About a week or so ago, I ordered three different Barry Larkin cards from the same eBay seller. Now that the cards have arrived, I thought I'd show you how I do things whenever a new Barry Larkin card enters my collection. Be warned, I'm a little OCD about things!
Step 1:
Open the envelope, go to TCDB, and update my "haves" list on there.
For this purchase, I landed a 1998 Bowman Chrome International parallel, a 2024 Panini Prizm Silver Prizm parallel, and a 2003 Fleer Tradition Black/White Goudey Red parallel.
Step 2:
Open up my master Excel spreadsheet and update that with the new cards.
This is also where I keep track of the specific serial number on any cards (such as the Fleer Tradition card from today's mailing).
Step 3:
Scan each card (front and back). Next, I join the two images together, and then I save them as a single file for use in a future Barry Larkin Collection post.
I currently have over 800 Barry Larkin cards that I've scanned but not yet written about or posted to my ongoing Barry Larkin Collection series on the blog!
Step 4:
Place the cards in their appropriate spot in my Barry Larkin Collection binders.
Each page of my binder has a saved spot for every Barry Larkin card that I'm missing (according to TCDB). Over the years, I've painstakingly filled out hundreds of little slips of paper to denote missing cards. There isn't a better feeling for a collector than to be able to take out some of those scraps of paper and trash them!
To date, I've updated TCDB with every have and need of mine from 1986 through 2022 using those scraps of paper. It was only a few days ago when I sat down to update 2023 that I realized you could print a full checklist by player off of TCDB.
Now, I use the printed checklist to speed up the process, though it should be noted that for a lot of sets the printed checklist omits key parts of the set name, so I still have to do a fair bit of writing on the slips. Even so, being able to cut out slips and then update only when necessary proved to be a huge time saver when doing the 2023 Barry Larkin cards (and it's the only way I'll do this process moving forward)!
And with that, you now know my process! It's a fair bit of work, but once I have things organized, I tend to be much more efficient with my trading and purchasing. Unfortunately for me, I haven't yet updated my 2024 Barry Larkin collection (and the one card that I bought as part of today's purchase ended up being a duplicate, whoops)! I guess I better start going through my 2024 cards ASAP!
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