Player Collectors

[7timecy]

Everybody read about the Griffey collector with some crazy number. So lets see everybody's #'s for their collections. I have been collecting Judge just over a year all the rest are under a year. I'm to far away from worring about percent. I remember years back there were some guys that were way up there in the %. I think one person collected Jody Gerut and another was Travis Hafner. I would love to see were they are now with them.

Judge-1439 Different
Soto-1139 Different
Goldschmidt- 595 Different
Alonso-613 Different
Arenado-835 Different

 

[dubby25]

Here are mine:

Jason Varitek: 616 (23%) - Goal to get to 1000 by end of 2026
Mike Greenwell: 266 (51%)
David Ortiz: 657
Carl Yastrzemski: 191
Ted Williams: 169
Pedro Martinez: 254
Jim Rice: 95
Wade Boggs: 288
Larry Bird: 67

 

[Scobes]

Here's my two player collections:

Roger Clemens - 3,458
Mark McGwire - 3,014

Scobes

 

[Kirbyfan34]

Kirby Puckett--687 about 12 percent of his total.
Casually starting collections of local players Jarred Kelenic and Gavin Lux but only have about 20 of each.
Also decided to restart Biggio and Eddie Murray collections.

 

[rl16]

Ray Lankford 1,120 about 81%

My percentage would be higher if I did not count 1/1 cards and the 1998 Topps Tek Diffractors.

 

[chief wahoo]

Evan Longoria - 704 cards. I stopped collecting when he left Tampa Bay.

 

[katester44]

Kirby Puckett--687 about 12 percent of his total.
Casually starting collections of local players Jarred Kelenic and Gavin Lux but only have about 20 of each.
Also decided to restart Biggio and Eddie Murray collections.

I have lost count of my Puckett collection - probably sitting somewhere between 1250-1500 at this point. One of my goals for 2026 will be to get all the stray cards laying around entered into the data base so I can get an accurate count.

His card count has exploded in the past 4 or 5 years. Tough to keep up with all the releases and parallels.

 

[Kirbyfan34]

I have lost count of my Puckett collection - probably sitting somewhere between 1250-1500 at this point. One of my goals for 2026 will be to get all the stray cards laying around entered into the data base so I can get an accurate count.

His card count has exploded in the past 4 or 5 years. Tough to keep up with all the releases and parallels.

Right? A couple of years ago I was at about 25 percent and now....
it makes it tough though, living in Wisconsin because in the Milwaukee area they non WI teams dealers stock up on are the Bears Bulls and Cubs, which i get, but....

 

[Eliatack]

Everybody read about the Griffey collector with some crazy number. So lets see everybody's #'s for their collections. I have been collecting Judge just over a year all the rest are under a year. I'm to far away from worring about percent. I remember years back there were some guys that were way up there in the %. I think one person collected Jody Gerut and another was Travis Hafner. I would love to see were they are now with them.

Judge-1439 Different
Soto-1139 Different
Goldschmidt- 595 Different
Alonso-613 Different
Arenado-835 Different

My player collection is Harper and I have 69 total

 

[katester44]

My player collection is Harper and I have 69 total

Do you collect both Nats/Phillies unis? Or just Phillies?

 

[Eliatack]

Do you collect both Nats/Phillies unis? Or just Phillies?

Just Phillies and almost all of them are non base or serial no. I have one relic as well.

 

[CoralCityCards]

My player collection is Jose Altuve. I have 594 of his cards (3.6%) It's starting to get expensive

 

[SymphonicMetal]

Right? A couple of years ago I was at about 25 percent and now....
it makes it tough though, living in Wisconsin because in the Milwaukee area they non WI teams dealers stock up on are the Bears Bulls and Cubs, which i get, but....

I'm defiinately a contrarian as far as player collecting. If I'm doing that, it would only be for cards made during the player's career. An autograph of a player post playing career is fine but trying to keep up with a retired player's cards is undoable. The card companies take total advantage of player collectors producing an unattainable amount of retired player's cards.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about. In Roberto Clemente's entire playing career (including the season after his death) there were a grand total of 262 cards made of him. The most in any year was 1968 when 32 cards of him were produced.

Compare that to Roberto Clemente cards produced in 2024 (501 cards), 2023 (303) and up to 700+ in one year in the 2000s. It was going back to 2003 that there was a year where less cards of him were made (135) compared to his entire career (262). You'll be like a dog infinately chasing its' tail trying to keep up with this contrived production.

The two questions are 1) How can you keep up with this? (answer you cannot) and 2) why would you want to play along with this contrived/ manufactured scarcity game by the card companies (answer unknown)?

 

[Kirbyfan34]

I'm defiinately a contrarian as far as player collecting. If I'm doing that, it would only be for cards made during the player's career. An autograph of a player post playing career is fine but trying to keep up with a retired player's cards is undoable. The card companies take total advantage of player collectors producing an unattainable amount of retired player's cards.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about. In Roberto Clemente's entire playing career (including the season after his death) there were a grand total of 262 cards made of him. The most in any year was 1968 when 32 cards of him were produced.

Compare that to Roberto Clemente cards produced in 2024 (501 cards), 2023 (303) and up to 700+ in one year in the 2000s. It was going back to 2003 that there was a year where less cards of him were made (135) compared to his entire career (262). You'll be like a dog infinately chasing its' tail trying to keep up with this contrived production.

The two questions are 1) How can you keep up with this? (answer you cannot) and 2) why would you want to play along with this contrived/ manufactured scarcity game by the card companies (answer unknown)?

That is a completely fair assessment. I know fir Puckett there was a lag from 2007, the year after he passed until.about 2018 or so, that there was nothing made. I plan on just doing base and then if I come across others that are not ridiculously priced I will pick them up. The good news is I have about 50 percent of the cards issued during his career.

 

[SymphonicMetal]

That is a completely fair assessment. I know fir Puckett there was a lag from 2007, the year after he passed until.about 2018 or so, that there was nothing made. I plan on just doing base and then if I come across others that are not ridiculously priced I will pick them up. The good news is I have about 50 percent of the cards issued during his career.

I really liked some of those regional Puckett issues you've shown and DEFINATELY loved that 1984 Fleer Update you acquired recently.

 

[cardhunterpr]

Yadier Molina - 1049 Different
Aaron Judge - 359 Different
Shohei Ohtani - 247 Different

 

[Kirbyfan34]

I really liked some of those regional Puckett issues you've shown and DEFINATELY loved that 1984 Fleer Update you acquired recently.

Thank you. I did recently get a new regional one from @bdmartin. It was for an an awareness night in 1997 , after Puck had to retire due to glaucoma. Actually there was two different ones, one was an oversized card given out in late 96 and early 97 on warning signs of glaucoma, and I used to have a boatload of those as we went yo a lot of twins games in the late 90s. Terrible team =cheap tix... but the other I hadn't seen before but it was labeled Sight Night at Dome.

 

[gbfan]

Tony Gwynn- 1355

 

[ballards]

Chipper---1331

 

[bblair_2002]

No exact number for my Pujols collection but it's somewhere between 3,000-3,500 different ones.