I think that sometimes, people tend to lose sight of what should be one of the greatest joys of collecting: you make the rules! It should never be the other way around. People like uniformity, so that is often the cause of this happening. Do you really want 5 unsightly Greg Maddux scribbles, or are you letting the parameters of your collection (which you came up with, by the way) control what you do? To me, that's no fun at all, and "fun" is what brought a lot of us here to begin with! Change the rules! It's in your power.
I can relate. We all can. When I collected, I was a completist. I wanted at least one of every MLB player. Unlike many, I wasn't as picky as to medium. 3x5s or cuts that would fit onto said were preferred, but I'd take anything, especially when it came to the very rare. And I was never concerned with pen/marker type/color.
But the rules changed. I became stuck in your same rut, albeit for different reasons. By the 1990s, the new players' autographs were becoming increasingly hideous to look at each year. I didn't even have any interest in the modern game, so what was I doing collecting this junk?! I was bound to a silly, self-imposed rule. I decided then and there to put a cap on this nonsense at the year 2000 debuts and call it a day with material that only made me cringe. Easy as that.
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