Your Collection - Do You Ever Get Overwhelmed?

[katester44]

I know everyone always wants to get their collection organized. They want to finish sets that have been sitting around forever. They want to trade more. They want to sell more.

How often do you start doing one or more of those things and once the process is started for the day, you feel like you have gone down a wormhole that you may or may not recover from!

Every set that I finish, every card that I sell, every card that I trade that isn't a part of my collection for a card that is - I consider all of those little victories. If a day or two pass and I don't have cards getting put away or dropped off with the USPS, I feel like I am taking a loss for the day.

Anyone else out there ever look at their collection and ask themselves..WHY?!?!?!?

 

[rotorob]

I know everyone always wants to get their collection organized. They want to finish sets that have been sitting around forever. They want to trade more. They want to sell more.

How often do you start doing one or more of those things and once the process is started for the day, you feel like you have gone down a wormhole that you may or may not recover from!

Every set that I finish, every card that I sell, every card that I trade that isn't a part of my collection for a card that is - I consider all of those little victories. If a day or two pass and I don't have cards getting put away or dropped off with the USPS, I feel like I am taking a loss for the day.

Anyone else out there ever look at their collection and ask themselves..WHY?!?!?!?

Oh my, yes to all of this, except for the loss feeling. Since freewebs went away a couple of years ago, my trading has slowed significantly. The overwhelmingness of getting all of that relisted somewhere is what is keeping me from trading much. I still have my lists and PC for a few players, but the work effort involved is well overwhelming is the correct word. My biggest issue is that I go to the LCS, shows and auctions and can't resist anything that may be a bargain, even if it doesn't fit in my PC. That just makes the pile up even worse.

Thanks for a great topic and letting me know I'm not the only one!

 

[David K.]

Yes...about 5 years ago.....since then I always try to trade away or give away my extra cards that I don't need. For example right now I'm moving out the 2024 Topps Chrome Duplicates, refractors, Prism, Ray Waves, Strokes, Summertime in the Park, Pink refractors, etc. I finished the Chrome base set, still working on Summertime in the Park set. Best regards, David PS I still try to finish the unfinished inserts that I started a long time ago...like the 2003 Timeless Treasures Gold set serial to only 10 cards per player and only 100 players in the set. I have 73 of them....still need 27....includes Cal Ripken Jr.

 

[Beachbum]

Absolutely felt this way a few years ago. I had to completely stop collecting, step away, and really start chipping away at organizing what I had. I have sold huge lots of cards (locally) just to free up space. I also started centralizing all of the cards by brand and got away from 90% of my player collections, I haven't started a topps set since 2016 or a bowman set since 2019. I missed the big card boom of 2020-2022 but oh well, its more about enjoying the hobby and not letting the volume of it take over your life or make you not enjoy it anymore.

 

[cjay101]

All the time. I’m continually trying to parse down more and more - quality over quantity. I donate a lot to local shop that gives out to kids. Tough part is the lower value—but value cards. Those are the thorn in my side. The main solution would be to stop buying anything sealed but it’s in my genes at this point.

 

[t.rooster]

Man oh man, yes! and that's just one sport, I really can't imagine a juggling act of another one or two sports along with all that.

 

[Rburke02]

Yes to all. A few years ago I separated out a ton of cards and collectibles and took to LCS and sold them. Probably sold them for cheap but I had to get rid of volume. This helped a lot. I thought I was done collecting but have slowly gotten back into focusing more on quality. My wife works for a children’s hospital so I offload a lot there also.

 

[dragonslayer913]

I’m collection is pretty much organized with about 90% of my base is in mumerical order -Inserts are 95-100% organized my problem is I wish MY SITE was completely updated and that will probably never happen

 

[3greyhounds]

My collection took on a life of its own about.... oh, 20 years ago? I believe it's actually become self-aware at this point!

That being said, last year I finally said "Enough!" and haven't bought a pack since. However, it's translated into buying singles for the PC or to fill long-dormant sets (if I can find the ones I need). Now I need to organize the player collections - which could be its own nightmare! I've also shipped almost 100 sets to my son back East, but strangely enough, it hasn't seemed to make much of a difference in the storage area...