Personal Collections, Team Collections and More!

I am still obsessing about finding a new player to collect. I shouldn’t be. With my changing of jobs I am going this week without a paycheck, so I am lucky to eat never mind buy cards, but I have a minute to post and that is what I am thinking about. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while know that I left my player collection up to a reader poll and it ended in a 3 way tie between Bill Mazeroski, Larry Doby and Bill Madlock. Readers have treated me to cards of each, but I haven’t picked one. A huge thanks goes to reader Claudia for this autographed Mad Dog postcard. I certainly don’t mind collecting any of these players, but I am not SUPER collecting just yet.
Anyway, I have been sorting my thousands of Rays cards into team sets. I am pretty darn close to finishing off all of the Topps team sets for the past 13 years (more on that later). I have started binders of a few specific players doubles and got them all their own binder, calling it my Elite Eight Favorite Ex-Devil Rays. That list includes Jared Sandberg, Jonny Gomes, Joe Kennedy, Ben Grieve, Quinton McCracken, Dewon Brazelton and now, the newest addition, Dave Martinez. I posted this card a few weeks back and was a little bummed that it didn’t get a reaction, so I will post it again. I got to talk with Dave at length during spring training this year. I was writing a feature on the 1998 Devil Rays Inaugural Season and since Martinez posted the organizations first ever hit, he factored prominently in the story. At the end of our talk I brought up card blogs and he confided that reading them was a guilty pleasure of his. He also mentioned one of favorite haunts and I pulled this card out of my bag for him to sign for the Troll. This is officially the 4th “To Troll” card in the collection. I may post the others someday. I have begun sorting out my Dave Martinez Rays cards and he now fills a few pages in the binder. If you are curious I have zero interest in cards of him on the Cubs, Reds or White Sox or any team other than the Rays. If you are further curious, he has been known to swing the bat in BP every now and then and I believe I would much rather have him in the lineup than Pat the Bat. Anyway… This is all just a prelude to a pair of actual posts which are coming. One is a trade that nearly wiped out my team set needs and the other is the unveiling of my new player collection… Oh, speaking of player collections... Here are 2 gems that Madding from Cards on Cards sent me about 6 months ago. He had come into a big lot of basecards and sent me about 500 Rays cards. He also sent this SP '05 (numbered 108 of 199) Carl Crawford jersey relic and this '06 SP Gomes. These got completely buried and never got posted. I hope to sort through and binderize the Carl Crawford collection soon. I can't decide what to do with autos and relics. The thin ones fit in pages fine, but thicker cards don't. I have some super special CC cards in the display case, but I really want to have ALL of my CC cards together. Any suggestions? Stay tuned! Oh, thanks to everyone (all 4 of you) who entered my shopping spree contest. Roof God was half right and Play at the Plate was correct. I don't have any Rangers or Tigers relics or '65s, but I do have a few to pick from. Send me an email please... Go Rays! Troll out.