Elusive Seven

In the never ending series of blog posts that some might interpret as a love fest for Mr. Night Owl but really isn't, I present yet another card that Greg sent me.

2001 Fleer Boston Red Sox 100th Anniversary
Earl Wilson (card # 50)

This is one of my Elusive Eight cards.  Well, now that list is down to seven. I'll have to find another Earl Wilson card to take the place of this one.

I think I put that page up because everyone else was doing it.  Nefarious Nine.  Sought-after Six.  Flappable Five.  Okay, now I'm making them up.  But it worked.  I can only assume that Greg found my narrow wantlist and helped me knock it down.

You know what else works?  Zistle's new Customized Collections feature.  Here are the Earl Wilson cards I own. Try it, you'll like it.

Thanks, Greg, for the Earl Wilson.  Just a few more of these posts and you'll be released from me splashing your name all willy-nilly.

Misc this and that

I've got some thoughts in my head. Too many for them each to get an individual post. So I thought that I'd jot some thoughts down here.

Today marks the anniversary of when I joined Zistle. If you don't know, Zistle is more than a collecting site. The site allows you to organize, trade and share your cards. I've become virtual friends with Ashley and Josh. They started Zistle. In this last year I've learned more about sets and cards. I've been able to share some ideas and suggestions. Some of them have been incorporated. They've been very receptive to feedback. Just last night Ashley and I chatted about how some of their plans to retool Zistle. I'm very excited and look forward to when they roll it out. They've shared some of their plans on the Zistle blog so I won't rehash them here, but the future looks bright over at Zistle. Grab your sunglasses.

Just a few more weeks until the next Inside Pitch Promotions Card Show in Knoxville. I'm planning on going, picking up some supplies and perhaps a few cards.

Speaking of supplies, I need to get a few more screw down card holders for my HoF relic cards. And some nine pocket pages for my binders. Which leads to a question about organizing cards in binders. My Hershiser binder, right now, is in a bit of disarray. I'm going through it and pulling cards to be scanned for Zistle. I used to have it organized by card manufacturer and then by year. So I'd have the Topps pages, starting with the mid 1980s moving up through the 1990s. But then I've been thinking that I should organize it by year. Keep all the 1985 cards together. Then the 1986. That's about the only way that I can conceive of, right now, to organize them, if I ever want to find a single card again. What are your thoughts? How do you organize your cards?

As I type this I'm watching the Atlanta Thrashers get beat by the Tampa Bay Lightning. End of the first, 2-0. And then a fight breaks out. More of a tussle than a fight. I have a hard time accepting hockey in the south. I know that the players are professionals. And the cities that they play in seem to support them, but I grew up with hockey being in Montreal, Philadelphia and Boston. We'd strap on whatever skates we could find, grab a hockey stick and head out to whatever little pond was the clearest and play some two on two. Phil Esposito. Bobby Orr. Guy Lapointe. Stan Mikita. Those guys could play.

I've been ebipped by the Mad Guru. But, I promise that I will not bip anyone in some sort of sneaky, underhanded way. Trust me. I'm a staff attorney for UD.

The Details of Zistle

I spent some time Friday adding some cards that were missing from Zistle's database. 1991 Collect-A-Books and 1991 Score. I've got a lot more to add to the Score checklists.

I was chatting with Ashley (one half of the Ashley and Josh team that is Zistle) on their live chat feature and she asked if I'd tried out the Detail feature yet. Nope, I said. I stepped away from the chat for a bit, finally found the correct icon to push and I was off to the races.

This is a screen shot of part of my collection. It is free form entry for the details. I've decided to add the Where, How Much and When elements. Unfortunately, I can't do that with some of the cards I've had for 20 years or so.

Ashley and I talked some more about Zistle. She swore me to secrecy, so I can't tell you what she said, but the mad scientists are cooking up some very cool things in the Zistle labs.

Some of the things that they have rolled out in the past month or so are:

• Live Chat
• Forums
• Detail View and Notes
• More cards added

There's always minor tweaking going on, and the Zistle team is quick to respond to questions or comments.

If you haven't checked them out, I'd urge you to look.

Overall not too bad for a couple of young kids and a dream. And it is free.

What is a set?

 

I've been inputting a bit of data over at Zistle.  

The way to do that is to add it to the library.

You select a year (1971, 1989), a set (Topps, Donruss, Flair), a subset (Main Set or Franchise or Hot Gloves or All-Stars, etc), then add the card name (player) and card number.

If the set (or subset) isn't listed it is easy for the user to add it.

You have the option to add the Player's Team and images of the front and back of the card.

Then push the 'submit' button and wait a bit until the minds and fingers behind Zistle okay the data.

As more users add more cards, there is more likelyhood that the card you're adding to your collection will already be in their library.

But who builds that library?  Users do.  And not all users have the same methodology, knowledge set, attention to detail or concern.

So, Zistle has an interesting group of Sets.  For example, I selected a year at random - 2005.

I took the first Set name with multiple entries - Bowman.

There are:

Bowman

- A-Rod Throwback

- Autographs

- Future Game Gear Jersy Relics

- Gold

- Main Set

- Relics

- Signs of the Future

- White

Bowman Chrome

- A-Rod Throwback

- Blue Refractors

- Gold Refractors

- Main Set

- Red Refractors

- Refractors

- X-Fractors

Bowman Chrome Draft

- AFLAC

- Blue Refractors

- Gold Refractors

- Main Set

- Refractors

- X-Fractors

 

Bowman Draft

- Draft Blue Refractors

- Future Game Jersey Relics

- Gold

- Main Set

- Signs of the Future

- White

Bowman Heritage

- 51 Topps Heritage Blue Backs

- 51 Topps Heritage Red Backs

- Draft Pick Variation

- Future Greatness Jersey Relics

- Mahogany

- Main Set

- Mini

- Pieces of Greatness Relics

- Signs of Greatness

Bowman Sterling

- Main Set

- Original Autographs

- Refractors

Bowman's Best

- Blue

- Gold

- Green

- Main Set

- Printing Plates Cyan

- Red

- Silver

I haven't checked The Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards to see if these are correct or complete.  Should these all be Bowman?  

But back to the title of this post... What is a set?  I'm still wrestling with this question.

1953 Topps.  That easy.  That was the only product that Topps produced that year for baseball.  280 cards.  No inserts.  No refractors.  No chase cards.  It is a set.  Period

Jump ahead a few decades to 1989.  Fleer had a slew of boxed cards.  Baseball All-Stars.  League Leaders.  Exciting Star.  Superstars.  These 40 or so card sets were sold in individual boxes.  Clearly, they are not part of Fleer's Main Set.  The World Series cards are, therefore they are a subset of Fleer. 

I still don't know how to categorize them.  I'd be interested in knowing your thoughts.

 

My collection on Zistle !

1992 Classic, Orel Hershiser (card #33)

I now have about 95 % of my Orel Hershiser collection on Zistle. "What? Why not the other 5 %?" one might ask.

Hmmm. I don't know where a few cards are, I haven't added the Topps coin and a few are oddballs... Burger King baseball. Starting Line Up figure. Giant Mask of Orel. (Yes, Mr. Owl, I found it. Too big for the scanner. Photos later.)

Now, one might be asking, "How can I see your collection on Zistle?"

Well, one could click here and then search for Hershiser.

You can also see my list here (includes a sheet of wants). This was taken from showing my collection in Zistle, copying the data into an OpenOffice.org calc sheet, minor editing, then copying and pasting the data into a Google docs sheet. Sort of a hack, but it works for me.

Now, there are still many more Hershiser cards that have not been entered into Zistle. I plan on doing that soon. Don't know when 'soon' is, but soon.

I also need to scan my cards and upload them to Zistle.

The best thing that I've found about Zistle is their attention to customer requests.

Ashley and Josh run the place. I don't know how they do it. They quickly answer my private questions, are open for a quick google chat, have a sense of humor. And they're sticking it to the man. Good for them.

Zistle

I'm becoming forgetful. For the most part, I don't remember which blogger or reader is collecting which set/team/player. I don't remember which blogger wrote a very funny bit on the return of the vintage card look. I don't remember who turned me on to Zistle.

It is a collection organizing site that recently got off the ground.  Go there and read about the couple that started it.  How they're expanding their services.  How they rely on their members to fill the database. 

I'm constantly in the process of refocusing.  Meaning that I'm trying to weed out stuff I don't want/need to more clearly see what I do want.  Zistle is helping me do that.

So, if you're not happy with the way that B*****t tries to help you organize, check out Zistle.  I'm glad I did.