The end of a major project, my Trading Card Database contributions

Last night, at 11:50 PM, I finished a project I began all the way back in October 2012.

I finished getting my NBA collection onto the Trading Card Database.

I've written about the Database many times over the years, but the concept is to document literally every card ever made, in every subject. If it exists, it should be on the Database. More than 2 million cards have scans on there. And not to toot my own horn too much, but I am the #5 contributor all-time. All of the set completion percentages I've ever posted have come from the Database. Screenshots of my wantlists as well.

This was a huge project- the NBA takes up the vast majority of my collection. Roughly 3/4ths. I've contributed over 100,000 things for basketball, although not all were scans...it's still a lot.

I've been working like crazy on getting them done since I got back from Lake George in September. It's been something I've been working on pretty much all day, every day, so much so I have not even opened the last 5 trade packages that have come in, going back to October. It's taken THAT MUCH of my time.

The Database tells you which cards in your collection are missing scans, and I realized that I could use that to figure out which scans I had made but lost when my remote hard drive died in June 2016. Since I had entered my collection back in 2012, this worked out well...but it was a race against time. Because if somebody else uploaded a scan, that information would be lost to me. That's why I was rushing, so I could get that info before it disappeared forever.

Working on it so hard is why I have not really written a lot of blog posts lately. The vast majority of the posts I've done since August were written in August or before.

The Cards Missing Scans link shows 100 cards per page. When I started using it to track what I needed to scan, there were 88 pages. Now, there are three, made up of cards that the scans were lost on, some cards that I lost to flood, and some I accidentally put into the stacks of cards that were already done on there. There are also some cards that I don't think I have ever owned, and must have clicked on by accident. It happens. It has happened several times over already.

Instead of trying to remember, or having to have a separate window open to keep scrolling through the pages, I eventually made this "cheat sheet"...

If you look real close, you will see that I made a couple mistakes- at least two sets appear twice. I started this sheet in August, maybe July, I wrote from 99-00 Bowman's Best to the end just this week. This cheat sheet really sped up my efforts- about doubled my speed. It kept me from scanning cards that were already done, for the most part. I didn't bother to write most inserts so some of them I ended up doing anyway. It took me less than an hour to write out from the top of the first page to 05-06 Rookie Debut. In retrospect, I should have alternated the colors, because I think that led me to putting some cards into the "already done" stacks. That's why I underlined the set names in red, it made it easier to find them.

 I have scanned, edited, labeled and uploaded more than 2000 cards in both November and December, 2860 in November, 2363 already in December, to be exact. I keep track on Excel, something I started doing after my remote hard drive, where I had been storing the scans, died last year and I had to try and recover them, not a fun process. I "only" processed 1067 cards in October. Since I started keeping track, with the scans/uploads of June 2016, I've only hit the 2000 mark in a month three times. That number will probably actually increase in the future, since now as soon as I finish scanning something, it's done...I don't have to upload it to the Database, which does take time.

I am still going to scan the cards that are already done on there. I have maintained my own website since 2004, where they will reside, and if I ever want to post any of them on here, then I need to scan them. Plus, I really, truly enjoy the scanning process.

I'm actually kind of disappointed that the project is over. I've built my whole life around it for more than 5 years now!

I still have some peripheral stuff to scan, plus I need to do the college cards, which I am working on right now- at least the box I can find. There's another mixed into the "set aside since already done on the Database" boxes somewhere, but I don't know where. I'll find it eventually, as I will find the cards I put into the wrong boxes. In fact, since I finished the project yesterday, I've already found 4 of the cards I put into the wrong stack/box. There were 152 cards missing scans, and that includes the ones listed as being in my collection that I don't think I actually ever had.

But the vast majority of my collection is now on there.

In case you are wondering, this was the last card needed to post. It was also the last one needed to complete the gallery on there.

2002-03 Topps Chrome #51. I had actually put this card into the wrong stack, the already done stack, but realized it needed to be done when I was uploading the other cards from the set, this one was still sitting on my table right in front of me, I hadn't put it away yet.

I was hoping that I would be able to hit 250,000 points. If you remember, I listed that as a minor goal for 2017, but I fell short- 248.339 is my "final" points total. I simply ran out of cards. I will get there eventually because I am not going to stop collecting any time in the foreseeable future.