My Various Projects - Blog Bat Around

I saw Night Owl's post about his various projects and several bloggers have followed it up as well so I figured I would join in and share.  I fear this list is going to be way too long and point back to me having some sort of collecting "problem" but, as I tell my wife frequently, collecting cards is a much healthier vice than things like booze, drugs, strip clubs or gambling.

Let's get started...

Set Collecting
Set collecting was how I started as a collector back with 1979 Topps.  I am working both forward and backwards on a full Topps flagship run. I pick up a set, including update, each year and I am working on 2 vintage sets right now.  I fear 1972 and its high numbers will be the death of me but I am about to finish the 1969 set. I have sets from 1959 and 1960 and would eventually like the full run back to 1959.

One of my newest 1969 Topps additions

Another one for the 1969 set, my 2nd one in my collection

I have completed the full Upper Deck and Donruss runs, although I still need to get the 2018 Donruss set.  I have most of the Fleer sets and would like to fill in those gaps at some point.  My collection of Update/Traded cards is not complete but at times I will look to add another to the collection.

Finally I am dabbling with collecting the Stadium Club and Score runs of cards.  This new collection I bought may fill in enough Score holes to make the quest for a complete run a little more reasonable.  Stadium Club may take a while but I am a fan of the brand.

Inserts
Each year with my Topps flagship sets I pick up all the hobby insert sets and work on the retail inserts that interest me.  This started back in 2006 so I am working to add the inserts from 1993-2005 to my Topps collection.  If I ever get close to achieving this goal, I plan to make a list and pursue Upper Deck insert sets and may ultimately go after the inserts for all the sets I have collected.

Some new Topps inserts from the big collection I bought

Player Collections
After collecting sets, my next area of collecting focus shifted to player collections.  I started with Rickey Henderson and quickly added Willie McCovey.  Since then the list has expanded with me even adding a few players in the last couple of years.  Here is a complete list of players I collect:

Baseball
Willie McCovey, Rickey Henderson, Vida Blue, Dave Winfield, Reggie Jackson, Ben Petrick, Chili Davis, Fred Lynn and Dave Parker

A couple new Petrick parallel adds

Some great Dave Parker oddballs

Football
Ronnie Lott, Roger Craig, Dwight Clark and Fred Dean

I love this new Fred Dean auto I recently picked up, much shinier in person

Basketball 
Harold Miner, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Chris Webber and Scot Pollard

It isn't easy to find new Harold Miner cards to add to my collection

A pretty cool back

I used to have a goal of being a "Supercollector" of every player meaning getting one of every card ever made.  With the expansion of rare and 1/1 cards this is now virtually impossible so I am more of a volume collector trying to get as many different cards of each player that I can. I rarely go after the 1/1 cards or high end triple patch bat nameplate autos of my players - I get more joy in having pages to flip through than any one card.

USC Trojans Football

Back in the mid-2000s, USC football was king.  With players like Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, Troy Polamalu and LenDale White there were always new rookies to chance and great cards to pull.  I amassed a pretty large collection, I should do an updated count sometime soon, that was probably only surpassed by my Giants collection in the last couple of years.  I still try to add cards here and there but have lost a little focus. Hoping to find a niche sometime this year to grow this collection.

Despite the sticker auto, this is one my favorite cards in my collection.

Even the guys that don't pan out are fun to collect, especially in a Trojan uniform

Giants
I spend a lot of my time, energy and funds on my Giants collection.  I currently have 33 binders filled with Giants cards and this doesn't include my autos, relics and manurelics.  The Giants are my favorite sports team and where my sports passion burns the greatest.  My additions swing back and forth between higher end, lower end, vintage, modern, base, inserts and hit but I am always happy to add a new Giant to my collection.

Since Night Owl started this Bat Around, I had to honor his favorite all time Giant.

Baseball HOF Autos
A few years back I thought it was a good idea to attempt to collect as many autographed cards as I could of different HOF baseball inductees.  My collection is nearing 100 different people and I routinely enjoy looking through the box they sit in and thinking about the great history of my favorite sport.

This John Smoltz is my newest HOF addition

Vintage SF 49ers
While baseball is my number one passion, I am a pretty big football fan too.  I have a nice little collection of autographed 49er player cards from their heyday in the 80s and 90s but I wanted to build a larger collection and decided to focus on the vintage cards from before my collecting days.  This was done to narrow down the scope and for sheer storage space concerns.  It has been fun connecting with the players from before my time.

A 1956 Topps card picked up at a card shop during a recent work trip to Dallas

This card, from the same shop, is from 1965

Just for the "F" of it Cards

A recent pick up for the fun of it, I remember watching Branch and the Raiders with my dad as a youngster

I have some other smallish collections like my Sacramento Kings and vintage Star Wars cards but the ones listed in this post are my primary collecting focus.  Thanks for the idea Night Owl, as usually I was a little slow to respond.