What is your hobby "Evolution"?

[kariyakid]

Hello All, I was thinking about this today as I mowed the lawn...



so, the question is simple: How has the hobby evolved for you? I'll explain by saying my example:

Elementary School: anything and everything.
Grade 7-Grade 12: Paul Kariya base and inserts.
First Year out of school: Anything and Everything, I started to hoard Alexander Vasyunov Rookie Contenders (RIP)
middle of the year: attempted to buy cards to flip. (never worked as I got too attached)
end of first year out of school: Started the 2009-2010 The Cup Enshrinements, Singles, Duals and Triples.
Second year out: Started collecting Sergei Bobrovsky Cup Singles (I regret selling them)
and now, where I am now: 3 Triple Enshrinements left and slowly starting to pick up cut autos. I have a Tim Horton Currently and am in negations for a Bill Barilko.


What about you? how has your collection evolved over the years?

[87sluggo]

The lawnnnnnn, o how I hate it.............


Elementary School: 70's OPC, most of which got thrown again the school wall

High School / University: Did not collect

Moved outta the house: 90/91 everything, man did I get sucked in. Quit in 1993, toooo much stuff, started collecting comic books.......

1999: Our downstairs roommates had some cards, sucked me back in again. 1999/00 Ovation, pulled a Pavel Bure Auto/Puck card, sold it for $300. MVP, MVP SC, Century Legends, pulled a gold Larry Robinson auto, sold it for $225. THOSE WERE THE DAYS..........

2000: UD Vintage, pulled a gold Jagr & Lemieux jersey card #/50, sold it for $300.

2001: Had to quit again, new wife wants to buy a house :( Comic-book collection we were gonna use as most of the payment (boy did I have a nice collection) was stolen from the storage locker. Good thing I have a mental condition where I don't care about anything or I might have done something stupid.

2008: Marriage over!! Time to find something to pass the time.........hockey cards!!!! Now I collect a little bit of everything, and I'm pretty content.


:)

[miscs75]

Elementary school-12th grade: Anything with a focus on base cards for IP autos
Junior year of college: Theo Peckham PC
post-college to current: Derek King, David Ullstrom, Casey Cizikas and other projects I currently work on

[svbetts]

Junior and High School: a bit of everything. Mostly low end.
University: Swore off the hobby/addiction.
Started working: Got back into random stuff, 90's inserts, loads of Yzerman low to mid end.
A couple years ago: Joined this forum, saw some people with 1000% times sexier Yzerman collection, so sold all but my favourites. Stuck then to a few favourite insert sets and started what I'll probably stick to forever - my rookie collection.
Last year/This year: Focused only on mid to high end (then ONLY high end/low numbered) RC's of my favourite players from the last decade or so. Slowly limited the scope of my collection more and more, to NOW, when I only collect old school RC's of stars (pre-1989), auto or jersey RC's, or RC's numbered /99 or less. Not even a single /100 (sold them all on the Bay recently).

I had to keep limiting myself more and more, so I didn't keep buying forever and ever. My goal now is to have a deadly collection of cards I love, so I can one day display them (once I get a man cave). It's a shame to have them all put away for no one to see. I also have a Don Cherry and Willie O'Ree auto PC. I'll keep them small as well.

[sedinfan]

Fun thread, I love the idea!

Kindergarten through grade 2 I collected the annual OPC sticker books - that was oodles of fun! I carted my first book from kindergarten around everywhere I went, the poor thing is held together with reams of scotch tape, the two subsequent years survived in a little better condition.

Grade 4 - Collected OPC (Patrick Roy rookie year, boy do I regret giving away all my dups of him). Believe I collected the miniature OPC cards that came out sometime shortly after, not sure exactly what year that was.

Grade 9 - ProSet innaugral season! Trudged through the snow to my local convenience store every few days to shell out more Christmas money to complete my set. Those were truly the "Hottest cards on ice!". Also put together a set of OPC Premier.
Grade 10 and 11 - Busted a couple boxes of Upper Deck, never really did complete those sets. Also became the original Pavel Bure supercollector - kept the collection going right through to my second year of university then lost it to a B&E (thank goodness for my parents good insurance policy!).

Right around university graduation - Sedin twins get drafted by the Canucks, I hear about this new site called ebay and see if I can find anything Sedin-related there. Rekindles my collecting itch, and almost a decade and a half later I'm still going strong with about 99% of their (non 1/1) cards.

[xpucksx]

Hmm...

elementary (70's, 80's) would buy packs of football, baseball or hockey depending on the season at the corner drugstore on the way home from school. For FB & BB it was Topps. I tried to get O PeeChee hockey when I could, but that was mostly Topps as well. Started building sets.

high school (80's): pretty much the same, but since I had jobs, I could buy boxes sometimes. Usually would buy a box when a set was released, and then supplemented with packs

college (90's on): got out of it in around 93 due to not living at home, focusing money elsewhere, and having to keep my instruments up since I was playing in bands; also, started to get overwhelmed with the amount of choices to collect. Collecting became "Competetive" and I didn't want that. Also, most of the LCS's closed down so cards were not as easy to come buy

current (20 years later): rediscovering the activity, and it is very cool, but also even more overwhelming. Continued in my niche of set building and Team set building; avoiding the auto/relic scene just to find good solid looking base sets. Will possibly scout autos and relics of my fav players, nut that is not my focus; working on catalogging my old collection; will be scouting yard sales/garage sales etc this summer for unwanted cardboard as well...love the chase and discovery.

[comfortably9numb]

hmm thats an interesting idea...

4th to 7th grade, low end boxes (old pacific stuff)
8th grad until 15th (junior year of undergrad) i stopped collection
junior and senior year i got back into hockey with mid level boxes and cards
grad school started my LPGA collection which is where I stand right now

[Drewk86a]

80's: Mainly baseball and football. Wanted to complete sets. Would trade RCs (didn't know their value) for base cards needed for set. Bought some hockey, but not much.

90's: The hockey frenzy. Started in 90-91. Had to get everything. Wanted to complete every set.

2001 - 2006: The last LCS closed in early 2001. Bought sporadically (UD, MVP, Victory) but really decreased buying. Too many sets to complete. Too many SPs made completeing sets difficult.

2006: Back into hockey. Focusing on PC players. Ebay made it easy to pick up PC cards without spending too much $$$.

2007 - present: Still focusing on PC. Have about six players currently on the table. Buy cards online and random packs from the only local sources (Kmart and Target).

[TheBoxBreaker]

I agree that this is a fun thread and indeed a great idea. I'm only 17 years old but have collected hockey cards almost since I got into hockey during the lockout in 2004-05.

2005-06: Mostly just cards that caught my attention. I remember that my local hockey team had some cardboard boxes with some mixed cards (mostly NHL base cards but also lots of Danish cards) and that's how I first encountered hockey cards. After a while I started getting into goalies (I also started playing as a goaltender around 2006).

2006-07: Olaf Kolzig cards. In the early months of 2007 I also thought about extending my collection to not only contain cards of Kolzig, my favourite goalie, but all NHL goalies. However, I decided it would be too big of a project (too many goalie cards out there, haha) and I decided to focus on the cards I loved the most: Masks.

Since 2007: Still possessing most of my Kolzig collection that I had back then (and a few Boedker cards as he's my favourite hockey player), I collect Masks exclusively now. It's the only collection that I have that I frequently add cards to, and since I began collecting Masks in 2007 I have not once thought of trading/selling my collection. I don't have any intentions of breaking up the collection or starting another one; when you find out what floats your boat in the hobby, you stop looking for more players/teams/sets to collect.

I've been creating homemade custom cards since 2006-07 (by hand) and started doing some graphic designing in 2011-12, something that I continually enjoy doing. What I can say about all this is that the hobby of hockey trading cards has given me some experiences that I won't forget.

Thanks to all good-hearted collectors out there who help make our hobby the best one of all regarding the greatest sport in the world.

-Ethan

[gfel2795]

Born in 1979

Early 80s: Anything and everything that I could get my hands all over. Parents bought me packs of all four sports dating back to 1981. Mostly baseball and hockey cards, mostly 1986-87 Topps hockey not in great condition.

Late 80s: Buying for myself now. Mostly baseball and hockey cards. Really started collecting and preserving in 1989. Best card: 1985-86 Lemieux RC I got in a pack, VG condition.

Early 90s: Packs, looking for inserts and rookie cards. Kept albums and had a box for my better cards. Best card: Still the Lemieux.

Mid 90s: Collection progressing, still from packs, buying more singles, dollar bin finds. I also took a liking to vintage cards. Best cards: 1995-96 Finest Gretzky Refractor from a pack. 1979-80 Topps Gretzky RC (may be counterfeit)

Stopped collecting around 1997 when I left for college.



Started collecting in 2005 around the time my grandmother got diagnosed with brain cancer. Put together an extensive RC collection. Filled in the gaps of RCs from the missing years. Completed 1986-87 Topps set.

2005-2008: Continuing the RC project and some sets. Finished the 2005-06 Upper Deck set and 1990-91 OPC Premier to go w/1986-87 Topps, casually working on 1992-93 Bowman and 1997-98 Black Diamond.

2008 to now: Up one night late perusing eBay and ordered a cool HHoF Binder. Started a HHoF collection of an RC, Auto and last-year card of every HHoFer that I remember watching starting with Larry Robinson/Marcel Dionne until now. Continuing my RC collection which is now up to 3 boxes. Also hoarding RCs and potential HHoF autos. Best cards: Crosby YG (thanks to a trade with Matt McCallum), Gretzky Auto, Titanium RNH RC (quick flip gone wrong, kept for my Future HHoF collection)


It is fun watching my son get into it. He was born the morning before Game 7 of the Bruins-Canucks Stanley Cup final and this was the first game he "watched" (asleep by the puck-drop). He loves his Bruins jersey and when we buy packs I give him all my "B's". All of my Bruins are now NFT and I bought us a tin of 2007-08 OPC so he could keep the tin that features Bobby Orr. I'm not a big Bruins fan but I'm thinking of starting him up an album and letting him go from there. I have never been a team collector so it's fun for me to see how this will play itself out.