A collector not an investor.

DJChas

Hey PSA Forum Folk-

Been lurking for awhile and have finally decided to post.

I am a longtime card collector who became obsessed with the hobby as a youngster in the late 70s and have had various ebbs and flows to my passion throughout the years.

I went through a Naxcom phase (later sportsbuy) do the ebay thing, even tried The Pit.

I've tried to make some extra cash over the years without too much success and finally came to the this conclusion:

I am a collector, not an investor. To put it bluntly: my speculative abilities are suspect at best.

Having said that, I still love my cards and have been trying to narrow the focus of my collection. As everyone knows, the shear volume of stuff out there is overwhelming and as an obsessive fan (I can see the sharks circling with that acknowledgement) I had/have a tendency to buy rather impulsively without any rhyme or reason. Until now (quite literally NOW)

I am going to focus exclusively on PSA Graded Topps Base set Bears and Cubs.

I'm probably going to go after rookies from base sets first and work from there.

This also means I'm probably going to bite the bullet and start submitting raw cards myself and not buy exclusively on the secondary market- having said that- if any of you PSA guys can knock me out with good deals that fit my criteria, I'm all ears, simply reply to this thread. Keeping in mind- that my primary interest is Topps BASE set cards- let me know.

My little "guide" is the grade corresponds with the decade.

1940s PSA 4 or better
1950s PSA 5 or better
and so on...the last ten years, I'm trying to look at only 10s.

So- I'm willing to listen to sales offers, but I ain't rich and do need the deal to be decent in order for it to work.

Again, this is my first post here, so if I'm not following certain etiquette I should, or whatever, be kind.

PowderedH2O

Welcome to the forum. Good to see you've narrowed your focus. It seems reasonable. Good luck with the collection and even better luck staying focused (which is my own personal collecting demon).

CollectorAtWork

One word of advice. Don't discount investing entirely. Still try to think smart financially. The thing that I'm saying this is that collecting interests often change. I was first very interested in 33 Goudey. Then I changed later to Ruth/Gehrig player sets with side interests in vintage basketball sets. So now, I want to try to sell some of my Goudey to pay for my other purchases, but I'm finding that some of my purchasing decisions in the past left me with worthless cards. For example for prewar cards, collectors typically like at least mid-grade. I picked up a lot of poor grade cards because I didn't want to spend too much money on commons. These poor grade cards are hard to sell even to somewhat recoup my initial costs.

You can obviously do whatever you want since collecting is for fun. However, I would say that if your focus is from 1940s to present even for 2 teams, that's a lot of years, a lot of cards, and a lot of money. My advice would be to first focus only on star player cards for your teams from those years. Commons are typically hard to sell unless in high grade (PSA8 for vintage, PSA9-10 for modern). That will reduce the focus of your collecting significantly, and also get you a better bang for your buck. You can add to your enjoyment by just picking a handful of years which have your favorite teams of all time, and collect all of the cards including commons for the team sets from there. As you complete those sets, you can move on to adding more years. Of course, if there are cards for commons that are absolute steals, pull the trigger. Anyway, have fun collecting!

DJChas

Thanks guys.

I appreciate the advice.

I should probably clarify my "not an investor" statement.

I went through a phase where I was buying the current hot rookie cards with the sole interest of selling them in a few years to help finance my desire to buy things I actually wanted to collect. I routinely picked "busts" or made poor decisions as to when to sell for maximum profit-

examples: I let a few Albert Pujols cards go too early and held on to some Bobby Hill (anyone?) cards way too long.

In short- I need to focus on buying things that will stay in my collection for the long haul and not try to buy purely on a speculative basis.

It's true I'd like things in my collection to appreciate in value (especially helpful if looking to fianance an upgrade) but I guess what I'm trying to say is I have bad luck "playing the market" so to speak.

Having said that- I've been able to buy things in recent years considerably cheaper than had I purchased them when they were "hot" (Mark Prior's rc) for example.

Sure he didn't pan out over the long haul, but I still have the memories of a couple of good years he had as a Cub and have his card now considerably cheaper than it would have been.

Your idea of picking star players makes sense...and I have an interest in many. Walter Payton, Ernie Banks, etc...(again- Cubs and Bears)

At the end of the day...I'll figure it out and I appreciate the advice and support.

bobsbbcards

Welcome to the forums!

Dialj

DJ,

Welcome aboard. I look forward to following your chase for the Bears and Cubbies. I agree with Collector, not discount the investment part. Maybe the answer would be looking for the cards you want in the grade that could eventually turn into an investment.

Brick

Hi, hello, how are ya?

Dboneesq

Welcome to the Boards! I'll see what Cubbies and Bears I have and then give you a shout!

divecchia

aboard and good luck with your collection.

Donato

thehallmark

Cubs and Bears, huh? There is a sadness behind those words that you type.

Welcome, from the burbs...


-DJ

DJChas

Thanks for all the well wishes and support. Much appreciated.

Doug- after reading your signature tag, what can I say? My heart goes out to ya. I know all about the "C" word in my family and I wish you nothing less than the best to you and yours. Appreciate you looking out for Cubs and Bears, but obviously- put it on the back burner. I know you have bigger fish to fry.

DJ or "the hallmark" (not sure which to use as I have little experience with message boards.) Yes! A profound sadness. But I am optimistic about the Bears this year (perhaps naively so) and the Cubs, well...yeah...what can I say? You know the score.

Thanks all!

-Chas

MeteoriteGuy

Good luck on your collection. Chicago has had more then it's share of sport stars, sounds like a great looking collection.

I have thought about going after all the Royals cards. They are kind of one of the later expansion teams (okay, not now....but Topps card wise) and there isn't that many bank cards. The 1975 and the impossible to find in mint condition 1976 George Brett perhaps the only two?

As long as they are not high number cards or the like, I think you will find most 1950's PSA 6's are affordable. They are for the most part under the radar of the big guys and investors. Most of the early Bears RC's can of course be pricey. (Hey there is a word I never use...pricey.)

Perhaps when you start to build a pile you will start a devoted thread to them and share scans with us?

Clear Skies,
Mark