to about 1990 without collecting (high school and military service), as well as leaving the collecting scene completely again in the mid-90's.

I got back into collecting again in 2011 after cleaning out my house readying it for sale, and I came upon my old collection of approximately 2,000 cards. My cards went as far back as 1957 all the way to 1994. I made the decision to unload most of my old inventory and focus on a personal collection. Currently, this PC includes:

1974 Topps set (currently about 75% completed)
Philadelphia Phillies, 1948-80 (25% complete)
1971 Washington Senators (83% complete)

I also made a decision, based mainly on blaster boxes I purchased this year, to focus on 4 players to collect: Chase Utley (being the die-hard Phillies fan that I am), Andrew Bailey (he being the first MLB player to come from my high school), Zach Britton (top prospect of the Baltimore Orioles), and Jameson Taillon (#18 Prospect in MLB in 2011). These PC's could change throughout the year, meaning I will more than likely add players to my PC as the situation warrants.

I will focus mainly on Topps and Bowman, with some Upper Deck and Donruss Elite as needed. I'm still trying to understand the hype over 'game-used' cards, and although not a big autograph hound, I will look at autos of players in my PC, for collection sake.

I'm also a seller on eBay (dn43591), as a way for me to shed some of my older cards (1975-79 Topps mainly) and make a few bucks with which to build my PC.

This blog will hopefully attempt to document my attempts to complete my PC, liquidate my inventory, and comment on the industry/hobby as a whole. I also will be open to trades and/or sales if anyone is interested.

Happy reading!!