The End of a Player Collecting Era

[bamlinden]

I agree with pretty much everything you said except for the part in bold. I don't give a hoot about individual players. I collect a team and that is all. It's the Packers and I know its not hockey but it doesn't matter. If a guy like Aaron Rodgers has a cards that are too expensive I go after Greg Jennings. If Randall Cobb cards are too expensive because he's a young guy with potential I skip them and go after James Jones. Sure, I'd like to have some of those expensive cards but I would never pay for them so I don't care, I'll take the cheaper cards and happily add to my collection rather than sit and cry about not being able to afford the "best" cards of the most popular players so my collection is at a standstill. I never have to worry about what to do with my cards if a player gets traded because if he does I simply stop looking for his cards. I've got about 1400 different Brett Favres but no rookies, Jets or vikings because I don't collect Brett Favre I collect Packers.

Diversification is the key to it all. Hopefully we all collect what we like and that can be a problem or a solution. If what you like is one player you may be screwed. When you get it all or at least all you can afford what do you do? In that case you may have to look a little deeper and try to find another player or another team or whatever. The problem with that is if its not a true passion and you pick it just to have something you can actively collect you will more than likely lose interest in it eventually. On the other hand, if you like too much stuff you may find yourself spreading anyone collection too thin and you might be disappointed with the results of that as well. None of your individual collections may show much growth so you get bored with it but as a whole you may have added a quite few cards across the board.

Honestly, I think the one thing most people overlook as a major reason for becoming disheartened with their collections is the high cost of the "best" cards. People mention the volume of cards produced or the lack of originality in design as problems. They constantly lament the fact that they pay $500.00 for a box of cards and cant sell the cards they get out of it for $250.00. They complain that the hot RC they bought last year for $250.00 is not worth $50.00 today. Well, at some point everyone has to question the sanity of paying $500.00 for a box of cards or $250.00 for a hot RC card and as you well know those prices are nothing nothing compared to what a lot of cards go for. Many people sit around and complain that they can't add anything to their collections because they can't afford all the autos and GU and low numbered cards and yet these same people would never consider cluttering up their collection with a worthless $3.00 base card. My reaction to all this is Boo freaking Hoo. A little harsh perhaps but when it comes to hobbies and something you freely choose to participate in I have very little sympathy for you when it doesn't go your way and you can do something about it and choose not to.

Having said all that I don't want the OP or the guy I responded to to think I am chiding them personally. I understand full well getting frustrated with collecting. I stopped for about 10 years from the mid 90's to the mid 2000s because of some of the same things I talked about. Cards were getting too expensive. There were too many to go after and the advent of the 1/1s made it almost impossible to realize my goal of having 1 of everything. The additional value that people were starting to put on the cards and the lottery type mentality along with the expectation that so many people have that they are entitled to make money on cards and boxes buy and if they can't hey are getting ripped off turned me off to the hobby and I didn't think I would ever come back. Well, I did come back, not in full force but I am back with lower, well not really lower but different expectations. All those things that drove me away are still there. If anything it has gotten worse. I just realized that there are many aspects of the hobby. There are aspects that people of all levels can enjoy if they can find them. For me its low end Packers cards. You guys can buy and sell your you $500 (or even $100 or $50 cards) all day long. I just know that I will never be part of your group partly out of necessity because I can't afford it, but mostly out of free choice because even if I had the money I don't know if I could ever spend $50.00 on a card. I don't know if I could ever spend $500.00 on a Packers card as long as there were hundreds of $5.00 cards out there that I didn't have.

They key as bamlinden says is to find something, or something else perhaps, and don't be afraid to change. I just urge you to be careful and not change simply for the sake of change. Whatever you change to you should have a passion for or it will most likely fail.

Sorry for the long winded post but if you are still with me thanks for reading.

Just to clarify, I did not write that bolded part as a statement I believe in. I wrote it because that was the question posed that I attempted to answer (you'll see it in my original response - I quoted it). The "How much time do you have" is an attempt to say that I could give a very, very long answer. There's a ton of stuff other than player collecting.

Player collecting is just a small avenue in the vast world of collecting. There are literally an infinite number of directions you can take your collection.

Sorry if my post didn't make sense.

I think your signature says it best...

Who cares what others think of your collection, you should be collecting for yourself and not them.

BINGO!

[Mnum]

I wonder what is going to happen once I get My 2006-07 Cup Phil Kessel ARP the one I have been searching for 3 years now. Will I still want to collect after I hit this White Whale? Recently I even took a step back and stopped collecting Maple Leafs cards to just collecting Phil Kessel. I'm starting to get tired & the lock out is not helping. I am not sure what I will do with my Leafs collection yet well over 10000 cards going back to sets from 1961 sell it keep it? I know I will never recover even half of what I paid for it so I might just keep it for my kids let them decide what to do with it.

[fdp79]

its tough times for being a player collector indeed...with the introduction of 50 mind numbing parallels in this set and the same cookie cutter single color swatches in that set it does tend to become boring at times...with the exception of a few nice highenders that unfortunately lay hidden in products that are way overpriced to bust. i do wish you luck with whatever direction your collection takes!