I'm a 70's kid who got my first wax packs (1977/78 Star Wars 4th & 5th series) in 1979 from Woolco, and I've been a collector ever since. Over the decades my collecting focus has changed many times.
Below is a timeline (as I remember it):
- 1980's - Ripping all the packs I could get my hands on and also collecting 1940's-60's baseball HOF'ers anytime I could get someone to take me to the card shop about 15 miles away.
- 1990's - The first half of the decade I was ripping all the newest shiny cards and chasing refractors, etc.. In 1997 I discovered eBay/PSA and I was off to the races buying slabbed vintage; especially T-cards and 1950's baseball. I also started collecting unopened packs and boxes.
- 2000-2010 - I chased a lot of high grade PSA sets and at one time had over 1,000 PSA graded cards. I collected exclusively vintage football for a few years and then exclusively vintage hockey for a few years, and continued collecting vintage unopened material. I was also ripping a lot of vintage packs around 2000-2005 and submitting the best cards to PSA.
- 2011-15 - I was collecting pretty much anything pre-1970 that was PSA 8-10 grade and unopened material.
- 2016-2024 - Starting in early 2016 the need to own everything started to dwindle and I started to sell/downsize while upgrading my collection. I'd often sell 10-40 cards and roll that money into one higher-dollar/rare card. Since 2021 I don't think my collection has been more than 100 pieces at any time, and I like that.
- The future - Not sure where I'm going to go from here. I find myself selling more than I'm buying this year and have contemplated selling it all and moving those funds to an entirely new hobby. I'll always be a collector of something, just not sure it will be sports cards going forward. That seems strange to think about considering I've collected cardboard for 40+ years, but at the end of the day it's all just "stuff" and I feel like I've kinda lost the passion for sports collecting.