What are your pet peeves in the hobby

[Leafsman]

Hi folks,

I posted a thread regarding whether scotch tape ruins the card inside. Someone mentioned a pet peeve.

Well, this thread is all about pet peeves. What are your biggest pet peeves in the hobby?

Here are mine:

1. Most collectors only accept PayPal if selling a card.

That's tough for me because I live on a fixed income due to cerebral palsy. Despite owning a college diploma, I cannot find employment because employers tell me that their insurance costs would skyrocket if I was hired. Government sends me money via direct deposit and monitors my account yearly. They have warned me that any unauthorized activity in my account would disqualify me from the only income I have (that means I can't have PayPal and I can't send electronic money transfers). It's not worth the risk. A side note to this is that this is also why I don't use ebay values - I have an ebay account but I cannot buy/sell on ebay without a PayPal account. Since I can't use ebay without someone buying on my behalf, I don't use ebay values when trading.

Yes, it's a little personal but I felt the need to put my situation out there in the hopes that it would avoid the "why don't you have PayPal" question and why I can't "get with the times". Over the years, I've gotten worse messages, like "don't post on my threads if you don't have PayPal because I will not respond. If you continue to post, you will be blocked" and "if you don't have PayPal, get the f--- out of the hobby".

2. If you don't have recent cards, you are irrelevant.

I blame card manufacturers for this. It's all about hits, hits, hits now. Everyone has to have the hottest rookies (and selling at ridiculous prices) or the rarest patch or autographed cards. I myself am a collector of rookie cards, focusing mainly on SP Authentic from 1997 to now, and OPC rookies from the 1980's and prior. Like everyone, I want to get a rookie card of the top players, but I also collect RCs of players who have won a major individual NHL award or a Stanley Cup. If they have a ring, I want their rookie card. Sure, I want a Wayne Gretzky rookie card, but I also want a Ken Linseman rookie card. Know what I mean?

3. My "local" hobby store is 3 hours away from me.

Pet peeves 2 and 3 are related. I live in a rural area and because of my financial situation, I cannot afford to travel that far just to buy cards. Since I don't have a PayPal account or credit card, I can't buy online. For these reasons, my traders are limited.

4. Trading seems to be dead these days.

Having limited traders does not help, but it is sad that nobody seems to want anything in my traders. I thought I had at least a handful of decent traders but I guess not.

5. People who put multiple cards in one toploader.

This happens a fair bit, but not as much as years ago. Cerebral palsy affects my right side which limits the motor skills in my right hand. This is the reason I hate handling my cards. I tend to drop them and cause damage. Unfortunately, American collectors have little choice but to put cards in one toploader. Their shipping costs are unbelievably unfair.

6. People do not read posts on here.

I have a baseball wantlist and a hockey wantlist. Both lists have specific stipulations - If the card is ungraded I accept nothing less than Nearmint-Mint condition, and scans must be provided. All too often I get offers like "I don't have a John Smith Upper Deck RC but I do have a John Smith O-Pee-Chee RC". No, that's not the card I want! Then there's people that say "I have a card you need but I cannot provide a scan" or they provide a scan after the fact, only to discover the card is not at least Nearmint-Mint condition. Good grief, READ PEOPLE!!

Pet peeves 1 to 3 have almost driven me to retire from the hobby on a number of occasions.

What are yours?

[Craig2]

I think you've covered some good ones, I'll add a couple more:

1) People who post "fire sales" or "quick sales" on the boards, with prices that are significantly higher than Ebay. I don't think Ebay is always the final authority on pricing, but why in the world would I pay more for someone's fire sale prices than I would for the same card on Ebay? I've seen several sellers post quick sales recently that end up sitting around forever because of their pricing.

2) Sellers who are dishonest about card condition. I'm not condition-obsessed, but twice in the past six months on Ebay I've bought cards listed as NM/MT, only to find serious flaws. I was able to return them in both cases, but it's a hassle and I really wanted the cards in both cases.

[Rraincock]

Interesting topic!

1) Card show booths that have disorganized stock

2) Card sellers who don't know what they have or where it is

3) The "my stuff is gold and your stuff is crap" mentality

4) The lack of love for 70's and 80's cards that aren't RC

5) Elitists (who only collect Crosby Cup RC)

6) People who are only interested in offering 50% of eBay values.

7) The lack of Red Deer Rebels cards out there. I have seriously considered taking an add out in Beckett magazine

8) Beckett Magazine.

9) Going through a stack of cards where every other card is backward or upside down.

10) that sound old cards make when they come out of the pack and they are slightly stuck together

11) To most people, "large collection" means 1000 cards

12) How memorabilia cards are mostly worthless now

13) the lack of die-cut cards

14) the lack of holograms (or stereograms)

15) Card brands should come out between the first puck drop and the lifting of the Stanley cup. Enough of this October issue of The Cup

16) Players not staying with teams for more than 4 years

17) Chinesium / Fake Jerseys (Here's looking at you Pristine Auctions!)

18) Pristine Auctions (real autographs on fake jerseys

19) Big boxes with a small number of cards in them

20) people that unsort sorted boxes of cards

[Leafsman]

Interesting topic!

1) Card show booths that have disorganized stock

2) Card sellers who don't know what they have or where it is

3) The "my stuff is gold and your stuff is crap" mentality

4) The lack of love for 70's and 80's cards that aren't RC

5) Elitists (who only collect Crosby Cup RC)

6) People who are only interested in offering 50% of eBay values.

7) The lack of Red Deer Rebels cards out there. I have seriously considered taking an add out in Beckett magazine

8) Beckett Magazine.

9) Going through a stack of cards where every other card is backward or upside down.

10) that sound old cards make when they come out of the pack and they are slightly stuck together

11) To most people, "large collection" means 1000 cards

12) How memorabilia cards are mostly worthless now

13) the lack of die-cut cards

14) the lack of holograms (or stereograms)

15) Card brands should come out between the first puck drop and the lifting of the Stanley cup. Enough of this October issue of The Cup

16) Players not staying with teams for more than 4 years

17) Chinesium / Fake Jerseys (Here's looking at you Pristine Auctions!)

18) Pristine Auctions (real autographs on fake jerseys

19) Big boxes with a small number of cards in them

20) people that unsort sorted boxes of cards

I can identify with some of those but not all. I have a question/comment on each point

1. I've never been to a card show and I don't think I would go if my life depended on it. Just not an environment I would feel comfortable in. I don't have much money so that would be out.

2. I had a situation but not quite the same. I bought a Devante Smith-Pelly FWA on ebay, the seller got the money, but they said they could not sell it to me. No explanation why, never got a refund.

3. I agree with this one 100%. I HATE the "my stuff is gold and your stuff is crap" mentality

4. I'm an RC collector but like 70s and 80s cards that aren't RCs, but I want the entire set if I can get them

5. I hate elitist attitudes

6. I don't use ebay values (reason is given in the original post) so it doesn't bother me. Heck, I have to get cards as cheap as I can in my financial situation

7. Not a junior collector but I admire your passion for your team and feel your pain. We had the Leafs farm team and a junior team here. In my case, both teams left so there was no more to collect

8. I feel your pain with Beckett magazine but only because it does not list all sets. I can't use ebay values so I have to use BV.

9. I make sure cards are facing the same way in every box

10. Why does that sound bother you? LOL

11. What's wrong with calling 1000 cards "a large collection"? That's a lot of cards. Many people don't have that many. I wouldn't want to have a 10,000+ card collection.

12. I'm against memorabilia cards, especially HOF members. Those jerseys deserve to be on display, not sliced up and put into cards for profit.

13. Not a fan of parallels of any kind.

14. Same as 13.

15. I agree 100%. Release cards in-season To expand on that, less sets should be produced to reduce the number of signed card redemptions.

16. Player movement is the reason I'm not a team collector. The player moves, then all the cards of him on that team are pointless. You've wasted time, energy, and money, for what? Not worth it

17. Not interested in jerseys

18. No interest in pristine auctions

19. I agree, even though I don't buy boxes. I bought one in my life. Never again

20. I've never experienced that

[MR.M's Cards]

@Leafsman curious to where you are located ?

[Leafsman]

@Leafsman curious to where you are located ?

May I ask why is this information needed? If there is an issue, please send me a PM.

[Therealmahoney]

My peeves.

1) My LCS. His prices are absolutely ridiculous. I’m not even exaggerating, but his prices are almost double what you would pay for anywhere else. $200 for 17-18 series 2 hobby box as an example. This is why I go online or wait until we drive 1.5 hours away to the next closest shop.

2) Using EBay as a price point. That’s a poor way to do it since it doesn’t have all the info. Example, a Tarasenko fan is looking for his young gun and would have no problem paying $100 or more for it, but he doesn’t go on eBay for a week. In that time, 5 sell between the prices of $35 and $70. He goes on the next week and buys one at a buy it now price of $105. There are too many variables and inconsistencies with following ebay prices. Trading would be a lot better if everyone went by BV. If you want my card, great, but don’t try to low ball me because it sold for half the price last week on eBay. GTFO. Go buy it on eBay then.

3) Not updating my lists properly and buying/trading for multiples of the same card.

those are mine.

[MR.M's Cards]

@Leafsman no issue what so ever.....if you would like to discuss further you can pm me....I was hoping you were closer to my location so we could meet up for a trade or go to a card show together

[Leafsman]

@Leafsman no issue what so ever.....if you would like to discuss further you can pm me....I was hoping you were closer to my location so we could meet up for a trade or go to a card show together

I live in Trinity, Newfoundland. To my knowledge, there have been no big card shows in Newfoundland for a while. If there were/are, I don't have the money to travel there.

[Leafsman]

My peeves.

1) My LCS. His prices are absolutely ridiculous. I’m not even exaggerating, but his prices are almost double what you would pay for anywhere else. $200 for 17-18 series 2 hobby box as an example. This is why I go online or wait until we drive 1.5 hours away to the next closest shop.

2) Using EBay as a price point. That’s a poor way to do it since it doesn’t have all the info. Example, a Tarasenko fan is looking for his young gun and would have no problem paying $100 or more for it, but he doesn’t go on eBay for a week. In that time, 5 sell between the prices of $35 and $70. He goes on the next week and buys one at a buy it now price of $105. There are too many variables and inconsistencies with following ebay prices. Trading would be a lot better if everyone went by BV. If you want my card, great, but don’t try to low ball me because it sold for half the price last week on eBay. GTFO. Go buy it on eBay then.

3) Not updating my lists properly and buying/trading for multiples of the same card.

those are mine.

I agree with you 100% about ebay. Not a fan of ebay prices whatsoever