The End of a Player Collecting Era

[MatsSundin13Rocks]

One thing that cooled me on player collecting is the multiplication of parallels coming back year after year with virtually no change. How many Artifacts cards with various foil colors do we need?

This is why I just don't care if I get all of Kulemin's newest Artifacts cards. I only really want the nice ones.

I actually blame this site for putting such emphasis on complete player collection because of the establishment of the Super Collector badge several years ago. The requirements for it drive me crazy. Should be excluding cards /10 or less in the # of cards with those being bonuses.

[13stepper]

Who are the super collectors and where can I find this information?

[centrehice]

This is why I just don't care if I get all of Kulemin's newest Artifacts cards. I only really want the nice ones.

I actually blame this site for putting such emphasis on complete player collection because of the establishment of the Super Collector badge several years ago. The requirements for it drive me crazy. Should be excluding cards /10 or less in the # of cards with those being bonuses.

This site has nothing to do with making people think that they have to become Super Collectors. Not even 1% of the Hockey collecting population comes on here.

You are doing Set collectors that are sitting on millions of dollars of 50's Parkhurst and Topps a complete injustice.

[RGM81]

This is why I just don't care if I get all of Kulemin's newest Artifacts cards. I only really want the nice ones.

I actually blame this site for putting such emphasis on complete player collection because of the establishment of the Super Collector badge several years ago. The requirements for it drive me crazy. Should be excluding cards /10 or less in the # of cards with those being bonuses.

We're always open to suggestions on how to improve the program.

[KangoBass]

It was about a year ago I decided to move the Ryan collection into a "collect what I like" status (Only hard signed auto's, no non-duck multiplayer cards, no 1/1s, only patches etc), and now PC is fun again IMO. The reasons have been stated many times over by many SCF members, but the hobby won't change for those reasons.

[sedinfan]

Who are the super collectors and where can I find this information?

The Super Collectors are from the main forums page scroll down to the "SCF's Member Spotlight" section, and go into the "SCF Super Collector's Hall of Fame"... or more directly the Hockey Super Collector forum is here https://www.sportscardforum.com/forum...-Collector-HOF

[iidaemmi]

After the super collector department moved to a new location, it has received very few comments or visitors.

Harri

[13stepper]

I can agree somewhat with the comments regarding the difficulty and expense to be a player collector. I just started into player collecting around 3 months ago, combined with pack ripping (which at the time when I changed my hobby to player collecting, I vowed to stop ripping wax ) it is very expensive.

[sschind]

So you add 27 new cards to the wantlist. And?????? So it takes 2 years, 5 years, 10 years to get those cards off your wantlist. Who cares?

I think people get hung up with wantlists and the "need" to get everything right away. What's the rush? It's not a race.

Without player collecting what is there?

How much time do you have.

There are some great sets you can build. They might not be you stereotypical set (like the way things were in the 80's), but can be equally exciting to build.

How about the autos from this year's Forever Rivals? How about the autos from the multi-product Private Signings? Do a jersey set, do an insert set.

Or come up with your own idea for a set. I've got a project where I am trying to get one of every card numbered out of 1 to 100. HHOF autos. How about vintage. Defunct teams. There are literally thousands of directions you can take your collecting. It just might take some time (and creative thinking) to come up with something that can whet the appetite.

To just shrug your shoulders and say "I dunno" is doing nothing but putting the power of the hobby in the hands of someone else.

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.

[RGM81]

Great post, Steve, and don't worry I don't take any of it in a negative light. Collecting hadn't been as fun for me the past couple months and I went through all my options as to what could be done to make it fun again, from full-on quitting and selling it off and getting into other collecting avenues, to settling for only a few high-end items (quality trumping quantity), to just sloughing through and hoping that eventually it would become fun again. I am still adding new Price cards of course but they're targeted and ones that stand out to me in some way. No longer am I grabbing whatever latest GU card is out; there's got to be something different/unique about a particular memorabilia card or piece, be it a special jersey/patch piece or even something like a unique mask portrayed on the card (Price has worn about 15 masks in his career and some only for a couple games) that makes it a cool photo.

And the diversification in the Habs PC is benefiting tremendously. I've snagged some great Pacioretty and Leblanc cards. I'm hoping that I can get in touch with some people that have a couple of my Gorges needs. Changing focus has opened up new avenues and injected some new blood into the hobby for me. It's fun again. I just made a great trade this morning that's going to add a real beauty to the Price collection at the expense of 6 Price cards that 3 months ago I wouldn't have let go of simply because they were in the collection.