In This Season of Giving…

I felt I should give away some cards.

Get your attention?

But, first, I’m going to make you sit through a long boring explanation of my collecting habits and how they relate to this post. Hey, I have to make you earn them somehow, right? I decided years ago that I needed to somehow refocus and reallocate my collecting habits. I had, frankly, too many cards. I had too many cards I had no use for. I needed to do something. What formed the basis of my new collecting habits? Juan Gonzalez, and Phil Plantier. I was a huge fan of both these players. Gonzalez was, obviously, an MVP from the Texas Rangers. Plantier was an up and coming star of my beloved Boston Red Sox. I had nice sized collections of both these players. Then, they both fell off the face of the earth. Gonzalez “somehow” lost all his talents and became a washed up former MVP bouncing from team to team. Plantier never reached his stardom, and also bounced around a bit before calling it a career. I was left with stacks of cards of both these players. I realized that I didn’t have any attachment to the Gonzalez cards. Even though I was a fan, they didn’t do anything for me anymore. The Plantier cards, though, I still enjoyed. As a Red Sox fan, I remember watching him play. I remember the goofy batting stance. I enjoyed having the cards, even if Plantier was no longer with the team. Presto. A Red Sox collector was born. But, what about all the other cards I still had, or would still get by opening packs. Enter eBay.

EBay was the plan to both get rid of unwanted cards I would get in packs, and to limit my spending. I came up with a plan to try out. I would open packs of cards. I keep the Red Sox cards. Any cards of stars would be grouped together and sold on the bay. The money I got from those cards would be used to purchase new packs of cards. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. That way, the hobby would be self-funding. And, believe it or not, it’s worked. I had to cut down on my buying…say a blaster a month…but it’s been working out just fine.

But, what about the other non-Sox non-star cards I would get, or already had. When I started this reorganization, I had around 120,000 cards in boxes that weren’t stars and really had no appeal to me. They were really dumpster fodder. Rather then actually throw them out, I gave them away. How did I decide which cards I could get rid of? What about late bloomers? I’d hate to give away a stack of Josh Hamilton rookies just because he was out of baseball for a few years. I decided on a ten-year cutoff. If a player hadn’t become worth keeping in ten years, he was given away. Schools loved them. A high school physics teacher took about 25,000 of them. He used them as building materials for in-class projects. How high of a tower can the kids build using only tape and baseball cards? A middle school math teacher took 10,000 or so. She has the kids use the stats on the back as math lessons. How many at-bats did so and so have in the 80’s? An elementary school guidance counselor took 5,000 or so. When the kids flip through cards, they don’t realize they’re spilling their guts. It’s worked pretty well. The collection dwindled. I have limited myself to ten years worth of commons, in addition to my Red Sox collection. Plus, the hobby has been self funded for years. What could be better?

So, every year when the new cards are coming out, I give away the cards from ten years ago. With the 2011 releases coming out in short order, it’s time to clear out the 2001 cards. But, I’m starting to run out of places to give the cards away to. That’s where you all come in. If you’re a reader of The Phillies Room, you know that I’ve already sent the 2001 Phillies Jim’s way. That leaves me with 2001 cards of most of the other teams in the league. Obviously, the stars are gone. They’re some pretty poor players. They cover several brands. I seem to have somewhere between 15-50 cards of each team. Obviously, the fewer stars a team had in 2001, the more cards still left. Do you want them? Here is a list of teams available:

Reds

Angels

If you’d like a team, simply leave me a comment on the post claiming a team. Then send me an e-mail (section36 at gmail dot com) telling me where to send them. We’ll start with one team per person…and see where it goes from there.

What do I want in return? When Ron Popeil sold his pasta makers on TV, he had one requirement to get a great deal. You had to tell at least one person about the pasta maker. So, I’ll go with that. Just tell at least one person about this fine blog and the cards you got, and the cards are yours. (of course, I wouldn't object if you kept me in mind next time you had Sox cards lying about)