Why did you stop PCing a player?

[cjrw83]

I have seen lots of people stop PCing players over the years that have had collection that have ranged from very few cards to multiple hundreds of very nice cards and was curious to see if any of you have experienced this and if so share why you stopped your PC of that player whether they got traded or you needed cash.
A few questions I am interested in seeing are -
Was it a hard decision?
Who was the player, did you lose a lot in selling or trading them all away?
How did you get rid of them?
Do you regret getting rid of the players collection?
Why did you start collecting them?

Looking forward to seeing what you say, please feel free to add more insight than the questions

C.J.

[canucksfan007]

There is only 1 real player I wanted to chase to the 100% mark .... and I gave up having about 90% of all his cards, including 1/1s. This was from 05/06 - 07/08 .... so not as hard as the PC guys that had to endure the Panini parallel hell

Was it a hard decision?
- No, I got bored and it felt like a chore picking up what I needed..

My Player
- Lee Stempniak. Look below for next part of this question.

How I got rid of them
- I knew of 1 other collector that also collected him. He started after me, and therefor I had very little competition going for all the /5 and 1/1s. Believe it or not, I was paying under $30 per 1/1. Black Diamond Platinums 1/1, Artifacts Autofacts 1/1, other base parallels /5 and 1/1 ..... very cheap and seemed to all hit ebay fairly quickly after the products were released. Myself and the other collector were making a small deal for some low numbered doubles of Stempniak .... and I just decided to throw everyone non rookie year I had of Stempniak into the package. So ... did I lose lots of money .... well I didnt make a penny back on them . The only thing I asked for .... is if the 3 remaining cards I needed from his rookie year popped up ... I would have no competition from him. He actually alerted me to an auction for 1 of the 3 cards still needed, one I would have easily missed.

Do I regret it?
- Not 1 bit .... I know the other guy is appreciating the Stempniaks more than I would .... and am happy to see he still collects him!

Why did I start the collection?
- I really dont know. Most likely because he had a very good rookie year, and I liked how he played. Im finding myself following him more now that hes playing with #87 and has a shot at the cup =)


Since then, ive never been a "need to get 100%" kind of guys. I pick up what I like of the players I like. Its too hard to get everything now a days .... impossible in the Panini era. I find my PC to kind of be all over the place .... but it keeps me entertained. I can pour in some bigs bucks 1 month towards part of a PC ... feel its grown enough .... and next month look to add more to other PCs ..... this last month its been my "Goalies" PC ..... ive added about 7 very nice Patrick Roy autos in the last 45 or so days =S

[MattDMC]

Bobrovsky.

Quit after a year and a half and 150-160ish cards, 7 1/1's because I got tired of having a PC of parallel hell. It was fun at first but got tiring real quick with the same sets coming out year after year with 10 cards all the same just a slightly different colored version (Thanks Certified).

I told myself I was better off just going back to collecting Wings stuff and buying 1 or 2 nice items a month rather that 10-15 low-med end jerseys and inserts of the same player that all look the same for the most part.

Do I regret it? Hell yes! No matter what Bob was and still is my favorite player in the league even if he isn't a Wing and every day that goes by I think of all the nice Bobs I sold off. While I'm glad I sold them off and diversified my collection a lot, I can't help but feel regret for not continuing on with the collection. With every new release I see new Bobs and think how cool they look but can't buy any of them because I know if I buy one I'll get right back in it and won't be able to stop but I don't want to be stuck with a one person collection. I'm stuck with a double sided sword, regret selling and quiting but know if I start again I won't be happy with that either as it will take funds and effort away from the Wings collection.

I still have 6 Bobs left that likely won't go anywhere (1 for sure that won't go anywhere) and those 6 have helped me from regretting it completely as I can always look upon them and say at least I didn't give them all up and still have some memories of the old PC.

[wngfan]

Was it a hard decision? Not really, I just got tired of chasing 100+ cards every year for no reason. Do we really need that many cards of any player for any year??

Who was the player, did you lose a lot in selling or trading them all away? Yzerman. I quit collecting him at least 10 years but I still have most of the stuff just sitting in boxes. If anyone needs any Yzerman, let me know?

[DeanCrandall]

Andrew MacDonald

http://s717.photobucket.com/user/Dea...?sort=4&page=1

Was it a hard decision? Haven't got rid of yet, just stopped adding.

Do you regret getting rid of the players collection? Regret starting it, thought for sure he would stay an Islander. They treated him well, gave him assistant captain, and then offered him a very fair contract (one Im not sure will be matched elsewhere)

Why did I start the collection? Started it because he is a fellow Maritimer from Nova Scotia, not many in the NHL and Isles is my club of choice. Also figured low profile player I could create a very nice collection. Plenty of plates as you can see by the link above.

Now scratching my head see where he lands after July 1st, hopefully he doesn't stay in Philly, grrrrr.

[hossa18sens]

I have stopped collecting a few guys I used to PC. I stopped the Greening, Pageau and Winchester's recently. I have decided to more focus on the Hossa,Karlsson and Smith stuff (Still picking up the odd Foligno here or there but not spending a pile on them)

I look at all the stuff I don't have for the 3 guys I do want to keep going with. I know if I drop the other guys I have a better chance at filling in those holes.

I have not moved the other players yet but would for the PC guys

[deucegroup]

I first started PCing Cam Neely and stopped when he retired, then started collecting Anson Carter and stopped when he retired. Now I don't collect players anymore, only Team Canada cards and a couple sets.

Was it a hard decision?
It wasn't hard because they stopped playing and I waiting a couple years to make sure.

Who was the player, did you lose a lot in selling or trading them all away?
I didn't lose a lot with Neely because I hadn't invested a lot since I was young and they didn't have all the big cards of today. I did lose a lot for Anson Carter though because I collected everything including duplicates, I had about 100 jersey and autos but only about 12-15 different cards, I had over 1000 of his UD RC and about 300 of his Pinnacle RC... still have most of them today since I couldn't get rid of them.

How did you get rid of them?
eBay mostly, some trades.

Do you regret getting rid of the players collection?
No not at all, very happy with my Team Canada collection, cards are never out of date because they don't change teams, except Petr Nedved lol

Why did you start collecting them?
Always had a minor PC for Team Canada cards, have loved watching TC play since I'm a kid, and it just gets better every year with every tournament.

[RGM81]

A lot of tertiary guys have come and gone over the years. Guillaume Latendresse was a guy that I liked collecting a fair bit in my first year or so back in the hobby. Then he got traded to Minnesota. I found a guy there that collected Benoit Pouliot and we pretty much swapped straight across. Now I've got Benoit Pouliot stuff I still can't get rid of. LOL

I stopped doing the "super collecting" thing of Carey Price about a year ago. There were just too many cards being produced. While I've always had quality cards in my collection I wanted to focus less on quantity and more about building up the truly "wow factor" cards. With the market for him always pretty steady, and always more cards being pumped out, I found that for the price of 3-5 common jerseys or parallels I could instead buy a really sweet hard-signed auto or even AU-MEM card. So I moved out quite a lot of those commons jerseys, parallels, and the like and instead have a collection focused on the prettier things in life. I don't really need an Artifacts Sapphire /85. Pumps up my stat lines, sure, but would you rather look at a stat line or this:


Not a particularly tough decision. I sometimes confound my LCS buddy as he's surprised at how easily I'm able to let go of certain things. Once something ceases to be a priority for me, it's easy to move forward. I let go of quite a few cards that I once thought I'd want to keep for a very long time. And yes there are definitely some cards I would never let go of. Unless I had the opportunity to get something even greater. LOL

It's about fun and enjoyment and having a good time. Some cards bring me great joy, others put a little smile on my face and then go in the box.

[centrehice]

I have taken over 3,000 different unique Steve Yzerman items beginning in 2008 and reduced them down to a comfortable 400-500 now, with the rest to be sold off this year.

1. Way too much money tied up in a player of that calibre

2. I travel the World, and have for 45 years, I'd rather travel more than collect expensive Yzerman cards

3. Lack of interest. I have collected off and on for 53 years. Time to stop and look at other activities

4. Way too many Yzerman cards produced following retirement. There are more Yzerman cards produced now than ever before. Collecting cards after a player retires is simply a "Drag"

5. Cards take up way too much of my time. I am an athlete and have been my whole life. I'd rather spend the time on my personal fitness.

[Slyner77]

This has happened to me, heres the answeres to your questions.

Was it a hard decision?
No, my wife and I got pregnant with twin girls and the pregnancy was a difficult one leading her to not be able to work for quite some time. If you would like more info about this story please check out the link in our sig about TTTS

Who was the player, did you lose a lot in selling or trading them all away?
Milan Hejduk I had over 900 different cards of him, didn't really lose much at all as his cards have a pretty steady value on his nicer stuff. Now that hes retired I think I may have lost some though.

How did you get rid of them?
I gave a member here on the boards first dibs on anything he wanted as he and I had arranged a deal to not compete on his stuff that hit the bay and had good ongoing PM's about newly listed Hejduk stuff, then eventually the rest of the nice stuff hit the Bay. (I still have a lot of the low end stuff of his and that is now back in my PC now that I'm back into collecting)

Do you regret getting rid of the players collection?
Yes and No For obvious life altering reasons I don't regret it, selling my PC allowed for us to stay current on all of our bills as well as pay for all the trips to Minneapolis to see doctors and still live a decent lifestyle during the time my wife couldn't work. But on the hobby side of course I regret it, I was hoping to be "The Hejduk Guy" I was well on my way with the amount I had tracked down and I had random people emailing me asking if I was interested in their Hejduks so I was doing something right haha, I will never collect him the way I once did as it would be way to depressing/boring to re acquire all that I once had of him. But I will always trade for anything I don't have of him or bid on additional auctions if I have won a different card from a seller with some Hejduks listed. I agree with others about the Quality over Quantity thats how I am collecting my higher profile players I will still keep their low end stuff if I get it, but I'm not going out of my way to chase it. I do want to try to Super Collect some of the guys in my Sig mainly Svatos (My sons named after him) Granlund & Barrie (assuming they stay with their teams for at least a little while) & Ozolinsh was always one of my favorite Avs as a kid.
Why did you start collecting them?
He was one of my favorite players and his rookie year was the year that the Aves became my main team. I will always have a soft spot in my PC for Hejduk.