arpsmith

It has been a little while since I posted, I have been busy organizing my collection and trying to determine where my focus will be.

First task was taking better care of my USC collection. I had most of the cards (with the exception of some of the very high end) in 3600 count boxes not protected with penny sleeves or top loaders. I have now gone through and put all GU/Auto/Printing Plates into top loaders. They are taking up way too much space but now they are much better protected.

Next up was to build a new tracker for my USC cards. I currently keep track on an excel spreadsheet and list all the cards for each player on a separate tab. It still works great but I have no way to see how many different cards I have, what percentage I have or how many Auto/GU I have. So I built a separate spreadsheet that shows each player, how many total cards, GU, Auto and Auto/GU per Beckett. Then I list how many of each category I have. Now I know how many cards (9332), GU (546), Autos (500) & Auto/GU (17) I have in my collection.

Finally I think I have settled on a direction of focus for my collection. I am going to work on completing my sets while looking for deals on the cards I need. I actually just purchased the last 4 SP cards I need to complete my 2007 Topps Heritage set this week on sportlots! This set was a beast. Other sets I need to finish are 2009 UD baseball (Series 2 base along with Series 1 & 2 insert sets), a few more 2009 Topps inserts, 2008 UD Timeline & 2008 UD Masterpieces (need some SPs). I am also on the lookout for 2 2008 Topps Opening Day Autos (Botts & Perkins) - if you have these let me know.

My co-priority along with the sets will be my Ronnie Lott & Willie McCovey collections. I am a supercollector of both and mainly have high end cards to add. If I can get 1-2 of each per month I will be happy.

Next up will be adding to my USC GU & Auto totals. I have over 23% of all base but only 9.4% of the GU and 11.5% of the Autos - not to mention only 1.2% of GU/Auto. With my new tracker I can easily see which players have GU and Auto cards I need and can use it to target those with several possibilities.

My lowest priority will be adding to my Rickey Henderson and SF Giants collections. With Rickey I will probably look to add cheap GU cards and base from prior to 2000. My Giants collection is only GU and Auto cards from some of my favorite players from the past.

If I can stick to my plan, I think I can make progress in the areas that will make me most happy. I have to try and limit my box purchases (still will need to do a few to get some trade bait and fulfill the need) to save funds for the players.

Happy 4th of July to all!