How many cards do you have in your collection?

I honestly don't know.

There was a time a few years back that I use to do a physical count. But once it went over a thousand cards - it became pointless. It still is.

Let me tell you a quick story. I once had an email discussion with a guy about his Thomas collection (I forgot his name because he turned out to be an ass) Anyway, he was all about 'how many' cards he had, constantly referring to the number of cards he possessed. Never once discussed the quality of the cards in his collection. So he went on and on for more than a week about 'how many cards from this year', 'how many from that year'. Finally, in exasperation, I asked him this question:

"What would be more impressive: Someone who had exactly 10 Thomas cards or someone who had 1,000 Thomas cards in his collection?"

He replied that I was stupid, by insinuation. The response I received actually began with "That's a stupid question."

He added, "Of course a thousand cards were much better than ten!".

At which point I suggested to him that the person who was more likely to be considered stupid was the person who never asked: Whether the ten cards were the 10 toughest cards of Frank in existence. Additionally, I suggested that the collector with a 1,000 cards could have easily accomplished that goal by putting together a thousand cheapo commons.

That pissed him off to no end. Mentioning in his last email to me that I was obviously a "Jap" and that my question proved it.

So I also discovered (not surprisingly) that he was a racist in addition to being a lousy collector.

When you think about your collection, always remember what the U.S. Marines say when they're asked about the size of their force:

Quality - Not Quantity.

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