Ramblings: Don’t Kill Cataloguing

[Ripken]

A couple of developments have made cataloguing many sports card sets a challenge, but Rich Klein tells us why it's important to keep chronicling them all.

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[DaClyde]

Good piece. Given the nature of current ownership of the traditional hobby media, it is falling more on the collectors themselves to keep up with cataloging and researching the hobby. It's interesting how companies in this business often can't be bothered to do for money what the rest of us will eagerly do for free. I hope at some point, COMC will be willing to add descriptive details to their set and card entries once they get their catalog problems settled.

[Tripredacus]

This is interesting to me because I have been involved in "cataloging" as well... to a different degree and in an area of specialty that has no "official" publication source... That is Transformers. In today's day, this information is more readily available as books and website databases are around for people to use. But I remember a time where those kinds of things were not available and where information was all over the place and in some cases incorrect. Very few people would take the time to gather that all up and make it available in one place. This think that this definately relates.

I can understand why a cataloger would just look at new product releases (even the team-issue example) and say "why bother?" This complaint is that no one needs or wants this information NOW or maybe in a couple of years where it is still fresh. Think about down the road, someone comes into a collection or a lot and runs across some weird oddball item or some item they cannot identify. So they come to forums or other authorities in search of identification. Even take a look in these forums where people have found some card or variation and wants to find out what it is.

Cataloging only makes this kind of thing easier, for both the "guru" types and the regular folk. My only complaint about most guides, databases or publications is that they end up turning into a bunch of lists. Lists are great, but sometimes I wish for knowing a little more. Little things like how the item was available, was it an insert in a certain type of release, a store/city/regional exclusive, from a factory set, a promo, something from a convention or show? Things like that. Little details that show the history of the items in question that you just don't get from a bunch of lists.