How do YOU collect and why it's ok
When you ultimately make the decision to collect something, what goes into that decision? In most cases, that answer is a personal one. For me, both what and how I collect has evolved as I've grown older. Initially, at age 6, I wanted all the Dallas Cowboys cards I could find, back then a fairly easy task. I was lucky in the first pack I ever opened in 1977, it had a Tony Dorsett rookie, I thought this was going to be easy, until I learned not every pack had a Cowboy in it.
For the next few years I only collected Dallas Cowboys players, trading all my non-Cowboys for more Dallas players. Then, as my interest in baseball grew, I began understanding the concept of "complete set" collecting. It was in 1983 I put together my first complete set of Topps Baseball, it was an exercise in patience, opening packs, trading, and occasionally needing to outright buy a card I needed.
I was in high school in 1987, and had discovered the Sports Collector's Digest(SCD). At this time, I was helping a local dealer open and sort 1987 Topps Baseball Rak Pak cases, as he was selling team sets through ads in SCD, I took payment in the form of cards, a no-brainer for any kid who collects! I proceeded to amass enough inventory I began to set up at shows and really get an idea that not everyone collects alike.
At this point in time, I was mainly into baseball cards. If I'd set up at a show and someone came up looking for football or basketball cards, I had to direct them to other dealers. Then I was really blown away when someone came up and asked for a Thurl Bailey 1987-88 Fleer basketball card, first, I'd never heard of him, secondly the customer said they collect 'error' cards, years later I learned this was an uncorrected error card(reverse image). Later in 1988, Billy Ripken should've made an effort to trademark the term "error card".
As is a somewhat typical story of card collectors, I lost some interest when I got to college, though I did set up at a couple of shows to make some money, while attending the University of Missouri. I simply didn't have the same disposable income and realized I actually had to study to pass a class. Oh, and I also began to have more of a social life, unique concept, huh?
Then a thing called the internet changed everything. Beginning in 1998 I discovered eBay, and WOW, this made collecting a LOT easier, it also made the options of how you collect, damn near infinite. Team collector? Pick a team, any team. Player collector? Check! Set collector? Which one do you want? A few more years go by and all of the sudden, collectors start referring to collecting the 'rainbow', as serial numbered parallels with varying colors(and numbering associated with those colors) begin to gain traction. More simply put, the rainbow is getting one of each of those tiers, with the 1/1 or /5 or /10, etc. being the toughest.
I've evolved to where I'm at in my collecting that 99% of what I collect are players/athletes that went to Mizzou, my alma mater. In 2006, Playoff released the premier set of National Treasures, many cards featuring jersey patches AND autographs, the best part was Brad Smith, a fellow Mizzou alum, was in the set! There were multiple parallels, but generally the dual patch auto /99 is considered the "true" rookie. The very first one I owned was gifted to me by a fellow collector. I then sought out one that had a piece of his name plate in the patch window, then another that had the New York Jets patch, then realized I may have a problem. The problem was my goal. I wanted to own over half the print run of 99. I just kept buying what I could find, granted these were relatively affordable back then. Fast forward 18 years, and of the dual patch auto /99, I now own 54 of the 99 made, and probably another 50 or so of the other variations!
My saved searches on eBay started with a handful of names, to date, I have just shy of 100 names that I check eBay both first thing in the morning and before I go to bed, hoping I don't miss one. Then in 2008, Will Franklin, a Mizzou receiver, was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs, and so it begins again, currently up to 51 of the 99 made in my collection.
On to 2009, and Mizzou tight end Chase Coffman is drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals, yup, let's try it one more time....thrill of the hunt, THAT alone can be the 'why' in your collecting journey!
I've continued to 'collect' this way for the last 18 years, the idea being I want to hoard the majority, literally 50% + 1 will assure that. That's it, that's the goal, over half the print run! I prefer the 'higher end' releases, and lucky for me, most of my Mizzou alum don't cost an arm and a leg, and when they happen to, I'll make do with just a couple or whatever I can find!
Ultimately, HOW you collect is up to YOU, but it should be fun and fulfilling!
I ripped my first pack of cards at 6 years old and pulled a 1977 Topps Tony Dorsett rookie, a huge bonus in that I was a Cowboys fan. I then began to build team sets of my favorite teams. As I grew older, the nuances of collecting and beginning to invest engulfed me. As a sports junkie, cards became a natural conduit to feed my passion for collecting and investing in the stars I saw on TV and read about in box scores. While in high school, I began to set up at card shows and reinvest profits into more cards, for both the PC and additional inventory. Fast forward to the present day, I'd like to think I have one of the biggest Mizzou alumni collections in the world, collecting across any sport where I can find a Mizzou alum on cardboard(not always an easy task to find). I could never get any of my 3 daughters to share the hobby with me, but as a new "Pops", I can't wait to share the hobby with my grandson, he just doesn't know it yet!