RANT: 15 Year Yzerman Collecting Nightmare Is Over

[Drewk86a]

In response to Canucksfan007 - You generalize that "older" collectors refuse to change with the hobby. Yet your reply seems to indicate why many are upset with the hobby. Too many collectors are focused on money and value. How many "What is this worth..." posts do we see here? Everybody wants the "sick" patch or short printed auto because they know they can sell (or trade) it for alot.

What happened to the collector who celebrated pulling a Trent Yawney common because it was the last card he needed for the set?

You bemoan times when cards were cheaper and more plentiful. You prefer things they way they are now? Why is that? You never really said, in your posts, why you like todays cards and disklike cards from the past. I'd bet it has something to do with $$$$.

I don't expect to change your mind or convince you to come over to "the dark side". You are entitled to your own opinion and this forum gratefully allows us to express them. In the ongoing war between collectors and investors, I'll side with the collectors.

[RGM81]

As a player collector of one of the most desirable players in the hobby today -- Carey Price -- I can say that there are definitely challenges, obstacles, and bitter realities to face in the post-lockout era of collecting. There is absolutely no way that I'll be able to acquire all of his cards; I've come to accept that. When over half of his more than 1200 cards are /25 or less, there's just no chance of me getting all of them, or even a significant portion of them. And that's fine. I collect what I can, I pick up stuff when possible, and I enjoy the cards I do have. If I were to focus too hard on the cards I don't have, I would lose my mind. Instead, I simply look to the left of my desk at that display case and smile.

Do some product releases drive me nuts? Yes. Panini's first product release will, by my count, have 50 new cards featuring the young goalie. There is just no way that it's feasible for me to pursue all of those. So I'll pick the ones I like and see if I can nail them down. Are other releases simply viewed as a fun challenge? You betcha! It's nice to put together a full set "rainbow" and as they say, the chase is better than the catch. It gives me something to do in between product releases and over the course of a season.

Player collecting these days can be seen as either a bountiful treasure trove or the ultimate game of 52 pickup. It all comes down to perspective, one's ability to be selective, and to have Jedi-like discipline to let go of all that you are afraid to lose.

As Hal Johnson says, keep fit and have fun!

[30ranfordfan]

I collect a player (you can tell by my username) that's never been overly popular, especially with the card manufacturers. It's a good thing & bad thing. Ranford retired after the 1999-2000 season - and I'll admit, many of my favorite cards were released long after that day.

Sets like Artifacts drive me nuts (4 of the 9 cards I'm stil looking for are from 06/07 Artifacts) but I'll also say... the last couple of years of almost no Ranford cards, I'd rather they had made more. (2009-10 season saw 4 new ones: He was pictured on two of the 12x GU Booklets from UD Black, a Conn Smythe Winner from Superlative, and a 5-Star Memorabilia Card in Famous Fabrics).

But I can't imagine that collecting a supstar player like Yzerman, Lemuix, Roy, Gretzky, etc - was any easier 10 years ago. Guys like that were in every set, and I think there were much more parallels then than there are now.

I can sympathize - The OP is right, it's impossible (or nearly impossible) to collect all the cards of a superstar like Yzerman. I would have to agree with a few other posts on here. Why not just concentrate on the releases you like best, and ignore the rest?

[alpinemedic]

I too am an Yzerman collector with a very extensive collection. If you ever want to talk StevieY stuff or trade Stevie cards I'm sure we could probably help each others collections out. I have thousands of Yzermans for trade.

[iidaemmi]

Congrats to BAP and Upper Deck, you've ruined the hobby.

Perhaps I'm not that done like you, but you are 100% right. I wroted a blog article about one month ago and there was lot of same thoughts than you have now. Hope you find some way out man..

Harri

[Barahir]

Collecting Patrick Roy since 19 years, I completely agree with you !!!

[Uhtred.the.viking]

As a player collector of a high end player (Iginla) I can relate to your frustration. The first year that UD Black came out Iggy had 52 cards in that series, with 15 of them being 1/1's, and several #/3 or #/5. Needless to say, it was costly to pick up a lot of these cards, and there were many that I haven't seen to this day. I used to try and get every card issued during the year, but that collecting pattern came to an end a few years ago. Now I get more pleasure out of picking a couple of series to concentrate on. SPGU has always been one of my favorites, so I've tried putting together the Authentic Fabrics set. It helps me focus on a smaller group of cards, and still gives me a sense of accomplishment and pleasure from my collecting. I'm leaving sets like Artifacts out of my collecting, as getting identical cards with different serial nos. just doesn't appeal to me any more. That drops a large number of cards out of the mix. I haven't followed Stevie Y's cards recently, so I don't know if he has a "group" of cards like this to focus on. Hopefully you can find your comfort zone with his new releases and continue collecting. If not, then you still have some great cards to view and share with others. Good luck with whatever path you choose to follow.

[delacroixandora]

Of the 406 Lemieux cards:
267 are limited to 50 or less copies
234 are limited to 25 or less copies
167 are limited to 10 or less copies
047 are 1-of-1 cards

How can that not be depressing for a player collector!

those are just stupid numbers, but actually reminded me of something i thought of awhile back...

if there was some way to make it work, upperdeck for example - for sp/50 mario lemieux cards, there should only be 50 different cards - /25 - 25 different cards - etc...

i thought that would be a neat way to do it, and it would actually create a very interesting 'rainbow' type idea, out of mario's sp /10 cards, i should get all 10 - could you see how cool it would be to have a ten card case to display the 10 different /10 marios from that year

[Ray33]

Actually not everyone. I'd rather have all the Crosby young guns instead.

In response to Canucksfan007 - You generalize that "older" collectors refuse to change with the hobby. Yet your reply seems to indicate why many are upset with the hobby. Too many collectors are focused on money and value. How many "What is this worth..." posts do we see here? Everybody wants the "sick" patch or short printed auto because they know they can sell (or trade) it for alot.

What happened to the collector who celebrated pulling a Trent Yawney common because it was the last card he needed for the set?

You bemoan times when cards were cheaper and more plentiful. You prefer things they way they are now? Why is that? You never really said, in your posts, why you like todays cards and disklike cards from the past. I'd bet it has something to do with $$$$.

I don't expect to change your mind or convince you to come over to "the dark side". You are entitled to your own opinion and this forum gratefully allows us to express them. In the ongoing war between collectors and investors, I'll side with the collectors.

[xirxious]

I got back into the hobby as I used to collect memorabilia, but it was all so expensive, it was hard to do. I started buying GU/AUTO cards. I'm still amazed that with all the jerseys out there, they still use photoshoot ones. With patch forging and getting 0.24 cents on the dollar from UD boxes, I really don't do as much anymore. I started collecting Mueller as he played juniors here, and then he has a breakout RC season and it cost me a heck of a lot more to get all his stuff.