My Main hobby project

BillyKingsley

A couple of nights ago I wrote up a big post for Cardboard History where I documented all the various projects I'm working on in the hobby are. The numbered list went to 14 and took over three hours to write, so I'm not going to copy and paste that all here. But I will share my main goal in the hobby that I love so much.

"Get at least one card of every person who had one in NBA, NASCAR, NHL. This has become my main project, and it's evolved over time. It's a project I would not have been able to do until very recently, I was not able to determine who had cards in my sports until I went through the alphabetical listings on the Trading Card Database and determined who had cards I was missing. I couldn't just use the name listings- there are a LOT of people who only got college cards, which don't count. And for NASCAR it's all together under racing so I had to parse out everyone else who has cards from other forms of motorsports (although I will gladly collect them as well, they aren't part of this project) I have yet to make a list for the NHL, and don't plan to do that for a while yet. I only began collecting the sport in 2017, so there are still a LOT more people I don't have than do. Most packs yield at least one new person for my collection, and I've barely scratched the surface for pre-90s players. I've done well on the NBA, getting it down below 400 people (with over 2800 in my collection) and NASCAR I had down to below 25 missing people, before Panini got the license and starting issuing a lot of autograph-only people.
This part of the collection has truly given me the most enjoyment, and it makes me feel more like a true historian, rather than "just" a collector."

You can see the other things I'm working on if you clink the link at the top.

Anyone else working on big projects? Anyone want to see me copy and paste the posts I write about this for Cardboard History onto this forum? It wouldn't be too hard- I've only done three so far. What I am doing, when time permits, is taking a look at ten NBA players at a time, in alphabetical order, and a very brief paragraph about their careers and, if I can find it, what they did after they retired, with a scan of one of their cards out of my collection. I plan to do a similar series for NASCAR but have not started it yet. I plan to sometime before the end of 2018. I think I may be the only NASCAR collector on this forum so I am not sure the interest is there, but I know there are other NBA collectors/fans. There's no opinions as a general rule, only facts, though if I consider somebody a favorite I do plan to mention that. It would be pretty easy to post the info here as I would just copy & paste it if anybody would like to see it.

1951WheatiesPremium

Here's a link to a writing project I'm working on right here on CU. Similar stuff. And maybe it helps:

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/987963/1951-wheaties-premium-photos-set-registry#latest

BLUEJAYWAY

Nice project. I like the part where you will mention what the person is doing in retirement. There are a few Nascar fans here. I think one is Nascar 360.

Stone193

Wow Billy - what you've outlined could keep a person busy for years.

I like your website. Always thought it would be cool to do something like that.

I used to write stuff here - but it just seemed like there just wasn't that much interest.

My "personal" perspective on the hobby was a fun one which I'd like to return to down the road. Unfortunately all the scans are lost due to photo bucket's avarice. Tho, I have to say they've come back down to earth on what they want.

I'm looking forward to your posts.

BillyKingsley

Thanks guys! I really enjoy writing about the hobby. It's more fun to me than just "buy, look at, repeat", lol. I will begin to work on reposting here when I get the chance.

The research on those Wheaties is fantastic! I agree with you about the Cousy- I had no idea that existed...something else to look for!
I'm glad to know that I'm not the only NASCAR fan here. I may not be as big a fan as I once was but I still watch every race.
Thank you Mike- unfortunately I didn't really realize this sports section existed until not particularly long ago so I missed all those past posts. I would recommend a remote hard drive. It cost me something like $70 from Best Buy and I put about 400,000 images on it...and only used up .30 terabytes! I am pretty confident I will be able to fit my entire collection of scans on there three times over, which is exactly what I plan to do- once by set, once by card subject, once by team. I had a no-name brand one that went bad on me in 2016 and took some scans with it, but I have a Seagate one now and I love it. I still duplicate my stuff on my main website (Fotki, not free but I've been with them since 2004), Amazon Drive, the new hard drive, and various flash drives, plus all the photos I take now on my phone are backed up to Google Photo automatically. I'm paranoid about losing stuff again so I make multiple copies of everything, lol.

1951WheatiesPremium

@BillyKingsley

'The research on those Wheaties is fantastic! I agree with you about the Cousy- I had no idea that existed...something else to look for!'

I started my project with that goal in mind - share information and raise awareness for the set. I am still looking for the last card from the set - Jack Kramer 'L'...

I wish YOU the best of luck - I think more people read than people think so for anyone writing, be assured people do read it. And I often love the stories behind a piece or acquisition almost as much as the pieces themselves - I'm sure I'm not alone...

Happy Collecting