If You Build It, They Will Come

 Somehow I ended up with a binder with just 1991 cards in it.  So I'm not going to make big strides here, but that's ok.  1991 was a pretty significant year for Kirby Puckett, as that was the year that the Twins won their second World Series in 5 seasons. I barely remember 1987, but 1991 is burned in my brain.  Even the fact that I slept through a bunch of Game 7, but was definitely awake for the end.  Game 6 was the Kirby Game, with a leaping catch against the plexiglass and the game-winning home run in extras to win it.   By 1991 the cards you find in the checklist are starting to become a bit more uniform.  Less unlicensed cards, less drug store cards, and more national sets and inserts.  O-Pee-Chee is becoming its own set, Topps stamped their cards with Desert Storm foil for the troops, and Upper Deck apparently ran out of foil for the backs of their cards and used 1990 and 1992 foils. So, TCDB focuses on cards for a player, but that's not exclusive.  There are coins, w

 I think I have finished updating TCDB with my Iowa Connections for basketball now.  I say "I think" because I am constantly finding things I missed, and just writing this I remembered I need to look up Caitlin Clark ....... back, she's not in there yet.  I know I've seen the Sports Illustrated for Kids card online, but it has not made it to the database yet. Basketball Iowa Connections will fall under four categories...mostly.  There are some foreign league cards, 3x3 league cards, etc. that are scattered in here as well.  NBA players (Harrison Barnes, John Koncak, etc), WNBA players (Bridget Carlton, Michelle Edwards, etc),CBA players ( Nate Erdmann, Roy Marble, etc) and college basketball players and coaches (Lute Olsen, etc) make up a majority of the collection. I have 213 Iowa Connections currently in my spreadsheet, and of the 213, 171 of them have at least one card tracked in TCDB.  Ali Farokhmanesh is tracked in Beckett because of his Sports Illustrated cover,

 Let's see how the Divisional round finished: **** 3 - 1 (8 - 2 total)**** (3)  Cincinnati  at (3) Tennessee  (6) Buffalo at (6)  Kansas City (2)  San Francisco  at (6) Green Bay (3)  Los Angeles Rams  at (3) Tampa Bay Note: (#) is the number of Iowa Connections Just Green Bay kept us from a perfect week.  

F I made a trip to the LCS over the weekend looking for supplies to store my cards into a more organized manner.  Instead, I walked out with more cards, but to be fair they were out of what I was looking for.  I didn't have much time, but I did grab a few Iowa Connections. Tyrese Haliburton / Talen Horton Tucker / Allen Lazard : Iowa State Doug McDermott / Joe Burrow: Ames George Kittle : Iowa

What is a player card?  Before I get into the results of the 1989-90 binder, I wanted to ponder that question for a little bit.  I would imagine that when we look at a players checklist on TCDb, we naturally assume that the players name and photo are prominent on the card.   Basic Player Card: Name on Front, Photo of Player As you read through a players checklist, especially a player of Puckett's stature, you'll notice that you get other cards that don't quite fit that name/photo narrative. Plus, we've added Kent Hrbek to the photo as well.  Does the player have to be solo? Super Team Card: Shared photo but no name Is this a Kirby Puckett card?  I guess its a bit of a cheat because his name is kinda on the card (his jersey).  But what about this variation from 2015? Donruss card: Photo on front, nickname on front? What if it's artwork?  Not a photo. Diamond King card: Name, no photo Now let me blow your mind... 1992 Confex: No photo, no name, artwork This card has n

 This blog was started with the intention of giving back to the collecting community.  I'm a collector of all things Iowa, and I have gathered all sorts of knowledge and tidbits that relate to this collection that someday someone else might enjoy or use for their own collections.   I do have to admit though, its probably mostly for myself.  I can brain dump ideas here, and feel that all that time I spend researching Iowa Connections in the NFL playoffs is not a waste of time, its a blog post! Well, despite the stated goal of making this exclusively an Iowa Connections blog, I have to be true to myself sometimes, which means that I'm going to start a series of post about my Kirby Puckett collection.  He was my first collection, and is probably my most in depth collection. My first Kirby Puckett card was his 1989 Topps.  Looking at it now, I'm not sure this isn't the worst Kirby Puckett card there is.  Subject looks bored, the angle is off, and I'm just not that excit

Let's see how the Wild Card round finished: **** 5 - 1 **** (0) Las Vegas at (3) Cincinnati (3) New England at (6) Buffalo (0) Pittsburgh at (6) Kansas City (2) Philadelphia at (3) Tampa Bay (2) San Francisco at (3) Dallas (2) Arizona at (3) Los Angeles Rams Note: (#) is the number of Iowa Connections Just Dallas kept us from a perfect week.  

 Here's how the teams rosters were filled with Iowa Connections this season: Coaches in italics C.J. Beathard 7 - Jacksonville :  C.J. Beathard  / Mekhi Sargent / Coy Cronk (Iowa),  Darrell Bevell,  Brian Schneider  (ISU),  Chris Ash  (Drake),  Anthony Schlegel  (Cedar Rapids) 7 - Denver :  Noah Fant  / Josey Jewell / Michael Ojemudia / Shaun Beyer / Barrington Wade (Iowa), Eric Saubert (Drake), Rico Gafford (Iowa Western) 6 - Buffalo : Ike Boettger /  AJ Epenesa  / Micah Hyde (Iowa), AJ Klein (ISU), Spencer Brown (UNI), Matt Haack (W. Des Moines) 6 - Green Bay :  Jerry Montgomery,  Jack Heflin (Iowa), Allen Lazard / Steven Wirtel (ISU),  Ryan Mahaffey  (UNI), Dominique Dafney (W. Des Moines ) 6 - Kansas City : Austin Blythe / Ben Niemann / Anthony Hitchens/Josh Jackson (Iowa),  Brendan Daly  (Drake), Daurice Fountain (UNI) 5 - Detroit :      T.J. Hockenson / Matt Nelson / Mark DeLeone (Iowa), Geronimo Allison (Iowa Western), Tyron McKenzie (ISU) 4 - Baltimore : LJ Fort (UNI),

 Nothing like being a week behind already to start 2022.  Everyone online has been tweeting and posting about their 2022 collecting goals since just before the New Year, and I'm only just getting around to it now.  Just like the trade offers sitting in my TCDB account, I will get to you when I can! Goals being listed typically fall into three categories: 1. Organization 2. Acquisition 3. Growing the community I've thought about what I want my goals to be this year, but I need to be honest with myself.  I will fail at 90% of my goals not from want or effort.  I just have grand goals that just don't work with work, family, and a reasonable budget.  (What, collecting every card of every person with an Iowa Connection isn't an attainable goal?)  First, I need to list all my major goals: Organization 1. Reorganize card closet, buy appropriate boxes, and get those cards sorted! 2. Update TCDB with my Iowa Collection wants 3. Update TCDB with my trade bait (Done with Football

 If you casually follow the hobby, you have a general idea of what a rookie card is.  My guess is that it generally follows these rules: First major set release card of the player At least that's how it started.  We all generally agreed that minor league cards don't count, and same with weird sets like Donruss The Rookies.  Traded/Update cards complicated things, and at some point we let them through.  Then Bowman came and just decided it was going to have all the rookies and we tired of that.  We made rules and had an awkward few years where we had RCs and (RC)s, and Bowman played nice and moved prospects to subsets.   Still difficult though.  I mean I pulled a Wander Franco Bowman Prospect card last year, and was super ecstatic, but really its his 3rd Prospect card after 2019 and 2020.  If you want his RC, you'll have to wait until 2022 even though he played in 2021...unless chaos arrives. Wouldn't you know, but Bowman is the instigator again.  In their 2021 Bowman