Can a collection ever be complete? Tracking progress through TCDB

 So my trajectory to being an insane collector of all Iowa Connections probably started off the same as many of you who started collecting in the late 80s and early 90s.  Cards were plentiful (not junk to me!), and opportunity abounded for anyone interested.  You could buy packs at the local drug store (Osco was my local one), card shops and at the local card show.  

Opening a pack of cards is fun, but there had to a point to it.  For some, it was the pursuit of value.  Buying a pack for 50 cents and selling/trading your way to a dollar.  Building a collection was my way, which I suppose is value in its own too.

An easy was to start was with the set builds.  You had checklists and would fill your binders with the empty spots available for those missing cards.  I wasn't much of a set builder, I had no interest in gathering the Kevin Seitzers and Flipper Andersons of the world.  

I was a player collector, and my player of choice was Kirby Puckett.  You start small, trying to gather all those base cards and trying to find those rookie cards, but at some point your brain breaks and you think, what if I tried to get EVERY Kirby Puckett card?

Not like the Tim Wallach guy, who wants literally all the Tim Wallach cards, but one of each card would be sufficient.  You buy the Beckett Almanac and sift through each set and try to find if Puckett has a card in that set.  You build your own checklists in Excel, and track your progress and see that percentage of cards you have go up and up (until you find out that they are going to make new ones every year until you die, but that's another story...)

Of course, being a silly collector, I do the same for Twins / Vikings  before moving on to my main Iowa Collection.  Why try to collect just all the Kirby Puckett cards when I can try to collect all of Kurt Warner, George Kittle, Bob Feller, Joe Burrow, and John Wayne?  

After a while you start to wonder how your collection compares to other collectors.  I know I have a pretty decent Puckett collection, but does it put me 50th overall?  10th?  What about Dennis Gibson, a linebacker from Iowa State with a modest career?  What about David Johnson?

Well, you'll never know for sure, but you can get a glimpse on Trading Card Database (tcdb.com)  There, you can click on a player and see where your collection ranks with other collectors of that player.  For instance, I have 25 Dennis Gibson cards (25/67 37.3%).  37% seems low, but actually puts me in 4th position, just 6 behind first place.  My David Johnson collection is larger, but falls much shorter on the percentage (187/4561 4.1%), however I have the #1 collection...by a large margin (next closest is 62).  Do I really think I have the #1 David Johnson collection.  No, in fact I know that my brother probably has a better collection (the benefit of living in Arizona).  However, with no proof  otherwise, I will take the title.

So, I'm going to start a new series of posts on here.  Where my Iowa Collections rank on TCDB, and see which collections I take the title on.  My celebrity and basketball collections are weak, and there are some tough Hawkeye collectors on here, but it will be fun to see.  

I'll start today with my Presidents collection.  Those who know their history will know there was only 1 US President who was from Iowa.  That would be Herbert Hoover.

Herbert Hoover

7 / 130 (5.4%)

2nd place (1 card back of 1st)

Bonus

Iowa was home to two First Ladies: Lou Henry Hoover and Mamie Eisenhower

Lou Henry Hoover

1 /5 (20%)

3rd place (1 card back of 1st)

Mamie Eisenhower

0 / 18 (0%)

Last place (2 cards back of 1st)