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How disciplined of a collector are you?

Collected for 50 years. I'm all over the board...basically I collect what I find "pretty" or visually appealing with a sprinkle of player intrigue.
Now that I am often the seller, I'm amazed how finite and disciplined some guys and gals are. I have found collectors that:
Collect only Panamanian-born players...
Players from Maryland...
Utility guys that played 100 games at 4 or more positions...
Left-handed pitchers...
TOO many to list, but I really enjoy the disciplines!
What do some of you guys collect?

"You've gotta be a man to play this game...but you'd better have a lot of little boy in you, too"--Roy Campanella

Comments

  • BuckHunter68BuckHunter68 Posts: 379 ✭✭✭

    I want to add, I recently met a collector that collects big-league catchers. Just catchers. His collection blew my mind. High-end MINT examples of virtually any player I could think of. Remarkable.

    "You've gotta be a man to play this game...but you'd better have a lot of little boy in you, too"--Roy Campanella

  • Jayman1982Jayman1982 Posts: 464 ✭✭✭

    I just started buying my favourite sci-fi books in their signed 1st edition iterations, I have zero $%#@'ing discipline

  • HallcoHallco Posts: 3,622 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I have some of that awkwardness in a few areas. I only want jersey serial numbered cards of certain players and depending on the team or the #, I may not want at all. I collect horse cards which some people find to be different. I have some non-sport cards with famous movie horses and obviously horse racing cards. I like raw and graded cards but have no expectation on future income with anything in my collection. I love the lots of different photography on cards and sometimes will buy something I would normally have no interest other than pleasing to the eye. I know a person who only collects cards of "horrible human beings". I thought that was unique. There is a collector that collects Jewish athletes. I think he was on this forum at one time. Not sure. Something for everyone! Love it! :)

  • soxaddictsoxaddict Posts: 256 ✭✭✭

    I’ve been collecting for 40+ years. I’ll buy anything for resale purposes but I collect HOF on card signatures.

  • OneDaysRideOneDaysRide Posts: 129 ✭✭✭

    I only collect the first national set of cards from the inaugural 1996 season of Major League Soccer, which begins its 28th season next week with 29 teams.

  • Nathaniel1960Nathaniel1960 Posts: 2,310 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Yes as to cost, no as to subject matter.

    Kiss me once, shame on you.
    Kiss me twice.....let's party.
  • DBesse27DBesse27 Posts: 3,016 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I’m kind of in the middle. I focus almost entirely on my pet projects, but I have a few of them. In baseball it’s a player collection, 2 team sets and a Venezuelan Topps complete set. In football it’s 3 player collections plus RCs of greats from my fave team. I guess that’s like 8 projects. So not that focused, even though I stick almost entirely to those.

    Yaz Master Set
    #1 Gino Cappelletti master set
    #1 John Hannah master set

    Also collecting Andre Tippett, Patriots Greats' RCs, 1964 Venezuelan Topps, 1974 Topps Red Sox

  • Copyboy1Copyboy1 Posts: 468 ✭✭✭✭

    I collected 80% football, 20% random stuff I liked from about 1980-1995 and ended up with a garage full of stuff.

    During covid, I decided to purge and settled on putting together an NFL HoF Rookies set. So I sold/am selling off everything else to fund it. I have a couple dozen 49er cards I got personally signed, a handful of investible basketball (that will fund more HoF rookies at some point) and that's about it.

  • pab1969pab1969 Posts: 1,073 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I am a collector with a bad case of OCD. I collect anything that catches my eye and then end up trying to get as many duplicates as I can.

  • daltexdaltex Posts: 3,477 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @DBesse27 said:
    I’m kind of in the middle. I focus almost entirely on my pet projects, but I have a few of them. In baseball it’s a player collection, 2 team sets and a Venezuelan Topps complete set. In football it’s 3 player collections plus RCs of greats from my fave team. I guess that’s like 8 projects. So not that focused, even though I stick almost entirely to those.

    I don't know. If you have a list, however diverse, and you don't stray from the list no matter how tempting, that's pretty darn focused.

  • davin72davin72 Posts: 88 ✭✭✭

    For the most part I’ve been very disciplined. In 2017 I set out to do all the Steelers sets on the registry from 1950 to 1989. My ultimate goal would be to have all of them in the top 5. Some of the sets I do but some will be a challenge. I’m 556 cards into it and now it’s just getting hard to find the cards I need. So in the mean time to fill my addiction I’ve started to see how many different Steelers auto cards I can find but mostly go pretty cheap on those as it isn’t my main collection.

  • 2dueces2dueces Posts: 6,231 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 19, 2023 5:19PM

    My focus has narrowed as I aged. Besides a splurge on Josh Allen Rookie autos in 2018 ( oh yeah an absolute home run as they have increased in value 100 fold) I concentrate on upgrading my raw 60-70 raw football for binders. Minimum cost but great pleasure return

    W.C.Fields
    "I spent 50% of my money on alcohol, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.
  • Kid4hof03Kid4hof03 Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Not nearly as disciplened as I want to be. I'm working on it, but it's slow progress.

    Collecting anything and everything relating to Roger Staubach
  • Geoff76Geoff76 Posts: 149 ✭✭✭

    I’m becoming more disciplined over time. I started collecting PSA graded cards a few years ago during the early stages of Covid. Was excited to send some of the cards I collected as a kid and generally accumulated a lot of $40-75 graded stuff during the extremely long wait with stuff I liked but didn’t necessarily love, sprinkled with some higher end stuff (for me, mid-grade 59 Mantle, 60 Mays, Mike Schmidt RC etc). Also modern…now I’m leaving that to my son. :) If he has plenty of PSA 10 Joe Burrow/Jalen Hurts/Trevor Lawrence etc. cards, I can sell mine and put that toward a PSA 7 1972 Kareem (bought one this weekend), 1980 Bird/Dr. J/Magic PSA 6-7 (selling and saving up). Quality over quantity - combo of vintage, my era (Montana, Jerry Rice, Dr. J etc) and cards with sentimental value (74 and 75 Mike Schmidts my mom got me, Scott Rolen rookie cards).

  • Chicago1976Chicago1976 Posts: 451 ✭✭✭✭✭

    My primary swim lane is vintage Cubs and Bears, to include favorite players, HOFers, and team sets (mostly 1950s). I will buy other vintage players if I find something in exceptional condition and/or price. Side project has been a mid-grade '54 Red Heart set.

  • DBesse27DBesse27 Posts: 3,016 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 20, 2023 6:58PM

    @daltex said:

    @DBesse27 said:
    I’m kind of in the middle. I focus almost entirely on my pet projects, but I have a few of them. In baseball it’s a player collection, 2 team sets and a Venezuelan Topps complete set. In football it’s 3 player collections plus RCs of greats from my fave team. I guess that’s like 8 projects. So not that focused, even though I stick almost entirely to those.

    I don't know. If you have a list, however diverse, and you don't stray from the list no matter how tempting, that's pretty darn focused.

    Haha thanks, guess you’re right. I only now remembered that everything I collect is listed in my signature. How dense am I?? (Rhetorical)

    Yaz Master Set
    #1 Gino Cappelletti master set
    #1 John Hannah master set

    Also collecting Andre Tippett, Patriots Greats' RCs, 1964 Venezuelan Topps, 1974 Topps Red Sox

  • bruin805bruin805 Posts: 50 ✭✭✭

    I collect cards of Ken Griffey Jr. where he's got his hat on backwards on the front of the card.

  • mcolney1mcolney1 Posts: 974 ✭✭✭

    50th year collection too! 1973 baseball purchased at Roosevelt 7-11 at age 9.

    1964 - 1986 Football complete, 1970 - 1985 Baseball complete, 1968 - 1986 Topps Hockey with a smattering of OPC. 1969 - 1982 Topps Basketball complete. HOF Football Rookies 1948 - 1963. Main focus is upgrading all sets to NM or better 40/60 centering or better, WSU cards and anything that catches my eye.

    Collecting Topps, Philadelphia and Kellogg's from 1964-1989
  • craig44craig44 Posts: 10,393 ✭✭✭✭✭

    i have become much more disciplined over the years. I used to try to buy everything, now i am pretty much only buying 2 players

    George Brett, Bobby Orr and Terry Bradshaw.

  • ScoobyDoo2ScoobyDoo2 Posts: 839 ✭✭✭✭✭

    On a scale of 1 to 10? ~~1.5

  • blee1blee1 Posts: 713 ✭✭✭

    Originally it was one of every football card, basically mint. I gave that idea up in 92' and decided 89' would be the last year I'd work towards. Then someone off this board 'ABE' got me into autographs, so now that and custom cards are a problem.

    Skips PSA Exchange
    Successful transactions with: yankeeno7, raiderguy10, Beck6, CDsNuts, DaveP01, Dboneesq, Elemenopeo, gameusedhoop, georgebailey2, Goldlabels, gstarling, justmichael, etc

    Working on.........
    Tony Dorsett Master Set
    1977 Topps Mexican FB (raw)
    1957 Topps FB Set (raw or graded)
  • totallyraddtotallyradd Posts: 924 ✭✭✭

    I go in spurts. I was kind of all over the place during the pandemic, but have buckled back down. I get pulled in different directions of what I collect. Right now I'm chasing vintage HOF rookies. However my other loves are

    BMX/Skateboard cards (low dollar cards can wet my whistle while saving up for those HOFers)

    1979 signed Topps set (I'm about 65 cards away from completion - only have HOFers with higher fees and deceased to go)

    Milwaukee Braves PSA run (I started this in 2012. I'm through the 1958 set, but really haven't picked anything up lately (though wish I woulda just gone after all the Aarons early instead of building each set by year. Happy I got my PSA6 54 Aaron when I did though) )

    TTM Index card autos (I try to get the inscription of an event that is deemed historic - no hitters, olympic medals, etc)

    I also like ripping packs from time to time, but that's not very often as it's usually a losing endeavor, but it is fun!

  • stevegarveyfanstevegarveyfan Posts: 578 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I collect Steve Garvey and Dave Concepcion baseball cards nearly exclusively, along with ABBA cards and stickers in the non-sport world.

    I feel that's pretty focused.

  • BBBrkrrBBBrkrr Posts: 936 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I used to be after any vintage HoFer, but now try to stick to HoF rookies and other years from about 10 guys only. At this point I'm just trying to concentrate on the highest grades I can get.

  • BuckHunter68BuckHunter68 Posts: 379 ✭✭✭

    @craig44 said:
    i have become much more disciplined over the years. I used to try to buy everything, now i am pretty much only buying 2 players

    Which players? Are there enough cards to keep you motivated?

    "You've gotta be a man to play this game...but you'd better have a lot of little boy in you, too"--Roy Campanella

  • sayheywyosayheywyo Posts: 443 ✭✭✭✭

    Not really. All over the place in baseball, football and basketball. Mainly vintage rookies and HOF players. I have managed to complete a couple player runs. Then all of a sudden...... an Indian Gum Pocahontas or a Get Smart Agent 99 shows up.

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