I cannot lie, I like big numbers. And after 36 years in the hobby with no breaks, the numbers really add up. They can get very large when you are as obsessed with this hobby as I am, have been, and probably always will be.
At 4:41 in the morning on Tuesday, January 16th, 2024, I learned for the very first time exactly how big the numbers are.
I've mentioned in the past that I was typing everything into Excel, and, believing that I had typed everything in, I set about proofing my work by going through the paper listings for my card collection, which I have kept since 1998 and I consider the "Be all End all" of my collection - if it's not in my paper listings, it's not part of my collection, essentially. I started keeping the dates I got all the cards in 1999, and I determined I wanted that to be documented on Excel, which means I can back it up remotely, in case something ever happens to my paper listings. I hope nothing does, but I'm a known klutz and tend to drop things. If I drop a bottle of water, it's all over for the listing, basically.
So with all that said, I finished proofing the listings yesterday. (Yesterday for me, today for normal people)
I was way, way off. I had a number I thought was right for all the different subjects. As it turns out, every single one of them was wrong. All of them were actually UNDER what I actually had- some by a wide margin. I had undercounted my NBA collection by nearly 3000 cards. I knew my count was probably off a little bit...but it was off way more than I thought. The Excel chart where I entered in all the missing cards came up to 6998 that I had missed typing in across all topics. Yikes!
So, without further ado, here is the totals of what I actually have in my collection....
With that said...there's a very good chance these numbers aren't right exactly. Even after I thought I had finished proofing everything, I found literally dozens of mistakes, mostly from me typing things in wrong which means they didn't show up properly when I sorted the Excel file, and I would bet there are more mistakes yet to be found. I may never find these mistakes, but I'm ok with that. I did the best I could. It took me literally 11 years to complete the typing project, I'm not going to redo it. If I find mistakes, I'll fix them, but I am treating it as it's correct. It's the best I can do with the abilities I have.
One other thing this opens up for me...I had been holding off on going through my stash of cards that I have built up. Some still from the disastrous Card of the Day project still wait to actually be looked at and become part of my collection. Now that I know both what I actually have, and what the real numbers should be...I can start going through them and adding them to my collection officially.
My plan is to update this chart at the end of each month when I do my monthly upload of what I've scanned during the month. The numbers based on what I know I have stashed can vastly change. I know off the top of my head I've got sumo, baseball, football, and of course my three main sports of NBA, NHL and NASCAR. I actually don't have a lot of non-sports stuff stashed, I tended to go through them quickly, but I do have some.
Now that I've finished proofing and typing I am not really sure what I will do next. This was the last big project that I needed to do in my card collection, and as I stated, I've been working on it for 11 years. The only things left are to finish scanning and then sorting back into sets, but I will not finish that this decade, and I'm beginning to think I may not ever finish that, as I've consistently brought in cards faster than I can scan them, and going through all that stash I mentioned will be just like throwing a mountain on top of someone who just dug themselves out of a sinkhole. Of course I'm not complaining. This is what I live for. I just don't know how I want to proceed next. I feel a little rudderless.
Interestingly enough, the Database shows me as having 231,000 cards and I have no idea where that number comes from, because I know that I don't have that many- and I no longer track my collection on there. I can only guess it comes from the duplicates, aka tradelist, and the barely sorted duplicate boxes, aka future trade list, that I had entered. Oh, it may include the wantlist too, which is bizarre because by definition I haven't collected the cards I want to add to my collection. But the numbers don't add up, at least in my head, so I just don't know. Of course doing that kind of numbers in my head is very questionable, and why I let Excel do all the adding for me.
One other thing I want to point out- in all my 36 years of collecting cards, I have purchased exactly 3 football cards (two of them cars from an insert set so not even technically football!), and one pack of baseball cards. The rest of them all came as gifts or in lots. All Sumo, kickboxing, rugby, soccer, boxing, wrestling and golf all came to me from other people. The people in the hobby are really something else. If the rest of the world was like card people it would be a better place.
