A Sunday night milestone post.

I was just getting ready to start a trade post tonight and realized I was at one milestone and very close to another, so I decided to combine them both into one story. Only I had no idea what I was going to say ! I filled in the title and went to the kitchen and made a big mug of hot chocolate (it's chilly here with the storm coming) and did a little contemplating and reminiscing. This is my 400th post and in 19 days this meager blog will celebrate it's 4th birthday. 400 posts in 4 years is certainly nothing extraordinary. Barely 1 per week. And most of the contents of my posts won't leave you wondering why you didn't already know that little tidbit about the 1995 Topps set or how certain players have had two cards in one set with different poses and numbers. The research some of you guys do is totally amazing !

Our youngest son, Andy, is now a professional sports writer. He had a blog long before me and was also very active on the on-line trading sites. After reading his blog for awhile I began to notice all the other baseball card blogs out there and decided to try it myself. I had no idea what I was doing ! Sometimes I still don't. I think my original intentions were to write mostly about the Cleveland Indians and Indian baseball cards. I had no idea of the trading that went on between the bloggers. I quickly learned that this group was like one huge family of collectors. Several of you stepped right up and made me feel like I had been a member for years !  I'm not sure how many active blogs there were at the time, but in the last couple years the number has grown immensely. When I discover a new blog that has not been around for long I try to help and encourage that person in the same manner.

Trading cards did become a major part of my blogging activities. I know I have added at least 1500-2000 cards to my Indian collection, maybe more. All through trades and an occasional group break.I need to do an inventory of my collection and come up with some better want lists. That is one of my goals for this winter. And to stay on top of my trades. I have several trades in process and several that were going to be shipped out tomorrow, but that will change. I want to wait until this storm passes to send out any packages. Especially ones going east.

 

Trades can easily get of hand though. Sometimes I get too many going at once and start to get behind. I have all the trades I'm involved in labeled and orderly, I just have to finish all of them. Sometimes I'm just too picky. I want everyone I trade with to be happy with what they receive and to get more than what they expected. I have thousands of cards to get rid of, but if I'm not filling a specific want list, I get very precise about what I send out.

 

The packages I receive are great also !  Everyone seems to have the same basic philosophy about satisfying the other traders. That's what makes this whole blogging community so great.

 

Some have written stories about losing interest in collecting. Some obviously have, as some blogs sit on my list with no posts for months. I still have as much desire as ever and always look forward to seeing new products. Maybe because I went through the era when Topps was basically all there was. Back in the mid to late '90's the market was literally flooded with  cards. In 1998 there was well over a hundred different  packs of cards you could pick from. I think that was really too many. There is almost no hope for a team collector to find all the inserts and parallels from that era. They talk about about rainbows today, take a look at 1997-98 Score. You are lucky if you can identify, let alone find all the variations. And don't get me started on 2000 Pacific Prism or Topps Tek !!  Oh, but it's all been fun !

 

I hope to partially retire soon. I'll be 62 in December. But I don't intend to slow down with collecting, trading or blogging.

 

I do hope to start posting a little more consistently and mix in some more interesting material. And mark November 16th on your calender. That's All - Tribe Baseball's birthday and I plan to have a contest of some sort. 

 

For those of you who may be in the path of this storm, I hope you are well prepared and no harm comes comes to you and your families. I will be praying for God to be watching over all.