General Forum

  This is something I've thought about.  As an example, say O.J. Simpson or Ray Rice.  Say you had collected those players their whole careers, than bang, that "incident" happens.  Are you disgusted?  Do you say, "No more for me" and try to get rid of your collection?  Or do you compartmentalize it and say, "What they did on the field has nothing to do with the off the field stuff" and keep on collecting them?

  On a personal level, I've got a ton of Herschel Walker cards.  I always admired him in college and the USFL and though his NFL career wasn't nearly as successful, I think he had a better NFL career than people remember.

It's hard for me to take his political views, however.  I lean more towards the middle than far left or  right, but am not a Trump fan at all. Now a guy's politcal beliefs are a far cry from wife beating or worse, but are you always on the same page with who you collect? Food for thought.    I've kept up my collection, mostly because the cards of Herschel's that I own are way more than his cards that I don't.  Though I have several "high end" cards, this is something I'm bound to lose money on in the end , but I never got into collecting to make money.  Always looked at it like the casino, fun to play, but the house wins in the end.

Just wondered what others opinions on the subject were.  I remember the Mr. Mint guy saying something to the effect of, "Collect players who are already dead, that way, they can't do anything they'll regret."

When I was collecting football cards more, I had a good amount of Larry Johnson cards of the Chiefs.  After a few incidents (really after one of the first ones) I decided not to collect any more of him.  When I gave most of my football cards to a friend, I didn't save any of his.  However, on the opposite end, I do collect Michael Vick (not a lot, just ones I come across cheap).  I didn't collect them until after he had returned to the league though and was making his redemption tour (I was out of collecting for a while when he first played, not sure if I would have collected after he was jailed).

I guess it depends on how much of a fan I am of the person if I'm okay with keeping them in my collection.  I don't normally seek players out when they get in trouble and some players I just don't care to ever collect.  I seriously doubt I will ever own a Tyreek Hill card, and doubt I'll add another Kareem Hunt card to my collection, but if I get one in a trade I won't decline it.

As for politics and players, I have a few I disagree with, but unless they shove it down my throat it doesn't bother me too much.  I never fully supported Trump or Obama, yet I own a card of each.  As far as athletes or celebs, unless they are extreme one way (like Dean Cain or Alyssa Milano) I would probably collect them as long as I stayed a fan of the person.  I can't think of anyone though I've stopped collecting because of their political beliefs, more or less the same when it comes to religious beliefs.

Beliefs are a whole different thing than actions (misdeeds, assault, murder, etc.). I have never stopped enjoying someone's music because of their beliefs (even if they are vocal about them), and I certainly wouldn't change my card collecting habits because of beliefs.

As for actions, I still have collections of Bonds, Clemens, McGwire, and Rose. Same goes for Altuve (suspected, never named outright) and Beltran (thought he had a shot at the HOF, but that might be in jeopardy now). I look through my binders of Phillies or my complete baseball sets from 1973 to today, and there are plenty of players in those cards who were less than stellar human beings (action-wise). If one of those players was the last card needed to complete a set, yes, I'm going to buy that card (or trade for it).

So, no, my collecting habits haven't changed based on someone else's actions (and certainly not because of their politics/religion).

Though there are several players I don't respect because of what they did in the game when playing, I still have them in my PC because at one time, I did seek their cards out and they may still make the HoF.  Though I will still trade for some of their cards and pick them up "cheap", I will bypass them for many of the other players in my PC.

As for the things they did in their personal lives and that the media reports on only because of who they are (not things such as murder or at similar level of infraction), I don't let much of that sway me other than it taints their character and therefore does lower my respect for them.  But the there are too many athletes already in the Halls of Fame that also have tainted pasts.  If we only collected the saints, I guess you would have a collection of the New Orleans football team and not much else.

I am first and foremost a set collector, so a person's actions don't influence that. The only time I really had trouble collecting a player was Aaron Hernandez as a Patriots collector. But ultimately he did play those games, so I keep those cards.

I collected Theo Fleury cards because his story from a sexually abusive coach to NHL stardom was enough to inspire me. I read his book and thought wow, this guy has gone through so much even while at the top and still made it, plus, he was short like me. 
 

I started following him on Twitter and while our political views didn't match, I let it slide. But then they started getting more radical and shared conspiracy theories. Him and his followers didn't like what I had to say one day, so I blocked him and sold all his cards in a lot.

Yes and no.
Same as tenlbpain, I too collect sets (Topps baseball mostly) so I don't necessarily look at each individual player.  It will however influence what I'd be willing to pay for a card.  I refuse to pay top dollar for a card for a player with a criminal past.
I also enjoy political cards being that both my wife and I are involved in state and local politics.  I have both republican and democrat politicians, several of whom I disagree with to a great deal (which I won't get into which ones I disagree with) but I still enjoy the cards as I see them as something unique since most people think of sports, movies/tv or games like Magic when it comes to card collecting.
 

I feel sports stars, as any celebrity, has one roll. Entertainment. If I get hours of entertainment from them than they have done there job well. What they do off the field or off the camera doesn't take away those hours of past entertainment or future entertainment. To me, it shouldn't take away from their collectibility. Someone being a toolbag doesn't make them suck at the job. It just makes them a toolbag.

Juat my 2 cents on the subject.

If I came across some Ty Cobb cards I could probably get over the terrible person he was.

Interesting question, and like most I will separate off-the-field with on-field MOST of the time. 

The Juice was one of my all-time favorite players in both college and the pros - only Buffalo Bill I recall cheering for - but I stopped collecting football after the 1970 Topps set was released, and when I returned to collecting full blast the murder trial had happened, so no, I wouldn't seek to collect his cards except if they were part of a set I wished to collect simply because of the incident. Politics on occasion affects my collection, but mainly if they're a player I didn't root for to begin with. I do collect players I rooted against, but currently I'm oblivious to their political views so I haven't had to cross that bridge, and probably won't.

On the other hand, there are several players I collect because of their observed character and beliefs on and off the field namely Glenn Davis (former Astro and Oriole), Pat Combs (Phillies), Dikembe Mutombo (Nuggets and Rockets), and Bill Glass (Lions and Browns).