Busting up something you previously chased

[brewing]

I am thinking of selling off some of my post war HoF rookie cards. I have become fed up with the HoF processes, so I'm thinking about selling the ones that I only acquired because they were enshrined as HoFers.

Have you ever busted up a portion of your collection for reasons other than financial? Any regrets?

[bcbgcbrcb]

I spent 10 years putting together a collection of Hall of Fame Rookie Cards, however, mine included both pre-war as well as post-war and also included all players, managers, executives, umpires, pioneers and negro leaguers. Needless to say, the task was extremely challenging and a whole lot of fun.

Along the way, I needed many tough cards and, sometimes, the only way to get them was via trade. Many times, I would not make a deal if I had to give up a card from my "set". Ultimately, I had all 300 HOF'ers, at that time, some were not true rookie cards but the earliest cards that I could afford. Some were also team cards, postcards, etc.

I reached the point where I had completed about 85% of the true rookie card set and the remaining ones were either too rare or too expensive for me to continue to pursue, such as the Baltimore News Ruth, Just So Young, etc.

At this point, I made an extremely tough decision to break up my "set" and sell off the lower-tier HOF'ers. What I found was that once I gave up the first card from my "set", the flood gates opened and I was willing to part with just about anything as the group no longer represented a "set" anymore. This followed by selling off the post-war, bigger name HOF'ers as I figured they would be much easier to replace down the road if I chose to do so. Finally, the bigger name pre-war stars followed as I no longer "needed" any of them for my "set".

As of today, my last coupe of cards will be auctioned off in REA, coming up in a couple of months and my focus has shifted to other things. As you can imagine, the decision to sell off my collection was a gut wrenching one but got much easier, card by card, as the sales process continued.

[Beatles Guy]

I've changed focus many times because I lose interest. My only constant is my Cardinals collection. I just spent several years putting together a 1969 Topps set and I'm leaning towards selling it and moving on.

[Hammerin'Hank]

I love the thrill of the hunt and the excitement of completing a collection.

B/c of this I have sold many a collection so that I could start another collection.

I had a set of 1986 Fleer Basketball Cards with every card graded PSA 9 accept the Jordan rookie which was a BGS 8.5. This set is a jewel to basketball card collectors as the 80's was the golden age of basketball like the 50's and 60's were for baseball. I sold this set to start collecting a 1964 Topps baseball card set with HOF and stars graded PSA/SGC/BVG 7, or higher, and no raw card below an EX +. I have completed that 1964 Topps Set up to this standard and think I will hold on to it for a while.

I also had a 1987 Fleer Basketball Card set with every card graded as a PSA 9 or PSA 10. Its was the #7 set on the PSA Registry. I sold that set to build a 1975 Topps set with HOFers and stars in PSA 8 or higher. I completed the set in raw form in EXMT - NMMT condition but I'm still upgrading it. I have 114 PSA graded cards in PSA 7 - PSA 9. Most stars and HOFers are graded in PSA/SGC/BVG 8 condition. The raw cards are in EXMT to MT. If I see a lot of 1975 Topps graded commons I scoop them up when the price is right but I never over pay for graded commons.

The one collection I will never bust up is my Hank Aaron Collection.

As you see I don't care who the grading company is as long as the card in the plastic case is not over graded.

[pawpawdiv9]

Love your story Phil-
I did a Mantle run and selling most of it to make rook for a Hofer collection i been doing. But im keeping it simple within a certain date range and players i like or loved whiled growing up.

[1963Topps Set]

I have always collected what I specifically wanted, thus I have never broken up any part of the collection.

[almostdone]

Two times ten years apart for basically the same reason.

When I first got into vintage cards when eBay started I built a 1955 Topps set. Took about two years to slowly put it together but the thrill of the hunt was much more fun then the knowledge of knowing it was done. I ended up busting it up and selling most of it (kept the Clemente and Koufax) to pay for my wife and my honeymoon.

I had slowly been working on another project that took much longer to achieve. I wanted one card from every HOFer in the twentieth century on from when they played. On a tight budget I finally did it. I ended with a Honus Wagner.

Last year I decided to bust up half of it. I sold everything prewar except a few, Cobb, Wagner, Ruth, Gehrig, Speaker, Young, and Johnson. I took the money and gave it to my wife for her 40th birthday to take any trip of her choice it would afford. She ended up going to Cape Cod with me for a second honeymoon. The experience and memories we had far outweighed having the cards. She has been my biggest supporter in this hobby and had always been behind me. In fact, my aviator is a photo of a display case I made showing cards she has personally purchased for me over the years.

No regrets.

Drew