Sorting Things Out

I've been putting off the organization of my collection for a long time now. The last time I made a big push at it was in November/December 2014, but that effort got sidetracked and I never really got back on track with it. It's a bad situation, and it restricts my ability to enjoy my hobby because I can never find the cards I am looking for among all the boxes and stacks.

This week I have begun the work of digging my way out of the cardboard pile. I tend to put projects off until I have the perfect plan laid out, but that usually means the projects never get off the ground. In reality I find that I get a lot more done if I just get started and roll with whichever step my motivation carries me to. I grabbed a 5000-count box at random from my desk and started in on it, sorting by sport/topic, then by year, then by set, then by numerical/alphabetical order. I haven't been paying too much attention to ordering within a given sport's years, though, sometimes putting Opening Day in front of flagship Topps and sometimes putting it behind. I'll probably get that sort of stuff ironed out over time, as I sort 5000-count boxes and then combine them.

The biggest question I've come across so far is how to deal with player collections. The box I started with happens to have a large number of my Nolan Ryan and Jamie Moyer cards. Do I separate them out into their own block, or do I put them in among the rest of the collection? When does a player collection officially become something that gets set aside? What if a single card is pulling double duty as a player collection card and part of a complete set?

Sketch cards present similar questions. Do I keep all of my artwork together? Do I keep sketches with the sets they came from? What about PSC's that aren't printed on licensed card stock? In this case I will probably keep all of my art cards together, sorted by character or artist.

I have set the Nolan Ryan and Jamie Moyer cards from the first monster box aside for the moment. There is plenty of other stuff to get through, and I can't let those questions keep me from the bulk sorting.

This 2015 Topps Museum Collection Momentous Material Relic Card of Jon Singleton is one of those player collection cards whose sorting status remains in question. The internet tells me that this must be the Gold parallel, numbered # 08 / 10. Pretty fancy stuff. Jon Singleton stayed in AAA all year in 2016, where he led the Fresno Grizzlies in home runs, but probably didn't produce enough to earn a promotion. Rumor has it that he might get traded or might continue to provide depth in the Astros' minor league system, with an outside shot at getting called back up to the MLB roster some day.

A Few Jo(h)n Singleton Cards

I grabbed up a few nice Jon Singleton cards over the last few months. This first one is a quad relic card from 2015 Topps Museum Collection. There are nicer examples of this card out there that feature a little color on the memorabilia swatches, but they don't come as cheaply as this one did. This one is numbered # 45 / 75.

The back of the card keeps with the quad theme by mentioning four of Singleton's qualities. Most of them center around his ability to hit for power, although he does get a mention for improving his plate discipline. It would be hard to do anything but improve when it comes to that, though.

Here is an earlier Singleton card from his time in the Phillies organization. This card has him listed as John instead of Jon, which I guess can be a problem when you have a name with multiple potential spellings. It was probably too much work for whoever designed 2010 Bowman Sterling to look him up on Baseball-Reference or something and grab the right spelling. Anyway, this is a Gold parallel and it's numbered # 28 / 50. I wonder if the reference to his enjoyment of the laid-back West Coast lifestyle is a backhanded way of saying he has trouble passing drug tests? I guess his first positive test was in 2012, so maybe the marijuana habit wasn't common knowledge when this card was made. It seems like he's been making progress on his rehabilitation, so I shouldn't talk crap about it. Addiction is a heck of a thing to struggle with.

The final card in this bunch is from 2014 Bowman Chrome Mini. It's a Yellow Refractor and is numbered # 01 / 25. It also features a nice photo of Singleton in an Astros throwback uniform. The only problem is that I think this photo has been used in a few different sets. I could just be thinking of parallels, though. Who even knows anymore? (I wasn't wrong. This image was used on his 2015 Gypsy Queen relics, and maybe some others, too).