What I Got From Sixteen Years of Baseball Card Collecting

Yes, sixteen years. I don't know the exact day when my grandmother first gave me a couple packs of 1988 Donruss Baseball, a small shoebox, and some rubber bands, but it was definitely some time in '88, and it helped kick something off that's still going today.

Judging by their condition, these are probably two of the first cards I got.

A lot of people my age and older talk about how reading the stats on the backs of baseball cards was the first time they really understood math concepts like percentages, averages, and ratios. When you figure out the formula to calculate a batting average or an earned run average for yourself, it suddenly makes more sense than all the dry story problems about "Suzy bought 20 apples for $1.26, 10 oranges for $1.87, 2 kiwi fruit for $4,38, and 7 kumquats for $0.68. What is the average cost of each piece of fruit Suzy purchased?"

For me, later, there would be other benefits as well. By the time I'd graduated college with my shiny new Computer Science degree, I'd accumulated a decent sized collection. Not any particular great shakes, but big enough to make tracking what I had somewhat unwieldy.

I tried using duplicates of the set checklists to see what I had (assuming the set had checklists and that I had them in the first place.) I tried using paper checklists. (Too many cards to be effective, and the lists had to be kept updated with new sets.) I tried a spreadsheet (in Excel '97. Enough said.)

But hey, I had a CS degree, I had a copy of Microsoft Access '97, and I knew databases. How hard could it be to make my own Access/SQL database to track my inventory?

As it turns out, rather more difficult than I thought. However, the protracted side development (and eventual abandonment of the project) taught me several lessons in software development that I've never forgotten. Things about scope creep, and estimation of effort were lessons that I learned before I knew the proper terms for them. Add to that some valuable SQL experience that stood me in decent stead on my resume.

Who knows, maybe one day I'll tackle that development project again. There's certainly enough things that bother me about Beckett's Organize system (and especially their barely functional iOS app) that I'm certainly tempted to roll my own again at times.

But perhaps not. If I've learned one thing over the years of trying to find solutions to this particular problem, it's that an 80% solution that you have now, is far, far better than a 100% solution that you'll have eventually, some day, maybe.

Rediscovering Simple Pleasures - Baseball Card Collecting

For my recent birthday, my wife allowed our kids to give their daddy a few packs of new 2016 Topps Series 1 baseball cards.

This may have been a mistake, as it re-ignited (with spousal permission), a collecting bug that has lain essentially dormant since our oldest son was born ten years ago. One trip to the local card shop later, and I was tearing into wax packs from a blaster box just like old times.

I should probably add here, that I've been playing with the Topps Bunt app on my phone since last September. It's pretty fun, but while I've fully embraced the power of digital gaming and e-books without much remorse, there's something about digital collectible cards that really doesn't scratch the itch. I like the Bunt app, don't get me wrong here, the daily contest elements in particular are great, but when I'm collecting something, I want to a tangible good. Especially for cards, tapping a button to watch an animation of a pack unwrapping is a poor facsimile of actually ripping open a pack for yourself and flipping through your new cards.

I also picked up a subscription to Beckett.com's card tracker and pricing service. Let's be honest here, one of the worst nightmares for any collector (of anything) is losing his or her collection and having to make an insurance claim. For me, aside from the main organizational value, there's a huge potential benefit there that if I ever have to make an insurance claim, having a full inventory of my collection will be a huge help. Having the collection live on Beckett's cloud is another benefit.

This of course, means I've also starting going through my old stuff that I never organized. Scratch that, I had organization. Twelve-year-old me organized his cards by team. Which is somewhat less helpful when attempting to inventory a set-based collection. No wonder I never had time to tackle this project before.

The finest cards of 1994, minus a few hundred still in pages

It feels good to be flipping through my old cards again. It's another project I never could have taken on with my old job and commute, but one that desperately needs doing. Since I'm doing most of my work at the kitchen table, it's also giving me some good interaction opportunities with my kids, both to share some of my old cards with them, and show them some newer stuff as well. 

Streaming Schedule This Week:

Youtube: TIE Fighter finally hits the campaign. Missions 1-5 of Campaign 1, Aftermath of Hoth, will be going up this week.

Twitch: Quantum (won't) Break me with this last boss battle. I'm going to finish this game, and then start checking out ChromaGun. I should be back to my regular-ish 9:45-10:15pm Power Half-Hour weeknight stream, plus the longer weekend runs.

Right Here: On Thursday we'll continue our series on Night Fighters.