When I was a kid I was a freak about baseball cards. Sure, I dabbled in hockey/basketball/football cards, but I lived on baseball cards. That is probably the number 1 reason why I am in finance and a numbers geek. I love stats, I love averages, deviations, means, everything about numbers. I'm not a Sabermetrics guy, which surprises me, but I love prediciting and forecasting stats.
I have started looking at some of my cards over the past couple of weeks and thinking about my favorite set (1985 Topps) and it got me thinking about cataloging my cards and reminiscing about all the cards I used to have. Back before I moved out to Colorado I sold 100's of thousands of cards on eBay to make my collection a little more portable. I have about two to three thousand left - and most are worth more than commons (although some are just personal favorites or complete sets).
I also started last night cataloging my cards in Microsoft Access - I'll probably start looking for want lists online and start contacting collectors and trying to find good homes (at a price) for my existing cards.
But the internet has become such a great tool - and I was scanning it to find cool sites that show the cards from my era (1970-1990). I have found a bunch - check them out:
The Baseball Card Project - pics of all your cards in one spot. From the creator of the baseball cube, comes an awesome site that I myself wanted to start (but don't have the time or energy). Help him complete lots of sets and make this a more complete database!
The Baseball Card Blog - this is a cool site that does reviews on older sets, that does a six pack habit where they open six packs of cards and analyze the cards inside.
The Ugly Baseball Card Blog - a funny look at those cards we loved.
1988 Topps Blog - a day by day card by card look at the 1988 Topps set.
A Pack a Day Blog - it ain't cigarettes, but it is just as tough to quit! Who needs Starbucks.
The Completist - Wax Heaven - just a casual look at baseball cards or today (and sometimes yesterday).
Squeeze Play Cards - fun site.
Fielder's Choice Baseball Card Blog - another addict.
These are just some sites that I peruse. I think they are fun to look at - although all the new sets are a bit overwhelming. Which is why I stick to the older sets.
It amazes me to think that rookie cards are worth hundreds of dollars straight out of the pack. When a guy has a whole career to fall on his face, after a great rookie season (or maybe he hasn't even played yet!) that seems like quite a leap. Especially after my hall of famer rookie cards hardly change and they already have proven themselves! And although I somewhat believe that the circulation of a card has an exponential relationship to the value - I have trouble believing some of the prices that an "excellent" rookie card of a HOFer gets when I highly doubt there are 200 or so in that condition of that very card. The non-mint stuff has to be worth more than they are being sold for on eBay. Sorry, but I don't get the price of these cards. If it was a 1973 car it would be priceless - but a 35 year old baseball card is just so-so in value? Whatever.
And don't get me started on grading! That's for another time.
Well, I just wanted to get something in writing here on some of the cool baseball card sites I have found. Mission accomplished.
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