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.