Decisions....

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Kekamba

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Ive hit a critical point in my collection. Ive thought about doing this that and everything in between. The bottom line though is I dont really have enough money to do a player collection to the level Id want. Nor do I have enough money to do a team collection that Id really enjoy. So Ive decided to take some time off and figure out the best route for me.

I guess the point of this thread is how did you arrive at the focus of your collection? And what keeps you focused on that aspect?

The thing Im thinking about doing is starting to chase topps sets from 1977-current year. Figure Id start with 77-86-10, 77 because the year I was born, 86 cos the year I first bought baseball cards, and 10 is complete already. But then Im torn if I should do traded and or update sets as well. Most of the earlier traded sets I could buy completed. But Im not sure if I want all or just the base sets.

I have to find something to better suit my budget because I enjoy the hobby and love trading online. However, my current budget just dont allow alot of extra money to buy any of the newer high end stuff. And I got a felling another year or two like this one and Joey Votto will have alot of high end stuff.
 
I think its actually tougher to choose a newer player. Even when Im broke there are generally alot of cheap Maddux cards out there, so I feel like I am making progress even when I am only pulling in $1-$10 BV cards of Maddux. With Votto you have a much smaller selection of cheap base and insert cards out there so you'll run out of cheaper stuff to chase pretty quick and only be left with higher end AUTO/GU etc. to chase down.

even guys like Jeter/Arod/and Pujols can be player collected cheaply for a long time until you come into the budget for the higher end cards. due to the fact that they have literally 8-10K cards to chase down

Just my thoughts

-Nick
 
Narrowing down my collection was very hard and still a work in progress.
In the 80's, I collected everything, the first to go was Hockey, then Football, and lastly Basketball.Since the mid 90's I have been strictly baseball, and only recently have narrowed down even farther to mainly Red Sox.
I've been a die hard Red Sox fan since '75 so that decision was easy.
The hard decision was to stop buying wax to put together my Topps sets. I still collect them, but only in factory set form now.

How do I keep my focus? I have some other small collections, 60's league leaders, all stars, & world series cards. When I get tired of the endless new releases and parallels, I go back to the old stand by's and work on those for a while.
I recently took several months off from trading and that has helped to recharge my drive to build the Sox collection more.

Just my 2 cents,

Scott
 
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I have picked either players I've met personally (Rico Petrocelli), players from my hometown, or favorite players that aren't exactly hall of famers. But I agree, right now I have too many players to collect with little money. I have often thought about getting rid of a couple players and focusing on just two or three players. I have also thought about my favorite auto or game used sets. Players collecting is very difficult now with so many low numbered cards and over saturation of sets. I am a person who needs to see progress and a goal at the end to stay interested so it becomes hard to stay the course.
 
Going the base Topps set route may turn out to be relatively easy. A lot of people here have a lot of Topps base to trade and will usualyy trade in your favor to help you complete your sets. And only going back to 1977 should be kind of easy. I personally have thousands of Topps base from the mid 80's to the present so if that is the route you are going just let me know and I will be more than happy to help you out.
 
I couldnt imagine collecting a semi or star player now. My hands are full with retired players.

2000-2008 were brutal years for player collectors. A couple times Murray had 500+ cards in a year.
 
I like completing sets and have been slowly working on Topps sets from now on back. They are relatively common cards yet I still enjoy completing a 600-700 card set. I also chase sets in which I have found enough cards in. For example, I found a box of about 300 08 Upper Deck Series 2 cards at a garage sale two weeks ago for $3.00. I found I was only missing a little over half of it so it is now on my wantlist and many are incoming already. This is definitely a great site for set collectors. Whichever route you take, I hope it works out for you.

-Curtis
 
Dude I have a huge lot of '78 Topps commons that I'd let go dirt cheap if we could meet up somewhere so I wouldn't have to ship them.
 
I have other "starter sets" I have a 89 UD thats basically only missing 5 or 6 cards and a 90 Leaf that I need about 20 cards for but those sets didnt have much meaning to me. I didnt buy much ud products as a kid cos I like the fact of buying 2 or more packs of something else vs 1 pack of ud. Back then I only got a $5 allowance so I stretched it out as far as I could. A $5 allowance now days is a joke, I cant even hardly find anything for my 4 year old for $5. If I got with the topps Ive got to think about the best way to go about it. I know I mentioned being on a very limited budget and it would be cheaper to buy most to all of these sets vs putting them together myself. But whats the fun in that? Im going to try and not rush this decision because Ive already started and stopped several directions since returning this year. Plus at least till I start working on some of the newer sets stuff like the 86 through early 90's is dirt cheap.

tim-once I decide we'll discuss it in detail.
 
I normally collect only what I like....so I don't go after every set or players cards.
  • 2003 timeless treasures gold inserts serial #10
  • 1993 topps finest set
  • 1998 finest the man base cards serial 500 and the refractor set serial #75
  • 2010 bowman chrome retail purple refractor set
  • 2008 ud heroes autos of Ken Griffey jr rainbow set
  • 1996 Pinnacle Summit big bang refractor set
  • 2010 A & G Monster of the Mesozoic set!
Best regards, David
 
I have other "starter sets" I have a 89 UD thats basically only missing 5 or 6 cards and a 90 Leaf that I need about 20 cards for but those sets didnt have much meaning to me. I didnt buy much ud products as a kid cos I like the fact of buying 2 or more packs of something else vs 1 pack of ud. Back then I only got a $5 allowance so I stretched it out as far as I could. A $5 allowance now days is a joke, I cant even hardly find anything for my 4 year old for $5. If I got with the topps Ive got to think about the best way to go about it. I know I mentioned being on a very limited budget and it would be cheaper to buy most to all of these sets vs putting them together myself. But whats the fun in that? Im going to try and not rush this decision because Ive already started and stopped several directions since returning this year. Plus at least till I start working on some of the newer sets stuff like the 86 through early 90's is dirt cheap.

tim-once I decide we'll discuss it in detail.


Sounds good. I'd be VERY interested in possibly making some sort of deal for your partial '90 Leaf set.
 
My collecting decisions were pretty easily made. I collected as a kid, back when it was just Topps. Than I got out of collecting during high school and college. It wasn't until I was out of college for the better part of 6 or 7 years that I got back into it. It was pretty simple to find cheap wax boxes of 86 - 93 Topps, so I started with that and than filled in the sets as I could. In 94-95, I tried to collect everything and that got to expensive, so I decided on just doing Topps sets back to my year of birth.

About 3 years ago, I decided to try and put together a collection of my favorite player to pass along to my son when he is ready, hence the work in progress that is my Kirby Puckett collection.

The Topps sets and the Pucketts are my major focuses.

Along with that, like a lot of collectors on here, I also don't mind picking up cards here or there that "catch the eye" for whatever reason.
 
i started collecting derek jeter when i first saw him play in the albany minor leagues was pretty easy to get his cards because people thought he was a bust and still today you can get his cards for 1 2 what ever if you do go the direction of collecting complete sets lmk when you get to 86 and 88 have thousands of both to get rid of so just sit back relax and think what you think would be the more likely thing to complete
 
I started to collect Ryan Howard when he first started. No one heard of him so i gobbled up his autos and gu really fast. Now i have to slow WAY down beacuse much like you no $$$$$$. I also did the set thing but i move from time to time and moving boxes filed with sets worth less than the box its self i feel was not worth it and broke them all down.
 
I'm on a tight budget as well. Something I've started doing as of late,
is coming up with a theme to my collection. I like Frank Thomas. But
instead of trying to get everything made of him, I'm just trying to get
one of each different gu cards.(pants,jersey,patch,bat,base,glove,etc)
I've also started spelling words with letter patches. The good thing about
that is your focusing on the word your going for, and not how much the
cards are worth. Its also good to narrow down what your going to collect
so you don't get discouraged when you can't afford to finish all your different
projects. Collecting is supposed to be fun, not stressfull. I hope this helps.
Remember, if its not fun, whats the point?
 
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