Olympia, Washington and 1,000 cards

This envelope arrived from Aaron in Olympia, Washington.  Olympia is now represented on the map.  Thank you Aaron.  And now let me apologize.  This envelope had cards when it arrived.  By mistake, those cards got put in, and likely scanned with a different envelope of cards.  I believe that's a first for me.  I keep fairly tedious records of what gets sent.

Speaking of the "fairly tedious" records I keep, I recently reached a major milestone.  I had planned to make a big deal out of it when it happened, but I lost track.  Awhile back, I received my 1,000th free card in the mail from a reader.  The four sent by Aaron actually pushed the number to 1,255 cards.  I keep track.

Here's a look at some of the numbers:

Cards have been sent from;
* 2 Countries,
* 2 Provinces,
* 27 States and the District of Columbia

* 193 different cards have been sent

The most 25 frequent cards sent are:

1.  1989 Topps ............................. 55
2. 1988 Topps .............................. 46
3t. 1988 Topps All-Star ............... 45
3t. 1990 Topps ............................ 45
5. 1991 Donruss ........................... 37
6. 1987 Topps .............................. 33
7. 1991 Donruss MVP ................. 32
8. 1993 Donruss ........................... 30
9t. 1988 Donruss .......................... 27
9t. 1990 Donruss .......................... 27
11t. 1991 Score ............................ 24
11t. 1992 Topps ........................... 24
13. 1989 Donruss ........................ 19
14. 1991 Upper Deck .................. 18
15. 1992 Donruss ......................... 17
16t. 1991 Fleer .............................. 16
16t. 1992 Fleer .............................. 16
18t. 1986 Topps ............................ 15
18t. 1986 Topps All-Star ............... 15
18t. 1993 Topps .............................. 15
21t. 1989 Fleer ................................ 13
21t. 1990 Fleer ................................ 13
21t. 1993 Triple Play ....................... 13
24t. 1982 Topps ............................... 12
24t. 1991 Topps ............................... 12
24t. 1992 Upper Deck ..................... 12

I won't bore you with all the things I find fascinating about the numbers I've tracked, less I devolve into a Holden Caulfield rambling about where the ducks go, but I will point out a few more.  Because I really do believe these numbers are trying to reveal some deeper truths and/or secrets about baseball cards in the late 80's and early 90's (and where do those ducks in central park go?!?)

* 1991 Topps has only been sent half as often as 1992, and not even a third as often as 1988-1990.  I find that odd.

*The '86 Topps base card and AS card have been sent the same number of times, and the difference between the '88 base card and AS card is only 1.

*Fleer is no where near as well represented as Topps and Donruss.  Which I find odd, in that I always considered them on equal footing with Topps and Donruss in the 80's and early 90's.  I usually bought more Topps than anything else, but whether I bought a lot of Fleer or Donruss varied on their designs year to year.  Were they really bought that much less than the other brands?

*1993 is the last year any card has been sent at least ten times.  I think that speaks to the onslaught of new sets that started flooding the market.  No one was buying very much of any one product.  At least not in comparison to what they were spending on Topps five years earlier.

*Inserts and parallels from '94-present have been sent almost as frequently (and in some cases more) than the base card from the same set.  I really believe a good amount of commons from that era ended up in land fills.

Yet people are clearly saving their "real" cards from the late 80's with "real" cardboard backs, despite their higher production runs.  I think that says something about the modern card and the effect of the insert.  Prior to the scratch-off lottery ticket culture of packs of baseball cards, people saved them.  There's nothing inherently more valuable about a 1990 Wallach than a 1994 Wallach, yet people clearly saved their cards from 1990.  My twitter feed is full of collector's whining about things like the "audacity of Topps to put a Clemente autograph on the same card as Nomar," and I really don't get it.  It makes the guys whining about gum and wax stains 25 years ago seem reasonable.  This 1 to 100,000 packs nonsense has devalued the base set to the point no one cares, sans a handful of niche collectors.  I think there's room for both.  People haven't held on to mass quantities of 1989 Topps for twenty years as an investment.  Those ambitions died a long time ago.  Something else compels them to save these cards, and then sift through boxes to find them and send them to some nut in New Mexico.  If Topps could tap back into that sentiment, they should.  Even if it's just to exploit it.  For nearly 40 years they had a formula that worked.  Lots of players, lots of stats, and gum.  Then they messed with the program and the market crashed.  They've tried everything to fix it, except going back to what worked so well for 40 years.