Are you a parallel?

 I love parallels. I know most of the hobby does not, but I do. What I absolutely hate- and would eliminate from existence if I could - are different cards in the same set having the same number. So-called "image variations" have been around for a few years now and really need to stop. 

I pulled this one from my O-Pee-Chee box. They are referred to as "Glossy Image Variations". I noticed as I was opening the pack that it was different from other cards due to the glossy coating the other cards didn't have, and a quick search on COMC for cards of him from this set revealed this is not his base card, thus confirming my thought that it was indeed an image variation. 

To me, I am counting this as a parallel. If it requires typing in a different set name into my excel chart or the label of the image, then it's a parallel. The Retro, Blue, Red and Orange parallels - which I have not scanned yet - those are my preferred kind of parallel. Something that is clearly different and not something that can easily be confused for a base card if you aren't paying close enough attention. 

That MIGHT be a first

 Last Saturday was National Hockey Card Day and free promo cards is a sure way to get me into my local card shop...except for 2024 when I had the wrong date and went the week after. 

While I was there I picked up a hobby box of this year's O-Pee-Chee. At 600 cards and without the artificial scarcity of the Young Guns rookie cards, I think it's my favorite set of each year. With 156 cards per box there's no way I've ever come close to completing a set, but I still enjoy it, a lot. 

This year's set may be the first time ever, in any of the sports or non-sports I collect, that my first card from the set was a checklist. 

I LOVE checklists. Always have. OPC is the only set in any of the three sports I collect that still does a pure checklist, and I don't remember the last set in Non-Sports that got one. The UD flagship also has checklists but they are on the back only, not both sides like a real checklist should be. I am the only collector I know who once listed a Checklist as their #1 most wanted card, happy to say I was able to trade for it on the old and missed Trader Retreat website back in either 2005 or 06. (1996-97 Topps NBA #111)

I don't know for sure, but I don't remember a checklist ever being my first card out of my first pack ever before. I don't even remember a checklist being the first card coming out of a lot or repack either. That doesn't mean it didn't happen, I just don't remember it happening. I did begin keeping track of the first card I get for each set back in 2014 and I know for sure it hasn't happened since then. Before 2014 is not documented but I think I would remember something like that. 

The first player card was from my team which was cool, even though he was traded between the time this card was made and when I got it. Shown here for an example of what the player card looks like. 

Perhaps best news of all, I figured out a way to type my cards in without hurting my wrist much. Basically if I type only with my right hand and hit the caps lock instead of shift key to capitalize things it's not as bad. It's cumbersome and tiring so it's still not fun, but it's better than hurting my wrist literally every card. 

New People scanned in March 2025

 It was a light month. The year started strong- perhaps too strong, as I scanned over 2000 cards in January...which burned me out. I still did card stuff in March, but I wasn't having fun and actively looked for other things to work on. 

I scanned only 111 cards in March, which is a pretty low number for me. 

There were new people scanned though, 5 in total. Interestingly enough Hershiser, McCoy and Salaam were all on the same scan. 

My new additions were even lower. I only added three cards in March- two of which were the subject of my last post. The other was a post card given to me by a member of my model club. I have not gotten a new card since March 6th, which is the longest I've gone without getting a new card since I started Cardboard History back in 2014, and the second fewest cards I've gotten in a month since I began keeping records of that...back in September 2011! (I didn't add a single new card in January 2012)

I have stuff stashed that I could pull out and add to my collection, but I just don't have the motivation to do so right now. 

It's possible I'm doing too much. Documenting is the most fun for me - more than even having the cards themselves I think - but I have multiple places I type the info into and I just haven't felt like doing that. the fact that typing is making my wrist hurt doesn't help. Just in the 10 minutes it took me to type this it's made my wrist hurt much more. Documenting my cards in my excel files is exponentially more typing than this, which I'm now pretty sure is why I don't want to do it. 

Thanks for reading.