A Different Sort of Sort and a New Blog

As you might have guessed, things are a lot slower around here at The Junior Junkie. I’m not on hiatus or anything – there’s just a lot going on. I’ve had to limit my collecting to what the baby will allow me to do, and that has inspired me to start a few new projects that I can still do while simultaneously bouncing the little guy on my knee.

First, I’ve begun a major digital sort. This is a time-devouring, multi-tiered project that should promise big payoffs in the end.

Much this

The plan is to scan every Griffey I own, front and back, beginning with the seven 4” binders that comprise the bulk of my Griffey collection. This part I’ve already begun, and I can tell you that the actual scanning is taking a very long time. There are just so many pages, guys; and I scan at 300dpi so it takes a little longer per page. I do it on random nights when we have nothing going on - I just put on a movie in the Griffey Cave and scan away. After a few random weeknights of work I’m only through two of the seven main binders. And when those are complete I’ll begin scanning everything else: jumbos, micros, off-size cards, pack wrappers – thing like that.

After that, I’ll edit and label each card front and back, then put them into appropriate folders sorted first by year, then by brand and sub-brand. Once complete, the only cards I will need to scan will be new additions and any non-Griffey cards. With that done I’ll hardly ever have to crack the binders again when making posts. Finding time to scan and edit will no longer be a challenge, and I’ll just have to focus on research and writing (the fun parts). I consider it an investment in future blogging.

So in the times I would otherwise be sorting, scanning, and writing, I’ve been scanning, scanning, and scanning. Hence, no regular posts from me. But I’ve been splitting my time, too, with another project: a new blog.

How can I justify this when TJJ output has been so scant? Well, for the most part posts on the card blog take a lot of time to put together. I’m a bit anal (as you might have guessed) when it comes to my Griffey collection and want to make the most complete posts I can. That takes a lot of time. But I still have the blogging bug, so I started a new one that takes almost no time at all. And here it is:

Climbing Up Your Walls: the Radiohead Poster Blog

I’ve been wanting to do this for years. There are a few niche collections I’m way overboard about, and the two I am overboard enough to blog about are Griffey cards and Radiohead posters. Plus I already have a pretty complete photo record of my Radiohead poster collection, so all I need to do is put together a few sentences and information for each one and slap it up. I’m already up to nine posts, and most of those I wrote in a single night.

I write these blogs because they are blogs I would want to read. Every couple of months, it seems, I try and Google a good Radiohead poster blog, and I invariably find poster blogs and Radiohead blogs, but none that specialize in both. It was up to me to fill the gap in the market.

Now, I still owe a lot of trade posts to a lot of nice folks, and I will get working on those very soon (I have a bunch of time off work in the coming weeks). I also have some set-specific posts waiting in the wings and the return of Griffey Frankenset Fridays which I was hoping to continue even after the baby, but it just didn’t happen.

Oh, and we’re having a big house party on Friday. You are all officially invited. I’m not kidding. Come to New Orleans – I’ll even pick you up at the airport. Let’s get drunk and talk about cards (or, you know, Radiohead posters). The couch pulls out…