How disciplined of a collector are you?
BuckHunter68
Posts: 406 ✭✭✭
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
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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
I just started buying my favourite sci-fi books in their signed 1st edition iterations, I have zero $%#@'ing discipline
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!
I’ve been collecting for 40+ years. I’ll buy anything for resale purposes but I collect HOF on card signatures.
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.
Yes as to cost, no as to subject matter.
Kiss me twice.....let's party.
50 yrs! Wow.
I've learned to "focus" and "budget."
I collect more oddball stuff on this forum - like baseball board games and premiums -- along with vintage tobacco items like framed pics from tobacco shops in the early 1900s.
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, Dwight Evans, 1964 Venezuelan Topps, 1974 Topps Red Sox
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
"I spent 50% of my money on alcohol, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.
Not nearly as disciplened as I want to be. I'm working on it, but it's slow progress.
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).
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.
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, Dwight Evans, 1964 Venezuelan Topps, 1974 Topps Red Sox
I collect cards of Ken Griffey Jr. where he's got his hat on backwards on the front of the card.
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.
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, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
On a scale of 1 to 10? ~~1.5
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.
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)
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!
I have sold 95% of my collection to pay off my lake house. Could never have done it without the card hobby. Still have just a few Big ones. Jim Brown RC PSA 8, Tiger SIFK PSA 9, several Joe Thomas RC PSA 10/Auto !0 - all numbered to 25 or less and a few others. Will end up selling them also at some point. Got the JB put in a new holder a year or so ago...along with UFFDAH's recent cello pack pull, its the best 8 I have ever seen...
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.
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.
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
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.
Lol! UIndian Gum and movie stars have become the MAJORITY of my purchases now. I strted the same way...slow leak...then BAM, Lol.
"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
just now seeing your follow up question, 14 months later! the 2 players I actively collect are Tom Brady and Roger Clemens. I am a big George Brett fan, but thankfully he retired before the big insert/parallel push in the mid-late 90s. I only collect active player day cards and already have the vast majority of the ones I want. If I found an upgrade to his 76 OPC I would buy it, but other than that, I consider my Brett collection complete.
as for the other 2, I will never ever have all of their cards that I desire. I have a little over 2000 different Clemens cards and 2x that number of doubles. I will never get to the end of his cards.
Brady, I am focused on rookie and early year cards. I bought a big Brady rookie last year and didn't buy another single card for over 10 months while I paid that one off. The me from 30 years ago wouldn't even recognize the me of today, at least when it comes to collecting. I couldn't have gone a week without buying a card back then!
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
Since returning to my hobbies in 2012. Comic book wise very disciplined. Captain America, Tarzan, Luke Cage/Power Man. That's virtually it minus a comic with a cover that I like and remember from years back. Card wise very disciplined from 2012 - 2018ish, little bit more of a freestyle focus since then. If you're a Hall of Famer from any sport you're likely in the mix to be bought here
I have always collected what I enjoyed or thought was neat/cool looking. It helped that I chose to follow the Dodgers and picked some decent old timers to like when vintage cards were a little more affordable.
I'm very disciplined. When my money runs out. 😆