Buy/Sell/Trade Forum

I know this has been a hot issue on other threads but yesterday I had another reason to never have gotten rid of any of the pile of commons I have stored in a corner of my house. I received a trade proposal from another member asking for a 1989 Donruss common as it was the last card he needs for his set.  Many times, the common card is the hardest to find as stores and dealers don't bother sorting theirs or just throw them away.  This site and the members who value each and every card they have makes it easy for any one ofus to find that common card.

I know I have often gotten "complete" sets only to disover a card or two missing, usually commons so with no intention on the sellers part.  If it hadn't been for my pile of cards these sets would most likely still sit incomplete.

Think about it before you dispose of your "unwanted" cards.

Right on Bruno. Base cards can be tough to find. It took me 18 years or so to find the last Topps Embossed card I needed. I even had some idiot on Beckett tell me he had it and wouldn't ship it because "it wasn't worth the effort" even though I offered to pay shipping and for the card. 

I love sifting through my old commons. I'm not sure I could get rid of them.

I was just able to knock off a bunch on someone's want list - and the whole time I'm pulling stuff, I was saying to my son, "I can't believe I'm actually able to move these". Best part, it wasn't a dump them all to some unsuspecting person, but truly wanted cards.

I would really like to get some of the space back that these take up, but not at the cost of just disposing of them or casting them off in bulk to someone who really doesn't care. I'm hoping to either trade or sell off as much as I can this year to members here, and whatever doesn't go here, off to another site to sell (even if it's almost break even on postage).

I'm completely in agreement, but there is one other thing I love about the common card.  Maybe I am alone on this, but, everyone knows the stars of every era.  Part of the reason I love collecting is the historical aspect of it.  To look back at what the teams looked like and who played on a day to day basis.  To think, if I was watching in 1974, this is a guy I would be tuning in to watch every night (or listen on the radio).  I think how it is funny that they were probably so known during their playing days, yet in 2018 or 1999 or whenever, they are completely forgotten.  These are the guys that were the sport as much as the stars.  I love that the cards memorialize a team or a sport for a period of time that is now gone.

I keep the commons  and the dupes of commons cause they are just as important to why I love cards as the stars are.  Sure, I am not going to pay $100 for a common from 1986, but I also am not purely collecting to maximize a monetary effort as if it was a for profit business.  The value to me of having those needed commons actually completes the reason I love collecting.  The common is just as valuable from that non-monetary aspect as the star.  I love having my commons and I keep the dupes so that I may use them to get other commons I will need to complete my sets.

OK, I am rambling and probably not making much sense and probably muffled the point I was trying to make.  It was still fun to try to get it out anyway!

Just to clarify as well, I am not bashing anyone who doesn't like commons or want to keep their commons, I am just saying why I personally like them and keep them.  To each his own on this topic, my way and why I collect I neither right nor wrong and whatever makes each collector happy is what they should do!

"...not at the cost of just disposing of them or casting them off in bulk to someone who really doesn't care."  

Same here.  Although I no longer worshp my cards, they are still indeed very special to me, and the thought of just handing them all over to some random person who could really care less how much time and effort I put into sorting and organizing even my extras just doesn't rest well with me.  I had between 20-25 complete sets of 1987, and each 800 ct. box was numbered from highest grade to lowest grade.  I was almost afraid of opening a new wax pack for fear of having to regrade 17 cards into all of my '87T sets.  

I won't sell complete sets of late '80s cards because they are undervalued in my opinion.  Basically, you have to give them away to pay the $10+ shipping charges.  What I did do with these late '80s cards is set up various "pick lots" online that replicated digging through dime boxes, quarter boxes, etc. in person for set builders. 

I put 1987-1992 Topps baseball all in one auction and allowed buyers to pick any 70 common cards for $3.50 plus $3.50 shipping (or 5 cents + 5 cents = 10 cents per card).  I listed every single common card for 6 or more complete sets (1981-1986, 1974-1980, Pre-1974, 1993-1999, and 2000-present).  Depending on the year, Minor Stars would count as 2 or more picks, Semi-Stars would count as 3 or more picks, and Unlisted Stars would count as 4 or more picks.  Superstars would be sold as individual auctions.  

This makes total sence to me. I collect because I love the history of something, be it my three sports or the non-sports topics I collect.

I view myself as a historian telling the history of something through trading cards. That's why my collection is sorted on my website in chronological order, not by person* or team. Although, if I didn't have to pay for the storage, I would duplicate the scans in those ways.

* - I do have a separate, duplicated file of my favorite NBA and NHL players.

That's also why I'm so frustrated with Panini...by ignoring almost half of the NBA each season, it's become impossible to truly document the sport, the way it should be. There are 510 players in the NBA yet Panini refuses to give us cards of more than 300 people in a season, and this year only 290. They could give the NHL a 700+ card set but can't do more than 300 for the NBA. They do NASCAR right as well. It's frustrating and I'm beginning to wonder if there are sinister reasons behind it, but I hope not. However, based on the garbage I see posted on Facebook, probably not....

I agree with much of this. My son is at the age he is really into sports and he collects a little with me. He also plays Madden on his Xbox a lot where they are coming out with legend cards. It's great that he tells me who comes out and asks me if they were any good and I can dig out some cards and talk about that player. There are just times here and there that he will start asking questions about players from when I was his age and I can talk about Gorman Thomas or Ben Oglivie and Cecil Cooper or maybe a guy like James Lofton and I can show him cards and talk about the players and in many cases explain how the game was different and a guy passing for 3000 yards was a big deal back then.

Most of my collection is composed of commons, so that is why I never get rid of mine.