Answering Readers' Questions

 

Jennifer:  What kind of collector are you?

Elliptical Man:  I'm a star gazer, so I like getting cards of the better players.  I have frankensets for football, basketball, and hockey.  I'm working on team pages for MLB.  Multi-sport athletes and quirky trivia interest me.  I'm not a set builder or a hard-core player collector.     

Alicia:  How do you feel about the direction the hobby is going?

Elliptical Man:  Not too enthused.  Too many "high end" cards that aren't worth it, too many designs that ignore the important stuff, too many ho cards.  The breakers and flippers are fucking everybody over.  I appreciate the generosity of bloggers, but all my other card sources have me feeling disappointed lately.     

Lais:  Are you a card snob? 

Elliptical Man:  Yes and no.  I tend to like a lot of cards that are considered low-end.  But I can be finicky when trading for or buying singles.  Damages, player name hard to read or not on the front, no team logo, ho cards are examples of cards that I usually steer away from.  

 

Abby:  Why don't you collect soccer cards?

Elliptical Man:  I don't follow it enough.  I follow the USMNT in World Cup qualifying and then the Cup itself.  Same with the USWNT.  Very little other than that.  I might follow the Wave since they have you and Alex.  We'll see.  

   

Julianne:  Are you a TTM guy?  An autograph chaser?

Elliptical Man:  Not really.  Auto cards are nice if I get them, but I'm not going out of my way for them.  I don't think I've ever traded for an auto card.  I sent one card out for a TTM auto and it's not looking like I'll get it back.  I didn't really know what to say in my note and I think I came off like an idiot.  So no hard feelings toward the player, who's now retired and works in media.  

   

Mary Louise:  Do you have any dream cards?  

Elliptical Man:  Not really.  There are always cards I would target if money wasn't an issue though.  For baseball, I'd go to 1957 (first year of standard size) and pick between Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays.  I don't know much about basketball cards, but maybe Kareem when he was known as Lew Alcindor, or Doc's RC.  Football - probably the Jim Brown pink Cadillac card or an early Joe Namath.  Hockey would be early career Bobby Orr or Gordie Howe. 

Catherine:  Will you be my groupie tonight?

Elliptical Man:  OMG!  This isn't that kind of blog, Cat. 

National?

I've been seeing a lot of talk about the "national" convention.  Checked their  web-site - they haven't been west of the Mississippi since 2006 and won't be the next two years at least.  

Did my country lose a war when I wasn't paying attention? 

Card Collecting 4: Customized Sets

A lot of card collectors like to build complete sets.  Other than almost getting there in 1987 with Topps baseball, I am not one of these collectors. It's too expensive and there are too many cards that only matter because they're part of the set. Also, the sets are too big.

However, I love customized sets.  Or theme-based collecting. Since I got back into collecting, I have been working on a few of these. Mostly football.  The results have been ... let's be generous and say mixed. Ha.   

HEISMAN TROPHY WINNERS

I decided to work on this when I got the Archie Griffin rookie.   I need Steve Owens, and then I'll have them all from O.J. Simpson through Kyler Murray.

    

  

   

ELITE SPECIAL TEAMERS

I noticed that they don't get much love in the card collecting world.  So here we are.  I have a Dante Hall coming through a trade, and then I'll just need a Stephen Gostkowski to have all the special teamers on the 100th anniversary, 75th anniversary, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s NFL teams.

   

   

CLUB 100 

Kind of like a Frankenset.  But I have a feeling Sportzcommish's 'best player of each uniform number' set might have inspired this.

Anyway, 100 cards numbered 1 through 100 / 100 players, so no player repeated.  I need 24 and 76, and either 33 or 63 because I currently have Tom Brady for both of them.  Then it will just be a matter of finding better players or better cards for certain numbers.

   

    

ACTORS

I've abandoned this one because there are more than I thought. I got a couple Fred Dryers though, and the O.J. shown above.

   

ABA STARS

This one is too hard to do without buying online.  There aren't a lot of people trading them on TCDB. The hobby shop had some ABA cards, but kind of random.

MULTI-SPORT STARS

Another one I abandoned because there are too many of them.  Bo, obviously, as shown above. 

   

Brian Jordan

   

BUSTS

I abandoned this one because it's too hard to decide who's a bust and who merely had a disappointing career.

     

Card Collecting 3: Repack Adventures

I made a trip to Walgreen's for some cleaning supplies and while I was there I bought three Fairfield football boxes.

One of the main things I noticed is that each of the three boxes had a pack from a different set.  One was 2020 Leaf Draft, one was 1991 Pro Set Platinum, and the other one was 1992 Fleer.  Usually, it's the same set represented in each box.

Best Leaf Draft Card



Best 1991 Pro Set Platinum Cards

Bruce Smith

Emmitt Smith

Best 1992 Fleer Cards
   

As for the 225 loose cards, there were a lot of Pro Set.  Most of them went to my contest offerings / trade box or my commons box. But a few made it to my keepers.

Best Pro Set Cards - Both from 1990

Card number 16 :)

   


Best of the Rest

Rookie Card

Reggie Wayne Chrome

Rookie Card

    

Best Adds to My Trader Box

   

 

Lane Johnson Rookie Card

Card Collecting 2

Things I Don't Like That You Probably Do

Fake Autographs




Horizontal Cards
(Ho cards)

 

Late Career Cards of Players On Wrong Teams
(talking about good players we associate with certain teams but they played somewhere else in their twilight years)



Shared Rookie Cards
Here's the rookie card of one of the best baseball players ever.



Airbrushed Team Logos