As a player collector, I have a refined focus on my collection

1992 to 2019. There have been thousands of Derek Jeter cards made.

I didn't neseccraily choose to be a player collector. When I started collecting cards, I found I was just drawn to certain players.

As a kid, I was taking out of all the Yankees cards that I found in packs. As an adult, I still aim for the Yankees, but only certain ones. My bggest of those collections is of Derek Jeter and it's really taking shape as I have finally begun to sort and log everything.

Even though "collecting Derek Jeter cards" is a pretty narrow focus, it's is even more refined than that.

And here's a little secret: It has made collecting more fun.

It's impossible to try and collect everything. That boat has sailed a long -- and I mean A LONG -- time ago. Collecting what you love is a good sentiment and I believe in it, but narrowing my focus and knowing what I want has brought me a lot of joy.

I'm not just collecting Jeter cards, there are parameters around what I'm looking for too. I had to put them there because the idea of trying to get every Jeter card is daunting.

For starters, collecting Derek Jeter cards is competitive. I'm not saying there is a competition. I have actually found other Jeter collectors to be incredibly helpful. But there are just a lot of them. So when it comes to low-numbered cards, it's impossible for all the collectors with Jeter PCs to get one of them.

Also, there are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many cards. Did I sooooooooooooooooooooooo many cards? Sorry, I meant, my goodness that is an obscene amount of cards. There have been nearly 18,000 different cards created of the former New York Yankees captain.

17,834 to be exact.

That's just impossible.

So here are Sooz's rules for collecting Derek Jeter cards:

1. No hits: This mean no autographs, no relic cards, no manufactured relic cards. I'm looking for just base, parallels and inserts. Maybe an oddball here or there.
2. No cards numbered 5 or less. I don't want my collection to be impossible to collect.
3. No 1998-2000 Topps Tek, No Topps Moments and Milestones. Those runs are just silly and I honestly I can't be bothered with them. There may be inserts I throw on this list as I log cards.

That's not to say I won't grab those cards if I see them and they are reasonably priced, or have any in my collection. I consider them bonuses to what I am trying to collect for my PC. 

That will significantly bring down the number of cards I am looking for. However, as I still sort and log what I have, I still don't have the exact number of what I need. 

That will happen one day. Just not today. 

The East Coast National has something for every type of collector

It's always funny to me the August White Plains card shows is dubbed the East Coast National. The word national kind of throws it off when it's just on the East Coast.

I always enjoy this show though -- along with the January one -- because it's one of the biggest ones on the calendar in the NY area. But it's difficult to get into it especially if you just came back from the actual National.

The difference for me was that I worked the National Sports Collections Convention and didn't have as much time as I would have liked to walk around. Thankfully, Marie did some scouting and found some tables with Derek Jeter cards for sale. I hopped over when I got a break.

Since coming back from the NSCC, I have a renewed sense of updating my Jeter Collection. I really don't know what I have anymore. When people ask how many I have, I say over 3,000 different because it's true, but I have no clue of the exact number.

I don't know what I need anymore and I certainly don't even know what I have.

So before heading out to the East Coast "National," I did my best in logging the cards I have. This way, to limit the amount of double I would buy.

While I have only gotten through roughly half -- I've sorted about 1,500 cards, so far -- I'm still no where near where I need to be. But it was still so helpful in having that list. Because one thing I also realized while logging the cards I have is that I'm missing so many inexpensive cards because I assumed I had them.

I managed to get 30 Jeter cards while at the White Plains Show. I know that at least one is double though because I couldn't find it in my shet while I was looking. The moment I got home -- boom! -- there it was.

Isn't that always the case.

As always, the show is filled with vintage cards. Beckett, PSA and SGC were all there. As well as auction houses looking for items.

It's a good show to go to every six months or so because the dealers don't rotate much. Generally, it's the same people every time and with a White Plains shows every 2-3 months, you're looking at the same cards over and over.

And it's not cheap to get in. The biggest sticking point is the convention parking lot is $15 (there are other places to park nearby), and $10 just to get inside. I know the convention center and the promoter need to make money, the promoter should be getting the biggest chunk out of the autograph tickets.

You're already down $25 before you've bought anything!

I don't have time to search for street parking because I have a 3-year-old in tow. We started bringing him to card shows in hopes he will enjoy cards too.

He does like Pokemon though. So he was catching Pokemon with his new ball while Mommy was looking through a box of Jeter cards. It's a good thing he's cute because the dealers were having fun with him and didn't mind the ball rolling into their area too much.

By the way, how awesome is this packaging? (It wasn't dented when we bought it)

All in all, it's a solid show. I wish the amenities were a bit cheaper and there were slightly more modern cards. But it's a good mix with a little something for everyone.

Even the Jeter collector.

The 2018 National Sports Collectors Convention

Welcome old friends.  I thought i would honor the poll I ran on Twitter asking how you guys wanted to see my haul revealed.  The people have spoken.

I had a ridiculous run of fun things happen at the National aside from buying cards and getting cards from fellow collectors and bloggers.  I will start with that since it's about doing cool things with the hobby aside from spending a paycheck.

Sometimes you meet the right people out at a bar on a Thursday night and end up getting snuck into the autograph pavilion to meet one of your all-time favorites.

Other times you pay $70 to meet your idol who turns out to be all you could have hoped for in a short conversation of which I told him he was always my favorite player as a kid even though all my friends gave me hell for liking a Red Sox guy.  Also told him that was one of my favorite trades as a kid and still is to this day.

I saw a new stadium, Progressive Field and love that so much.  We sat in row two behind the dugout, so close to Albert and the Angels.  Best seats I have had to a baseball game in years.  Twas awesome.

Crossed many things off the Bucket List, including on non-hobby related item, The Christmas Story House and museum.  Well worth $11.  Thanks to Suzy for coming along and being my photographer.

Now my time at the National was spent walking around, chatting with old friends, meeting some new ones and of course searching for things to add to my 401K, I mean PC.  Not pictured are 164 Wade Boggs cards I picked up from a dude selling them at 100 for $10, same dude also had Jeter cards 15 for $10 of which I bought 30 including 6 of the same card. We will go in no particular order, I am not going through and labeling everything because we all know what is what.

The next four are all Jumbo cards.

In terms of city, Cleveland is not my favorite host.  IX Center is in the middle of no where, only food choices while at the show are in the convention center, and the food is TERRIBLE.  You can either Uber to other places or take shuttle back to hotel unless you rent a car.  I'm excited to go back to Chicago next year.  Gibsons, pizza, and ability to leave the convention center and walk to hotel, shopping and food/bars.

Overall, this is one of my favorite trips and how could it not be?

Any cool stories from your trip this year?  Let us know.  Any cool cards?  Also interested.

1994 Collector's Choice gives me a headache; How many Derek Jeter variations are there?

Trading cards from the 1990s are filled with variations - different color schemes or different foil patterns. So many cards are filled with nuanced differences that we are still discussing them to this day and even wondering if they  exist.

1994 Collector's Choice is a tough one for player collectors. There are at least three distinct cards in the Future Foundation subset with a base card, and Silver Signature and Gold Signature parallels. Within those three cards there are some different variations -- but not all are made equal.

This comes up because Derek Jeter has a card in the Future Foundations subset. His 1994 Collector's Choice No. 644 is a much talked about card within the world of Jeter collectors. It's because this card is listed with so different variations in places like Beckett and PSA, but no one has seen all that variations. After doing extensive research, speaking to prolific Jeter collectors, I've come to several conclusions.

1. There is only one base card variation. Derek Jeter's 1994 Collector's Choice base card only has a white letter back card (pictured above).

2. There are two Silver Signature variations - a white letter and a silver letter (while not a great picture, the bottom pic below is the white letter variation).

3. There is only one Gold Signature variation.

Where did the rumors come from?

Supposedly, 10 cards in the 1994 Collector's Choice set were affected by a printing variation.

The most well known and most abundant of these cards is No. 647 of Alex Rodriguez. There are two variations of this base card. The difference is in the first letter of the text on the backs of the cards. One is in white and one is in silver.

Baseballcardpedia states: " ... other cards (such as Johnny Damon) were also verified to have this white letter variation - thus it's generally believed that the entire Future Foundations subset was produced with white (and standard grey) letter variations."

The words there state "generally believed" but there are several players in the Future Foundations subset where no silver letter variation has popped up including Jeter, Jose Silva and Terrell Wade. Only the white letter version of these cards have been spotted in over 20 years.

This doesn't mean that these cards don't exist (although I don't think they do) but considering the amount of information that is passed through collectors and various websites, if these cards existed, they would have been popped up by now.

Of course, that won't stop me looking at every card back of 1994 Collectors' Choice that I come across.

Little Sun prospect card highlights Jeter's 1992 offerings

Even though Derek Jeter's rookie season came in 1996, he appeared on trading cards starting in 1992  -- the year he was drafted. He appeared on a few minor league cards and high school prospects cards. I have the base and inserts for some of his cards from 1992. I'm actually seven cards short of the cards I want to own for that year. 

One of my newest Jeter cards is actually one of his oldest cards – 1992 Little Sun High School Prospects #2.

I received the card as part of my anniversary gift from my husband (this is why we are married). While I was going through the cards I owned from 1992 and putting them into the binder, my husband peeked over my shoulder and we talked about the cards. Little did I realize, he was also scouting out which cards I needed. Very sneaky.

The 1992 Little Sun High School Prospects was a 30-card set of top high school baseball players in the country with just 3,000 sets made. There are also an autographed versions of the cards available. The set includes Jeter, but a few other former Major Leaguers including Jason Kendall and Preston Wilson. But it’s safe to say Jeter is the main attraction of the set.

The back of the card contains a blurb and high school statistics. It was neat seeing Jeter’s stats from high school, showing the struck out all of six times in four years. I bet those guys who struck him are still riding that story all these years later.

Little Sun made cards of top high school prospects for a number of years with some quirky designs with 1992 being its last.

Based on some research, it seems Little Sun started its prospect sets in 1989. There designs were, well, very basic and something that anyone with a small of Photoshop skills can put together these days. However, it probably wasn't that easy in the late 1980s.

The 1989 Little Sun High School Prospects 23-card set featured former Atlanta Brave Ryan Klesko. Just 5,000 sets were produced, however, you can pick up a Klesko card for $2.50.

The colorful 1990 Little Sun High School Prospects did a little bit better at finding high school seniors that would one day make it to the Big Leagues. This 24-card set included Mike Lieberthal, Carl Everett, Garrett Anderson and Mike Hampton. Just 6,000 sets were produced, according to Beckett.com.

In 1991, Little Sun decided to make this set a thing and included a title card calling it the "third annual." It also expanded its offering making 36 cards of the top high school seniors in the country and 10,000 sets were made. This set included Mike Sweeney, Manny Ramirez, Shawn Estes, Cliff Floyd and Benji Gil.

Little Sun made its last prospect set in 1992 and the company dropped its print run to just 3,000 sets. This one notably includes Derek Jeter's card, which sells for around $100. There are also autographed versions of this card available (which I do not have). This year's set also included Jason Kendall and Preston Wilson.

Finding errors in your collection you didn't know existed ... are they worth anything?

A funny thing happens when you're sorting cards. You might discover a card that you hadn't realized existed.

As I work through my Derek Jeter cards -- finally creating a want list and putting together a definitive list of what I own -- I came across on an error card.

The 1995 Fleer Major League Prospects -- Jeter's first Fleer card -- has two different versions. One has all the correct marking on the back while the other is missing the licensing marks from the bottom of the card.

It's not a significant error nor one that seems to be worth much. There are several of both cards listed on COMC starting at the low, low price of $1.65. Beckett doesn't even list the error, where PSA has it separated out for the master collection.

When looking in my binder, I realized I had the card with no markings. Great, I already had the error card out of the way, so now I needed the correct version of the card. Amazingly, I couldn't find this card in box of Jeter doubles, so next time I'm at a card show, I'll have to look a little more closely at the backs of these cards.

Error cards are interesting because so many people think that just because a card is an error that it's worth more. Generally, it takes two factors for an error card to be valuable:

1. The error card needs to be scarce, because ...
2. There is a corrected version of the card.

With modern cards, error cards usually remain just a widely circulated error. These error cards, usually, carry no premium.

However, there have been famous error cards throughout the years that are very valuable.

1957 Topps Hank Aaron #20

Topps mistakenly used the reverse negative for this card image and Aaron, one of the greatest home run hitters, is pictured as a left-handed hitter.

(These kinds of mistake still happen with players standing in the wrong pose. There are some recent Joey Votto cards where he's pictured with a righty swing when he is in fact a left-handed hitter.)

1987 Donruss Opening Day Barry Bonds #163

On the first print run, Bonds' teammate Johnny Ray is featured instead of the slugger. However, Donruss fixed the mistake on subsequent printings, which makes the error much more valuable. The Ray error card has been sold for hundreds -- if not thousands in a high grade -- while the Bonds rookie sells for far, far less.

1989 Fleer Billy Ripken #616

We all know what is said under the black or white box that Fleer put on different printings. The expletive made it onto some of the cards before it was noticed and the company covered it up. There are several versions of this card with the book value ranging widely on them. The original without any airbrushing is popular, but actually not the most rare. The card with the "white scribble" where it looks like someone tried to write over the bad words sells for the most on the secondary market.

1990 Topps Frank Thomas

Another popular and valuable error card is Frank Thomas' 1990 Topps card that has no name. One of the reasons it became so valuable is because a corrected version in a much higher quantity exists. The no-name version of the card will run collectors hundreds, if not, thousands of dollars.

These days, missing name happen from time-to-time on cards that have the name stamped in foil. Sometimes during the printing process, there will be a run where the foil is missed. When caught, the cards are removed and destroyed, however, a number still make it through.

These won't fetch dollars like the Thomas card. For the most part, the only people who would chase the missing foil cards are probably player collectors looking to have as many different variations of a card that are possible.

My newest cardboard obsession

I have a new obsession. I love to collect things. Sometimes not just baseball cards, and I usually have to curtail a collection before it starts so it doesn’t get out of hand.

Pop Funko Vinyls: I’ve had to limit them to just the Supernatural ones. The boxes are not small and can add up after just a few purchases.

Oyo Toys: Only going to get the Jeters (though I’ve been lucky to get most as gifts)

Hallmark itty bittys: I refuse to buy one even though I want ALL of them.

Then Topps began making oversized cards to sell on its website. I held off on buying the wall art – 10x14 passes my thresholds. Now we’re talking posters (which was a problem I had in college and have since been on the poster collecting wagon).

But these 5x7 oversized sets have got me hooked. I received a six-card pack at the start of the baseball card season when Topps created a “media pack” that featured Clayton Kershaw, Madison Bumgarner, a few other players, and some dude named Derek Jeter. They were just a 5x7 version of the 2015 Topps Series 1 base cards with the full back. These were unnumbered, but I think just 100 of these packs were made.

A short while later, Topps released the team sets of these on its site. I loved the way the Jeter from the media pack looked, and my finger clicked order. The team sets were numbered to just 99 copies.

Opened the Derek Jeter icon pack. This is what was done for the 1994 Topps card. pic.twitter.com/6dgIBxVSnC
— Sooz (@yanxchick) April 3, 2015

I controlled myself for just a little while and then Topps created the Cardboard Icons collection. It features a pack of 5x7 cards of every Topps cards from that player’s career. It started the collection with Derek Jeter – and I ordered a pack of the regular set numbered to 199. I let the Gold Edition numbered to 49 go.

Then, last week, Topps released a 1952 Tribute team set … with one retired star in each of the team sets. Of course, it was Jeter for the Yankees, and, of course, I made a purchase.

I work for Topps and this post could definitely seem like a plug, but I have to pay for my sets of cards just like anyone else. If I didn’t like them, I wouldn’t spend my money on them. But, spend my money, I have, and now I have a new collection of 5x7 Jeter cards.

One step closer to being a hoarder.