Hi folks, I've been using this website for mostly research purposes for about a year now, but I just discovered that there are message boards here today. I'm a message board fiend, if you will...I love message boards. I don't see a lot of threads here yet but I see the message board is still young. Since every collecting based message board has to have this thread at some point, I figured I would be the one to start it here! :)
I have been collecting since...at least...1988.
My earliest memory of opening packs of cards is the somewhat obscure 1988 Leesley Bigfoot set. At the time, monster trucks were really racing, not the predictable show it is now, and I was a huge fan of it. I remained that way into the 1990s, but no longer. Still, those cards are the earliest I remember. My next earliest memory is of opening 1989 Batman movie cards.
I have been collecting ever since, opening my first box in 1990 (Classic Monster Trucks, also my first complete set. That, and 1988 Leesley Bigfoot are the only monster truck card sets ever issued). I collected non-sports until 1993, at Christmas of 1992 I discovered the sport of NASCAR, and discovered in 1993 sometime that they had cards, which I began collecting. I collected NASCAR and non-sport until about 1996. It was at that time I discovered NBA basketball cards, and for the next decade I would spend most of my collecting with the NBA. I theorize two reasons for that: 1, it was my only connection to the sport. NASCAR, my main connection is 1/64 diecast replicas and 2. the basketball cards at that time were of super high quality- the golden age, in my opinion, of NBA basketball cards. I essentially stopped non-sports cards in 1996, and just barely hung on to NASCAR cards after 1996, when my favorite company went out of buisness. (Maxx). In 2003 I got back into NASCAR cards in a big way, and they have been my main aspect of the card hobby since then. I eventually stopped collecting basketball cards in 2006...I was not enjoying the games anymore at that time, and the cards were also not thrilling me. It was too much gimmick of the week/fancy stuff, and not a whole lot of actually documenting the game itself. I want to see un-modified game photos, and I want each player to get a card in the main sets. So, after collecting over 73,000 (!) cards, The other big factor is that funds were running out. I was essentially forced out of the hobby in 2007 because I simply couldn't afford it at that time. I was mostly out in 2007 and 2008, though I did manage to pick up a few packs from my local Target. The desire was there, but the funds weren't. In 2009 I got back into it, but I can't afford to partake as much as I once did...during my heydey of the mid-2000s I did 2 boxes of pretty much every NBA and NASCAR issue. But I get as much as I can, and I enjoy every card I can hunt down. When I got back into it in 2009, I also got back into non-sports cards. I found some Star Wars cards at my local Target, and I've been a huge fan of Star Wars my whole life- my first memory, of ANYTHING, is watching Star Wars. I purchased every pack I found of the currently available set, and that led me to investigate what I was missing. Even though I had Star Wars cars previously, for some reason it didn't connect with me that I should be collecting them. What can I say, other than, the last time I had gotten Star Wars cards before 2009 was 1993 and I was not yet 10 years old? I pulled out my old collection, what I could find anyway, that I built in the 80s and early 90s, and realized how much I was missing. Since I got back into the hobby in 2009, I have spent more time and effort on non-sports cards than anything else. I also started getting back into basketball again last year.
I'm also majorly OCD about my collection. I have been keeping a paper listing since 1998, and I eventually started keeping track of what day I got each card, although I don't always remember to write it down. It's even created a pen collector out of me because I use different colors for each insert and paralell, I also use a different color for each day I get cards- I've got over 50 different colors to choose from. I also only trade duplicates. I've literally been called crazy for this, (on the Beckett board circa 2002) but it's who I am...
I have been working on scanning my entire collection since 2009. I finished NASCAR, (it took a year and a half, and I have roughly 50,000 more NBA than NASCAR!) and what I can find of non-sports cards. I've scanned a few thousand NBA cards, but still a long, long way to go. I am slowly going to import these scans onto this website, but it's going to take years to do, I believe. I'm also going to keep on scanning, as well...I just scanned 220 NBA cards last night, and am getting ready to scan again momentarily. I won't be done any time soon, but I enjoy doing it.
Thanks for reading, Billy
VERY slow trading due to health problems. Not transferrable so safe to trade with, just moving is painful and can't always access the cards.
Cardboard History My COMC
New Collection Website: Cardboard History Gallery (Still under construction)
Tips on how to make your scans look like the card does in hand (No more washed out, fuzzy scans!):