A Long Overdue Post

Back in January, one of the cardboard blogosphere's most beloved bloggers Wes (a.k.a. JBF) of Area 40 decided to hang 'em up. He decided to do so in grand fashion, collected what seemed to be a ton of unopened boxes and packs. And then - because he is the nicest guy on the Internet - he decided to give those cards away as a final farewell.

I was fortunate enough to have the Texas Rangers in the break. They netted me a number of awesome cards, the ones I like the most I will share with you here.

A 2004 Topps Clubhouse Collection relic of perhaps the greatest Ranger, Mark Teixeira. First, I like the card. It turns out that these were packed out in different tiers, meaning that some were harder to snag than others. Go figure. Second, I call Tex the greatest Ranger because his trade netted the Rangers Elvis Andrus (who is still our starting shortstop - check out his walkup music from yesterday's opening day), Neftali Feliz (the 2010 AL Rookie of the Year), and still one of my favorite players and main PC, Matt Harrison. Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Beau Jones were also included in the trade, but they had much less of an impact than the previous three. 

Hank Blalock also had a card in the 2004 Topps Clubhouse Collection set. I always liked Blalock...I was certain he would have a much more significant career than he did. I received another card for this set featuring Chan Ho Park, but I didn't scan it.

This hails from the 2015 Topps Strata set, the first year of the line if I remember correctly. I always thought it was cool that Topps included the MLB certification sticker so you could look up the event.

Wes, I never traded with you prior to this, but I can say that I was a regular reader. Your trade wars with Bob Walk the Plank were epic. I always looked forward to seeing what you were going to fire off next. There are seemingly few good people in the Internet, but you are truly one of them. Godspeed on whatever you choose to do next. Thank you.

eBay Mailday(s)

I've fallen behind in posting my eBay purchases. There haven't been many, but I could certainly do a better job of posting. Let's clean out the ol' eBay scan folder and see what has come in recently.

First up: this hideous Easter purple/pink Cole Hamels parallel from 2017 Gypsy Queen. I really hate that color and think it looks terrible on a baseball card. But I wasn't consulted - and I'm sure there is someone out there who loves it. Either way, it's a new Hamels for my collection.

Next up:

I mentioned a few times that I really like the Meaningful Materials relic cards from this year's Museum collection. I previously purchased a version of this card (also numbered to 50) but I was able to upgrade to one with a better patch (see above). The best part? I won this card for .49 cents (plus $3 shipping). I'll happily pay $3.49 for this card!

I also grabbed another parallel of this card, this one numbered to 10. It cost me maybe $5 total. Again, I will happily pay that!

But I'm not done with Museum Collection yet:

I was also able to get my hands on this Rougned Odor Meaningful Material relic. This one was a bit more expensive, but still well less than half a blaster. This is the base parallel, numbered to 50.

That's it for this eBay Mailday - but fear not, there are more in the future!

A Quick eBay Mailday

Another quick post. I would apologize, but you probably prefer the short and sweet posts. I can't say that I blame you. Earlier, I mentioned how much I really like the 2017 Topps Museum Collection Meaningful Material relics. I managed to snag another:

The relic isn't an awesome patch like the Hamels relic was, but it  isn't a plain white swatch, either. I'm thinking that this probably came from the sleeve of the Rangers' alternate red jerseys. They piping would certainly fit with that.

I have at least one more on the way, so this isn't the last time you will hear about these cards!

I hope everyone is well!

I'm Looking for Your Input!!!

I've been gone for...well, I'm not certain. It seems like a long time. I could say that I was burned out on cards and I just needed to get away for a bit, but that would only be half true. The reality was that I was burned out with everything - cards, school, work...life in general. I just hit a point where I needed to step back and recharge. Fortunately, my cousin/best friend/figurative brother made a point to come spend the weekend with me, and that did wonders. It's kind of magical what 18 holes can do early on a Sunday morning.

I'm ridiculously far behind on posting because of my need to step back. Don't believe me? Here's my pending post folder, and as you can tell, some have been pending for a while:

This is part of a larger problem I'm finding that I have. I recently began reorganizing my collection. I have almost everything physically organized, but I need a way to digitally organize everything. Here's the system I use now. First, I have been creating a checklist of 2016 releases and the Ranger cards that are in them:

From here, I create a Rangers-only checklist:

I try to note every card, parallels to inserts, that are included. Once complete, I note each card that I have with an "X" (as you can see above.

To accompany this, I have been scanning each card, front and back, which I keep in what I have nicknamed my "Ranger Cardboard Encyclopedia":

The image above is for the 2016 cards that I have. Each folder, when opened, looks similar to this:

Thus far, everything has worked out. However, I have spent a ton of time creating the checklists, and truth be told, I'm still working on 2016. I can't imagine how much time it will take to create 40-plus years leading up to this year. Nevermind the fact that it will get infinitely more difficult when I start building checklists for products that don't have the Rangers intentioanlly identified.

So here's my question. How do you keep a digital catalog of your collection? Do you use specific software? Have you created your own system? I would greatly appreciate your input! Feel free to create your own post on the matter and leave the link in the comment sections below!

Now, I can't end this post without sharing some cardboard! In building my 2016 checklist, I've come across a few sets that feature only one Ranger card. One of these is the Walmart Marketside Pizza set. Prince Fielder is the only card in the set, and I recently grabbed it for about $1.25 shipped.

Front...

Back!

Nothing special, but it completes a set!

I hope everyone is doing well, and I look forward to your help with organization!