Security/Simplicity Overhaul: Big Changes to the Way I Griffey

You know how much I love overhauls. Well this one is huge. So huge, in fact, that it required weeks of nightly busywork instead of active blogging which is why I’ve been more or less absent from the blogsphere (By the way, I refuse to put an extra unnecessary “o” in the word “blogsphere” just because my phonetically-conditioned brain thinks it should sound like “atmosphere.” Generally-accepted or no, “blogsphere” is correct. This is a one-man rebellion against the modern parlance!).

Anyhoo, this overhaul is going to have a major impact in two areas: security and simplicity.

Now I’ve written about how I keep my collection secure in the past, but I’ve noticed a significant uptick in the number of cardboard-related crimes lately. Some of the events seem like general robberies where cards are taken in addition to other valuables; others (and these are the ones that scare me) are clearly card-focused.

I’m not super paranoid, but I’d be foolish not to recognize the value of what I have when it comes to cardboard, specifically of the Griffey kind. Plus I discuss it on the Internet, the most public forum ever conceived. All that combined with the fact that for some reason my readership has just exploded over the past few months has given me concern about any shady, Griffey-hungry characters that may be lurking.

The Council of Nine

On top of this, I’ve already been contemplating a major change in the way I store/access my Griffeys. My collection consists (for the most part) of nine 4” binders containing the bulk of my collection, a 5000-count Griffey Overflow Box (GOB), and a stack of screw cases in a safe deposit box at the bank where only the very best cards live.

For years the rule has been to limit duplicates in the binders to three per card and put the rest in the GOB in chronological and brand order. Unfortunately that is just not cutting it anymore. The binders have grown heavy and unwieldy, and many of them contain only two years’ worth of Griffeys. This makes sorting and scanning a real chore, especially when I want to do it in the living room while watching movies – the only way to sort.

I am addressing both the security and storage concerns with one massive overhaul in two parts:

1. Eliminate all duplicates from the binders. Going forward, only one specimen of each unique card will be included there. 

2. While condensing the binders, remove any cards in the following categories for placement in the safe deposit box:

- Anything worth more than “a few bucks”
- Anything with an autograph or relic
- Anything that is rare or hard to replace
- Anything I would be truly upset to lose

These changes are going to make my job a lot easier and stress-free. Sorts and scans are going to be quicker and binders easier to navigate and transport from room to room.

I just really like this page.

You may be thinking, “But Junior Junkie, how are you going to scan cards for blog posts when they’re stored in a vault miles from your house?” That’s an excellent question, Nosey McGee. I’m making scans of every card I store offsite and keeping them all in a single scan folder for easy access. By digitizing all my off-site cards, I will rarely have to go through the process of accessing the box, finding the appropriate cards, bringing them home, scanning them, and then doing it all over again in reverse.

This whole project has been pretty big and time-consuming, and it has taken precedence over all my other current card/blog projects, including catching up on trade posts. Sorry, guys.

I’m happy to reveal all this now because it’s already done. At this moment my collection is more secure than it’s ever been. Anyone who somehow manages to successfully enter my house, access my Griffey collection, and burgle it without any of my many home-all-day retiree neighbors noticing will end up with a butt-load of base cards and junk wax, easily replaceable for a pittance. I’ll be pissed and everything, but not nearly as pissed as I would be if the cards taken had any real value.

Here are the effects of this overhaul:

Haven't updated those labels yet, but you get the idea.

I’ve reduced the bulk of my Griffey collection from nine 4” binders to only five. There remains only one of each unique Griffey therein, and those are the best-condition specimens I own. This makes it easier to do pretty much everything like locating specific cards, sorting new additions, finding condition upgrade and set needs, and updating the Griffey count.

Left: Before I started, Middle: Dupes removed from binder added, Right: Dupes sleeved and organized by year

The Griffey overflow box has absolutely exploded with cards. Everything is penny sleeved (I had to buy twenty 100-count packs of penny sleeves to accommodate this), so I can flip through the cards easily without fear of damaging them - even the crazy die-cuts.

So much penny sleeve

With all my duplicates in one place, I can now more easily get Griffeys to other collectors. Before I would have a few dupes in the binders and a few in the GOB without a system for keeping tabs on how many were where. Now that all the dupes are in one place, I know exactly how many of each card I can spare. Now is the time to make requests, fellow Griffey collectors.

My safe deposit box, despite being one of the largest sizes held at the bank, is bursting with cardboard. I’m fairly certain I couldn’t fit another hundred cards in there if I wanted to. I could barely even close the lid. Part of me thought, “Do our passports really have to be in here?” That’s how desperate I was getting for space. Luckily after a few minutes of tetris-ing the bejeezus out of our valuables, I was able to make it work without compromise.

So much more space

There is a lot more space in my card cabinet. I feel a reorganization of my other cardboard coming on.

I have one seriously massive scan folder to deal with. I still have to go in and edit/label each card, but once that is done making posts with those particular cards will be a lot easier. I have half a mind to scan everything and keep them all on file for future posts, but I think that may be more trouble than it’s worth. Just the cards I moved to the SDB took a stupid number of hours to do, and that was without editing photos.

I have a new perspective on how much my collection is actually worth. As I was deciding which cards to move to the safe deposit box and which were okay to keep locked up at home, I realized how much the value distribution of my Griffey collection correlates with the U.S. distribution of wealth. In other words, 90% of the monetary value of my 8000-card collection is in fewer than 1000 cards. I was able to store far more than that in the bank vault, so I would estimate that as much as 95% of the monetary value of this collection is as safe as I can reasonably make it. That gives me peace of mind which, after all, was the point of all this.

Notice I say “monetary value” a lot. I do this because the monetary value is nice, but the value of the collection as a whole to me is a lot higher. I’m sure a lot of you other collectors can agree – it’s why we spurn price guides and eBay gougers. That being said, at some point, probably after Junior’s HOF induction, I would like to do a complete Beckett valuation of the Griffey collection. Yeah, yeah, those prices are meaningless and all, but I think a running Beckett value would be a fun addition to the Griffey count. Of course this will be tough with all the oddballs and customs in the collection.

So much emptiness

And finally, I have a ridiculous abundance of empty binder pages. I remember buying a dozen or so boxes to accommodate the original binder expansion, and before this project I had maybe 15 unused pages in that Ultra Pro box in the picture there. Now I have a full box and a full 4" binder, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them all yet, but they weren't cheap.

So that’s the story of my overhaul. I’m interested in your best practices when it comes to security if you’re inclined to reveal them. In the meantime, I hope any prospective burglars like ’91 Fleer. I still have LOTS of ‘91 Fleer over here.

Wallet Card Wednesday: Texas Contest Edition

I spent a little time “off the grid” of sorts while visiting friends in Texas. It was an experience that can be classified accurately as “rootin’ tootin’.”

This is their house, tucked in the middle of a ranch off a dirt road. You have to drive through cow pasture to get to it. There were peacocks, foxes, snakes, and even scorpions which we don’t really have in South Louisiana.

We also got around quite a bit. I took this next photo at a local watering hole where I wrote all kinds of nonsense on a picnic table between beers:

Let’s make this a contest. The first person to guess what city in Texas I was in when I wrote this, I’ll send you a some baseball cards and one very weird prize I found in a Home Depot Men’s room. Heck, I'll send you your very own 1989 Upper Deck #1 if you know exactly where this is and you're the first person to go take your own Wallet Card photo in the same spot.

I friggin' dare you!

Heartbreaking Cards of Staubering Blueness: a Trade Post

Matt, as many of you know, gave us the most powerful blog title on Earth: Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius. The first time I saw it I thought as I clicked the link, “Okay – this is going to be heavy. I must gird my reading loins.” Luckily it turned out to be just another awesome card blog. Phew.

Matt sent me a substantial selection of Vida Blue and Rusty Staub, two PC's of mine most often addressed by vintage card guys like Matt.

Here's Vida's sunset card. The photo is simple and tranquil. This card makes me feel good.

And this fairly recent logoless autographed number showing a much younger and more serious Blue. I like how his D looks like a V and vice-versa. Dive Blue. Anyway, gorgeous autograph card.

Wow - instant rainbow. I haven't done my research, but I assume subset-happy Topps made this card in a lot more crazy colorways and at far more limited numbers. No mind - what a great start!

Matt also included a trio of Rusty Staub base cards - I think I'm pretty close to having them all now.

Thanks for the amazing trade package, Matt! You better believe I've been keeping up with the podcast (in between episodes of Doug Loves Movies, of course)! You guys have a ton of cardboard knowledge. Looking forward to more...

And if you ever want to trade Beach Boys bootlegs, I'm open to that, too!

Wallet Card Wednesday: Sloppy Sammitch Edition

I spurn others’ flagrant posting of food pics on social media, but there are some things we have down here on the Third Coast that merit a little showing off. Like this:

This here is what we call a “ten-napkin” poboy. Roast beef, dressed (that’s mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, and pickles or “all the way” to most people), and sopping wet with juices and debris (pronounced “day-brie” which is really just all the little bits of fat and awesome that fall off the roast beef). There are plenty of other types of poboy including hot sausage, catfish, softshell crab, shrimp, oyster, and the ever-popular Peacemaker (that would be shrimp and oyster), but none of these are quite so sloppy and visceral an eating experience as a properly done roast beef.

The tater tots were a personal preference.

Wallet Card Wednesday: Bellybutton Edition

Have you ever gone to a restaurant, ordered your food, and immediately after that a half dozen belly dancers stroll in? It’s too late to back out at this point, friend. You are going to see belly dancing.

And not just a little - a LOT of belly dancing. The dancers came in every size and shape, and there were even several costume changes. The restaurant was small and there were mirrors everywhere, so even if you tried to avert your gaze for whatever reason (like not making it obvious to your wife that you hate looking at shapely 23-year-olds with perfect torsos gyrate for your entertainment) you were still pretty much screwed. We just had to embrace that fact that we were going to stare at belly buttons today. Lady ones.

Happy Father's Day!

Here's a pair of rookie cards for your Father's Day enjoyment. Father-son duos don't get much better than this.

The 20-Year Checklist: I Finally Face My Griffey Collecting Demons

[Spoiler: I actually completed this project in late 2018 - you can read way too much about it here.]

Back in the early 90’s my Mom used to buy me issues of Mad Magazine from the grocery. As I got older that evolved into Beckett. Then one day in 1996, Beckett gave us something new:

This is my copy of Beckett Tribute Issue 15: Ken Griffey, Jr. from 1996. It is at once my favorite and most despised periodical ever produced - favorite because it’s all about Griffey; despised because it made me realize that my dream of owning one of every Griffey card produced was probably never going to happen.

The problem? Towards the back of the magazine is a four-page checklist and price guide revealing every Griffey produced through early 1996 and its inflated pre-crash value. To me this list was the big selling point - my first Griffey database, the original Beast; and I began faithfully filling in boxes the very hour I brought it home.

The excitement didn’t last, though. I realized just how few cards I actually had, and how expensive the ones I still needed were. Griffey/Mantle dual auto? ’93 Finest Refractor? These were thousand-dollar cards, and there were dozens more with values in the hundreds. On top of that these prices had nowhere to go but up, right?

Fnuh? Oh, wait. I have one of those.

Yeesh - and that's without a Mantle autograph.

It was time to pursue other interests, and that was it for me and baseball cards. Before this magazine was published I was busting several packs a week and buying base cards from card shops at three bucks a pop. After the magazine, I bought less than dozen packs over the next 15 years, and that was just to see what the cards looked like. I wouldn’t do any serious collecting again until late 2012.

The worst part was that this realization cost me $4.95 ($6.75 in Canada).

Then, this past Monday, 19 years after first taking it home from the Sav-a-Center and letting it crush my collecting dreams, I dug that old magazine out and perused the same checklist I’d used when I was a kid. I snickered at the pitiful number of checked boxes, then gave the list a quick once-over thinking, “Got it, got it, got it, got it…” Then I realized that the same list that drove me out of the hobby as a kid doesn’t seem quite as daunting as it used to. I already have the priciest cards as well as most of the oddballs and pre-rookies. And I know for a fact that almost none of these prices have held over the years. Dare I say I could finish this thing?

And I did - I said it. And I’m doing it.

I’m setting a goal here and now to complete the 1996 Beckett Tribute Ken Griffey, Jr. checklist by the end of 2016.

It may be tough going for some of the rarer cards, but it’s a childhood dream. And I really do believe it can be done.

I began this project on Monday by cross-referencing the checklist against The Beast and the physical cards in the Griffey binders (I even found a new parallel I didn’t even know was there), all the while picking off some of the cheaper Griffeys with COMC credits. I ticked all the boxes I needed to tick, and I now have a much shorter list of those Griffeys I need to put this thing to bed. For the most part it’s parallels - a lot of Artist’s Proofs, Gold Signatures, and 1st Day Issues. Nothing with Mickey Mantle’s autograph on it, thank goodness.

Here’s what the list looks like now:

God bless you, unbroken columns of little black spots.

We’re only three days into this project, and already it has lent my collecting efforts a refreshing new focus. My Griffey shopping has been evolving over the last several years from random quantity purchases (eBay lots, mostly), to acquiring all of the cheapest Griffeys I didn’t already have (COMC, mostly), to single-card whale-hunting (eBay again). Now that I have most of the whales I want, this list is where I’ll be finding new target cards. No more random deal-spotting for this guy.

I am posting the needed Griffeys in a new want list titled “1996 Beckett Tribute Checklist” under my Official Griffey Wantlist tab. I’ll be keeping up with it religiously as I acquire the necessary cards.

As for the actual checklist, there are 727 total items (I say “items” because there are a number of multi-card sets with only one check box, meaning there are many more than 727 cards on the list). Today, June 19, 2015, I have 570 of the items on the checklist or just over 78%. I still have 157 items to track down over the coming months before the 20 year time limit I’ve imposed on myself is reached. Tick, tock.

When it comes to a specific time limit, I can’t seem to find exactly when this magazine was published (generally speaking, it was early 1996 based on the last items that made it onto the checklist, but I have no specific release date); so I’m taking the benefit of the doubt here and imposing a time limit of December 31st, 2016 at midnight. That gives me 562 days (2016 is a leap year) to acquire 158 Griffeys or roughly one Griffey every 3 ½ days. Cake. Ish.

There remains a little editing to be done, but below is the rough list as it is at the time of this post. I’ve adapted the card names to fit the format of The Beast. I have a little finagling to do regarding the jumbos and multi-card items, but not much. So, without further ado, my target cards for the next 17 1/2 months:

1988 Best San Bernardino Spirit Team Set
1988 Best San Bernardino Spirit Team Set Platinum
1989 Mother’s Cookies Ken Griffey, Jr. Set #1-4
1990 Donruss Super Diamond Kings #6
1991 Classic Game #120 (purple)
1991 Donruss Previews #4
1991 Mariners Country Hearth #28 (w/ Ken, Sr.)
1991 Pepsi Set #1-8
1991 Sunflower Seeds #11
1991 Topps Desert Shield #790
1991 Topps Desert Shield #392 All-Star
1992 Alrak Griffey Golden Moments Set #1-10 (These are those phone card thingies)
1992 Classic/Best Autograph Card #AU1 /3100
1992 Donruss Previews #7
1992 Mother’s Cookies Mariners Team Set #2
1992 Score Samples #1
1992 Sunflower Seeds #14
1992 Topps Gold #50
1992 Triple Play Previews #1
1992 Upper Deck All-Star Fan Fest #24 Gold
1993 Alrak Griffey 24 Taco Time Set #1-6
1993 Alrak Griffey Triple Play #1
1993 Colla Diamond Marks #44
1993 Colla Diamond Marks Art #3
1993 Colla Diamond Marks Prototypes #5
1993 Diamond Marks #44
1993 Diamond Marks Art #3
1993 Diamond Marks Prototypes #5
1993 Finest All-Star Jumbos #110
1993 Mother’s Cookies Mariners Team Set #4
1993 O-Pee-Chee Premier Star Performers #9 Foil
1993 Pinnacle Cooperstown #22 Dufex
1993 Stadium Club #707 1st Day Issue
1993 Topps Full Shots #2
1993 Upper Deck Fifth Anniversary Jumbo #A1
1993 Upper Deck #355 Gold Hologram
1993 Upper Deck #55 Gold Hologram (w/ Buhner & Mitchell)
1993 Upper Deck #525 Checklist Gold Hologram
1993 Upper Deck Iooss Collection #WI13 Jumbo
1994 Bowman’s Best #R40 Refractor
1994 Bowman’s Best #X96 (w/ Johnny Damon) Refractor
1994 Collector’s Choice #117 Gold Signature
1994 Collector’s Choice #317 Checklist Gold Signature
1994 Collector’s Choice #324 Checklist Gold Signature
1994 Collector’s Choice #340 Checklist Gold Signature
1994 Collector’s Choice #634 Up Close & Personal Gold Signature
1994 Donruss Diamond Kings Jumbo #14
1994 Donruss Dominators #A9 Jumbo
1994 Donruss Dominators #B6 Jumbo
1994 Donruss Elite #45
1994 Donruss Long Ball Leaders #5
1994 Extra Bases #168
1994 Extra Bases Game Breakers #14
1994 Finest #232 Jumbo
1994 Finest #232 Refractor
1994 Fleer Golden Moments #4 Jumbo
1994 Mother’s Cookies
1994 O-Pee-Chee All-Star Redemptions #8 Jumbo
1994 O-Pee-Chee All-Star Redemptions #8 Jumbo Foil
1994 Pacific Gold Prisms #2
1994 Pinnacle #100 Artist’s Proof
1994 Post Canadian #10
1994 Score Cycle #TC17
1994 Signature Rookies Flip Cards Signatures #AU2 /1000 (w/ Craig auto)
1994 Signature Rookies Flip Cards Signatures #AU5 /500 (w/ Craig and Ken auto)
1994 Signature Rookies Flip Cards Signatures #AU4 /1000 (w/ Ken, Sr. auto)
1994 Signature Rookies Flip Cards Signatures #AU6 /500 (w/ Ken, Sr and Jr. auto)
1994 SP Holoview #12 Red
1994 SP Previews #WR3
1994 Sportflics FanFest All-Stars #AS7 (w/ Lenny Dykstra)
1994 Stadium Club #85 First Day Issue
1994 Stadium Club #529 Division Leaders First Day Issue
1994 Topps # 400 Spanish
1994 Topps #388 All-Star Spanish (w/ Lenny Dykstra)
1994 Topps #606 Stat Twins Spanish
1994 Topps Superstar Samplers Cello Pack #19
1994 Ultra On-Base Leaders #6
1994 Upper Deck All-Star Jumbos #48 125th Anniversary
1994 Upper Deck All-Star Jumbos Gold #1
1994 Upper Deck All-Star Jumbos Gold 125th Anniversary
1994 Upper Deck All-Star Jumbos Promo #48
1994 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. Checklist Jumbos set #1-4
1994 Upper Deck Next Generation #6 Electric Diamond
1995 Bowman’s Best #R49 Refractors/Diffraction Foil
1995 Collector's Choice #70 Gold Signature
1995 Collector's Choice #88 What's the Call? Gold Signature
1995 Collector’s Choice You Crash the Game #CG8A 7/2 Gold
1995 Collector’s Choice You Crash the Game #CG8B 8/24 Gold
1995 Collector’s Choice You Crash the Game #CG8C 9/15 Gold
1995 Collector's Choice SE #125 Gold Signature
1995 Collector's Choice SE #26 Record Pace Gold Signature
1995 Collector's Choice SE #261 Checklist Gold Signature
1995 Donruss #340 Press Proof
1995 Donruss All-Stars #AL8
1995 Donruss Elite #54
1995 Finest #118 Refractor
1995 Finest Power Kings #PK10
1995 Leaf Limited Lumberjacks #4
1995 Pacific Prisms #126
1995 Pinnacle #128 Artist's Proof
1995 Pinnacle #304 Swingmen Artist's Proof
1995 Pinnacle #447 CL Artist's Proof
1995 Pinnacle #450 CL Artist's Proof (w/ Bagwell, Piazza, Thomas)
1995 Pinnacle #447 CL Museum Collection
1995 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle #TP7 Bonds Side Dufex
1995 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle #TP7 Griffey Side Dufex
1995 Pinnacle White Hot #2
1995 Score #447 Platinum
1995 Score Dream Team #DG7
1995 Score Rules #SR1
1995 Score Rules #SR1 Jumbo
1995 Select #89 Artist's Proof
1995 Select #243 Checklist Artist's Proof
1995 Select #250 Checklist Artist's Proof (w/ Bagwell, Piazza, Thomas)
1995 Select Big Sticks #BS2
1995 SP Championship #185 Diecut
1995 SP Championship Fall Classic #1
1995 SP Championship Fall Classic #1 Diecut
1995 Sportflix #1 Artist's Proofs
1995 Sportflix #168 Checklist Artist's Proof
1995 Sportflix Double Take #9 (w/ Barry Bonds)
1995 Sportflix ProMotion #PM1
1995 Stadium Club #241 1st Day Issue
1995 Stadium Club #521 Extreme Corps 1st Day Issue
1995 Stadium Club Super Skills #11
1995 Stadium Club Virtual Extremists #VRE2
1995 Summit #1 Nth Degree
1995 Summit #174 Bat Speed Nth Degree
1995 Summit #195 Checklist Nth Degree
1995 Summit Big Bang #BB1
1995 UC3 #124 In Depth Artist's Proof
1995 Ultra Hitting Machines #6 Gold Medallion
1995 Ultra Home Run Kings #1 Gold Medallion
1995 Ultra Power Plus #2 Gold Medallion
1995 Upper Deck #100 Electric Diamond Gold
1995 Upper Deck Predictor #R45 RBI Leader
1995 Upper Deck Special Edition #255 Gold
1995 Zenith Z-Team #2
1996 Collector's Choice #310 Gold Signature
1996 Collector's Choice You Make the Play #16 Gold Signature
1996 Donruss Long Ball Leaders #6
1996 Donruss Power Alley #10
1996 Donruss Power Alley #10 Diecut
1996 Donruss Samples #4
1996 Score Big Bats #2
1996 Score Numbers Game #3
1996 Topps Finest #M16 Refractor
1996 Topps Finest #M25 Refractor
1996 Ultra #126 Gold Medallion
1996 Ultra Checklist #4 Gold Medallion
1996 Ultra Diamond Producers #3
1996 Ultra Diamond Producers #3 Gold Medallion
1996 Ultra Home Run Kings #6
1996 Ultra Home Run Kings #6 Gold Medallion
1996 Ultra Power Plus #3
1996 Ultra Power Plus #3 Gold Medallion
1996 Ultra Prime Leather #6 Gold Medallion
1996 Ultra Samples #2

Of course any help would be greatly appreciated and reciprocated. Again, for an updated version of this list, please see the “1996 Beckett Tribute Checklist” posted under my Offical Griffey Wantlist at the top of the blog.

Thanks for reading.

I WILL DEFEAT YOU