and I'm back

I did not put a time table on my return to writing in this space and even left the door open to just shutting the door all of the way.  The two and half months off from writing have been really good for me, but I have really missed writing about cards.  There were several times over the past few months when I just wanted to sit down in front of my computer and crank out a cool post about something that crossed my mind during the day.

Obviously I resisted the urge to actually write, but I still jotted the ideas down in a notebook and have some good ideas for upcoming posts.  I also spent a lot of time thinking about the direction of my blog.  In my last post, back in January, I had expressed a sense of restlessness with my writing.  I can be scattered, wander, lose direction, and I tend to step back and and re-evaluate when this happens.  The past two and half months have given me this opportunity.  So, here is what I have been working on during that time.

First, I worked really hard at organizing my cards.  I have a lot of cards.  Almost three years ago I set out to reorganize my cards into sets, switching them out from boxes that were sorted by team, then by year, then by card set.  The project has been a lot more than I could have every imagined.  I have put together a lot of sets during the past three year, and many more were completed during my time away from my blog.  A quick video....

There are still a ton of cards left to sort out at this point after all of that work.  For example, these are all of the card boxes from the late 1970s through 1988.  My wife has been awesome in helping me take the cards out of these boxes, sort them into piles by set, and then sort the actual cards into sets.

and here is what they look like sorted out onto my coffee table in stacks by set......

A bigger problem has been the amount of doubles that I have generated from sorting out all of the different card boxes out into sets.  The "doubles table" has felt like a little much to deal with at times during the past year or two.....

I let a few of my card collecting friends come over and pick through the table looking for singles that they needed/wanted for various reasons.  One of them was kind enough to straighten the table out as he looked for cards.  This picture does not show the entire table, nor does it show the eight foot bookcase that was next to this table which was also covered in cards.  There are some really good cards on this table, but I am not sure I have the time and energy to Ebay them all, or send them some place like COMC or Sports Lots.  Maybe a charity of some kind.

So what does this all have to do with returning to this blog space?

While I am returning to this space I am also going to make a few changes.  I know a lot of readers liked some of the minor league stuff that I posted here and I plan to keep that here.  I know a lot of readers liked some of the regular posts with countdowns and the whatnot, which will also stay.  It's really the posts in between that I want to change.

I spent a lot of time talking about cards that I bought, or picked up in trades.  I like cards, I saw cards, and I added them to my collection.  In sorting out cards into sets I have realized two things:

1.  Have a lot of cool cards that are already in my collection that I have not spent time writing about.  Some of the cards have a really good story, some belong to favorite players, etc.  I want to spend time focusing on those cards.  In other words, I am not going to write as many posts about new cards that I am adding to my collection.  If you enjoyed those posts, I will occasionally write about those cards, but you can find more of those cards on my Instagram and Facebook pages.  
2. I am going to make more posts that are goal oriented.  Way back in the day I assembled the 90 cards to make a 1998 Topps Tek set and started another project with the Skybox Molten Metal Xplosion cards, but never finished that project.  In sorting out a few hundred sets the past three years I have run across bunches of sets where I am missing some cards.  I am going to finish them and write about them when I get there.  I have made a few changes to my blog in preparation for this change at the top of the blog by adding an on-going projects page and completed projects page.  I have already selected my first project and will be sharing the details over the weekend.  

I have missed being here writing and I am happy to be back.  Thank you for coming back and reading my blog again.