Clutter

The recent decline of Zistle has left my collection in somewhat of an unorganized, cluttered state.  In fact, as the months roll by I'm starting to realize that having my collection digitally organized was a big part of what was making it enjoyable for me.  Now I feel like I'm kind of roaming around aimlessly to some extent.  Today I have a few examples of that...

...like these Upper Deck Portfolio "wire photo" cards.  I like these quite a bit, particularly the retired stars from the release like Guy Lafleur and Lanny McDonald here.

The thing is, I bought a lot of around 20 of them on eBay.  Mostly because I wanted the Conor McDavid wire photo rookie card that was included.  Did I really need 19 others?  Did I really need the McDavid even?  It's not like I broke the bank as the entire lot cost me less than a retail blaster, but now I can't help feeling like this was a silly impulse buy and the cards are going to sit in a box.

Here's another random one, a buyback from 2010-11 Upper Deck hockey.  Buybacks are one of the things in the hobby that I actually have been enjoying quite a bit lately thanks to my baseball buyback franken-set.  Should I have strayed into hockey though, and dropped a five-spot on this Al MacInnis?  Not sure, but I did!

At least it's "authentic"...

This one I actually like quite a bit.  The 2016 Archives release featured what might be my favorite photograph on any Xander Bogaerts card to date.  Just perfect really.  This one is a red border parallel, which I think makes it even more aesthetically pleasing.

Numbered to just 50 copies, I jumped at the chance to grab this one for a five spot.

Here's another one I feel a bit less guilty about.  That's because the 1989-90 Topps/O-Pee-Chee hockey set represents the first cards my brothers and I ever collected as kids.  I've been picking up a few autographs from the release over time, and Glen Wesley here is the latest.  Most Whalers fans detested this guy when he played with the Bruins, but then he joined Hartford in the mid-'90s and feelings changed.

However you feel about Glen, this was a solid pick-up for my 1989-90 collection, especially since it set me back just the opening bid of 99 cents.

Here's a very colorful one from last year's Topps TBT release.  I went a little crazy with Topps NOW and TBT last season, but I learned my lesson.  I'm staying strong and haven't picked up even a single card from either release so far in 2017 here...

This one's been kicking around waiting to be scanned for years.  I briefly flirted with player collecting Adrian Gonzalez during his very brief tenure with Boston, but in the end it wasn't for me.  A nice enough refractor though, with just 50 copies out there...

I'll close it out here, with another gold card, also numbered to 50.  I posted the blue version the other day, and picked this one up from the same seller.

So yeah, there are just a few examples of the clutter in my office.  Maybe it's just because I've been sick, maybe it's because I'm overwhelmed with the task of re-organizing my collection post-Zistle, but I've been thinking recently that it's time to trim back.  I'm not going to stop collecting, but I am considering selling off a lot of the random stuff I've accumulated in the 10 years I've been back at this, and attacking collecting with a more narrow focus going forward.

We'll see...