It's thrilling for some, but how cards are produced and marketed these days has become a real downer for a lot of collectors I believe. Everything is geared towards low print runs, short prints, limited edition, etc. That used to be something "special" like Tiffany Topps set with a print run of 5000, where the regular Topps set might be produced in the millions. That WAS special, but it was also somewhat affordable and not so limited that only a handful of people could have them.
My collecting interest allows for me to chase items that are not so limited or common, but there are those items that are and I am burned out on that part of it. If I collected an active player, I probably would have stopped collecting all together of refocused on something else. I actually prefer signed vintage cards more than even my Garvey or Dodgers collections these days, because I can find "fun" buys for a few bucks or less regularly, but there are still lofty items to chase if I choose to do so. There is what seems like a never ending supply of choices and it always keeps me looking as opposed to searching hours and hours for a single item I don't already have or waiting 3-6 months between issues that contain a new card of my player, only to find out that there is a base, and 6 parallel versions each numbered to 25, 10, 5 and 1 then 4 1/1 printing plates, a 1/1 wood card, a 1/1 special autograph, a 1/1 patch card, etc for each parallel. Yes, that is a gross exaggeration, but you know what I mean.
