Big typing project update

 I am really, really, the world's worst estimator of time. Less than one month ago, I wrote about transitioning to typing because it hurt too much to edit scans, and I said, I quote: 

The most relevant part circled. Uh, yeah, no. The cards that I thought would take me the rest of the year to do are done. For once I estimated way too MUCH time, normally I estimate too little (My original estimation was that I would finish scanning everything in 2016...I didn't even hit halfway by that point in reality)

The typing went way faster than I expected, some days saw my type in over 1000 cards. I didn't even work all that hard on it, either, spending multiple days working on models, or having adventures. 

So, as June was nearing it's end and my pile of boxes that were labeled as scanned but not typed grew smaller and smaller, I though about what I was going to do...and it was really not that hard to determine the next course of action. I'm still in too much pain to edit scans...it's too hot and humid to work on models...so, I'm going to go ahead and type the rest of my collection, the ones that HAVEN'T been scanned yet. 

This is a big change for me. I've mused on this in the past, and I said I've come too far in the project to change now, but I'm changing my mind on that. There are many benefits to doing it this way and only a couple of drawbacks. 

The benefits: 

• I'll have my entire collection fully documented for the first time ever
• I'll have the information to manipulate, including exactly how many cards make up my collection, who the Letter Leaders are, and so much more. This is the main draw for me.
• I'll be able to pull out the damaged cards and look for replacements, mostly in my duplicate stash but elsewhere if needed. (Trade, COMC, Ebay)
• I'll be able to include the cards that are too badly damaged to scan, and color code them to make them easier to spot when perusing my charts. Currently they are in a gray area- in my collection but only documented on paper. Doing the "only documenting what's scanned" format has left them on the outside. 
• I'll be able to enter the dates of when I got the cards into my collection, if known, currently something only stored on paper from 1998-2013. If my paper listing gets wet, I lose it all. 
• It will require me to do less duplication of typing. As it stands right now, I type each card into an Excel chart with the order I get them. I am currently retyping them once they get scanned, but going forward I can just copy & paste the information from one chart to another, and add the teams if sports cards, and the class if non-sports, currently not tracked in the Order of Collection chart. 
• I will have complete control. As it stands now the ONLY place part of my collection is tracked is on the Trading Card Database. I don't have control of that. Other people can, and have, changed things, deleted things, and made it much less accurate. Only I can screw up my own Excel charts. 
• Once I know that the cards I have waiting to be scanned are in good shape, I can start processing the roughly 80,000 NBA duplicates I have, either onto my tradelist on the Database or COMC or elsewhere. I have been unable to do anything with them because I didn't know if they were upgrades or not.
• My faulty memory will be less in play. When I get a new card is when I look up what it is. I don't always remember going forward, and in this wave of typing, I've found a few dozen cards I've had to look up. Years, sets, which insert version it was, etc. If I copy and paste that info right after I look it up, I won't have time to forget.
• I'll finally solve the mystery of if I counted the oversized and undersized cards in the 1990s. My gut feeling is that I did not- to me, in that time, only standard sized cards counted. I have so much more knowledge now. I also have some standard sized cards that got mixed up that I don't know if they are part of my collection or duplicates. I would be able to tell if they were part of my collection or duplicates by if they are entered already or not. 

The drawbacks:

• I'm spending an awful lot of time on something that doesn't really do anything except benefit me. Likely no one will ever see this chart, it won't contribute to the world's general knowledge. It won't make the world a better place. 
• It's tedious, rather boring, and feels like busy work...I feel like I have better things I could be doing, however, my health doesn't allow that. Yet I can't shake that feeling. 
• Staring at a black and white computer screen all day causes eye strain, and I've literally gotten hand pain in both hands from typing, which is caused by my typing style. (I type with only 4 fingers, usually 3. Pointer fingers on both hands and thumbs for the space bar.). Holding the rest of my hands out of the way actually hurts once I've done it enough. 
• Will I have the follow through to keep it maintained? I'm notorious for starting projects like this and never finishing them. Every card I get going forward will require quite a bit of time to process into my collection. I don't know if I have the mental fortitude to maintain it. That's a huge worry for me. 
• It will make it slightly harder to manage my physical collection. Right now, cards that are scanned are in boxes labeled as scanned, other cards are in unlabeled boxes, which I sort through and condense on a regular basis. Going forward I will have to be careful not to get them mixed up. This will be mitigated if I finish typing them all before I scan again. 
• I don't actually enjoy what I'm doing. I want the information, so I'm doing it, but I'm not having fun.  I want to be doing something else, yet I can't, so there's a bit of a feeling of resentment towards the project. 

Now, even when I finish typing, I will still have quite a bit of work to do before I can start manipulating the information to do some fun things with it. Proofing it will be quite a time consuming challenge, and I wouldn't be surprised in the least if I miss some things...my plan for proofing it is when I go through each set in my paper listing entering dates I got the cards into the chart. That's not fool proof because the paper listing doesn't (always) include inserts, and I don't have a paper listing at all for baseball, football, miscellaneous sports, and some of the more esoteric non-sports stuff. As always. I'll do the best I can...and when I finish scanning everything, I will sort each set back into sets and then really go through it card by card. That is no longer the be-all-end-all to the project it once was and has been for over a decade now. 

Now, the fun part which may be eye-rollingly bad in the future...a prediction on when I will finish. I'm going to guess right around the time when 2021 becomes 2022. More of my collection is typed than not typed, but I still have around 20,000 cards to type...in the NBA alone. Another roughly 10 thousand in the NHL...and no idea on all the rest. It could be done way sooner, or it could be done way later, especially if my arm heals and I can go back to scanning. 

Honestly, I'm doing all this without taking my arm healing into account. It HAS been showing signs of improvement...still painful, but not AS painful as it had been. I have to be careful not to rehurt it, which I do, often, usually when I'm sleeping. 

Honestly, I'll be happy when this is all done, whether my arm is healed or not. The end goal will be good but the process to get there is a slog, to be honest. 

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When I included the line about "don't blow yourself up with fireworks" in my last post, it was meant to be funny. It's not anymore, as Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Matiss Kivlenieks had exactly that happen, killed at only age 24. I only have one card of him, from the 2020-21 MVP factory set, and I have not gotten it scanned yet. May end up being the only one of him I ever get. Such a sad situation.