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...

 

[bblair_2002]

My Pujols collection has. Ever since I lost my havelist on Webs it's basically a crapshoot on knowing if I need a card or not. I know I have most base and cheap inserts but the nicer ones I'm not so sure of. Don't think I have the patience to type out thousands of cards over again.

 

[cjay101]

My Pujols collection has. Ever since I lost my havelist on Webs it's basically a crapshoot on knowing if I need a card or not. I know I have most base and cheap inserts but the nicer ones I'm not so sure of. Don't think I have the patience to type out thousands of cards over again.

Check out tcdb. I use it for my Rice stuff

 

[BoDoesKnow]

Yes. I recently got rid of everything except for my top 50-100 toploaders, my Joe Montana gems (autos, jersey cards and pigskin cards), and a few stacks of prospects and rookies that I'm keeping as a gamble. I preferred to buy shares of Ferrari to invest the money instead.

 

[calsp3]

Like most of us I began collecting as a kid, for me during the late 50s and through the 60s. Those were put away for a long time and moved with me throughout my many moves. I only reenteted this hobby after retirement as another way to keep my brain focused. For three years I worked as a tour guide for the Atlanta Braves at the new Cobb County stadium, and this really ramped up my interest in collecting. Moved away from Atlanta down to the SC coast but have kept this up but in the most recent years with inflation causing new card costs to skyrocket, I have seriously begun a plan to limit the new purchases and refocus on my vintage. Right now I am a bit more heavy into modern but that is shifting every day. My health will be a factor in the future as I am gradually losing some vision, but for now I will keep plodding along. But isn’t this the story for all us older guys?

 

[katester44]

Hoping to have some time this weekend to address everyones responses - but it definitely makes me a bit better reading these and knowing I am not alone!!

 

[redbird4]

Every. Single. Day.

Yes to everything everybody has already said...to the point of exhaustion. I'm well organized in both physical and cyber filing of my cards, it's just I'm currently working on 15 different baseball sets and a dozen or so football sets. Add comics, Funkos, bobbleheads, action figures and whatever else and it becomes quite overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it's all alive and well, just frustrating at times and seems those "holes" are never ending.

I pretty much come to a complete stop on some of them to just focus on one set at a time and that seems to work the best for completion. That gets boring though and I very easily lose focus!

I know I need to sell, sell, sell but I just don't "feel it" (or I'm just lazy). And I loathe selling on ebay. For that matter I'm really on edge about buying on ebay anymore. That pwe shipping they have is terrible. Never know if I'm going to get the card or not. Very frustrating when a card never arrives and the search has to start all over again.

Every night I look around the room and say I need to get rid of alot if not most of this stuff. Every morning I wake up and get right back to adding more stuff.

Que sera, sera.

 

[katester44]

Every. Single. Day.

Yes to everything everybody has already said...to the point of exhaustion. I'm well organized in both physical and cyber filing of my cards, it's just I'm currently working on 15 different baseball sets and a dozen or so football sets. Add comics, Funkos, bobbleheads, action figures and whatever else and it becomes quite overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it's all alive and well, just frustrating at times and seems those "holes" are never ending.

I pretty much come to a complete stop on some of them to just focus on one set at a time and that seems to work the best for completion. That gets boring though and I very easily lose focus!

I know I need to sell, sell, sell but I just don't "feel it" (or I'm just lazy). And I loathe selling on ebay. For that matter I'm really on edge about buying on ebay anymore. That pwe shipping they have is terrible. Never know if I'm going to get the card or not. Very frustrating when a card never arrives and the search has to start all over again.

Every night I look around the room and say I need to get rid of alot if not most of this stuff. Every morning I wake up and get right back to adding more stuff.

Que sera, sera.

I feel every word of your statement! Except add in legos to add to the fun!!

My anxiety gets the worst when my brain starts doing the math on cards laying around versus days left before we pack up and move south. We are leaving in 2 years, 6 years or 10 years, just not sure when. But when that 2 year beeper starts going off, panic mode sets in!