General Forum

Hi Folks,

I wanted to take a few minutes and introduce myself. My name is Brian. I’m 40 years old and live outside of Sacramento but I grew on the east coast. My favorite teams are the Yankees and Redskins. I’m a fan of what Dad had on the television growing up. I collected a lot of cards when I was a kid, mostly from 1987-92. I was fortunate enough to get into the hobby during a period where cards really maintained their value, haha. I should have held onto the Magic cards but I digress... I’ve picked the hobby back up several times over the years and I also have a decent collection of newer stuff.

I stumbled across this site about four months ago. I want to say thank you to everyone that has had a role in creating and maintaining it. It has been an invaluable resource. Before I found the site I was using a generic checklist, picked up from a local shop and photocopied a thousand times. If by some miracle Steve, from All-Pro Sports in Newark DE, is on this site, thank you. Your checklist is still being used thirty years later. It was a tedious but rewarding process going through my collection and entering the 50,000 or so cards I’ve done. It was a blast seeing cards I forgot I owned and then immediately remembering when and where I bought them.

I’m looking for advice on how to approach my want list. I’m a set collector and have entered my missing cards on the want list for a few sets but not for the majority. I was afraid it would become so large that It would be hard to focus on any particular set, that was close to completion. I could easily put 100,000 cards on it and turned it into an “I’d accept any of this in a trade list”. Im not sure if I should open it up to everything or wait until I get a particular set closer to completion and then add any missing cards to the want list. My duplicates mean nothing to me so If I have something that can help another member I’d like to do it. I just completed a 1 for 1 trade and the other member’s comment was I only had one card on my want list that he could provide so he was apprehensive about approaching me with the trade. I don’t want to limit myself. I like trading. I’d like to hear what has worked for others.

I’m Looking forward to the future and I hope I can be a positive member of this community. I’ve uploaded 50 cards that we’re missing images. I have another hundred I need to do. I’m looking forward to trading more. I’ve completed 5 so far. If I have anything one could use hit me up. Thanks for having me.

Brian

Welcome.

I have only put stuff on my want list that I'd enjoy getting. If it's something that I wouldn't want t opart with anything for, I don't put it on.

If I was trying to complete a bunch of sets, I'd have every card missing on my want list. Yes, you may get too many trade requests, but that's not the worst thing to happen. :) There are a lot of members here with a lot of extra cards. We're looking to help fellow collectors. Get them on the wantlists and watch them start rolling in!

WElcome. I too have recently found out about this wonderful website, and have already made about 25 trades.

Lots of good people, willing to help out. 

I too, am a set builder trying to collect Topps sets from my year of birth until now. Football and baseball.

It's nice for getting vintage cards, and now I think to myself if I want to do more.

Becoming very intrigued by the Heritage sets, but I DO NOT like all the variation BS. I don't like chasing in that way.

Would love to do some trading with you when you think you might be ready.

Good luck,

Tom

First, welcome! Your story is nearly identical to mine (I'm 44) and so many others. This site rejuvenated the joy in collecting for me and now my kids.

I also started small with my wantlist and expanded over time. I ended up going after full sets like 1975-1978 Topps baseball and I was able to complete all 4 sets on here and through some lot purchases. I enjoyed the Pro Set football cards so much before I went to college, I decided to chase a full set of 1992 and now 1993. If you are patient, stay focused you will get them done. I think one is to add 100,000 cards to a wantlist, they can get overwhelmed easily.

I've done a lot of single card trades and I've done 400 card trades. They are all fun.

Best of luck and I hope we can swing a mutual trade.

Dan

HTTR, at least in the good old days, not much to celebrate latety

Mark

Welcome! You've found the best card website ever, but it sounds like you've figured that out already

For a wantlist, I only put sets on it that are either close to completion or oddball stuff I won't likely find in the wild. Although I don't generally do it anymore, (trying to save for a classic car) the tipping point for me is if I have too many to buy any more packs of, then it goes on the wantlist. 

In reality, I want every single card ever made for my three sports. I know it will never happen, but it means I always come away happy from any trade or purchase.

Welcome to the world of TCDB. If you're here to do some trading get ready 'cause there are plenty aboard with the same intentions. Most of all ,be sure to have fun.

Welcome to the site, Brian! I'm glad you finally decided to post in the forums. At least you mostly have the site figured out already. My story is very similar to yours. My name is Adam. I'm 41 and also started collecting around 1987. I stopped for 2-3 years in my late high school years and again after my divorce in 2000. But I picked it back up in 2004 and have been steady since then. I'm a team and person collector in 3 sports now, but have tons of cards from other sports and non-sports sets. You can see all that info on my Profile page and in my Collection here. I'd love to trade with you at some point. For multiple reasons, I am currently not trading or buying cards. But I am still willing to sell cards (pretty cheap too). Between 4 websites over the past dozen or so years, I have well over a thousand transactions. Most of those were not small ones either.

The more you have on your wantlist, the more offers you'll get. I rarely ever proposed transactions on any site (besides ebay). I either wait for them to come to me or I jump on one based on a forum thread or post. Once I turn my proposals back on here, I'll try to remember to check out your wants. If you are willing to buy cards, you can see all my traders listed on here and PM me. I'm always happy to help out anyone with cards or info about cards!

One other thing to mention...list your available stuff on your tradelist. No matter how common or undesirable you think it may be. You never know what someone is looking for, and when it might come in handy. When I listed my duplicates on my tradelist, I figured it was a waste of time to list 1991 Maxx- the most common NASCAR set ever....you can buy a sealed box for $5. I figured everyone who wanted them had them already...yet they were the first cards to go, and multiple traders were involved. I have less than 1/4th of what I started with left available. 

Welcome to the site.  It is a great place for so many reasons, trading beingone of them.  I understand your question and have approached it this way.  If your want list is too small, you will not get as many trade offers as you may like (1 card trades are not really economical unless in the higher value cards). But listing wants in sets where you only have a few cards already is also less economical than buying the set outright or finding large lots of cards to build the set.  So I use a 50% rule.  If I have over 50% of the set, then I list the rest in my wants. This has put my want list around 40,000 cards.  I also have added sets in my wants when building a trade with someone else in order to be able to have enough wants from his traders to balance out the trade. I simply look at his list of traders and find sets where he has many to trade, add them to my want list and then build the the trade from there. This is more to help the other member out in being able to get more cards that he needs.  But it does give a kick-start to some sets that I don't have. I have traded oout over 24,000 cards and gotten back over 20,000.  In the last 6 months I have had 3 trades of 700-800 cards going each way and another just under 500 cards each way.  Simply a great place to enjoy the hobby.