"Gotta Have It"
 

Overpaying for a piece of cardboard is often preceded by three little words "Gotta Have It", but what do these words actually mean to you.

Scenario A

You've been building a set for decades and are one rare short print away from completion and the card you lack pops up in the next REA catalog.................................SECOND MORTGAGE

Scenario B

You have the patience of a saint (Are all saints patient?). You have completed your set and simply are in the process of upgrading. You find a card on Ebay with a listing error (perhaps a brown Old Mill) ...........................BINGO

Scenario C

Your wife is increasingly disgusted with your hobby. The refrigerator is broken, the roof leaks and you are still buying cardboard which addresses neither problem. She kicks you out of the house and divorce is just around the corner. You visit your attorney who is also a collector and he encourages you to hide your assets in .................................CARDBOARD

I'm sure there are many other scenarios. Share yours.

Scenario C fits my bill and when the wifey sees something new I always say:

Oh I've had that for years!! :D

I get upset and aggravated and stressed and I have two immediate reactions, 1-EAT, 2-BUY BASEBALL CARDS!!!!!

Another scenario is this:
I get an email from Ebay offering me 4 or 5 times Ebay Bucks for a buy of $150 or more, how can I resist???????

Going to have to go with option C. I've spent all my income tax. For me to have actually had it this long into the year is a miracle anyway.

The gf is expecting an engagement ring, me to be saving for our trip to Ireland, and to be saving for a house. All while paying the snake in the grass ex her hand-out of 40% of my income.

The cardboard helps me stay sane !!!

"gotta have it" doesn't so much apply to me and card collecting anymore! There are a few cards I "want" for my collection...and if the price is in my wheelhouse...I will get them...otherwise life goes on.

Agree with Pete
 

I'd never know if my set was complete or not, and there are a lot I know of that I could never afford, so I have my "I'd like to get" and my "Can I have a scan of that to keep forever" lists, but not a "gotta have it" list for me.

I am definitely in the "gotta have it" phase of my pursuit for a 52 Mantle. I realize this is a pre-war thread, but there's just something about that card. Not quite ready for a second mortgage, but I'm on a mission to find one.

My wife is a schoolteacher, and since she's been off this summer, there have been more packages arriving that she's had to sign for or collect from the front door because dang eBay sellers keep shipping small envelope-sized packages in 5"x5"x5" BOXES that don't fit in our mailbox!!! ;-)
Maybe I'll have to tell shippers that there are priority mail flat rate envelopes that would work JUST FINE!

Cardboard and Net 54 keeps me sane. Sort of.

Great approach! The same mostly applies to me, although there is one vintage card that falls in the thread category for me. It's rare enough to stretch for. Otherwise, I'm with you. On some that you know will be coming up again, the timing just isn't right.

One last caveat to buyers of current phenoms: If you have that urge for a one-of-whatever card of your favorite wunderkind, fight it and fight it hard!. You won't know what that player really turns out to be, career-wise, until he's in the downhill slide of his mid to late 30's, and the prices will be cheaper then in any event, since the speculative and transient components of current demand will no longer factor into the price.

Hope your collecting brings you a little bit of heaven,

Larry

I too have used the "I have had that for a while" excuse quite a few times...I am such a fibber...:p

need it
 

Im more a - gotta have then...then as pirice gets higher ... fade away and say..I'll wait till next time..it will be cheaper

I am more of a "when am I going to see another (and/or that looks like that)" so have to have that one now....kind of collector.

Good thread, Frank. I think I went through a (hopefully) early midlife crisis at like 30 where I all of a sudden thought of how awful it would be if I never got the cards that I wanted so badly as a kid and forgot about as a teenager. Well, I bought them, and it was cool, but the most satisfying were still the steals and good deals. So now, I just keep my eyes peeled for deals that are too good to miss and flip through my albums when bored, filled with the dreams of my youth.