Christmas in July? Not quite, but...

at exactly 3:33 PM today, I finished scanning all the cards I got for Christmas 2017, which was quite a few! Exactly 1012 cards, my 9th largest documented day for getting new cards in my life, in fact. It's been a lot of work to get them all scanned- but it's not like I'm complaining. I genuinely enjoy scanning, for the most part. (Mirror foils and Finests, not so much). I also did not work on them non-stop either. Pretty much every new card I've gotten in 2018 has taken precedence, plus I did some others just because I get burned out quickly on doing the same set over and over. Not to mention, I basically took all of February and March off from scanning, only doing what I needed to do for my Card of the Day project, essentially.

This was the final card to get scanned:

 That is 2016-17 Panini Threads #183, of Ron Baker, who was undrafted but ended up playing his way onto the roster during Summer League, and has become a regular rotation player for the Knicks- most notably breaking his face when he tried to stop an Anthony Davis dunk and his face made contact with Davis's elbow. (Baker is 6 foot 4, Davis is 7 feet!)

I got three hobby boxes for Christmas last year, 2016-17 Upper Deck 2 NHL, 2016-17 Panini Threads NBA and 2017-18 Upper Deck 1 NHL, a handful of blasters, plus some other cards. It was a very good day!

This is the first time I've actually worked on and completed the Christmas cards since...hmm, I guess 2011. By Christmas 2012 I was already active on the Trading Card Database, and once I began posting there, I was setting aside everything that already was scanned on there to go back to later, after I got my entire collection on there. That later is now, because I finished that project of getting my entire collection up on there in December, actually on Christmas Eve!

But, it gets even better!

Since I've gotten everything on the Database, it's given me the free time to work on whatever I feel like scanning. I've been using a lot of that time to work on new stuff. Partially because it's just easily accessible, partially because I'm making the conscious effort to stay caught up with new cards as I get them. I have pretty much gotten all of the 2017-18 NBA cards scanned- I have a couple I can't do, because they need to be done as a full page unit, until my COMC order arrives, which should be next week. It will be the first time since I got back into the NBA in 2012-13 that I will have finished scanning everything before the next season starts! Part of the reason I got back in was because of all the fun I had listing my collection on the Database. It's all connected. Since I only began scanning in 2009, this will be the first time EVER it happens for the NBA! It has happened for NASCAR before, but not since 2015 when there was only one set issued. I have it going for 2018 but I have only about 4 packs' worth for the season so it has been easy.

I will have the entire 2017-18 NHL season in my collection scanned before the new 18-19 cards begin arriving, as I'm almost there as well! We just pre-ordered an 18-19 MVP box. I have about 100 OPC cards, which require two scanners (the scanner that works for the fronts can't handle the old school brown backs as a unit) but I should be able to finish them before the box arrives.

Of course, when the COMC box arrives, there are 17-18 cards from both the NBA and NHL in the box, which I will prioritize for scanning. I've been building the order for so long I don't even remember what's in there. I don't THINK there are any 2018 NASCAR cards in there, but I can't say that for sure.

Hopefully I will be able to keep this going in future years...I don't know how much I will be getting going forward, especially in the NBA, as they are cutting back on real sets and focusing solely on 5-cards-for-$400 memorabilia delivery systems, which I refuse to buy on principle, let alone that I can't afford them. (I pick off whatever is cheapest on COMC though, usually, just to have the set represented in my collection). Time will tell.  As soon as I hit publish on this post, I'm going to start scanning the fronts of the O-Pee-Chee cards that need scans, because that scanner is plugged in. I will probably finish them tomorrow. The scanning won't end, as by my estimation I still have more than 50,000 cards needing scans.

Although all this probably doesn't seem like a big deal to anyone, it's pretty exciting for me. Doesn't quite make up for the fact that I wasn't feeling good enough to go with my model club on their field trip to the USS Slater floating museum, but it is an accomplishment.