Getting overwhelmed by new cards!

The people in this hobby are so great. I am actually getting a little overwhelmed by the amount of new cards that I'm getting in the mail...I think I can manage it, of course, but I have not been hit with this much new cardboard in a long time.

It started last week, when I received 4 packages of cards in one day. (the only one I have a photograph of)

Top row is a trade with Trading Card Database member bevans and on the right is one of the many packages of my ongoing trade with Shawn Norris. On the bottom is a giant box of hockey cards that I was given by a member of an NHL card forum I joined on Facebook. While what's showing is mostly 2016-17 Upper Deck, the box contained cards going as far back as 1973-74 and included several autographs, relics and serial numbered cards mixed in as well. On the bottom right is a box from Sportscards from the Dollar Store, which is almost entirely hockey and almost entirely new people for my collection. This all showed up on July 27th.

Two days later, I received two MORE packages of cards, from Trading Card Database member Mihome316, and frequent trading partner and blog reader Joel Freedman. These were mostly hockey also but included some baseball as well. The package from Wes's World Cup of Trading also arrived on the 29th.

Since then, I've been working on documenting my new additions non-stop! In fact, I didn't even turn my computer on for several days as I worked on updating/creating my NHL paper listing. My hand hurt too much and I ran out of binder space to finish, but I will get there eventually.

As I was working on the listing yesterday, I got a totally unexpected surprise package from Jason German of Jason's Sportscard Blog! I wasn't expecting that at all and it was a mixture of pretty much everything I collect- NHL, NBA, Non-Sport...even Olympics! Some vintage too, including a card from 1974-75 Topps NBA that is just about pack fresh. On the same day, a rare ebay purchase showed up with 11 more cards- several of which will be held back for the NBA Encyclopedia, which I simply have not had the time to work on in a while.

Today, August 5th, I get two more boxes from Tyler of Rekindling the Cardboard Flame. Probably more than 400 cards! I also managed to get to a car show, which is unusual for this time of the year, the heat takes a major toll on me with my health problems.

During this time, I somehow managed to get cards put together to send to 6 different people, 4 of whom went into the mail today. The package will be a surprise to at least one recipient.

Did I mention that for most of last week I was sick and had no energy whatsoever? I was. Don't worry, people receiving cards, I waited until I was better to get them out.

Did I also mention that I got two large packages of stamps in the same time period, adding a couple hundred new ones to my collection? I did! 

Now, the documenting in my paper listings in fun, I love it...one of my favorite aspects of the hobby. Creating the listings for each set can get tedious but I'll get there.

Here's where the hard part comes up...Most of the cards Douglas sent me and at least I would guess a third from Rob (the big box in post above)...All of the baseball cards John (Mihome) sent me...most of the cards Tyler sent me...most of the cards Wes and Joel sent me...are all new people for my collection. I have to now figure out which people are new to my collection, and then figure out which card of them was the first. With the box Rob sent me, and then the box Joel sent me, I went from not having people in my collection to having 3 or 4 all in one day. (I wrote in Excel the exact order they came out of the box- that took a day in and of itself).

I'm not complaining....no, I'm actually really grateful...I'm just explaining why I have not been properly thanking the people who have sent me cards and posting them.

I do have a bit of a dilemma. Remember how I started the series showing each new NHL player as they enter my collection? I'm not sure if I maybe started it too soon. There's still more players I don't have then I do, and with these boxes...I've probably gotten about 300 or more new NHL players alone. (lots more when you add the baseball cards from John, and Olympic and Benchwarmers cards from Tyler, almost all of which are new people, and the NBA from Ebay and the issue of SI for Kids that came on July 31st...) If I continue doing that series it's going to be all I do for the rest of the year. It won't leave me any time to do any other scanning, any other writing...any other posting. It will be just that. While I enjoy doing the posts, as it helps me learn about the history of the sport, I think I may have to put the series on hold until I get to the point that the person being new to my collection isn't the majority of the cards I get, as it currently sits now. At 10 cards per post, that'll be more than 30 posts...and since I write on average 10 posts a month...I'll never catch up, or at least it seems like it!

I may pick out highlights (players from the 100 Greatest list, specific cards I want to highlight, really great photos, etc) and post them only, or come up with a solution I have not thought of yet.

I may also open the list I've created documenting all the new people on the Database and just post a link to that instead.

Before I can even begin scanning any of the cards, I have to:

1. Figure out which people are actually new to my collection, which requires checking an Excel chart
2. Enter all the cards into my collection on the Trading Card Database, determining which ones need scans at the same time
3. Enter the new players and new sets involved into the charts on the same Database
4. Type the people into the NBA and NHL charts I maintain here on the blog

I still have more to do on the paper listing and my Excel chart that I document the exact order I get each and every card in. I am pretty sure I hit #6000 for the NHL already, even though I just hit #5000 last month.

At this rate I am going to give 2002 and 2003 a run for the money with most new cards added in a year...being as OCD about documenting as I am, you know I have those records! I only wish I had kept track of the exact order I got each card before 2014.

In the process of working on my paper listing, I sorted the new NHL additions by set, marking the first time in my NHL era that I sorted them by set. Being a set collector at heart, this is the "right" way to sort cards to me. My NBA collection has not been together by set since 2004, and NASCAR since 2009. I won't be able to put everything together by set until I finish scanning my entire collection, and that is 2021 at the earliest...but probably later because I'm the world's worst estimator. (In early posts on the Trading Card Database I predicted finishing in 2016...in reality I hit halfway in 2016, for example)

This I did think to photograph, and here are several. I did three waves of sets as the table is not big enough to do them all at once.

A photo I really like is this one, which is kind of abstract...it's a closeup of the "next wave" after the first round, and kind of shows how many cards there were that didn't make the first wave.

To put it in perspective of just how many cards I've been given or traded for in the past week or so...2015-16 Upper Deck, not visible in this closeup but is visible in the top photo, the stack is about 75 cards...the Next Wave stack towers over it by nearly a foot!

A few days ago I remembered also getting a package from CrazieJoe...it came right before bed one day, and I never even opened it...now I don't remember where I put it...I'm so clueless sometimes. I wish I could keep track of things in reality as well as I do in Excel.

After the car show today, my brother and I hit the local comic/game store. I picked up a couple vintage games for cheap. I have not purchased any games for Xbox in so long I don't even remember when it was. Probably more than 10 years ago. Since my TV died I can't actually play them at the moment but I will replace it at some point. I used to be a regular video game player but not so much anymore, except for Simpsons Tapped Out, which I play several times a day. The last system I got was the original Xbox, I never went beyond that.

I also love military history so I figured I'd give them a shot too. For a few bucks each I figured it was worth the risk.

Once again, thank you to all my trading parts and generous fellow collectors!