A couple weeks ago I posted an update amid the COVID-19 safety measures. Since then, a lot has changed. Most of the nation is under Shelter In Place warnings, I am now working from home, and not even making my regular trips to the post office. So, with another month ahead of us here is an update on how the One Million Cubs Project is handling the current pandemic.
Trading
Am I still actively trading? Short answer is, yes. It is far less than normal because I am not going to the post office. The trades I am sending out are the smaller packages that can fit in my mailbox. It has given me time to catch up on trades (I am still wrapping up a few), but focusing more on organization of my Cubs collection.
Organizing the Cubs Collection
Throughout the One Million Cubs Project I have sorted my collection by player last name. It is a tedious process, and more Cubs baseball cards come in than I have time to keep up with sorting. Using Trading Card Database was something I intended on getting started in 2019. It was one of my goals to get organized and start listing. That was not accomplished, and I ignored the organization topic for my 2020 collecting goals. Of course, I was not expecting to be sheltered in my house for six or more weeks.
Time has become a surplus lately, whereas it usually is lacking. Instead of sorting everything, I want to focus it down into Cubs stars that I intend on putting in player binders. The reason I have not done that already is a statement one of my bulk trading buddies Steve made. “I don’t like to touch cards twice.” That quote resonated with me because once you start sorting more than once and in different ways you waste a lot of time. Sorting takes a tremendous amount of time, so I want to make sure I do it the way I want the first time. Nothing worse than having all of your sets (or collection) in binders, then decide you’d rather have them in boxes.
As I thought about that with the increased amount of baseball card time I now have, I came to the reality that it’s a bit different for me. While I don’t want to waste time, this is my Cubs personal collection, and I am not going to be selling or trading. It’s not about maximizing the bottom line, though time is money. It’s about making progress with my collection. I much rather have all of my Javier Baez, Ryne Sandberg, Kris Bryant, and Ernie Banks baseball cards sorted and organized than my pile of 1987 Topps Chico Walker’s neatly organized in a box stuffed on a shelf.
So I have begun going through all 427,285 Cubs baseball cards to pull about a dozen players: Baez, Sandberg, Banks, Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Willson Contreras, Kyle Schwarber, Ron Santo, Ty Griffin, Kerry Wood, and a few of the top prospects.
I am about halfway through my collection and started listing my Javier Baez cards on Trading Card Database. As of this writing I have 218 unique Baez cards which ranks second among collections listed on the website. The first place collector has 494 unique Baez cards. Even after going through all of my Cubs cards, I will likely fall well short of that number one spot.
eBay
Getting those Baez cards uploaded to Trading Card Database has inspired me to look for some deals for cards I don’t have on eBay. I added another eight cards that are new to my Baez collection and was able to get them each for a couple bucks.
While eBay has skimped on the eBay Bucks offers (I did not receive a single offer during the first quarter), the company did offer 50,000 free listings for March and April. I have an eBay Store, so I have been taking advantage of those freebies and my store now has near 1,400 items for sale. It is a bit surprising there was not an eBay Bucks push in the final days of March to take advantage of people not buying and attempting to get some more sales.
New Look Website
It’s been a long time coming (since about August 2019), but the new One Million Cubs Project website has been live for a couple weeks. It is still a work-in-progress and it has been switched over from Wix to WordPress. There may be some dead links, so if you see anything out of sorts please let me know.
New site looks good!