Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Collection Audit 1994 - Present


In the interest of saving time, I'm not listing each card for for these last few years.  I'm just correcting the actual listing and will summarize the results.  Starting in 1994 the cardboard cancer that is inserts had spread beyond the point of no return and the hobby as we knew it was terminal.  I'm not sure when the actual time of death was, but I think anywhere between 1994 and 1997 is a reasonable estimate.  I don't know who decided we needed multiple variations of the same card, but having now dealt with the gimmick for two decades plus, it's safe to say, we don't.  Insert chasers will always have scratch off lottery tickets to feed their itch if the inserts went away.  Us set builders don't have much else to fall back on.  And for purposes of this "audit" I don't feel like mentioning every single variation is worth the effort.

For the cards issued in 1994, I came up with an additional 46 cards.  Stadium Club had the largest difference, with my count coming up with an additional 9 cards.  Pinnacle was next with 5, and Donruss, Fleer, and Score Select each had 4 more cards than I thought I did.




 Most of the 1995 tallies were pretty close or only one or two off.  I came up with an additional 48 cards.  Topps was by far the largest change, with the count yielding 13 more cards than I had listed.  Fleer Ultra was next with an additional 5 cards.


1996 was pretty much on point with only an additional 8 cards showing up.  Pinnacle with four more cards than I thought was the biggest difference.  I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that I just don't have very many copies of these cards.

As for the modern cards below, I came up with three additional cards.  I guess the individual numbering is good way to make sure I keep my numbers straight.

All in all, over the course of this "audit," I came up with an additional 927 cards.  I figured going in that I'd come up with more than I had listed, but I didn't think it would be anywhere near that high.  My best guess is that sometime around 2014 I wasn't adding new purchases as they came in and just waiting to update when I was mailed one, believing I would reconcile the numbers then.  I guess I didn't.  Don't look for this exercise to become an annual thing.  It was miserable, and I won't be doing it again any time soon.


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