General Forum

 Seems everyone else has put a vent thread out there...  it's MY TURN!

 I too am a completionist collector. I have 100K plus baseball cards. I have complete sets and then I have almost complete sets to various degrees. My wife has been so generous to allow me minimal space in our walk in closet. Sarcasm runs deep! To me that's the only way to collect cards. It's the thrill of putting them in numerical order and then over time thru whatever channels it takes you complete a set, I feel your pain though because for every card I need I have to sort 3000 more cards to find it. Keep it up you purist and maybe the collector world will shine down on you.

 I remember the Score hockey.    Threw me a curve when entering them,  had to see if there was a Candian flag or a US flag on the back or both.    A real pain.      I had the same problem while entering Parkies.  Didnt notice which were bilingual.    I think I gave up entering those.    Shouldn't be a pain, it should be fun.

 I am not a completionist thank goodness for that.  I am content to have whatever I have and leave it at that.  If by some chance, I get a complete set (which has happened only in my Non-Sports Marvel cards) then all the better.  I had tried buying complete sets, but that was no fun as I get a bigger thrill out of opening a pack and find my favorite player or team card than just have a complete set.  Also, as long as I have the base cards, I am content to say I have a complete set.  If I can get inserts complete, then I am extra happy.  Nowadays, however, there are just too many inserts to worry about finishing a complete set of them. Plus, you have just given me an even bigger incentive to never collect hockey cards.  Ever.

 I don't think it's limited to Hockey...

I like to complete things, but realized a long time ago there's no way I'll ever collect every card I want.  My card collecting mantra is; Since I'll never get to the end, what's most important is to enjoy the journey.  I was at a card show recently and spent a lot of time just chattingw ith fellow collectors.  Afterwards I realized I probably had more fun chatting about collecting than actually collecting.

 You're right Dixxy it isn't just limited to Hockey.  Baseball has 5 different color parallel sets based on the base.  Then you got the minis based on the base set.  Then short prints where they had a sparkle on the bottom of the bat.  Not to mention the parallels of the inserts (Cyan Printing Plate Rookie Prospects along with plain Rookie Prospects).  Football is getting just as guilty.  I don't know if they realize it yet, but having all the multiple inserts, parallels, and minis are driving some people away from collecting.  They are killing the market with all these insert cards much like they did in the 90s with huge sets and gigantic print runs.  Again, if it wasn't for the thrill of opening the pack to see who I got, I probably would just quit again.