1941 Play Ball #28 "Joe" Marty

I've always been very envious whenever I read a blog post by someone who can provide the exact number of a certain player's baseball cards he owns in his collection.  There are a few bloggers out there who can tell you, at any given time, exactly how many cards they have in their collection including the player and/or team break-down.  I think these bloggers use some combination of Excel spreadsheets or home-made databases to accomplish this, and I've seriously considered trying this approach myself.  However, as someone who works with Excel spreadsheets on a daily basis in my chosen profession, the thought of coming home after a long day in the coal mine and relaxing in front of another Excel spreadsheet just seemed depressing.

Sure, I've got detailed checklists, and I can tell you exactly what cards I have and what cards I need, but I have absolutely no idea how many cards are currently housed within the actual Phillies Room from where I'm typing this now.

So I've joined Zistle.  Zistle has been around for a while, but it recently re-launched with (I'm assuming) a more user-friendly approach. Its tagline is simple, "Organizing your collection online couldn't be easier. Zistle actually makes organizing your collection online, dare we say, fun!" And, dare I say it, I agree.

I started adding cards in my collection to my new account over the weekend.  I started with the few Phillies cards I have from the '30s and I've worked my way forward up through the 1981 Donruss set.  I'm going to stick to only including my Phillies cards as this is now the main focus of my collection.  Said another way, I'm more interested in knowing how many Putsy Caballero cards are in my collection (currently one) than knowing how many 1992 Donruss doubles I have.

One of the cool things about Zistle is the ability to add sets, teams, and photos to their ever expanding inventory.  Shortly after posting this, I'll upload front and back scans of this 1941 Play Ball card to the database, as there's currently no image available for this card on Zistle.

There are also trading and wantlist tools available that I have yet to explore.  And once I've input my collection, I have the ability to download the whole mess to an exportable file whenever I want.  I like this.  It's free, and they say they'll never charge for their service, but I like the idea of being able to take my Phillies collection data with me, especially after the time investment it's going to take to get everything in there.

So look for me on Zistle (Ringo73), where as of this writing, I have 756 Phillies-related baseball cards in my collection from the 1934 Diamond Stars Blondy Ryan card through the 1981 Donruss Greg Gross card.