The "Why am I wasting my time/money" thread

[frankhardy]

For me, I guess the thing that fits the original topic is....I am actually considering spending several hundred dollars on a 1956 Topps.....wait for it...wrapper! I have completed my Topps set run project from 1953 to present. I have a pack for each set down to my birth year of 1975. I have settled for a wrapper from each year to finish the rest. I still need 1953 and 1956. I think it is a neat addition to each set....but....really? It's a wrapper for crying out loud!

Having said all of that, this topic makes me think of my reasoning for participating in this hobby in the first place. I have often thought....why in the world do I collect cardboard pictures of baseball players? I have come to one conclusion. I love baseball....and I love history. I was not good enough to play professionally. To me, this is my personal attachment to the history of baseball. It is my personal historical archive. That is the way I look at it. As far as the financial aspect goes....generally speaking, these little artifacts hold their value. To me, I can be another form of money. If I needed the money, I could just turn around and sell them. Hopefully that doesn't ever happen.

So, with all of that in mind....why would anyone EVER spend ANY amount of money on a 1988 Topps set? Because if you want the complete run of sets, you have to have it. I am just OCD enough for it to drive me crazy if I had a hole like that in my run. As I have said before....I'm just glad they didn't make a Topps set in 1952!

[homerunderby]

Originally Posted by frankhardy

For me, I guess the thing that fits the original topic is....I am actually considering spending several hundred dollars on a 1956 Topps.....wait for it...wrapper! I have completed my Topps set run project from 1953 to present. I have a pack for each set down to my birth year of 1975. I have settled for a wrapper from each year to finish the rest. I still need 1953 and 1956. I think it is a neat addition to each set....but....really? It's a wrapper for crying out loud!

Having said all of that, this topic makes me think of my reasoning for participating in this hobby in the first place. I have often thought....why in the world do I collect cardboard pictures of baseball players? I have come to one conclusion. I love baseball....and I love history. I was not good enough to play professionally. To me, this is my personal attachment to the history of baseball. It is my personal historical archive. That is the way I look at it. As far as the financial aspect goes....generally speaking, these little artifacts hold their value. To me, I can be another form of money. If I needed the money, I could just turn around and sell them. Hopefully that doesn't ever happen.

So, with all of that in mind....why would anyone EVER spend ANY amount of money on a 1988 Topps set? Because if you want the complete run of sets, you have to have it. I am just OCD enough for it to drive me crazy if I had a hole like that in my run. As I have said before....I'm just glad they didn't make a Topps set in 1952!

I totally get the wrappers- it captures the excitement of seeing these on the shelf in the drug store. And these days actually unopened it prohibitively expensive so wrappers make a lot of sense.

Before the hobby got big (think 1981) collecting wrappers was pretty popular, at least more popular than now. Check this out, there was a guy who had a magazine just focused on wrappers. Amazingly he still publishes it!
http://www.thewrappermagazine.com/