I find it interesting how some collectors feel that the registry is a "competition"....and it very well maybe, but IMO, for the minority of users. Some of my better collecting buddies I have met, I have met via the registry...we have completed trades, looked out for cards for one another, not bid on a card we both needed, etc....ultimately rooted for our friends to succeed. One registry friend of mine worked the 71 and 72 sets at the same time .... the competition was non-existent, my 72 set was nicer than his, his 71 nicer than mine. I feel he worked as hard on my set as I did on mine or his.
It's been 13 years since we finished these sets...he has since sold his 71 and 72 sets and we have not worked on the same set since, but I still hear from him a few times a year to catch up on life and collecting.
My most ironic registry story occurred when I took my kids to a card shop in a town about 2 hours from home. While flipping through the dollar boxes with my kids, I hear a customer telling the owner about his visit to town and his 1962 PSA set. As the conversation was just a few feet away, it was hard not to hear. The collector disclosed he was solidly in his spot for this set....I pulled my phone out and confirmed on the PSA app what I already knew, he was only a handful of PSA 8s ahead of me. So I entered the conversation and disclosed the fact he was just a few ahead of the guy behind him.....both of the owner and the collector looked at me funny before the collector asked, "how do you know this?". "I am the guy behind you"...what were the odds that two guys ranked next to each other in the top 20 of a set were randomly in the same out of town card shop at the same time?
This was a few years ago, could have stayed and talked with this guy for hours, but my kids nagged me to go play mini golf.
For me, the registry has been more about friendships and meeting folks than the "competition" of it.
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