[brian1961]

Originally Posted by MattyC

The Registry was certainly a genius creation from the perspective of PSA, and how it ensnared so many participants.

Its salient feature, in my opinion, is how it got (and continues to get) so many collectors to spend money on cards they never really wanted, and would never really want, were it not for The Registry.

I, too, was once into it— and then I realized how deep into the weeds I had wandered. How far off course I had gotten, when I compared what originally would have satisfied me to what I was actually pursuing. The Registry also gets collectors to spend more time looking at other's sets with competitive eyes than looking at one's own cards with simple and pure enjoyment. And the cherry of lunacy atop all that, is that most Registry sets don't even feature pictures, so you wind up looking at a web page in a remote corner of the internet that shows only a grid with cards and opinions from graders who get it wrong a good deal of the time.

For me, the epiphany— or should I say intervention— came when my brother took me to task for spending thousands on commons. He had such a fresh, genuine, outsider perspective on it, that cut through the fog; he said something like, "Dude, what the &*@# are you doing? You just spent thousands on a Wayne Twitchell. Wayne Twitchell? Who the hell was Wayne Twitchell and why on earth would you spend that much on him? I don't care how few exist with that stupid sticker on it, you can get that same card in almost identical condition for so much less. You're a moron. Go spend that on a player or card you actually always wanted."

And like that, the spell was broken, LOL. I consigned that set and built my collection, going after all the cards I always wanted as a kid. I was back to collecting for myself, not for PSA, or to compete with utter strangers.

Excellent, thought-provoking, and well-written post, MattyC. Thank you. -- Brian Powell