The notation "1/1" bothers me in any type of trading card listing.

There are two sources of frustration. The first is that card companies actually make singular cards, true 1/1 imprints. There are plenty of unique items that benefit from having only a single existence, but I believe they are best restricted to memories of events or specific times and places. Barry Bonds' 715th home run baseball is a 1/1. The NHL crest sewn onto an All-Star player's jersey, game-worn in the All-Star Game (when such things return), is a true 1/1. But artificially stamping 1/1 on a jersey card, or foil imprinting a card to create false scarcity smacks of greed. I like to complete collections, not be held up by economics created by the pasteboard accountants.

The bigger issue is the number of eBay listings that sport titles like "Elias Jersey Card #26/100 1/1". Either it's a true 1/1, or it's #26 out of a short run of 100 cards. Don't insult my intelligence or otherwise prop search engine results by listing something as a 1/1 if the only thing unique about it is that it's the first, last, or jersey number ordinal in the print run. Gaming titles only makes me inspect things like card condition (direct from pack to top loader!) and shipping terms a bit more carefully.

Communities thrive because members want them to thrive, not because members want to test the patience of their peers. Stick to accurate card listing titles, because there are no 1/1 gullible members.

Welcome to my fourth blog. Technically, I guess it's the fourth blog estate, but they're all kind of the new fourth estate.

I'm going to use this space for my rants about the goodies I buy (and sometimes sell) on eBay. Since 1998, eBay has been an integral part of my fun, enjoyment, and expanding collection of "stuff."

You can find other blogs of mine:

Sun Microsystems Blog is my official, work-related blog. Lots of math jokes and applied science stuff.

Snowman On Fire is my hockey and baseball related non-work blog. Youth sports, coaching, managing, the New Jersey Devils, New York Yankees and sometimes the Mets fill the space.

Number 8, mlb.com blogs started before I got the Snowman going, and it was fun to watch the mlb.com blogosphere take shape.

While some people pick on me for having too many outlets for my writing (perhaps this is a personality disorder?) I think readers tend to flock to like-minded and shaped communities. Sun customers (happy, unhappy, and potential) go to blogs.sun.com; eBay community members looks here. If I drive some cross traffic, I'm happy.