Players I collect - 2016 Completed

I started this awhile ago and this will be the final post as I present 2016 cards of the players I collect. We're going to finish out with two current players.

Mike Trout

Bowman #1

Panini Diamond Kings #91

Topps #1

Topps #26

Topps American League Standouts #1

This was from a blister-pack I found at Target

Topps Allen & Ginter #194

According to tradingcarddb.com, there were 890 Mike Trout cards issued this year. I only got 7 of them.

Melvin Upton

Stadium Club #193

A good old-fashioned sunglasses card.

Topps Update #186

In my database he's still B. J.

And that's it!

The 1990s Baseball Card Face-off

Ok, where were we?

Oh, yeah, were were heading into the 2nd round of the Babe Ruth Division Second Quartile. In case you're new here or don't remember what the heck I'm doing, please check this post.

Today it's going to be 1999 Upper Deck MVP vs 1998 Topps Gold Label

1999 Upper Deck MVP

Barry Larkin #57

Chipper Jones #15

There is such a thing as having too much design. That's the basic problem with this set. It's got good photography, the cards have a light gloss, it's got full stats on the back, and even a photo (a small one) on the back. Many collectors don't like foil on cards. I don't mind it so much, except when foil is laid down just for the sake of having foil. What's with all the foil lines and circles on the front? They are repeated on the back, without foil, but still distracting. Also, there are two numbers on the back. One is the card number, very tiny in the upper left, the other is the player's uniform number, much larger on the bottom left. Too confusing.

1998 Topps Gold Label

Randy Johnson #8

Jim Thome #10

When this set came up in it's first match up, I only owned 2 or 3 cards from the set. Now I own 90. After seeing them again I remembered what a great set this was. They were pretty pricy per pack back in 1998 but I got almost the whole set for just $0.15/card. If you'd like to see more of these check them out on tradingcarddb.com. There were only a few cards from the set posted before I uploaded the bunch I bought.

The Results: As you can probably tell from my write up, I'm pretty partial to the 1998 Topps Gold Label.

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