General Forum

I collect a little bit of everything. Let me correct that. I collect a lot of everything. Basically, if it exists for my sports and the non-sports topics I've chosen, I want it. Yes, I know I'll never get everything. But I also know that I should never "leave disappointed". There's always SOMETHING I can add to my collection, especially now that I've taken on hockey, giving me almost 100 years worth of cards to chase. 

With that said, I am a set collector at heart. That's what feels right to me. However, the modern sets are...how can I suger coat this nicely...crap. Panini has the exclusive license to 2 of my 4 sports, and one of them- the NBA- they do an absolutely horrific job on. They cover only about half the league, and all their cards are usually pretty much alike. Even the new Chronicles set, which I really love the concept of, and at 699 cards is the largest set in NBA history...only about 130 of the 525 players in the league get a card in the set. For NASCAR, they do a better job of inclusion, but they only produce one real set a year, and it's rife with "variations"- different cards with the same number- which is the equivelent of nails on a chalkboard to me. I generally like what Upper Deck is doing with the NHL, but the super short printed Young Guns takes all the fun out of it- and makes it impossible to complete a set. My 4th sport, the Olympics, gets the worst card coverage of all. They don't get ANY cards that actually document the games..only the USA team gets a card set, and it's under 100 cards...and usually about 1/4th or more of the people don't even qualify for the games. There needs to be a set issued during (IE Topps Now) or after the Olympics that shows the actual event winners. But there's not. 
For non-sports cards, what I like to collect is pretty rare on cards these days. The last set I really wanted to chase was issued in 2011. I focus mostly on history and automotive, and almost all modern Non-sports cards are TV and movie related...something I don't have a whole lot of interest in. There are some I collect, like the Marvel Cinematic Universe stuff, but being hobby only, I don't have much access to it. My local shop does boxes only and at that doesn't really do non-sports at all. 

Since either 2015 or 2016 (unfortunately I don't remember when I began this project) I've shifted my focus more towards my Names Project, that is getting at least one card of everyone to ever get one in the NBA, NASCAR and now the NHL. It's much more rewarding, allows me to explore history a little more in depth, and has opened my eyes to some regional promos that I likely never would have heard of otherwise. I really, really love this project, and it's really become my driving force...I do chase after other cards, but I am making a serious effort to pull off this project. I've got the NBA down to about 300 missing people, and NASCAR under 40. Aside from my main sports I also track how many and who I have in all topics, and I'm closing in on 14,000 different people in my collection. I have not figured out who's missing for the NHL yet, and don't plan to for quite some time. 

With all that said, I find trading is easier with team collectors, because it gives me a pretty wide range of things to look for. People only doing a specific set usually have needs that I can't fulfill. I can also build little stacks whenever I get new trade stock and just ship it off to them periodically. (Any NBA collectors want to do a team based trade? Not specific card for card but just a bubble mailer of your team for whatever you feel like sending me. I have everything available except Portland, Toronto, Boston and Memphis, all of which I've earmarked for other collectors already. 

I have a tendency to not reject any trade offered to me, so I've traded with pretty much every kind of collector out there. 

When I'm buying cards, I usually try to cast as wide a net as possible...I'd rather get 20 $1 cards than 1 $20 card. When I go onto COMC, I usually sort by Serially numbered->cheapest and then pick off as many as I can before I run out of money, Sometimes I'll search SN by team and sometimes I'll just search by team and see what I come up with. I have not really gone on a COMC binge in a while, however, and I'm not sure I ever will again, to be honest. I'm trying to not spend money on the hobby and save up for a classic car. It's not going well...but I'm still hoping. Since I'm still really new to hockey, I am doing more by team there, and usually the Rangers...sometimes the Golden Knights or Islanders, and sometimes I'll just click on a random team and see if anything jumps out at me. For the NBA I do it for the Nets and Knicks but not often enough. 

I am putting some mental wheels in motion for a project to try and get every New Jersey Nets base card ever made. They were in NJ from 1977-2012, and I have...well, it has to be at least half of them already. I hope. I don't know any way to filter it on here, so I'm going to have to compile the list by hand. I will get to it, but not until I finish building my Cardboard History Gallery. 

You can see a visual dictionary of who I've got in my collection- at least, scanned- here: https://public.fotki.com/CardboardHistory/alphabetical-directory/ 

I see I'm 4 months behind in updating. I'm working on getting everything posted by set and I'm almost done, I will be working on updating this part next. Probably next week.

I still have a long, long way to go before everything is scanned. I don't expect it to be until 2021 at the very earliest...and I'm the world's worst estimator of time, I predicted I would finish in 2016...I barely hit halfway that year! Most of the baseball and football people have not been scanned yet. All in due time. There's even some NBA players I have not gotten any cards scanned of yet.

I definately fall under the set collector category.  I've only been on here for a year and found this site to be awesome.  I was trying to catelog everying I had via Excel, but stumbled across this site when I was looking for a checklist of certain sets.  As I started that process I started to look at newer stuff and it does make it discouraging to see how impossible it is to put together a master set. The amount of money it would take to put together such a set seems not worth it as trying to trade for the short prints and parralels would be impossible.   Might as well apply those funds to collect older sets. 

Also, I didnt realize how every sport has sold their rights to only one card producing company. I think the lack of competition has made card designs (like baseball) lack orginality.  In addition, its eliminated options, like having a competitor that produces a more easily collectable set.   

I'm a set collector as well, working my way backward from 2019.

I'm a "realistic completionist." All the variations and parallels have made it nearly impossible to assemble a complete set. I've chosen to hand collate each Topps baseball base set. Partial sets make my brain explode. As impossible as that sounds, its easier than trying to collect a certain team or player to completion when there are hundreds of sets in existence I've never even heard of. I've got 2019 completed all the way back to 1975. Card shows in my experience want to deal in autos and swatches and 1/1s, which is fine, but many booths also consider early 70s too new for vintage, leaving me in limbo. This site has been a godsend. Now I'm trading and not spending 4 bucks to ship each individual card. 

I like some of the new cards, but only to use for trade. 

i'd consider myself a set collector as well.... all those parallel cards are nice, but i'd prefer completing base sets over chasing them anyday.... i have a ton of sets that i've yet to get added here,but eventually will. 

Sports wise I am strictly team oriented, but since I love the thrill of ripping packs it gives me lots of trade material. I do collect non- sports sets usually shooting for master sets, but that depends on the inserts in the set. And I also on occassion try to collect certain insert sets in sports depnding on the size and rarity of the cards. I can't see chasing a parralell or insert set that is so limited that I would have to mortgage my house to complete it That all being said I am trying to do some of the insert sets in the 2019 Topps baseball the fact that it is the 150th year of professional baseball kind of speaks to me.

I'm a set collector, especially if I just open a couple boxes and have enough to complete one. It has gotten difficult over the years because the cost becomes too high at times.

Otherwise I collect a few players and just anything that catches my interest.

I've recently been trying to unload a lot of stuff I don't want for something I do.

I WAS a Football set builder until early 2000s.  Then I down sized to only Topps football.    About 2010 I down sized more and now only doing my Nebraska Football cards.  I really do not know how people can collect sets nowadays with the prices.

At the peak I had over 400 sets/subsets.  All brands and years.    2 years ago I was down to my PC and a couple of thousand cards of stars and semistars.    Then I got my nephew's collection.

I've organically completed two sets, ever.  1987 Topps Mini Leaders baseball, and 1991 Impel Stomp Collection wrestling. In both cases, I had put my cards in the database, noticed I was missing one to finish the set, and bought the one. So I'm not a set collector, but I keep one of everything I get.  The recent influx of VARs getting added to the site has been a real turnoff for me, so I'm not sure I'll ever get all my cards on here.  A large % of my collection comes from sets like 1988 Donruss though, unfortunately, and I cant stand to even look at them anymore.  Really sucked the fun out of it for me.  My goal when I joined was to get all my cards on here, all my doubles on my tradelist, and add pretty much every other missing card on the site to my wantlist.   Which would make me an ideal trade partner for a lot of people.  It's not happening too fast though.  And to compound things, I've noticed that I don't really enjoy watching sports like I used to.  Which has affected my enjoyment of cards too.  Except wrestling.  Nothing I said above applies to wrestling cards.  I know of only one major wrestling set with significant VARs, they aren't listed on this site, and my lips are sealed.

I am a set collector who is notoriously good at getting 85% there and then it is time for the next set.  The plan is to complete it, but by the time I get there I am usually ready to start the next set.  I love opening packs and when the set is near complete, it makes no sense to buy packs to get literally all doubles.  I intend to trade or buy the remaining cards, but the money seems better spent on new packs since they are more fun than buying single cards.

I also only consider the base set in my set collecting.  Getting all the inserts is cool, but not part of my definition of completing a set.  This way, the set completing is at least attainable and won't cost a fortune.

I am slowly (it has been 3 years) logging my cards in the database.  The goal is to eventualy move doubles to the for sale/trade list and click the needed cards on my want list to start completing sets.  Alas, my attention span is a lot like my collecting in that everytime I log a set, I decide my time is better spent logging the next set.

So I guess I am a set collector that just doesn't get it done, lol!