What Are Your Current Projects

[CamaroDMD]

I am a man of many projects. One thing that keeps me so interested in this hobby is there is almost unlimited ways to collect. You can have any project you like.

One way I avoid getting bored with my collecting is I have several projects going on at the same time. I tend to rotate (for lack of a better word) where my primary focus is and the others get relegated as side projects. This was, the hobby always stays fresh for me.

I'm sure everyone who actively collects has a project (or many like me) of their own. Lets hear about yours.

Here are my (many) current projects.

1952 Topps Baseball Set (407 Cards) Graded Set
This is one of two projects of mine that I consider "life-long" projects. This set is so expensive, beautiful and highly collected that this will take me a lifetime to complete. I'm shooting for cards in the PSA 4-6 range but I also know (probably) that this grade level will not be possible for some of the higher dollar cards. I have chosen to do a basic 407 card set and only collect Red Back cards. I have been working on this set for close to a year trying to pick up a card per month or so (for now) and currently only have about 10 cards. All are commons except I do have the Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn.

1997 Upper Deck Legends Autographs Football Set (163 Cards)
This is my other "life-long" project. My all time favorite set from my youth is 1997 UD Legends. The autographed insert set is the topping on the cake and I want to assemble that set. I have been working on this set starting as a child and then picked it up again a few years back. It is loaded with legendary players and Hall of Famers. IMHO, I will probably only be able to pick up 162 of these cards as the Russ Francis has only one known example and was never pack issued.

1975 Topps Baseball Set (660 Cards)
I love this set as it has a truly 70s feel to the cards. Very colorful boarders and just a fun set overall with a reasonable price tag. I have been working on this as a side project for a while and have around 500 cards.

1978 Topps Football Set (528 Cards)
Although most people consider this set ugly and unimaginative, I have always liked the design. It's a fairly inexpensive set so I have been working on it. It has a great list of players from that wonderful 1970s era. I'm only missing about 20 cards at this point, all commons.

1997 Upper Deck Black Diamond Football Set (180 Cards)
This was a big set right as I was getting out of the hobby for the first time. I remember really liking the design. The set is broken into 3 subsets: Single Diamond (Cards 1-90), Double Diamond (Cards 91-150), and Triple Diamond (Cards 151-180). The more diamonds, the harder they were to pull. A while back, I decided this would be a fun set to do as it was something from my childhood that was a little out of my price range then. Today it's an easy build. I currently have all the single diamonds and and working on the rest of the set as a side project.

1993 Pro Line Live Autographs (39 Cards)
This is a small pack issued auto set. The design has always appealed to me and the set is fairly small and easy to complete. I haven't worked on this one much yet, so I only have 3 or 4 cards.

1995 Draft Signature Rookies Autographs Football Set (81 Cards*)
This is my last current set project. This was a cool set from my youth as it featured a bunch of mid-round draft picks mostly and boasted one autograph per pack. I decided to throwback to my youth and try and assemble the whole autograph set...each card has 7750 copies so it's not exactly loaded with short prints. Only 3 of the cards are "good" players: Curtis Martin, Terrell Davis, and Kordell Stewart. The base non-auto set consists of 80 cards which includes the checklist. So, the auto set is 79 cards officially. Since mine is housed in 9 card pages...that leaves 2 open slots so I have expanded the set to hold 81. To do this, I have added the checklist to my set as well as picked up the autograph promo Rashaan Salaam card. I have most of the keys to this set and am slowly picking up the rest of the commons.

Joe Montana PC
As a child, I really focused on Joe Montana cards as he was (and is) my all time favorite player. Back then, I just collected any card I could find. I have since redefined my collecting goals to focus on his cards during his playing days (which I define as cards from 1981-95 since the 1995 cards focus on his final season: 1994). Most of those cards are low dollar base so it's easy to do. I have a fairly short list of "modern" cards (anything 1996 and newer) that I am also looking for...but I have been very specific to only look for specific cards that appeal to me.

Tony Graziani PC
Who probably said "Who?" Tony Graziani is my all-time favorite college football player. He quarterbacked my hometown Oregon Ducks when I was a kid before going on to have a short NFL career and then a very successful arena football career. Graziani has 49 official cards and I am trying to find them all...I am currently missing 5. Of course, one of this is his sole 1/1 which I doubt I will ever find.

Joey Harrington PC
I know...he didn't pan out well in the NFL (and IMHO, that wasn't completely his fault), but being a lifelong Ducks fan, I'm a Joey fan too. One of the first things that drew me back into this hobby was Joey Harrington cards...specifically autos, GU, and SPs. So, for the last several years I have been working on a PC of those. For the GU cards, I am trying to only pick up multi-colored jersey pieces and for the most part have managed to do that. Currently, this PC has a very nice collection of 46 cards.

Oregon Ducks Football PC
My favorite college team (and my alma mater) is Oregon. I have been trying to assemble a collecting of Oregon Ducks football cards. My criteria for this set is the player must be featured in his college uniform...no NFL uniforms allowed. For modern players, I'm only looking for autos, GUs or SPs...so no base. For older players, there is a very limited availability of such cards so I am including some base for them. I currently have about 32 cards in this PC plus several 12-card Oregon issued team sets from the early 1990s (every set from 1990-1996...1990 was their first released set).

Carolina Panthers PC
Similar to the Oregon PC, I have a PC for my favorite NFL team...the Carolina Panthers. Same rules apply...every card must be of a Panthers player in a Panthers uniform. I am also focusing solely on autos, GU, and SPs. For really early Panthers players, I am bending a little on some of these rules. For example, I have a pair of Kerry Collins auto rookies that show him in his college uniform but they say "Carolina" on the card. I have let a couple really early cards like this bend the rules to allow more early cards into the set. But, there is no true "base" in this set. Overall, the set currently contains 27 cards.

Baseball Vintage PC
I'm a football guy first, but I love vintage baseball cards. So, on the side I am working on a small baseball vintage PC. No specific criteria here...just pre-1990 cards that appeal to me. I have a couple old Mantles in there...a few 1933 Goudeys, a T206. Just a small random assortment of vintage. Some is graded, some is raw.

Braves Base Autograph Project
Not really a card project, but still sports memorabilia related. A couple years back I found this really cool baseball wall case. It is in the shape of home plate and holds 12 baseballs. It's got a beautiful walnut finish and has UV protected glass. I thought it would be the perfect case to house a nice Braves autographed baseball collection. The Braves are my favorite team and I thought I would assemble a collecting of 12 players that were the "Biggest Braves" in my eyes. I decided such as set should include: Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn, Phil Niekro, Eddie Mathews, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Dale Murphy, Chipper Jones, David Justice, Andruw Jones, and Bobby Cox. I know the Justice doesn't really fit with the rest, but I was a huge fan of his as a kid. My goal was a signed baseball by each...with a crisp signature signed on the sweet spot in blue ink. I have managed to get all but 1 ball...I'm still looking for the right Greg Maddux to complete the set.

 

[Taliasen]

I have actually gotten rid of a few of my collecting projects in the last year. Mostly due to financial strains due to financial strains, but also to help focus more on my main projects.
Notable projects I have decided to let go:
Tim Tebow PC - a little sad about this simply for the loss I took on it from what I put into collecting it and what I let it go for.
Undertaker PC - really not that upset now that his Wrestlemania streak is over.
Jon Kitna PC - He wasn't a lion that long and well really...meh
RC cards of baseball Christian athletes PC- no real concrete checklist hard to manage.

WAY back burner collecting projects: (actually closer to getting rid of them rather than continue to work on them)
Steve "Sting" Borden, "Million Dollar Man" Ted DeBiase - not that many cards, and many more scarce HTG cards then you might think.
C.J. Nitkowski, Dave Drevecky, Kent Bottenfield - more Christian Baseball players, again not that many different cards (around 100 different each) but surprisingly hard to find due to lack of popularity.

Main collecting projects:
Rickey Henderson PC - Anyone that knows me, this is my main project and collecting passion. In School I batted left, batted lead off, played left field and was lucky enough to steal a couple of bases. So Henderson was a good choice. Plus my first major trade was a 1986 Fleer Jose Canseco RC in rough condition for over 90 different Henderson cards. I made out good on that deal.
Rough stats: 1768 different Henderson cards including 5 autos a 1/1 and a lot #/5 and #/10.
12 graded RC cards
Dozens and dozens of magazines with Rickey on the cover. Books, bobbleheads, posters, figurines, promotional advertising stuffs, t-shirts, starting line-ups etc. etc and custom artwork.
http://www.timcarrollart.com/manofsteal.htm

Sean Casey PC - My other main collecting interest. Another Christian baseball player, popular Detroit Tiger and player and all around really good guy!
Rough stats: 1069 different Sean Casey cards, including 52 autos, like 10-12 1/1s and printing plates, 4 graded RC cards, bobbleheads, figurines, replica jersey, 2 autographed bats and two personalized autographed 8X10s

Vintage (Pre WWII) cigarette and tobacco wolf cards:
Original Allen & Ginter cards, food and gum issue cards. Relatively cheap to get for cards that are 80-100 years old. No real checklist to identify how many are out there. I am working with PSA to create the master checklist and master graded set. I currently have 27 with 24 of them graded. Only 7 by PSA though, I am slowly crossing then over. It is pretty cool to hold a card that is over 120 years old!

Yao Ming and WBC Chinese National Team players for my son.
Rough stats - 120ish total cards including 3 Ming autos and some NICE WBC autos and patches, a graded Jackie Chan relic.

Published article from a few years ago I wrote for why I collect these:

Sports card collecting: an international language and family event
My wife and I recently adopted a son from China. I will not get into a debate of domestic vs. international adoption here. It will suffice to say that we were led to China. I love the fact that my wife Jessica and daughter Jordan are learning and soaking up everything about China that they can. My daughter can probably teach a college level class on Chinese history! Books, jewelry, and decor are neat to read and look at, but I did not feel really connected to China by them. So I started collecting something that is me and will connect me to China, sports cards of Chinese players!
An important activity to me and my family (including Jess) is watching baseball games, especially the Tigers! I also have a HUGE baseball card collection (read addiction). Collecting, sorting and playing with our cards is something Jordan, Jay (my son) and I do. Jay actually puts his Tigers and Brewers cards onto "teams" and has them play games! I felt that collecting baseball cards of Chinese players would help me learn about and connect more with China, give our newest son a built in connection to his birth county, a built in connection and activity with the Danielson family and a start to his very own baseball card collection!
In 2006 and 2009 the "World Baseball Classic" tournament was held. The card manufacturer Upper Deck produced insert cards of players from all 16 teams in the "WBC." These were a great place to start collecting baseball cards of Chinese born players as they have a brief text on the back telling about the player's highlights on their professional team in China, and have the Chinese flag on the card front! Just this past year four Chinese born baseball players were signed by MLB teams, two each for the Mariners and Yankees. Hopefully there will be more cards available soon for us to collect and enjoy!
We also just started to pick up cards of Yao Ming. We even have a cool event used swatch card of Jackie Chan! In addition to sharing the joys of this hobby to future generations, it is an awesome feeling to see Gabe's face light up when he sees a card of a player from "my China!

 

[ranbethscards]

Wanting to finish up my 2006 Topps A&G Base Set... and just started working on the 2013 Topps A&G Base Set (just a little behind!).

Have tons of NASCAR sets and subsets that I need to finish off, but just don't seem to ever find the time.
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[Leafsfan1967]

I have a couple projects on the go that will probably take a while to complete unless I hit the loto?

99-00 Topps Stanley Cup Heroes Autographed Set
I started working on these sets many years ago. Topps put out a set of these cards for 5 consequetive years from 99-00 to 03-04. Each set only had a handful of signers in it, so you'd think it would be easy to complete all the years. I did the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th years fairly quickly, but these pack pulled autos were extremely limited, and odds were in the thousands to pull one. They are very shiny, and are all hard signed, plus they are diecut. In my opinion one of the nicest sets ever done. I still need a few to complete the first year, and they barely ever show up on ebay, and when they do expect to pay big bucks for them, Still need the Mario Lemieux, Guy Lafleur, mike Bossy, and Lanny MacDonald, and I will complete it someday soon. Here's the most valuable one in my collection. I paid $275 for this one. Not cheap that's for sure.




06-07 Parkhurst Hockey Autos
As many of the regulars here know, I've been working on this Parkhurst auto set for a while now. There are 146 autographed cards in the set, and a good portion of them are Short Printed, or Super Short Printed. All cards are autographed by either HOFers, or star players from many years ago. Some are even diseased now, which makes it tougher to find as many have been buried in collections. All cards a hard signed on card autos. Such a great mixture of the best players to play the game with the exception of a few notables like Gretzky who is not in the set. I currently need 16 to finish the set, but probably half of those are way out of reach to buy for me right now. The Jean Beliveau auto, and the Mario Lemieux auto both sell for a grand, or there-a-bouts. The Patrick Roy, Ray Bourque, Scotty Bowman, Denis Savard all sell in the several hundreds range. A few others sell for $100-$150, and the rest needed in the $50-$100 range. Not sure how I'm gonna pull off getting these, but I hope some day to finish it. Realistically, I'd like to get the bottom priced 8 I need, and then pick off the other 8, one at a time. Here's a nice Gordie howe from the set.



Other Stuff I'm Looking For For My Collection
I have gathered a pretty nice assortment of Nascar autos over the years. I try to get one of each driver that has made a decent name of themselves in Cup competition. Some drivers I have multiple autos of like Matt Kenseth, both Busch brothers, Rusty Wallace etc. My list has got pretty short the past year, or so. Still need a Danica auto, Stenhouse Jr, and a few others, but have most of the field covered from past, and present. I won`t pay the rediculous prices that Danica cards fetch, so I`m waiting it out on her. My prized possession has got to be my Dale Earnhardt Sr auto posted below.



I also dabble in pack pulled autographs of movie, and TV stars, and have recently added a couple music stars in there. I have a fondness for autos from shows like CSI Miami, and my all time favorite show The Sopranos. Always looking to add ink of stars who appeared in the show. My favorite has got to be my James Gandolfini auto posted below. He#s been in this baseball set, and a more recent non-sports set just before his passing. The thing about getting one of his autos is trying to find one that his entire signature is shown, and not cut off by signing off the stickers provided. I was able to find one of very few with the entire signature on the sticker.



Toronto Maple Leafs
I have a rather extensive Leafs collection with hundreds of autographs, numerous game used cards, and tons of rookies. Always adding to this part of my collection.