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Thursday, March 21, 2019

TCB On the TCDB

Let's breathe a little life into this blog while the time is available! I've stopped, started, and edited this post  several times. While I've had a new Lenovo laptop for nearly a month, until two days ago it hadn't worked properly. The first week, it wouldn't stay connected to wireless while running on battery power, even after modifying battery settings to maximum performance. I worked with a Lenovo tech who reinstalled the Realtek wireless driver. My problems were solved for about three days.

Windows did an update which corrupted the Chrome browser and created other issues within the machine. I decided to reset the machine to an earlier date. I only had two choices so used the later date with the working wireless. The machine crashed. It would not reboot into Windows, only the blue screen of death. I'd invested a lot of time and money in this laptop and wanted to cry.  I had only one option - reset it to factory mode. This worked but then just a few days later, the wireless problem started again.  Reinstalling the driver didn't work this time. I got online and found a more recent version of the driver and installed it myself a couple days ago. This laptop is finally working as it should.

And I will be too - beginning Monday!  I HAVE A NEW JOB! FOUR MILES FROM HOME! Within two hours of interviewing Tuesday, I had an offer.  I'll be working for a company that applies protective coating to metal components, mostly for autos. The office is small, no more than five persons at any given time. It's just what I'd hoped to find: 8-4:30 with an eight mile round trip commute. No busy roads or stoplights.  NO TRAFFIC!

So what have I been doing? I began this post on January 20th with these stats:


Although the login was created in 2018, I only set up my profile over the summer. I began inventory of my earliest binders in early January. Most contain cards from my hobby beginnings in the 90s with some 80s oddballs too. Adding these quickly boosted my numbers. I also took time to edit prices for many cards, lowering them somewhat. I began a wantlist after discovering some sets missing fewer than 10 cards, a few sets - only one.  How did I let this go for decades?


One thing leads to another. I went poking around, learning to navigate the site when I came across Features:



I just had to click on games. Mistake.  Within one singular minute, I was lost in Card Battles:



Faced with a nice Bowman challenge, choosing one over the other with nearly endless combinations, I lost a full hour of data entry right there. I finally extracted myself from this game but saw another link for Card-ology.  For freakin' Fleer's sake.


Recognize any of these top TCDB gamers?  My guess is they're also without full time work.
Since my last day on the job, I've boosted my numbers greatly:






Altuve and Old Ty are by far, my largest player collections. They share a 3000 count box which is nearly full. I'm saving them for last as a kind of 'reward' for my hard work, which is the reason these two vastly different men do not appear in the player list.



1994 ranks highest on this list because that year sucked my wallet dry. I came into the hobby in the fall of '93.  In '94, I thought I needed to buy every product that came out.

Though players were sorted into PCs, I had no idea which cards were owned or needed. I have been greatly impressed by the lack of dupes found while sorting cards by year and set. It is MY memory we're talking about here!  Here's one of the completely sorted and entered boxes:


While there are smaller spots for Brett, Eckersley and others, I do not intentionally add to these collections. If I come across an appealing card, it goes into the box.  At one time, Catalanotto held a larger place but I've kept only ten of the 100+ cards original to my collection. These smaller lots are denoted by 'all' on the yellow tag.  HOFers are noted as such by their name.  Cards are sorted by year, and set. All are soft sleeved, with loaders reserved for vintage, relics, autos, refractors or numbered cards.

The old laptop worked well on the database, for that I was grateful.  I couldn't upload photos with it or surf the internet at any great length. Blog reading was difficult because pictures wouldn't load, there or on most sites in general. It's still good for a mindless game of Zuma or Peggle.

Thanks for your support and encouragement these past two months. I won't lie. Being off all this time has been nice. Retirement will be sweet some day, ten years from now.  Just maybe, by then, I'll have Altuve and Cobb in TCDB!


39 comments:

  1. Congratulations on the new job, I knew good things would be coming your way (karma)! Ugh, but not you too with the TCDB???? We're starting to lose more bloggers to that site than Twitter. Hopefully the new job will help put things back into perspective, and you'll start spending a bit more time on the blogs (insert fingers crossed emoji here).

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    1. thanks, JP! Twitter is easy to use from my phone, the blog - not so much. TCDB...join us,Jon. We are one.

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  2. I use the TCDB as well..
    You can send them a link to your blog and they'll put a link up on the site as well. Any new update will show up.

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    1. Hey Mike! Thanks for the tip. I actually did that long ago but who would notice since I don't post nearly enough (my opinion..) lol.

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  3. Congrats on the new job and the ultra short commute!

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  4. Great to see things are moving in a positive direction. As far as retirement in 10 years, you may find the 10 years go quickly. Especially with a job, more blog entries and working within the TCDB.

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    1. Hey Fred! I am hopelessly devoted to TCDB. Looks like a long-term relationship. I just dare it to break up with me. It would only happen once. I gained two hours of my life back with the new job and hope to spend it wisely.

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  5. Nothing wrong with spending time on TCDB. :) It's a great place, and chock full of information. Congrats on the new job! That would be a dream for me to work so close to home, but the closest I was to where I ever worked was 30 minutes each way (and that only lasted for about 2 years, then we moved further away!). Glad to see you have so much logged, and so organized! That too, is only a dream for me. (Dan)

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  6. Vroooomed! Thanks for stopping by (or did you just slow down and yell out the window?) I appreciate your help over there on the Base. I'll have the card(s) in question added to the forum tomorrow. I'm lucky for sure. Living in the country, I had little hope of working nearby.

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    1. I saw your blog pop up on the list at TCDB (so it looks like you're all set for that), so I decided to see what you had to say. I can't read them all, but I almost always enjoy it when I do read the blogs. (I also don't usually comment unless I have something insightful or congratulatory to say.)

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  7. Congrats on the new job Julie!

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    1. Thank you Adam! I rec'd an envelope of Tigers from you today! Thanks for thinking of me!

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  8. Congrats on the new gig! My recent unemployment lasted a lot longer than yours.

    I haven't joined TCDB yet, but I get the feeling I'm gonna wind up on there at some point. For now I've been cataloging my mini-collections & player collections in Google Docs.

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    1. I enjoyed the time off. Was hoping for another month...just because. I need to work though, and not burn through savings. I found the Base better than Zistle, which of course is now tied to Buckett. Hope TCDB can keep them at bay!!

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  9. Congrats on the new job! And congrats on figuring out the Database so fully! At one point I was in the leader board on Card Battles but I stopped doing that a while ago. I might still be in the leaderboard in NBA and Racing, I have not pulled that up in...years, I would guess.

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    1. Billy, thanks for being accessible. You helped me get started and it's much appreciated! Those battles are addictive. I can't play until all cards are entered. I expect that to be years away. ;P

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  10. Great news on the new job! I keep intending to catch up tcdb, but as soon as I get close another thing gets released or I get something in trade, and it's another stack to get to "later"... I will have to check out those games!

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    1. thanks Brian! Don't look at the games. Don't do it!

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  11. Glad the job worked out so well. All that stuff usually happens for a reason - to get you to a better place.
    I joined the database a while ago, but the last thing I'll probably do on there is catalog much of anything besides my complete sets. I'm too meticulous to just put up part of what I have or what I want (which is already on my own site), so I'd be weeks putting in every little thing. It's indispensible for references and compiling lists. I like contributing to scans.

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    1. Indeed! I feel I have a lot of knowledge to contribute in the new place. They need a morale boost as well. I don't believe it an leadership issue as much as a lack of new ideas. A freshening up. All remains to be seen! I'll likely not contribute scans but do subscribe to the ad-free version. Too many girlie personal ads for my tastes.

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  12. Congratulations on securing a new job so close to home! Hope you end up enjoying it... and maybe... who knows... one of your co-workers will be a collector too. I'm always crossing my fingers that I one day run into another card collector at my school.

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    1. Thanks Fuji! I may take some dupes and such there once I know more about the place. Wouldn't call it a perk but odds are better to find collectors there. No one at the accounting firm had much interest. I always thought someone there might be interested in stats, at the very least.

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  13. Congrats on the new job just 4 miles away. Yeah TCDB is fantastic.

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    1. thanks Cap'n! 10 mins tops, if there's tractor traffic!

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  14. Big congrats on the job, and having it so close to home - sounds like a huge time saver!

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    1. my gosh! 30 minute lunch instead of an hour, which is fine for me! 2.5 hours added to the day!

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  15. Congratulations, Julie! (On the job and on the TCDB) I've never known such a short commute. Be sure to enjoy it!

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    1. only things better would be working from home! Thanks!!

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  16. Congratulations!

    One of these days I'm gonna have to figure out how to use TCDB goe things other than looking up cards.

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    1. it's a great resource supported by the users! a lot of time has been invested here. I'm amazed every time I login to research a card or read the forums.

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  17. Congrats on the job and the sweet commute!

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  18. Congrats on the job, a short commute makes life better. Glad you got your laptop woes figured out. Coincidentally I mucked around on tcdb last week and started a want list. I wish adding cards was easier. I need to spend more time on that later.

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    1. Hey Steve, I have another post ready to go, giving you a shout out for the help. Right after posting here, I realized I forgot to thank you and Matt @ Diamond Jesters. I truly appreciate your time! It took a bit of figuring out the site but now add cards rather quickly. Using the "filter" drop down has been key for me.

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  19. Congratulations on the new job, may it be everything you hope it is! About 20 years ago I went from an hour commute to driving about 4 miles. I got spoiled very quickly! :-D

    I signed up for TCDB a little while ago, but more for the resources than the actual database (since I maintain my own). I need to make more use of the resources (and avoid those games)

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    1. yeah, avoid the games! an addictive time suck! thanks for the good wishes. Good people in the new office!

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  20. Congrats on the new job! If you get a friend request on TCDB from Kep75, that'll be me! ;)

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