General Forum

Thought I would pose an interesting question to see how others go about this.  When I was younger, I used to try to collect everything.  With all the sets that exist today, there just isn't enough time or money, so I pick one to three sets per sport and try to collect them year to year.  I sually stay loyal to a brand and set.  I assume most in the hobby are similar in that they go after certain sets/teams/sports/players etc., and every once in awhile, either make a change or addition to what they are going after.

I've always said I didn't like the concept of the Heritage sets and that I thought it was sacrilege to resurrect classics in a modern form, but they keep growing on me and I think I may go for it and start on the 2017 set this year.  This got me to thinking, what do I look for in a set to collect?  I've never really sat down and said, "this is what I am looking for", but I think my criteria are that I go after sets, and I go for those with a good look, one that's getting buzz, one that is affordable to collect and whether their is a chance to pull something special.  I try to go for two or three sets in baseball, basketball, football, hockey and once in awhile, soccer.

So here is my question.  What criteria would make you add to or change what you collect?  Hopefully every one else would find this an interesting and I can't wait to see any thoughts every one else has to share.

I've never really cared for Heritage or similar type of sets. I bought a hangar box of 2017 Heritage at the store the other day and love these. I try to restrict my eBay purchases to cards in the 1967 to 1971 range so that style fits into my wheelhouse.  I was born in 1962 and starting buying packs in 1972.  

When I started collecting in the early 90s I just asked the shop owner to give me some tips. From there I chose OPC and Score, I was not a fan of UD when I started as I did not like 700 card sets LOL. I chose OPC because of the Canadian heritage of it and Score as I always liked the look for some reason. From there I naturally added Oilers cards (favorite team) and then honed it even more to Bill (favorite player). I quit collecting in the mid 90s as my HCS shut its doors and then when I started again three years ago it was only right to continue with the trend. OPC is my style now as Score no longer exists. But of course OPC now means UD and its more to the fact that it is always what I collected. If I were to ever strike it rich I would start going backwards from 91-92 and 08-09 back to 95-96 (the time span when I quit). Ranford is getting hard to collect as most of his cards are outside my price point as are most anything right now with a .74 cent dollar everything has increased 25% in price and that ij just the exchange rate. Not sure how a hobby of OPC can go from $49.95 to $89.95 and they not feel like they are gouging us. =/ I'd use another word but this IS a family site. =)

From 1970 to 2014, I collected Topps baseball cards. Why? Baseball, because that's the sport I fell in love with as a kid, the sport I followed most. I dabbled in basketball and football cards, but didn't sustain it. I'd feel lost, I think, if I tried other sports, so I've stuck with baseball. Topps because, for much of the time, that was all there was. Eventually I came to learn that there were other companies, but I had no desire to have three or four or more cards of the same player in the same year. Part of it was getting access to their stats -- once I had that, I had that. Didn't need more. Part of it was realizing I'd never get all the sets of everything. So I've stuck with Topps. And just the base sets. I had no desire to expand into the hundreds of offshoot Topps sets that come out every year. I just wouldn't know where to begin or stop. 

But a few years ago, as I gained more income and the Topps cards I was hunting became more expensive -- trying to finish 1970 and 1971 -- it occurred to me that there were lots of cards made before 1951, and that Topps didn't exist, so any thoughts of brand loyalty were irrelevant. So I bought a tobacco card. And that opened up a whole new world. I wanted a card from each decade. I wanted black and white cards and T205s and T206s and Goudey and Bowman and Fleer and even Exhibits. Progress is slow, but I love collecting the pre-Topps stuff. 

But it did make progress even slower than trying to get the 1971 high numbers. One or two cards a month wasn't cutting it for me. So I explored the "sidesets." I debated between Gypsy Queen and Allan & Ginter, settled on Gypsy Queen. I'm generally opposed to throwback sets, but I let myself get over it. The original GQs are too old, expensive, and rare for me to even glimpse at. The new ones are very different from the base set and contain different information on the backs. They sprinkle in HOFers. In short, they're fun. 

So, I haven't really answered the original question very well. In short, I evolved, decided expansion would give me more fun in the hobby, and started to explore in a limited way that won't completely overwhelm me. I suspect I'll never turn to other brands for the new cards, but I might go for A&G or some other offshoot. And I'm sure to keep expanding my pre-Topps era collection. 

v3

I returned to collecting this past October 2016 after about a 20+ year hiatus coindidently just before joining this community of collectors. And that after another 20-year period. I began collecting 1966 Philadelphia football and Topps baseball. I continued collecting through 1970 concentrating primarily on football, even though baseball is my favorite sport (go figure). I started collecting again in 1989, and then I jumped into all three majors (MLB, NFL, and NBA). I stopped sometime between 1994-95.

What I choose to collect are those teams and players with whom I have an emotional and nostalgic tie to. For example just since restarting to collect I've traded for or purchased some Drew Pearson, Cesar Cedeno, and Pistol Pete Maravich cards. Each one of those players made an impact on me as a pre-teen up through my young adulthood.

Now I'm concentrating on three collecting goals - 1) 1960-1979 Cowboys and Astros/Colt 45s; 2) Certain players from my Cowboys, Astros, and Rockets through the present; and 3) Assorted star players on other teams that I've admired for their high quality character on and off the court/field.

I love trading for those needs, and it's been a blessing to be able to get the cards I've gotten in trade for mine of which 80% are from the junk period.

Baseball cards are primarily what I collect, and I too was on a 20 year hiatus collecting cards.  Since my return in 2013, it's as if I had lived in a time capsule for the last 20 years.  When I was collecting back in the day, there were several different variations, sp cards, inserts, and subsets, but it was fairly managable for the most part.  These days, I find it quite obnoxious, and have pretty much stuck with base set cards....however boring that may seem.  I literally have cards in a binder from 20-30 years ago, that have remained in that binder just as I had left them.  I remember a few years ago looking through that binder, and thinking wow....after all that collecting (including many shady deals made at recess during school when I was a kid), I didn't really have a collection that was significant at all.  Much of the cards were not in great condition, and I really didn't have any value there at all with those particular cards other than nostalgia.  During that process of digging out my old cards, the best cards I had were in cases, but I didn't have very many.  I had an '85 USA McGwire, Brett rookie, Ripken rookie, Dawson rookie, Mattingly rookie, and a Henderson rookie, just to name a few of them, but those were the best ones I found.  So, I caught the collecting bug once again back in 2013, and gradually purchased most of the cards that I always wanted growing up.  Not only collecting them, but collecting them in as close to mint condition that I could find, at a reasonable price.  But these days, regarding modern cards, I pretty much stick with the base sets.

My ultimate goal is to collect everything. Realisticly, I know that can't happen- there's just too much and my funds are too limited, even before they started serial numbering stuff. What has proved to be realistic is to have every major set represented in my collection. For a brief time in 2016 I actually accomplished that for NASCAR- about 3 weeks in December, until National Treasures came out. With the NBA I was one set short for a while, the Eminence set that sold for $6000 a pack. I'll probably never have that one in my collection. More new sets have come out that I don't have yet for the NBA as well.

I am also working on getting everyone who has an NBA card in to my collection. I'm about 450 people away, which sounds like a lot until you consider I have more than 2600 already. I'm even closer with NASCAR- I think- about 35 people away.

I have not yet decided if I will persue the Sets and People collections for the NHL. I mean, I will, but I should say I'm not sure if it's possible. The NHL's been getting cards sine the 1920s so there is a LOT more to chase than for the NBA or NASCAR.

In reality, I collect by opportunity. I get what's cheap. Since I like it all, anything is good. I prefer quantity over "quality"- because to me any card I don't have is a quality card. I generally refuse to spend more than $20 on a card, although for rare Elton Brand cards I will go higher. But I can't afford to go too much higher- the most I've spent on a single card since I got back into the NBA in 2012 is $27, on an Elton printing plate.

On a related topic, I would like to hear how people chose the sports they collect, I actually began collecting the NBA and then started watching the games. My mom got me a pack of cards for Valentine's day when I was in the 5th grade, watched a game that night and the rest is history. For NASCAR I got a big box of Racing Champions cars for Christmas 1992 and have been hooked ever since, and collecting all the while. For the NHL it's kind of interesting, because thanks to the kindness of other card collectors I had almost 3000 hockey cards before I actually started watching. And it's directly because of a post on this very forum that I got hooked on the game. In fact, it's already moved past NASCAR for my #2 sport. I'm addicted...I have only missed one night since November of not watching some hockey and some NBA. 
 

So I guess in reality I had cards for all three sports before I began watching them, even if it was only earlier that same day. Am I unique in this or did most people take up their sport first and then get some cards?

My collection goal starts with Ohio State. All sports, including non sports, anyone that ever attended OSU, every card possible that I can get. The total collection according to the stats on this site would be just over 80000 different cards, and I have over 2000 so far. After that fizzles, my next goal will be other favorite pro teams:  Stl cardinals, bluejackets, chiefs, celtics, Crew SC. Probably limit my focus to base team sets and be happy when I get inserts and parallels, unlike my Buckeye collections that I want literally one of everything. I've never really been a set collector because there's just not as much interest to me in sifting through a bunch of common Orioles or Padres from the 90s that I never watched.