Organize those cards Part 2

Way back in December, I did a post on how I organize my cards. I've been meaning to do a follow-up post ever since. Here it is. Clicking on any of the images below will give you an enlarged image.

I have 4 objectives in card collecting:

1. Collect Phillies. I'm currently working on a comprehensive list of Phillies cards. I've completed the 1990s list (there is a link to it on the side bar) and I'm working on the 2000s list (I'm done through 2003).

2. Collect Astros since 1995. Why 1995? That's when I moved to Houston. If I ever get done the list of Phillies, I'll start on the Astros list.

3. Acquire at least one of every kind of card made. I freely admit this is an impossible goal but it keeps me looking for types of cards I don't have. These cards go in a binder and I call them my reference cards. I've been compiling a list of cards for each year since the 1990s. I used to rely on the Beckett magazine or the manufacture's web sites, but now I get my information from Beckett.com. I don't compile checklists of individual sets, just a listing of sets and insert sets.

4. Collect cards of players I like. There are a bunch of players I collect but I don't generally chase cards of particular players. Whenever I get a card of a player I collect it goes into the player's binder. I do use Objectives 1,2 and 4 to help 3. If I can find a card I don't have and it's a Phillie, Astro or a player I collect, I've killed 2 birds with one stone.

So here's what I do when I get a new card. I recently acquired this card, a 2009 SPx Winning Materials Lance Berkman Jersey card. It fulfills Objectives 2 and 3.
The first thing I do is scan the card, front and back. I consistently scan the cards at 150 dbi. This gives me an image that is about one and a half times the size of the card. It makes for a good size to look at on the computer screen. I use a spreadsheet to track the kinds of card there are and what I have. the image below is for a portion of the spreadsheet showing 2009 SPx. I also track how many of each card there are, the date I acquired the card and how much I paid for it. I give each type of card a number to help in sorting in my database.

The next thing is to enter the card into my database. I have a custom designed (by me) FileMaker database which I've been working on since the early 1990s. There was a time when I used a spreadsheet but I have too many cards for that to be effective. Here is a listing of the 2009 Berkman cards I have. The check boxes on the right indicate if I have a scan of the card (the first box) and if it is a reference card (the second box).
I have a related database which tracks the reference cards. This shows the page for this Berkman card. It displays the image of the card, acquisition history, and some description of the card. The boxes to the left are mainly for base sets where there are subset cards. This file pulls from the previous file any other cards from the set that I have. I only have the Berkman card so that's all it shows.
Finally, if the the card has been scanned, I have a third file which has player information. It has an image of the card plus the player stats. If the player is a Phillie, Astro (after 1995) or a player I collect, I will have a page for each year of the player's career. If its a reference card but not a player I collect, I will just have a single page for the player showing his career stats.
This doesn't take very long. For a player I already have in the file just above, it probably takes 5-6 minutes to finish a card. About a third of that time is scanning the card. If it's a new player it takes a bit longer because I have to look up his stats. I don't update the stats very often. Most are probably a few years out of date.

I don't go through this whole routine for every card I buy. Most cards are not reference cards or players I collect. Those I just enter into the first database. The file has drop down boxes to enter team names, the set name and player names to minimize typing.

Song of the Week - Hold On, Hold On by Neko Case

I have 7,476 songs in iTunes. This is one of them.

Neko Case is another artist who my daughter discovered and turned me on to. This song is from her 2006 album, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood. According to her Wikipeda entry, she is an alternative country singer-songwriter. I'm not sure what that means but I guess everybody's got to have a label. She has a 2008 CD called Middle Cyclone which I heven't heard yet but I'm looking forward to it.

The most tender place in my heart is for strangers
I know it's unkind but my own blood is much too dangerous
Hangin' round the ceiling half the time
Hangin' round the ceiling half the time

Compared to some I've been around
But I really tried so hard
That echo chorus lied to me with it's
"Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on"

In the end I was the mean girl
Or somebody's in-between girl
Now it's the devil I love
And that's as funny as real love

I leave the party at three a.m.
Alone, thank God
With a valium from the bride
It's the devil I love
It's the devil I love
And that's as funny as real love
And that's as real as true love

That echo chorus lied to me with its
"Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on"

That echo chorus lied to me with its
"Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on"

Phone Cards

In the mid-1990s it seems that sports phone cards were all the rage. A number of sports card packs had phone card inserts from 1993 through 1997. This first one is from from 1995 Stadium Club. There were 13 of them randomly inserted into Stadium Club packs, celebrating different All-Star Games. I was happy to pull this on from a pack. Happy because it featured a game hosted by the Astros.
By using the card to make a call, you could be a winner of the entire 40-card Stadium Club Ring Leaders insert set. The way it worked was you dialed 1-800-95-RINGS and entered your card number. If you were a winner you'd be switched to a live operator and told how to claim your prize. If you weren't a winner you could enter in a phone number and get a free 3-minute phone call. Here's what the Ring Leaders cards looked like.
You could also get one of these in a pack at 1:24 odds. That's how I got the Eckersley card. The card is quite extravagant with multi-colored foil printing. For some reason, I never tried to collect my prize.

I just acquired this Nolan Ryan phone card. It was worth $20 but there were no prizes.
I'm not sure where this card came from but I'll make a guess. It's got the logo for the 16th Annual Sport's Collectors Connection in St. Louis in 1995. This was probably a give away at the show.

You might note the complete lack of team identification on Ryan. It looks like he's pitching a pick-up game in his long johns.

Capewood's Collection

A number of bloggers out there are creating their own cards so I decided to take a shot at it. I'm not particularly artistic but I know what I like in baseball cards, a simple design and good photography. I can take credit for the simple design but not the photography. That goes to an Associated Press photographer. Here's my first attempt with some Astros. If I get an encouragement at all, I'll make some Phillies cards. It's a little hard to tell but the cards do have a white border.

Thursday Night at the Movies - Funny People

A special Monday Night edition of Thursday Night at the Movies.

First, let me say that I am not an Adam Sandler fan. In fact, I don't really care for him at all. I actively disliked him when he was on Saturday Night Live and the trailers for his early movies made me cringe. So why did we see this movie? We'd see and liked two previous Adam Sandler movies, The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates. Both of these were with Drew Barrymore which helped. But Sandler was good in these movies as well. We'd seen the trailers for Funny People and thought we'd like it. Since it got a good review in the local paper we decided to see it.Although this movie has Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen, it is not really a comedy. There are a lot of laughs (many of the characters play stand-up comedians) and a lot of humor in the situations. But, at heart, this is a serious movie about George Simmons, a shallow but successful comedian and movie star (Sandler) and how he approaches a deadly illness. Sandler plays a lot of it straight and believable. Rogen plays, Ira Wright, a struggling comedian who attracts Simmons' attention and becomes his assistant. If you've seen the trailers you know that much. Then of course, there's Laura (Leslie Mann), the ex-girlfriend who got away. Now married (not very happily) to Clarke (Eric Bana). How that all works out is not in the trailers but is the real heart of the story.

Eric Bana, last seen as Nero the Romulan in Star Trek, is pretty good with an outrageous Australian accent in this. It's nice to see he's not going to be saddled with evil alien parts. He's also in The Time Travelers Wife so perhaps he'll get typecast as a time traveler.

Please don't take the kids to see Funny People. There are a lot of adult jokes in this movie that I wouldn't want to have to explain to someone who didn't get them. In fact, if you have an aversion to strong language maybe you'd better stay home yourself.

Virtual Bike Tour of Baseball Sites - Dallas Texas

My last stop was Arlington. Today I (virtually) rolled into Dallas. There were quite a few major league players born in Dallas. I'll list a few.Ernie Banks

There's nothing I can add to all that's been written about Ernie Banks. His 19 year career stretched from 1953 to 1971. For most of that time I was either too young to appreciate baseball or not much of a fan so I don't remember ever seeing him play. He was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1977. He was born in Dallas in 1931. I don't have any cards from his playing days but have several post-career cards.

2006 Topps Heritage Flashbacks

2005 Topps Heritage Flashbacks

2001 Topps HD Images of Excellence

Wes Bankston

Bankston was born in Dallas in 1983. He was the Devil Rays 4th round draft pick in 2002 although never played for them. He appeared in 17 games for the A's last year hitting .203. He was a free agent signing for the Reds last fall and is currently playing for the Reds AAA club in Louisville. Not much of a career so far but I have this cool card of his.

2002 Topps 206 Polar Bear

Jason Jennings

Jennings was born in 1978 and was the Rockies 1st round pick in 1999. He was 58-56 with a 4.68 ERA in 6 years with the Rockies. Not too bad for pitching in Colorado. The Astros traded Taylor Buchholz, Jason Hirsh and Willy Taveras for him in December 2006. That was a lot of talent to give up and the trade wasn't much liked in Houston. He was 2-9 for the 2007 Astros and hurt most of the year. He left for the Rangers after that season via free agency. I don't have many Astros cards of him. 2002 was his best season (he was 16-8) so here's a 2003 card.

2003 Topps Opening Day

Clayton Kershaw

Kershaw is a young Dodgers pitcher. And by young I mean he was born in 1988, making him 21. He is 8-6 with a 2.89 ERA for the Dodgers this year.

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter

Keith Moreland

Moreland was born in Dallas in 1954 and was the Phillies 7th round pick in 1975. He played 4 years with the Phillies (1978-1981) as backup for catcher Bob Boone. It was good enough to get him into the 1980 World Series. In 1981, the Phillies traded him to the Cubs for pitcher Mike Krukow. It was a good move for him as he was a starter, mostly in the outfield, for the Cubs. In 6 seasons he hit .281 with 100 home runs.

1980 Topps Burger King

1981 Donruss

2003 Richie Ashburn cards

I recently acquired a few 2003 Richie Ashburn cards to add to the several I had. I thought I'd show them off.

Richie Ashburn was always one of my favorite baseball players even though I don't think I ever actually saw him play. I was born in 1951, one year after the Phillies Whiz Kids went to the 1950 World Series with a young Ashburn. He was one of the best outfielders of the 1950s. He was traded to the Cubs in 1960. In 1962 he was the MVP of the 1962 Mets (quite an accomplishment I'm sure). He retired after that season. He was elected into the Hall of Fame with his good friend Mike Schmidt in 1995.

I know him best as the color man for the Phillies radio and television broadcasts. He started doing Phillies games soon after he retired and continued until, literally his dying day. He passed away in September 1997, in his hotel room, on the road with the Phillies. He was 73.

2003 Fleer Avant Hall of FrameThe name of this insert set is a clever (I suppose) play on words. It celebrates Ashburn's election into the HOF. The card is embossed so that the frame around the photo is raised. The card is serial numbered to 299.

2003 Fleer Hardball Round Numbers
Another serial numbered card, this time to 1,000. This was a 14-card insert set to Fleer Hardball. The base cards for this set are round. There were several of card issues in 2003 which were round for some reason. I'm pretty sure it's the same photo as the Avant card.

2003 SP Legendary Cuts and SP Legendary Cuts Blue

I had the base card and just picked up the Blue parallel, numbered to 275.

2003 Studio Enshrinement
A 50-card inset set in 2003 Studio featuring HOF players. I also have the Schmidt card from this set. The set is numbered to 750.

2003 Topps Heritage Flashbacks
I don't have too many cards from the 2003 Topps Heritage set. Flash Backs is an annual insert set in Heritage.

2003 Upper Deck Classic Portraits Baseball Royalty
This card is serial numbered to 1200. It is very thick and made made from multiple layers. The top layers are die cut so that the photo is insert several layers down, thus giving a picture frame effect.

2003 Upper Deck Vintage
I bought a few packs of Upper Deck Vintage back in 2003 and managed to pull this card from a pack. The photo sure looks familiar.