General Forum

Topic for discussion...no right or wrong answer...

For longtime collectors who still actively collect cards...if you didn't already collect cards, and you had never collected as a kid (no nostalgia factor), would the hobby, as it exists today, appeal to you?  Would you start collecting now, based on the current products, their prices, and the current players who appear on the cards?

I don't think I would.  But the wrestling cards might draw me in.  That could lead to other sports.  But I'll say the likelihood is only about 20% that I would start.  I just looked through the latest sell sheets on the release calendar, and they all look so much alike, and it got me thinking about it.  Curious what other collectors think.

No.

Run, Forest run! Far away from this cardboard fools gold.

I think the "game" has changed. There is more money to be made out there then before and it has lead to a new breed of collectors who are just looking the flip.  So its a different type of chase then before.  There is people that know nothing about the hobby just serching for the next Baker in hopes to make 30K.    

As for myself I hadn't collected for close to 20 years and I honestly got back into it becasue of the newer cards; I thought it was so cool to get a piece of game worn jersey, a part of a bat, chasing a rainbow set, or just holding a card that only 5 other people could own.  It was new and exciting.  So I could see where people get sucked in.  But there is a price tag that goes along with it.     

Just some thoughts. 

Yes...I'm a collector, I collect things. I began my collecting journey at 5 days old and I will be collecting something as long as I'm alive. And there's really nothing else to collect for sports. I mean, you could collect wearing jerseys, but at more than $200 each, you can't really build a good collecton.

Sometimes I feel weighted down by the sheer size of my collections- after more than 30 years in some of them they are very large. Cards- I have roughly 200,000 counting duplicates- are the highest in number but not the largest in space. 

I do definitely feel jaded sometimes though. The sense of wonder is not really around anymore. At this point, I basically can't be surprised by NBA or NASCAR cards anymore. I've sort of seen it all at this point...which is not to say I've seen every card...it's just that I'm pretty much aware of everything except the newest releases. NHL cards still have that newness, that excitement, but it's only a matter of time before they get to be "old hat".

I do sometimes wish I had never taken up model building. It's expensive, it's smelly, it leads to more frustration than fun, and according to California, causes cancer (although it's never been actually proved). But, on the other hand, without that hobby, I'd basically have no friends- 90% of my interactions on facebook are with people from the modeling hobby, the other 10% being family members. I'd also never have gone to Toledo, which i did every October from 2003-2008, and was a big part of my life. 

I have zero regrets that I began collecting cards, comic books, diecast, and to a lesser extent, coins, currency and stamps, the latter three a small part of my overall collecting life. 

Collecting things is truly what defines me. It's who I am...and it's pretty much all that I am. I realize that's probably not a healthy thing, and it's definitely not a good thing to be defined by something you really have no control over. If I could afford it, I'd be collecting cars. Not models, real ones. 

If you're asking at my age would I now begin collecting cards as a hobby, then probably not since I don't really watch sports anymore, either in person or on TV.

That was the connection I had as a kid, owning the cards of players I adored. Even when I returned to collecting at around 1988 through 1992, it was more about loving the players with the added dimension of nostalgia.

The artistry of cards got me interested in collecting once again when I got my first taste of TCDB while perusing a way to decorate my office here at home.

I've always had some sort of diversion in my life, but living with a penny-pinching accountant (and me now being retired) would nip my involvement in something as costly as collecting in the bud. 

Another thing that's changed to me is the climate of the game. When ESPN became political (they've since abadoned that, but too late for me as I will never watch them again) it was a microcosm of what was happening in sports in general. That's a huge turnoff to me so I avoid most sports nowadays.

I don't care much for non-sport cards, so my longwinded answer then, David, is: No, I'd probably spend more time writing poetry and songs.

I wouldn't start today. I loved it when Topps Company wasn't the only game in town. I liked when Upper Deck and others were competing and putting out different styles and cards. I never collected to make money like a lot of collectors do today. I started as a kid collecting for fun and looking for  different styles but Topps  just seems to running out a lot of the old styles over and over. I won't quit now but I don't spend the time and money I use to because of the lack of variety.

No

Definitely not..

Nope