Thursday, May 28, 2015

tradingcarddb.com

I'm sure many of you know of tradingcarddb.com. I've known about it for years but only recently started to delve into it. Simply put, it's an on-line database for trading cards of all kinds. Currently the site has 6,435,514 cards listed with images for 1,100,504. The images come from people uploading images to it. It seems to be pretty much a user-drive site, with checklists of new sets also being uploaded by members. Someone moderates the place. The more you upload the more privileges you get on the site. For example, when you first join, the first images you upload  have to be approved. But after awhile, your images just go right into the database.

I'm, of course, most interested in baseball cards, but the site has cards from all sports and a number of non-sports card sets as well.

You can also use it to catalog your own collection but I don't plan to do that. I have a well ordered database of my own design I use and don't see much point in duplicating it on-line.

The site has a number of interesting lists which I'm going to share on occasion. One of them is "The most common cards in member's collections". This is the baseball card list, which is heavily loaded with late 1980s Topps cards.

1987 Topps #648 Barry Larkin
I don't know how many members the site has, but this card is held by 509 of them. By the way, there are many more baseball cards than any other. Even the 10th ranking on the baseball list is held by many more members than any other type of card.

1981 Topps #675 - Atlanta Braves Team Card
I had to crib this image from the site. It's the only card on the list I don't own. I not only own all the other cards but I already had scans of them.  This card is held by 391 members. The resolution of the images on the site is pretty good, but not as high as I typically scan at.

1987 Topps #735 Rickey Henderson
#3 on the list with holdings by 374 members

1988 Topps #102 Barry Larkin
#4. The second of three appearance by Larkin on this list, the only player to appear more than once. 363 members.

1987 Topps #773 Robin Yount
#5 with 358 members

1987 Topps #300 Reggie Jackson
#6 with 352 members

1989 Topps #515 Barry Larkin
#7 with 352 members. Who knew that Barry Larkin was so popular with collectors?

1987 Topps #386 Mark McGwire
#8 with 348 members.

1987 Topps #80 Wally Joyner
#9 with 347 members

1989 Topps #784 Steve Avery
#10, also with 347.

The inclusion of these Topps sets in this list may be more a function of the prodigious number of sets produced by Topps rather than their being particularly popular with collectors. Having said that, 1987 is one of my favorite sets.

To contrast the baseball card list with the basketball card list, the #1 basketball card is the 1990-91 Hoops #236 Jeff Hornacek with 198 members. All of the cards on the basketball list are from the same set.
6,439,514

6 comments:

Nachos Grande said...

I knew that Barry Larkin was popular among collectors!!

Captain Canuck said...

sounds like a knock off of Zistle.

cynicalbuddha said...

I actually think TCDB predates Zistle, but not by much. But they are comparable, but different on a lot of levels. I like to think of TCDB has more of a encyclopedia and Zistle has more of a card show. Plus the I think TCDB is easier to use and you can easily print checklist for sets, players, or teams. But it does always seem to be a work in progress.

Tony L. said...

TCDB was the first of those that I heard about of the two, and I liked its interface better than Zistle. Each has its positives and negatives -- Zistle is more trader-friendly and has more trading action, from what I can tell, while TCDB is more like an encyclopedia, as CB said. I tend to use TCDB more than Zistle for creating my personal checklists.

Of course, I should just use one of them AS my checklist, but that requires too much thought.

capewood said...

Thanks for the comments. I'd looked at Zistle before and just looked at it again now. I think I like TCDB. Zistle seems more flashy but not as easy to use.

Jupiterhill said...

I never used Zistle but use TCDB daily. Matter of fact, that is how I found your blog. I like TCDB because its pretty much quick and to the point, not flashy. I use it as a tool for catalogging as I don't trade much, but they still have that option if I choose to do it (in fact, just sent some cards to complete a trade on there).

Anyways, cool blog, and I have added you to my list of blogs to read.