Wednesday, January 16, 2013

What I Collect Part Two: The Cubs

Before I get into my Cubs cards, I want to thank those who left such complementary comments on yesterday's post. I really appreciate it. I also need to thank Mrs. WW for supporting my obsession hobby. She' s let me take over a corner of the basement for my shelves and desk. I don't think she gets my fascination with pieces of cardboard, but she indulges me. Now on to the Cubs!

Today my Cubs card collection total is 11,135. Though it's only 10% of my total collection, I consider it the most important part. After all, this is Wrigley Wax, not Complete Set Wax.

When I returned to collecting in 2008, the only Cubs cards I had were Topps. While in college, I had put together a run of Cubs from 1969 - 1980. The first thing I did when I got back was go for the complete Topps run, starting with the red and blue backs of 1951. I have that finished, except for nine high number cards from the 1952 set. I've got reprints for those. My Topps Cub total is 2,837.

Once I had my Topps run finished, I looked to do the same with some other brands. I decided early on that I was going to do complete runs of a brand. I didn't want a hodge-podge of cards from all sorts of brands. I was going to go one brand at a time, and finish that brand before moving on to something else. Right now I'm up to 78 different listings.

The only way I could accomplish this was with the different on-line card sources. My computer is the biggest card shop out there, and I don't have to deal with a grumpy owner. Not only was the internet my card shop, but it was also my checklist. Collecting today is so much easier with all the digital resources that are available.

Most of the brands that I have are brands that have larger checklists. I wasn't too interested in team sets that have only 3-4 cards. I was looking for sets with at least 8-10 cards. But that was only a general rule and since I made the rule, I could break it if I wanted to.


All my Cubs are kept in binders. I'm starting to run out of room on the shelf, so I will soon have to come up with more storage space.

Here's what I've got, and for each brand, it includes all of the Cubs.

Brand Cards
Allen and Ginter 128
Action Packed 5
Archives 10
Autographs 103
Baseball Heroes 38
Baseball's All Time Greats 5
Bazooka 57
Big 27
Bowman 567
Chicago's Greats 12
Classic 62
Coke 12
Collectors Choice 104
Conlon 88
Cracker Jack 29
Cramers Baseball Legends 14
Decade 1970s 12
Dell Todays Cubs 24
Diamond Kings 43
Donruss 639
Fan Favorite 19
Flair 95
Fleer 917
Fleer Ultra 251
Fritsch 12
Galasso Glossy Greats 17
Gallery 63
Goudey 64
Greats of the Game 81
Gypsy Queen 49
Heritage 319
Hostess 30
Kelloggs 36
Leaf 229
Line Drive 3
Lineage 18
Masterpieces 18
Milton Bradley 20
MSA 8
National Chicle 11
O-Pee-Chee (Upper Deck)  23
Pacific 138
Pacific Legends 18
Pinnacle 111
Play Ball 5
Pro Debut 37
Relics 45
Score 284
Sega Card Gen 11
Select 41
Shakeys 11
SP Legendary Cuts 71
Spectrum 14
Sports Design Products 5
SSPC 51
Stadium Club 302
Star 279
Starting Lineup 20
Studio 110
Swell 18
T201 3
T205 17
T206 90
TCMA 117
Team Issued 583
Ted Williams 8
Timeless Teams 7
Tip Top Bread 15
Topps 2837
Topps Chrome 243
Topps Kids 5
Topps Stickers 153
Triple Play 45
Turkey Red 54
Upper Deck 594
Victory 78
X 12

This makes a total of 10,694 cards. The 441 not in this list are from my player collections, and I'll have more on those tomorrow.

2 comments: