How Orderly is your Card Collecting? What is your Scatter Factor?

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by mrmopar

I become a little overwhelmed when I go into my card storage area. I'd say that for the last 2+ decades, my focus has been on obtaining only items I like. Value didn't play a factor, other than to allow me to buy or trade for what I could afford. I stopped buying packs and boxes and shifted to only buying sure things, aside from a random lot here and there. When I go to a show or shop, same result. It's not that I was buying collections or anything early on, I was just as apt to buy a box of the latest issue and maybe a few singles. Now, it would be more like a handful of singles and a few oddball items/small sets and that is it.

However, I just like too many things. I don't discriminate between vintage or new, singles or sets (smaller sets usually), mainstream or oddball. I collect just about anything/everything Dodgers, but will add a Yankee or Giant just as enthusiastically. Baseball is my primary interest, but have dabbled into other sports and even some non-sport as well. I like autographs & smaller memorabilia (cans, cups, figures, etc - storage factor) as well.

Clearly my focus has lead to a collection that is perfect for me, so I imagine someone like me walking into a shop loaded with my stuff, figuring they'd be amazed!

The overwhelming feelings I get are mainly coming from imagining how I could dismantle something like this that I've worked many years to assemble. I might open a few boxes and find 100s of items that I bought individually and are now together, but should not be sold as a group! I really don't even know where I would start. I don't want to burden my wife or kids with it, but in reality, I would like to be separated from the process so I can't interfere.

I completely understand them overwhelming feelings. I really need to get rid of about 95% of what I have. I burned the complete junk a couple years ago. Filled a 55 gallon barrel twice with junk era cards. I recently started digging through it again. Hopefully this time I can stick to it. Finding cool stuff I have not seen in 15+ years is fun.