Beginnings, Personal Drummers and Adult Card Hobby Preferences...

[Exhibitman]

I think I get the gist of the OP. For me, it was three issues that got me interested:

1973 Topps all time leaders. Reading the top 10 on each card back was an education.

1975 Topps MVPs. To this day I still get a bit of a buzz from them.

1976 Topps ATG subset. I worked so hard to finish that set that year.

Then there was what turned out to be a 1961 Golden Press Cobb. I got that in a collection and thought it was really special.

Right now, I still pursue SSPC and TCMA cards, various Laughlin cards, the 1961 GP cards, and the 1960 Fleer ATG cards. The ones from the 1980s leave me cold. By the time they started flowing I'd already departed the scene not to return until the late 1980s, so I have no warm fuzzies of them.

[steve B]

I've collected various things pretty much my whole life.
My grandmother got me started with stamps and coins, and I added rocks, shells, insects, old bottles and insulators.... bought all of one pack in 69, another in 71. 73 moved to a new town and all the kids were doing cards.

And what a great time to start too.
Got to see the end of Willie Mays career, The Dolphins going unbeaten, Aaron breaking the record, the Red Sox almost winning the series, It seemed like every new season in every sport brought something amazing.

The Hank Aaron specials in the 74 set made me aware of cards older than I knew. Got my first "vintage" card from a friend, a 68 Matthews.
New town again in late 77, and a town that had a baseball card store with all sorts of cards. It became a hangout for me.

I've added other collectibles, and still keep up a bit with my other hobbies, sometimes more, sometimes less.

[mrmopar]

I was thinking about something similar the other day. I truly like a little bit of everything. I can appreciate a T206 as much as a 2023 refractor as much as a 1970s TCMA collector issue. For many years, I would read through catalogs and price guides, putting together checklists of cards that looked and or sounded appealing.

In fact, the regular issue cards tend to be a bit boring and lower priority for me because everyone had them. i liked the odd stuff that was less commonly seen. I am lucky that I got a lot of that stuff when ebay was developing into the site it is today. I can still buy 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan cards until i run out of money, but finding a nice Stahl Meyer or Wilson Franks is a different story.

I guess all this to say that I may sometimes like a cheap collector issue or base Topps card as much as i do a vintage HOF worth $100s-1000s.

In addition, I have completely fallen for signed cards, non-certified got me started, but the pack certified cards that come out each year are my main target these days. I just can't get enough signed cards, certified or otherwise.

[Seven]

I've always liked collecting, regardless of what it was. I'm a bit on the younger end of regular posters on the forum but I can break down what I collected. Baseball and Pokemon cards were the two primary focus from a very young age. The latter was whatever was shiny, the former were cards my father handed down to me, or the occasional pack of cards that I was given.

A lot of stories of collecting were exchanged as well. My Father told me many times, about the cards he collected, and how he always looked forward to putting the cards of star players, on his bicycle. The amount of Mantle's he went through was a staggering amount, as he loved the Mick. Something that was eventually passed down to me.

I really appreciated any and all cards, even the novelty "vintage" ones. I remember receiving a set of 1933 Goudey Reprint Cards one year for Christmas because I was always interested in the "Big Three" of Ruth, Foxx and Gehrig. 9 year old me, didn't care that they were reprints, I just thought they were cool. I was collecting for enjoyment.

I still think I collect for enjoyment, I just understand the financial ramifications nowadays. I still appreciate the random commons of vintage players, such my 1952 Topps Johnny Mize, Just as I appreciate my t206 Eddie Collins. I have noticed the more I learn about players from our past through various forms of media, the more I want to own some of their cards.

I'm not sure if many on this forum are familiar with the game Out of the Park Baseball, but the premise is you can pick a team from any point in history and play out a sort of fictional retelling of baseball. During the many hours I sunk into the game, I found myself growing attached to a pitcher, Tex Carlton. In real life, Carlton was serviceable and had some solid seasons for the Cardinals in the 1930's. In the game, however? Carlton was a world beater! He won 350+ games for the New York Yankees, in this fictional historic universe. It made me want to own a card of him! Which I purchased.

I'm rambling a bit at this point but I think this much is clear, I'm still collecting for the enjoyment. Reprints, and random vintage commons and all!

[Exhibitman]

I find as I am getting into my 5th decade of collecting that my interests are more esoteric and obscure, and low cost. I was always more interested in offbeat and oddball card issues than mainstream, but now it has slipped into non-traditional sports, non-sports, premiums, team issues, and photos. Thankfully, not publications. The projects I enjoy the most right now are:

--Vintage NASCAR postcards
--Prewar Art Nouveau and Art Deco prints and postcards from Japan
--Comedians and musicians cards and photos
--Sports photos, especially vintage snapshots.
--Matchbooks and matchbox labels
--Nonsports

Almost none of it is valuable or expensive as compared to sports cards.

[Kutcher55]

Not a fan of SSPC. The whole project feels unauthentic to me although that is more a belief based on emotion than fact.

In terms of the conflict between nice high grade cards and ungraded junkers, I accept both into my collection but I tend to compartmentalize. All my Yaz base cards must be PSA 7+ and I like it that way, but for my 1960-1990 HOF RC collection it's all ungraded and there are a lot of poor cards in there -- both the Seaver and Ryan would grade 1 if I sent them in and that's ok. Other than feeling like my collection "should" have these iconic cards in them, I don't feel a huge emotional attachment to them, whereas Yaz was my guy growing up. That doesn't mean I have zero emotional attachment to those cards or I wouldn't own them in the first place.

There's an element to my collecting of "if I die I would want the people who find my collection to be impressed," which is silly of course and perhaps emblematic of human limitations, or at least my own.

For reasons illustrated above I have shifted away from high priced examples of Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Clemente, etc. The ones I have are all raw and mostly low grade. Several have great centering and eye appeal and a few do not, although I have pared down the ones that don't. Gone are my Brooks Robinson and Bob Gibson RCs -- I had them in beautiful midgrade examples but I sold them and replaced them with Red Sox pre-war because I'm a Red Sox fan and I decided I wanted my Sox collection to be more impressive. Oddly, I also branched out to 21st century Red Sox cards this year. They are mostly super cheap. I buy ungraded. Hell, these guys won 4 championships, so I want the Ortiz, Manny, Varitek, Lester, Pappelbon, Wakefield, Elsbury, Beckett, Koji, Victorino, Gomez, even a-hole Curt Schilling, Bellhorn, Pedro, Damon, Youk, the Drew brothers, etc. represented in my collection. Much of what Topps has produced in the 21st century is not to my liking, but they made a few awesome sets, particularly 2011.