With all the ballot talk, here's a completed collecting project

There's been plenty of focus on ballots -- justifiably as it's November in a presidential election year -- but Buzz completed a collecting project this week that was all about them. It's one that's easy to do in whatever way you want to do it ... and without breaking the bank.

What was it? I completed a career run of my player's appearances on MLB All-Star ballots -- and I did it with just a couple clicks.

It's complete by year but I'm still at least one ballot short of a master list -- at least that as I know of thanks to those pesky parallels that are apparently a thing here, too. Some years have a ballpark version of the ballot and then a sponsored one to be found out there in the real world. Why? Well, back in the day voting wasn't exclusively done online, so selected companies would have ballots at their stores. For example, for some odd reason way, way, back in the 1990s I remember MLB ballots at Subway, but that doesn't apply here ... not this time.

A typical inside view

If your selected player is newer, then you simply can't collect here. Why? MLB All-Star balloting went exclusively online beginning in 2015, so there are no ballots to be had from then on. The good news is that since these were made in serious bulk and they're ultimately something that was made to be used and then discarded there are a lot to be found and a lot of people apparently grabbed and stashed them. Because of that, they can be found rather cheaply -- either in bulk-lot runs, bulk lots by year or even singles from sellers not afraid to take their time selling what is an affordable and quick niche. (For the record, I don't see huge demand here ... it's just something for collectors to explore.)

Up close

A quick eBay search can yield ballots back to the 1970s with modest prices, really, and most are in top condition as, well, they weren't used and they weren't flipped around in pages or top-loaders for years. (About the only challenge here is actually how to store them.)

My particular player for this project only made a single All-Star Game during his 12-year career and I kind of stumbled upon all this on accident one night recently when looking at All-Star stuff and I noticed his name on different year. I'd never pondered how many times he might have appeared on a ballot but it turns out he was there from 2007 to the end for paper ballots, 2014, and with a couple clicks I was able to do a run for about $12 shipped. Sure, that still might be high in the big scheme of things but it's all of them -- save for at least one ad variation I still need (unless there are others) -- and it's almost a scenario where I'd want to do a couple runs. It'd be cool to get one run where each year is signed.

Why? Why not? Tickets have been hot and heavy items at times in the grading realm and technically ballots probably could fit in a slab -- I'd bet somebody has done it but I didn't check -- but finding ballots really isn't that challenging. (I'd rather have them slabbed open to see all the names, myself, and that probably would complicate matters.)

But, taking that collecting thought a step further, with players who arrived and were stars before the digital age, what kind of interest might there be for a player's first ballot appearance? Say, Mike Trout or Ichiro Suzuki. Or, maybe a full run of ballots for a veteran name such as Derek Jeter who probably has plenty of appearances? None of them would be that tough -- they might be done with some basic research and then a single click to buy a lot on eBay -- and Trout's debut is in the gallery below, for example. He actually only has two years on the ballot for a career run in this printed realm. An older name with a longer career, say a Nolan Ryan or Rickey Henderson, might be a little more challenging with older ballots to pull off a complete run ... but it's ultimately just a matter of how many people might be looking or listing them for sale.

It might be a lot cheaper to collect 'em all than you might think.

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