Recovery Complete!

 A long and arduous task is finally completed, as I finished the Recovery project that began all the way back in 2016! I finished at 12:22 AM, on December 23rd, 2020, and it's such a great feeling to not have these hanging over my head anymore! 

In all, I went through roughly 100,000 images, possibly more considering I went through each one at least three times. In the last month! 

While there are some images that are truly gone forever, I was able to recover a lot more than I thought possible...there's literally years worth of rescanning I won't have to redo, I suspect. 

In all, from the download I posted about last month, I was able to recover 3006 back scans and 1061 front scans. Of those front scans, 929 of them were NASCAR. I knew NASCAR would require the most effort, and that proved true...it actually required more than I thought going in. It appears I had done some scanning work that I had forgotten doing, which meant more recovery work. but that's not really a bad thing. 

But that's not all...I also did some manual recovery, which required right clicking and saving images off my original website. I worked on that in the spring and early summer before realizing I had made a huge mistake and walking away in frustration. Not quitting- just needing a break from some soul-crushing work, mind you. 

Those numbers, at least for the back scans, are much larger, with 7076 backs recovered, and only 15 fronts. Of those 7076 back scans, all but 28 of them were NBA. I tackled the largest part of my collection first. 

I wish I had kept track of how many I'd recovered before this year, as it's a project I've been working on on-and-off since 2016, but in 2020 alone I recovered 1076 card fronts and 10184 back scans! That's a lot of scans! Considering that I do on average 54 cards a day (108 images as I do both sides) that's a significant amount of work saved. 11,258 scans would take me about a year to make, I'd estimate, if I had to do them now. Sure, sometimes I can push harder and do almost 200 cards in a day (400 images), but that's extremely rare and requires just the right combination of things to happen, and it happens less than 1 day per year I think...I don't really pay attention to that. It's such a rarity. 

I'm estimating that the truly gone forever images are about 300-500 cards, and many (actually most) of them are only missing the backs. That's a lot more palatable. I know now that while I will get them rescanned, it's not going to be any time soon. It's not going to happen until I finish scanning everything and get my collection sorted back into sets, something it hasn't been for the NBA since 2004, NASCAR since 2009, Non-Sport since 2010 and NHL never. There's a good chance I will not finish that project this decade, even though the 2020s have just begun. With the return of my modeling skills I spent less time on cards in 2020 than I have since 2008 or so. 

The numbers above do not include the Hot Wheels cards, which I discovered I had not uploaded to the Cardboard History Gallery during the course of this project, partly because they were never uploaded and partly...mostly...because they did not have to be recovered, except 1997 did. 1998-2000 were in my "needs more research before posting to the Database" folder, and it was during this project that I discovered checklists had been posted for those three years (although only 1998 was done well). 

Not only did I recover the card scans, I also recovered a good number of packaging images. While I didn't keep them in a separate folder (which is how I was able to get the numbers in this post) I believe I was able to recover 388 packaging images as well, but the number could be off a little bit either way. In December we started working on the storage units and I found a bunch of packaging images that all went into the same folder as the ones I recovered this month, a grand total of 750 images (but probably going to rise higher with Christmas). 

While I was expecting to find cards with missing back scans, I also came up with 85 card backs where the fronts are gone! That was a total surprise to me and I have them in a folder clearly labeled "Missing sides" so when I get back around to them in a few years, I'll be able to just scan the side I need and use the original back scan. There's also one set where I was only able to recover some of the packaging, that's a trickier situation, since the box is somewhere in my storage unit, waiting to be rediscovered...It's a set I got for Christmas circa 2013 or 2014 so I have not seen it in a while.

Since there's been a whole lot of talking so far, but nothing to look at, here's a screencap of the card fronts recovered. 

As you can see it's NASCAR heavy but everything is represented here- the four main pillars of my collection in NBA, NHL, NASCAR and Non-Sports, as well as Other Racing. I did recover some multi-sport, baseball and football in the back department, but no fronts there. 

Come January 1st, all these cards will begin to be integrated with the Season/Topic, People and Team albums on the Cardboard History Gallery, as well as whatever else I've scanned this month (including the aforementioned Hot Wheels cards) as well as the packaging images going into their respective albums. All of the scans are already in the Sets album. By time this post goes live, they will also be backed up on my Amazon drive, something I was a little lax in doing in the past...which is how I got into this mess in the first place. Since I finished this project at 12:22 AM, I have scheduled it for 12:22 PM, because that's the kind of weird stuff I do. 

Come back tomorrow because on Christmas Eve I will be opening and posting about my Trading Card Database Secret Santa package, which took the place of the Blogger Secret Santa this year. I've been holding on to it since December 1st when it arrived, so I'm really curious to see what's in there! 

A 20 year old mystery solved

 I've been working hard on my Recovery project that I detailed a few weeks ago. I'm trying to get it done before Christmas, and as usual I found a bit of a rabbit hole to go down, and ended up solving a mystery that's been befuddling me for 20 years. 

Now, I don't mind mysteries in the hobby. It's part of the fun to figure out something that you come across and can't really identify easily. However, it's very much a frustration when it's something you got new yourself and just didn't remember, and that is the case with these cards. 

These three cards have been that mystery for me. I was thrown a bit by the fact that they are copywritten 1999, and feature 1999 season photos. I thought they were 1999 releases. They are lenticular and the picture moves when you move the card, but that is extremely difficult to capture in a scan.

As it turns out, they are actually from 2000, and were an Avon exclusive. Called the Avon Millennium Series, they came as a set for $9.99 in early 2000, and this is the complete set, something else I was not sure on. 

I ended up solving the mystery via ebay of all places. I had looked in the past with no success, but this time was different. A seller has a set for sale on there, and even better, posted the ad for them! 

This photo, taken from ebay seller treasure23, solved the mystery. 

There's a pretty good chance I have this page, apparently taken from an Avon catalog, somewhere in my storage unit. But possibly not, as I'm loathe to cut up a magazine, even a catalog. (If I do have it, it's likely still in the full catalog). 

I'm really glad to have this mystery finally put to rest. Although I have not really discussed it much on here, the cards that came with 1/64 diecast are a specialty of mine, and these were the only ones in my entire collection that I could not properly identify, so that makes it all the better. 

I guess I'm done collecting the NBA

 But this time it's not by choice. 

The hobby has gone insane over the last year...Cards can't be found, and if you can find them online, they are massively overpriced- blasters starting at $60, hobby boxes at $500...of the basic set. Hoops. That set isn't worth that. It's my favorite set of the season almost solely because it's the largest set of the year, with 280 players (In a 525 man league). But the quality is low. The set is far too small, the backs are nothing, not even real stats. Photos are outdated, with trades and free agency signings maybe mentioned in a text bar on the front but not always...Panini sometimes doesn't bother to include that info. Rookies are all posed photos with no backdrop. 

Add to that, Panini now gives you less cards for the same price. 

Well, it used to be the same price. 

I have been actively monitoring the dealers' websites to see when it went live, figuring I'd pre-order myself a box at $85 before it went up...and then it went on pre-sale today. 

 Are you kidding me? $275 for a box that at the BEST possible outcome would leave me frustrated by Panini's poor quality? 

Furthermore, that's about 4 months worth of card hobby budget. 

No...just no. 

So, by no choice of my own, I am officially forced out of the NBA as of December 15th, 2020. 

I hope that eventually this craziness will pass, and that the hobby will return to being actual collectors. not just profiteering flippers looking to make a quick buck. If that happens, I'll be back. If, by some miracle the vultures don't clean out the shelves and I actually see cards at retail I will still buy them then, but I have not seen a single NBA card at retail since February. I don't have a lot of hope. 

I'm hoping the cards from the 90s and 2000s sets I'm working on can still be found, right now I'm too furious to check. 

Word Association: The 12 Days of Christmas

 I love Christmas music, and usually switch to listening to it solely on Thanksgiving night until Christmas day itself. The other night I was listening to the 12 Days of Christmas and when they sang "Four Calling Birds" an image of Larry Bird flashed into  my mind...and then I thought to myself I can get a post out of this! Now, I'm not going to stack like the song does...just go through it once. I'll try to come up with something that relates to the gifts in the classic song. Of course, I may have to change the words a little... Here we go!

On the 12th Day of Christmas my true love gave to me 12 drummers drumming...Andre Drummonds

11 pipers piping...players for the former Pittsburgh Pipers (this would have been so much easier if I was a wrestling collector)

10 Lords-a-Leaping...Lord OF Leaping...

9 Ladies dancing...racing

8 Maids-a-milking...uh, got milk racecars?

7 swans-a-swimming...uh, I got nothing. 7 the only card I have that references Swan. I'm sure Jedi know how to swim, right?

6 geese-a-laying...Geese Ausbie

5 Golden Rings (each player won exactly 5 NBA Championships, which gives a golden ring to the winner- one I can use as is!)

4 calling Birds

3 French hens...men

2 turtle doves...cards

and a Partridge in a Pear Tree! and a card of the Partridge family! 

My favorite soccer card

 I have to be honest, I don't like soccer. I tried to give it a chance, and tried to watch it in the Olympics in London. I couldn't get through even a single game. However, I now have a new favorite soccer card...sort of! It's not actually a soccer card, but a multi-sport card...which shows a soccer player. 

For the first time ever I see my name on a mainstream card! Granted, it's his first name, but still, that's pretty darn awesome. I didn't even notice when the card arrived in the mail on November 24th. I looked to see what sports were covered and I looked at the card right next to this one- a WNBA card, which is definitely more in my interests- but didn't look to see what his name was until December 1st, when got ready to scan the cards. 

I actually did a search for my name on COMC a few months ago and picked up some cards from sports I don't collect of people who share my name. I may have gotten one of him, I can't remember and would rather be surprised when they arrive than look it up. Of course with COMC I'll be surprised IF they show up but that's a whole 'nother topic. 

But this one will always go down in history as the first card in my collection (that's not a custom card of me) with my name on it. 

My 2021 goal is complete

 I know I've been setting easy to achieve goals for the year, but I've topped myself this time...as I've already completed 2021's goal! 

I've been trying to keep the goals light...the 2018 goal burned me out on the hobby for about a year. (getting one new card every day of the year to celebrate my 30th anniversary in the hobby). This year's goal was to scan every card I got at Christmas 2018, and I accomplished that in early January.

2021's goal was to get my packs scanned on the Trading Card Database to 1000. I was at 931 as recently as the afternoon of December 6th. However, I think it's safe to say I've hit that mark...

...considering how I'm now at 1047 posted!

I'm one of the few collectors who collect the packaging. Boxes, packs, I save them all. I started that in 1999, and wish I had started sooner...I still hear the occasional comment about how they are "garbage" and I should throw them out, and that is coming from other card collectors. 

However, they are not sorted or organized in any way, shape or form. They are just in whatever I could fit them in, mixed in to my storage unit, which, ah, well....let's say the former houses destroyed by tornadoes on the Weather Channel are more sorted and organized. They aren't even in anything resembling chronological order, after we discovered that the former units were leaking with every rain storm and moved to a new, climate controlled unit in 2016. 3 units were condensed into one in a mad dash to get it done- 20 years worth of stuff moved in 7 days. It was an ordeal. Because we had a time limit we couldn't really sort anything- it was simply grab and dash, throw it into the new unit, and make another trip. And I may have neglected to mention that I'm a hoarder- everything I've ever owned...I still own. 

BUT....last week, my brother and I (mostly my brother- I have physical limitations on what I can do) began the monumental task of fixing the storage units. Getting them sorted and organized the way that I have always dreamed. Monumental is not hyperbole. This is going to take years. And that's OK...we are actually enjoying the process, and every single time we've found things we were looking for and had not any idea where it had gone off to, and I've found some things I forgot I even had...things I needed, and would have had to replace shortly, had I not found them. (Modeling stuff, if you are curious)

And of course, the very first trip, we find a box that I had not looked inside of for years, which included a large number of card packs! It was mostly 2000-01 through 2002-03 NBA, but there was some older- as far back as 1992-93- and some NASCAR as well A separate shopping bag- my usual method of sending something to storage- yielded the 2006-07 Rookie Debut box and packs, which I had, from 2006 through 2012, believed would be the last NBA box I ever opened, which I now know was not accurate in the least. 

When I posted the scans missing to the Database, it turned out that I had posted 116 pack images, 13 factory set images and 32 box images from this trip to storage. My 2021 goal was not just met on December 6th, 2020, it was obliterated. And that was just on the very first trip...

Earlier tonight- I'm writing this at 2:11 AM, so technically last night- we went to the unit and worked some more. And found some more...boxes, packs, and even cards- at least some of which I had never even opened! (a factory set of 1994 Skybox NASCAR- which I was "missing" 7 of the 26 cards of all these years!) . While this is going to be a lot of effort- remember, monumental- it's going to be worth it. And we know some things are going to be destroyed. Not only did the original units leak, they were also home to several Mickeys and Jerrys if you know what I mean. But the good is going to FAR outweigh the bad, and there are some things that I'm specifically looking for, that when found will be getting their own Lost & Found series posts (which technically this is one as well). 

Now...do I come up with another goal for 2021, or be happy that I've already completed it and just take what the year brings me? I'm leaning towards the latter. Although I didn't come up with my 2020 goal until December 31st, 2019, so I guess I still have time. 

Oh, by the way, the 1000th pack image was this one- 

The back of 2000-01 Topps Gold Label. Even the packs were awesome looking on the Gold Label sets. (As an aside one of the Gold Label boxes and presumably the packs inside is one of two I am absolutely sure were destroyed by the leaking, but I'm not sure if it was 1999-00 or 2000-01. It was covered in mold and disintegrating, I had no choice but to throw it out. The other was 2000 Press Pass VIP NASCAR). I'm pretty sure the box I scanned all of these out of was actually the results of repacks, which I'm glad about since there were several retail packs in there, and I normally did hobby only at that time...or at least I thought I did. Apparently not. The fact that the box they were in was mailed to me in 2006 also makes me think they may have been packs I opened long after they were new, but there's no way to really know since I do have a tendency of repacking things when I look inside of them...for instance when I brought the box back over to the unit tonight, there are now packs from 2019-20 in the same box. Hockey packs, which I didn't even collect or watch the last time I saw inside of that box.

Eventually, the goal is to have it all sorted, and have the packs and boxes neatly sorted, and all together. I probably won't be able to sort them chronologically because they are not evenly sized, but that's OK. I'm OCD as should be obvious but it manifests more in trying to get everything into as small a space as possible, and the photos/scans in chronological, properly labeled order. 

A hockey scanning milestone

 I'm working on my monthly upload to the Cardboard History Gallery, which I do starting on the 1st of every month, and I hit a very cool milestone. I have hit 3000 hockey people scanned! This includes all players, coaches, referees, anyone who is a hockey person who has a card in my collection. 

Denis Gurianov of the Dallas Stars was the 3000th person entered into the album. By time I finish the monthly upload there will be 3004 people in the album. 

Basketball still leads in number of people scanned by a wide margin (3858) but hockey will overtake that total at some point, simply because more hockey players get cards, and the sport has a longer history on cardboard, if nothing else. Even the largest basketball set every year has literally half the amount of cards as the largest NHL set does, so it's only a matter of time. 

Auto Racing, which I've been collecting the longest (since 1988) has only 1522 people scanned. Although  I did remember I forgot to collect the people from the 1990 Classic Monster Truck set when I put together my people charts so that number will grow, but not by a while lot since it's only a 125 card set and not all of them are people. 

And now this has given me the idea to take note of how many people are scanned at the end of each year for each topic, and see how it grows year to year. I wonder what year hockey will overtake basketball? I'm just going to throw out a guess of 2022, but it all depends on how much scanning I do vs. how much model building I do...I spent most of October, all of September and parts of August and November working on models almost solely, only doing card stuff on the days it rained, and generally not accomplishing much card wise, scanning less than 300 cards total in the last 4 months. Luckily, there's no time limit. I have about the same number of people for both sports but most of the NBA players are already represented by scans, while there are still many NHL players I have yet to scan.