Still making progress.

As June rolled into July things have slowed down rather noticeable. This is not terribly surprising given the frantic pace that proceeded the month.

Nonetheless there are two noteworthy packages that made their way over:

First, OBCer Lynn Miller registered 19 hits to my 1975 Topps set, bringing it to 35% completion.
Second, an ebay lot arrived containing 30 cards spread out from 1953 Bowman, 1954 Bowman, 1953 Topps and 1954 Topps. In all these included another 23 hits to my sets.

The end result of these packages is another 42 hits to the lists, which brings things here:

Cards in my Collection: 5,227
Total Cards needed: 17,936
Cards remaining to achieve goal: 12,709
Percentage Complete: 29.14%

Full mailbox,,,,

A pleasant surprise awaited me this Monday as the mailbox was nearly overflowing with all manner of padded envelope and box-ness.

Apparently all my outstanding ebay purchases plus a few surprise and expected OBC packages left the mailman with some work to do.

So first, the all important OBC mail.

John Stamper surprised me with 8 hits to my 1968 Topps set (and some sharp looking cards to boot), including Felipe Alou and Johnny Callison and added in a hit to my 1961 set for good measure. Thanks John, quite unexpected but fantastically so.

The second OBC package was an expected one from Mac Wubben which put the 1974 Topps set on ice for me.

First I give you the card that precedes it which also arrived today courtesy of California Sportscards:
So with Pete being the 659th card of my set, here is the 660th and final nail in the coffin as provided by Mac:
The 1973 World Series card featuring Willie Mays. Can't complain too much at the star power on display for those two hits there.

So that completes the set and leaves a void in the wantlist which I shall endeavor to fill before the end of business today.

Now onto the rest of the California Sportscards package which consisted of:

• 2 more singles for my 1956 Topps set (can never have enough of those)
• Some "decent" stars as shown below:

And this guy:
Great prices on these guys, I just couldn't resist attacking the 1960 Topps set when such opportunities present themselves.

This theme is actually continued with another 2 card ebay group I bought:
And another San Francisco Giant.
Kaline, Ford, Willie Mays and a McCovey Rookie, all in the same day. Not a bad morning of sorting cards I would say and quite the large hits to the 60 Topps set.

Even with all that though, I still had one more 2 card ebay lot left:
1957 Topps Billy Martin. And to finish, another big hit to my favorite set of all...
1956 Topps Yogi Berra. With almost all the big names in hand I can feel that set getting closer and closer.

Lastly, and certainly not least (though it will remain without pictures as this post is long enough. I also received a 51-card lot of 1958 Topps, which garnered another 49 hits to that fledgling set.

Lot's of scratches off the wantlists today and lots of work with the calculator, but in total this mailday yielded hits to 7 different sets and total damage of 68 cards.
Cards in my Collection: 5,185
Total Cards needed: 17,936
Cards remaining to achieve goal: 12,751
Percentage Complete: 28.90%

Closing in on 5200 cards and 29% completion. Might be a bit before I can add to those numbers, but one can't complain with the recent surge in progress.

And end of the week mail...

Some cool stuff in from ebay-land to finish off the week.

First a lovely envelope with 15 cards for my still "in the background" 1958 Topps set. This effectively doubles my "haves" for the set.

Second on the docket was an envelope containing 3 56 Topps which included the Richie Ashburn I needed for my set and a pair of Early Wynn's. Both the Wynn's about duplicates, but one can't complain about having that type of trade bait lying around.

Another nice one to add to the set.

Last, but certainly not least is a little hit to my 1961 Topps set.
A Mantle generally makes for a good day. And quite the decent specimen for a PSA 1. What makes this all the better is that I had some proceeds left over from another sale in PayPal, so this one was actually acquired at a bit of an extra discount, which is always nice.

So with that we have another 17 hits to the old wantlists which brings our updated totals to:
Cards in my Collection: 5,117
Total Cards needed: 17,936
Cards remaining to achieve goal: 12,819
Percentage Complete: 28.52%

Beginning of the week arrivals...

In a continuation of my recent group of pickups I received a group of 17 1956 Topps from ebay.

At this point I don't shoot for these group lots anymore as I have enough of the set that I almost invariably end up with more duplicates (and triplicates in some cases) than actual hits, but when you can win the thing for less than $1 a card, I simply cannot resist such pricing.

So the group while yielding the extras I expected did also garner me another 7 hits to the list and thus moves me to over 66% of the set. Highlights from the lot include a duplicate Herb Score RC (some decent trade bait I would suggest) and our buddy Johnny Podres:

No complaints from this end. Another Brooklyn Dodger, another decent hit for my set.

So with these additions this is where we stand at the beginning of this week:

Cards in my Collection: 5,100
Total Cards needed: 17,936
Cards remaining to achieve goal: 12,836
Percentage Complete: 28.43%

Don't you love it when you end up with nice round numbers like this? An even 5100 cards on the quest.

The next week and change should prove interesting as I have some nice stuff coming in, along with the exciting news as a set should be coming to its end soon.

Mail is good...

Profound no doubt, but nonetheless true.

California Sportscards was today's sender as I received my order containing 5 of the 7 1974 Topps I needed to complete the set.

That as they say is not all however.

These gentlemen also joined the 74 Topps on their journey:

Juan here provides the pitching, and this one here provides the hitting and power:
Two more Hall of Famers leaves me as I stated in my last entry with only 2 cards remaining under #449. Needless to say the last phase of the set will probably consist entirely of the high numbers unless the Munson RC lingers.

Rounding out the package were 8 direct hits to my 1956 Topps set, bringing that set to nearly 65% completion, great progress indeed.

So with all that here is where we stand as pertains the overall count:

Cards in my Collection: 5,093
Total Cards needed: 17,936
Cards remaining to achieve goal: 12,843
Percentage Complete: 28.39%

15 more hits to the overall list moves the percentage another couple of decimal points and leaves me shy of 5100 total. It moves slowly, but progress is progress.

The deluge continues...

I could get used to this whole cards on a daily basis business.

Unfortunately it's not realistic, but cards two days in a row are never anything I would complain about.

So this time around another ebay purchase came in containing a 1970 Topps Carl Yastrzemski to help dwindle the lower numbers (after the remaining expected cards come in, I'll only have 2 cards under #449). In addition were two other Hall of Famers, the next one being Robin Roberts:

Another 1956 Topps Hall of Fame player to further reduce the list. Always a nice thing to add.

And the final card in the package is one for one of my non-wantlist sets that are on the back burner for now:

1958 Topps All-Star Eddie Mathews. I geniunely love this subset and will have to seriously consider picking up the rest of them as this Mathews joins my Mantle, Musial and Herb Score cards from this nice subset.

With the newest additions here is the counter as it stands:
Cards in my Collection: 5,078
Total Cards needed: 17,936
Cards remaining to achieve goal: 12,858
Percentage Complete: 28.31%

And thus it begins...

The first of my recent acquisitions came in today from the land of Ebay, and not a bad one at that...
No complaints about Duke here, a pretty nice card all things considered and for less than 10% of book value I'm a happy camper.
Backs pretty clean as you can see. 42 home runs, 136 RBI's and a World Series title in 1955, a good season's work for Mr. Snider.

Obviously this doesn't move the overall card tally too much, though this is definitely a case of quality over quantity as it gets a significant piece out of the 1956 Topps puzzle.

Cards in my Collection: 5,075
Total Cards needed: 17,936
Cards remaining to achieve goal: 12,861
Percentage Complete: 28.29%

Just wanted to share.

Since I have managed to get things organized and updated I wanted to share some of the additions that didn't make it onto my main wantlist but nonetheless represent some of the stuff I love to pickup from time to time.

First off, a card from one of my favorite sets of all-time:
While definitely not the most expensive card in the set, nor even the "best" player I have from it, how can I not love the horizontal cards from the 1952 Topps set. Really nice picture on this one and as you can see from the area near Virgils hands where the bat handle is, the damage is pretty much the main flaw which made this otherwise beautiful looking card nice and affordable for me.

This is really a set where there really isn't anything I don't like about it. The facsimile signature, the picture which resembles fine art and even the little series of stars that comprise the border around the name and aforementioned signature, this is a classic design, and pretty much the reason Topps decided to rip itself off with the successful series of Topps Heritage issues which continue to this day.

The second set of this heritage series of course was a remake of the subsequent 1953 Topps series, which is an appropriate segway into this:
Where 1952 Topps is obviously my favourite set, this ranks as a very close second. Simply beautiful cards with the large paintings, the bold solid border in the corner, containing the players name, position and team and a nice representation of the team logo all nicely placed out of the way of the main image which is really what we want to see with these cards. How could I not pick up this card for $15.

How could this be $15 you ask, well the back is basically torn off. As a result when a collector friend of mine showed me this one at a card show for $15 (or 10% of the BV at the time), I simply had to have it. The 10% rule is always a great guide in these situations, and with the front looking like this, I like this purchase just fine.

In the miracle to end all miracles....

I actually did a complete inventory and figured this whole numbers business out.

I wasn't planning on having it done so soon, but my intense annoyance at the whole thing spurred me on as no other motivator can.

So here ladies and gentlemen are the correctly updated totals as they stand on June 4, 2009:

Cards in my Collection: 5,074
Total Cards needed: 17,936
Cards remaining to achieve goal: 12,862
Percentage Complete: 28.28%

Not surprisingly I have surpassed the 5000 mark and am closing in on 5100.

In truth, I would probably have been past 6000 cards by now if I had given some more energy into my 70s sets, but that should change hopefully this summer. As it is I'm expecting 17 cards in the mail in and in particular the addition of a few more 1956 Topps stars which I will hopefully showcase once they do arrive.

That set in particular has made some pretty solid progress as it's well past the 60% completion mark. Another notable is the 1974 Topps set which will be one Pete Rose and one Mays 73' World Series card away from completion once the latest stuff gets here.

So there you go, things do still happen around here on occasion.

Testament to my memory and time management skills

It truly takes a man of great scheduling and even better organization to not be able to find time in his "busy" schedule to not be able to post here in over a year.

No, I have not abandoned the project, nor did I forget about it, at least not for the majority of the absence in question.

I simply haven't been keeping as diligent records as I had been up until last year. So while I'm definitely ahead of the 4900 different cards that I was last up to here, I actually have no idea how much further as I lost the papers I was using to track the acquisitions as they came in. Inexcusable I know, but that's the best explanation I've got.

So while I go back to the basics and start to slowly catalog everything to get the numbers right again I will ease myself back into posting by highlighting some of the different cards I have managed to pick up during my impromptu hiatus. I should have the first of these up and going this week.

Similarly I'll probably set up another little blog entirely for fun where I can talk about cards that interest me and little junk wax breaks that I like to have from time to time in order to amuse myself. Should be an interesting summer for the blogging.