High End Products are RUINING this hobby for me.... REALLY LONG read inside.

[GangGreen52]

So yea... Today I've determined that the hobby in some ways isn't fair at all. Over the past year or so I've gone from a pure pack addict (Only thing I'd buy was packs, packs.. oh yea. Did I mention PACKS!) to just a player collector. I have around 15 or so player collections. Some are hardcore (wanting anything and everything in sight) while some are just small-medium collections (not spending alot, just getting a few nice things). With some of the people I collect it can be hard at times to buy with my budget. I only make about $30-$45 per month. I revolve around 3 "hardcore" player collections. These are my Big 3, and I want EVERYTHING there is.

Saul Rivera- Relief pitcher for the Washington Nationals, and my favorite pitcher. Not at all in demand, and his prices are low. Best Story- Winning my Sweet Spot Leather Auto /20 for $4.99. Worst Story- Fellow boardmember and friend was getting the Platinum 1/1 for me as a Xmas present and was sniped. Lost by .50. It sold for $30.50. The winner NEVER paid, and there was no second chance offer. So about a month ago it was listed again. I didn't have the funds and worked out with another boardmeber and friend a deal. He would buy it and we would do a card/paypal deal. He bid $40 on it, we were sure we had it in the bag. But evidently there's a Platinum 1/1 collector out there who bids on all of them.... And it ended at almost $90. So I'm likely never seeing that again.

Mike Green- Defensemen for the Washington Capitals, and my favorite hockey player in general. Let's date back to December. He was starting to heat up, and I decided to collect him. He only had 40 or so cards and alot of them were very attainable. I picked up 10 or so for probably 20 dlvd intotal.(Combined shipping on a couple) I was on the fast track, then he REALLY got going. His cards were taking off like crazy. I was looking foward to his SP Game Used releases, but was totally shocked when the first dual patch with Milan Jurcina sold for..... $67. I couldn't believe it. His stuff went down, then when he scored 3 goals in the first couple games of the playoffs his stuff went up again. His stuff is roller coaster. I have around 30% of his cards now. Best Story- Getting his Heroes and Prospects auto in a trade when the BV was a mere $10. 3 weeks later, one sold for $110. Just FYI I didn't make a typo there. Worst Story- Probably not having any funds available when the craze hit and there 1/1's, triple/quad jerseys (OPC, and SPGU), H&P jerseys/patches hit the bay like CRAZY.

and Finally
Jennie Finch- Hey.. Who doesn't like Jennie? She's brought so much attention to the sport of softball. I'll admit, years ago I could've cared less about the sport. Today.. I'm a HUGE softball fan. I look foward to the CWS ever year. Heck there's even a team down in Virgina.. The Glory. They have a few big names. Taryne Mowatt, Callista Balko, and Bianca Cruz (just got released). If it weren't for Jennie... I wouldn't have the appriaciation for softball that I do today. I started going after her stuff when she was in 2006 Allen & Ginter. That was my chase card. I bought 1 box just hoping for anything of hers. If I got a base card I would've been REALLY happy.... But not 1 single base card came out of that $150 box. I wish I would've pounced on the $80 BIN for her auto when it was first released.... Now there selling in the $200's beause 06 Allen & Ginter is so scarce now. I was hoping she's be in more products, and when the EEE Checklist rolled out in late November I was off the walls when her name appeared on the cheklist. Xmas rolled around, eBay gift cards appeared under the tree. I even won $77 on a lottery ticket. I went absolutely crazy, ignoring advice to hold off a few months unntil prices went down. I paid $67 I believe for her EEE auto /119. And not more than $5 each for the base, base parallels. Then February rolled around and the base autos weren't fetching $25 and I picked up a Blue Aspirations auto for $30, and a Colllegite patches for $35. Then Donruss Americana came out. She was in that. I'll hold off on the rest, because that's what made this thread come to life. Best Story- Getting the Allen & Ginter Base returned TTM. Even though that's a TTM, it's still my favorite as it was my first card of hers. Worst Story- Just in general having her stuff sell so high.



So this is what happened today. I saw someone on beckett busted some 08 Goudey. Then they busted some 08 Sport Kings. (Guy gets early releases all the time.) I decided to check out the Sport Kings checklist to see if there was anyone who peaked my interest. Just looked at the base cards. No biggies on there. Then looked at the autos..... Jennie Finch??? What a sec. She's not listed on the base checklist. Scrolled down a bit more.. She's even listed under Autographed Memorabilia. So this will be her first relic card as well.

But see here's the thing.... Like I previously said I don't make alot of moolah, and I know Sport Kings is a high end product. I know some of Series A's base cards were selling in the 30's-40's. There's no base card, 1 auto /80, 1 auto /10, 1 auto/gu /40, and 1 auto/gu /10. These things will sell crazt high and it's going to be painfull to watch them all go without a chance to buy it. This happened with Mike Green too. There was a press plate, triple jersey, quad jersey, hot prospects red hot (52/100 his jersey number), ultimate collection gold, heroes and prospects jumbo jerseys, patches. You name it, it was available on eBay in February. I couldn't pull the trigger on a single one. And like above with Saul Rivera... I thought for sure $40 had it in the bag... And someone bid $90 freakin dollars on it. It's Saul Rivera. SAUL RIVERA. Who?? Exactly my point. It's not auto'd or anything. Just a 1/1 base parallel. I've also never seen a press plate of his either.

These days more and more products are becoming high end, and for us Under 18 collectors, palyer collectors, or just collectors that have tight budgets... It's getting kind of unfair in my opinion. I can understand why Jennie Finch sells high. I can understand high end products. But now so many products are going high end and the lower budget people can't afford them. Look at SPx for a change. 2006 SPx was awesome. Had a decent rookie lineup, and the Winning Big Patches were just simply amzaing. That was the typical 18 packs/box with 3-4 autos or gu. Probably didn't run over $100. Now SPx has 10 packs, 5 autos, and 6 gu per box. Most won't sell for over $10. These high end products are just ruining the hobby. I never had a side on this, but now I do and I've had my say.

[spuds1961]

I hear you saul,I'm older have a decent paying job but i still can't pull the trigger on buying high end,and unless i get really lucky on ebay alot of my giants collection goes unfinished.But rest easy just look at the checklists of some of the midrange priced boxes and sometimes you can get lucky,funny you should mention jennie finch as I pulled her autograph out of a retail box of 2004 playoff abs mem that my wife bought me.Most of my high book value cards have come from cheaper boxes so keep your chin up and pray for good luck take care Steve

[GangGreen52]

I hear you saul,I'm older have a decent paying job but i still can't pull the trigger on buying high end,and unless i get really lucky on ebay alot of my giants collection goes unfinished.But rest easy just look at the checklists of some of the midrange priced boxes and sometimes you can get lucky,funny you should mention jennie finch as I pulled her autograph out of a retail box of 2004 playoff abs mem that my wife bought me.Most of my high book value cards have come from cheaper boxes so keep your chin up and pray for good luck take care Steve

Yea... Hope there's a mistake in listing or something. Any chance you still have that??

[spuds1961]

Of course I still have it,It's the blue ink version with the # 27 and the little religious fish thingy.I always check the price on it and it just always books at 150 high,maybe if she does something at this years olympics it will go up again.take care Steve

[CrawfordFan13]

Hey, I do feel your pain, because I know how bad it can be... as someone who doesn't have hundreds to spend on cards every week, I also go through the same things with Carl Crawford. There are some people who just have the funds to buy anything they want, and it's something you'll need to get used to.

If high-end products are what the people are looking for, don't buy them. I know right now, A&G are really high in baseball because they're brand new, so I don't watch much of them. When exquisite/ultimate come out, I usually get down because I can't afford what others are paying.

I don't think high-end is really ruining the hobby, you just need to know when and what to buy. I get a lot of nice comments from people saying my collection is nice, and I really don't put that much money into it, anywhere from $5-$30 a week, unless it's my B-Day or Christmas.

Some points of advice for you, 15 players may be way too much, although you don't spend much on them every little bit is something you could be saving towards a high-end Finch/Green/Rivera card.

Sorry this post may seem a bit hurried, playing poker at the same time.

[GangGreen52]

Of course I still have it,It's the blue ink version with the # 27 and the little religious fish thingy.I always check the price on it and it just always books at 150 high,maybe if she does something at this years olympics it will go up again.take care Steve

If you want to move it, let me know. I don't have much but maybe we could work something out.

Hey, I do feel your pain, because I know how bad it can be... as someone who doesn't have hundreds to spend on cards every week, I also go through the same things with Carl Crawford. There are some people who just have the funds to buy anything they want, and it's something you'll need to get used to.

If high-end products are what the people are looking for, don't buy them. I know right now, A&G are really high in baseball because they're brand new, so I don't watch much of them. When exquisite/ultimate come out, I usually get down because I can't afford what others are paying.

I don't think high-end is really ruining the hobby, you just need to know when and what to buy. I get a lot of nice comments from people saying my collection is nice, and I really don't put that much money into it, anywhere from $5-$30 a week, unless it's my B-Day or Christmas.

Some points of advice for you, 15 players may be way too much, although you don't spend much on them every little bit is something you could be saving towards a high-end Finch/Green/Rivera card.

Sorry this post may seem a bit hurried, playing poker at the same time.

Not a problem, lol. You have an awesome Crawford collection. Pretty much the same money wise with me. I get alot around Xmas or Bday but the rest of the year it's blah. I have a job coming up next week that the past 2 summers has paid me $160. Just 2 problems though. There not leaving the dog this year (so I might not get as much), and I've already spent $125 (in advance) on a softball jersey. So I still won't have much. I also have $30 saved up right now but that is also going towards the jersey incase I don't get the full $160. As for the 15 players, I'm not trying to be the master collector, just getting a small(er) collection.

[GangGreen52]

Oh boy here we go. They look AWESOME.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=350084247462&Category= 149906&_trksid=p3907.m29

http://cgi.ebay.com/2008-SPORTKINGS-...3286.m14.l1318

Man I'd kill for the top one. I'd KILL for it.

[Bondsaway]

Honestly when I started out 10 or so years ago. i collected nothing but pirates and Barry Bonds. No joke I traded Gretzky, Montana and more HOFer rookies to land that eye catching card of his. (Now I wish I kept the HOFers) but so what we move on. I buy tons on ebay and use as tradebait. Believe me its easier to trade than to buy with some people. Also I really gotta ask why do you torture yourself watching ebay? Once the price surpasses what you'd pay forget about it. People have credit cards and pay outrageous amounts for some cards knowing they can pay them off slowly instead of the full say $150 they just dropped. Focus on what you can control and enjoy the chase

[coltsfan23]

As someone stated, highend products have nothing to do w/ this. I think you just need to focus on a few specific player collections and focus your time/money/energy into those. If you don't have the funds, don't look at Ebay! I don't see why that's so hard to do, especially if it tortures you to the point that you made this long rant.

Also, why blow so much money on packs? If you truly would "kill" for those cards, save the money and go for those specifics cards, as opposed to the packs. I just don't get it..

[GangGreen52]

I think you misread that... I don't do packs anymore. I the past 6 months I've bought like 3 or 4 packs and mainly focused on the player collections.