Why Do You Collect?

[HockeyCardMan]

So here I am asking you guys why you collect? I made a video giving my reasons as well as perhaps giving you guys ideas.
Please leave comments below on why you guys collect!

[royfan]

I think it feeds into my thrill of the hunt instinct, whether its getting pumped from pulling a super rare card from a pack or getting the last minute bid on an auction. It also relaxes me to sort cards and thumb through dealers boxes looking for PC. What I don't like is the ego involved from some collectors, or ppl that are trying to make max profit out of every deal, luckily there are some great ppl out there that are into the hobby with the right intentions.

[pur3strpker0]

The reason I collect is that because I personally think it gets me closer to the game. Collecting cards and doing trades is what makes this hobby fun! We all have our different likes and that is what makes each person unique. I also like the aspect of opening packs. I mainly collect hockey now but back in the day (well to be fair these card games are still relevant and doing well) I would also enjoy opening Pokémon, Yugioh and Magic the Gathering. It is the thrill of getting that big hit! I've made many friends regardless of what type of cardboard I was collecting

[philhelm]

An interesting question. The other day I read this and started to write a quick reply, and then stopped. What I was writing was the standard canned answers "because I love the sport/Ive been collecting since I was a child/etc/etc". After thinking about it some, it basically boils down to three things:

1. Investment: I view my collection as something that has monetary value that can either be sold later or handed down to my son/daughter.
2. Uniqueness: The thrill of owning some of the unique high-end cards and showing them off is a great feeling. I am striving to own the most complete and unique Hurricanes collection on the planet.
3. Competition: Its fun to win cards and have a collection that others envy.

Don't get me wrong, I do love hockey and the Hurricanes and I have been collecting sports cards since 1977, so those reasons are definitely still valid.

[87sluggo]

An interesting question. The other day I read this and started to write a quick reply, and then stopped. What I was writing was the standard canned answers "because I love the sport/Ive been collecting since I was a child/etc/etc". After thinking about it some, it basically boils down to three things:

1. Investment: I view my collection as something that has monetary value that can either be sold later or handed down to my son/daughter.
2. Uniqueness: The thrill of owning some of the unique high-end cards and showing them off is a great feeling. I am striving to own the most complete and unique Hurricanes collection on the planet.
3. Competition: Its fun to win cards and have a collection that others envy.

Don't get me wrong, I do love hockey and the Hurricanes and I have been collecting sports cards since 1977, so those reasons are definitely still valid.

Phil, I LOVE your signature banner :)

Anyways........I collect because............well.............

Seven years ago I got separated from 10 years of marital "bliss" and getting back into hockey cards filled the lonnnnnnelyyyyyy void (hahahahaaaa) living in my little one bedroom apartment. I bought everything I could, an entire lot that got delivered to me on a pallet by Greyhound Courier amongst other things. Life was GOOD.

Life is still good, but different now. I've been with Amy and her two kids for the last three years, priorities are different. The financial ramifications of my separation have caught up with me. The hockey cards have gone from hobby to obsession to irritation to partial solution in the space of a year heh. I have a man-cave crammed FULL, and most of my collection is in binders where I can't see it regularly.

So I'm in selling mode, which is where Phil's #1 comes in..............the cards were a wayyyyy better investment than say heroin or the Mustard of the Month club. My kids have zero interest in them so I don't feel guilty about selling :) Alot of it is going for pennies on the dollar, shocking I know, but some of it is going for dollars on the penny!

#2 Uniqueness..........I'm hoping when it's all over I have 1,000 cards left, from 1910 C56 and up, Montreal Canadiens, Ryan Kesler, Trevor Linden, Mario, Stevie Y & Burnaby Joe. I want the best 1,000 cards possible, and a collection that'll fit into ONE BOX if and when I have to move :D

#3 It IS fun to win the cards, to pull the amazing pulls, to show off the cool stuff and the weird stuff that fills me full of warm goo and makes you all go "that's nice" in an attempt to humor me PBBBBFT!


Plus there's the added bonus of being here........I wouldn't know SCF existed but for my hobby :)

[CoolHandLuke]

Benn collecting for 45 years and the reason change in those years. At first when I was a young kid, all kids were buying cards but not really collecting them. But my father was classifying them and storing them in a box. Then I stop around the end of the 70's but my sister that is handicap kept buying some every year. I got back into collection in 89 for about four years. I used to rent a table and do shows and then hot out of it. But my sister was still buying some. Because of her handicap she buy them and forget about them. In 2007 My father was taking care of my sister and my mother that has Alzheimer and he got a cancer and died in 2008. so mid 2007 I had to stop working to take care of them. I moved back in February 2008 in the family house as my father only had a few month left to live and needed to be there full time to take care of all three. While my sister is handicap mentally, she has been working for 30 years at the same company (jean Coutu) So she has money to spend and why she kept buying cards and still do. SO I really got back in early 2008. I saw the collection in my old bed room, took it out and figured it would be a good way to spend my time and got back big time in it. Also being a programmer, I figured I could build a inventory application and share it with fellow collector. That is how I got to know SCF and since became the programmer and coded the free inventory application. In all these years, I accumulated many cards, over 75,000 and been always collecting habs.

So for the reason today, I would say, past time, giving back to other since I can afford to program for free and have the time, because of the fun of it and I like to organize things. All my cards are in 3,000 or 5,000 count boxes and ordered by year, set name and card number. Since then I have added over 35,000 cards in my SCF Inventory and make it easy to show what I have and find them since they are well organized. I have a room dedicated to the collection. Value is not really a incentive to me as I do not see it as a investment. I do it because I have the time and like it. Since I can't go out much because I take care of my old mother full time I can use my money to buy cards. Actually my father granted me a salary before he died and still am paying myself this salary from my mother money that my father left. $200 a week but all expanse paid and because this is family I do not pay income tax. So this is why I have money to buy cards even if I do not have a standard job. But this was my father wish that I keep my mother home and she definitely has a better life then if she was in a elder home care. Also my sister still need to be cared for but money wise she is really doing well with half a million dollars in placement. My father never charge her anything and he placed all the money she was earning at her job. This is why she can afford to buy cards too. I manage the collection for both of us and the collection always was both our. Now I put a lot more money then she does but again it's not about a investment but to enjoy a hobby we both like.

So for me it resume to fun of opening boxes, chasing Habs cards. organizing things. Helping fellow collector with my programming skills with the SCF Inventory, storefront, Trough the Mail Manager and the trade manager I recoded last summer. Of course my implication in SCF both in trading or administering this site as a senior administrator and programmer is also now a big part of it. I needed to occupy myself as it's a good way to occupy yourself in between changing dipper, helping my mom and sister or taking care of the big house we live in. I also enjoy more and more flowers and keep adding some every years since I have a big terrain.