Collecting Focus: Share Your Story

[robw1959]

For those among us whose collecting focus has shifted over the years, how and why has it shifted?

In my case, I recall glomming onto the Goudey Wide Pen and Fine Pen premiums that always came up in Frank Nagy's mail auctions. I told myself that those babies were sure to appreciate in value in the years to come because they were so cheap for being so old at the time. But I always found money to spend on one of Topps's first issues ever - the 1950 team cards. For some reason, I thought they were quite rare at the time, so I could justify spending $20 apiece on those, and wound up with a half-dozen or so at a time when I believe I could have had a Goudey Ruth or two for the same cost as all of those. I also had some "fun" cards that seemed to be priced just about right - regular Topps and Bowman issues of 1950s Hall of Famers. I had a bunch just because I liked them.

In time, it was those cards that I liked that grew in my collection, while those I owned strictly for their upside value dwindled away to nothing.

Aesthetics and value were and still are my two main reasons for collecting, but I have shifted my buying decisions toward buying only cards I personally enjoy having in my collection, reasoning that my own preferences are valid enough to solely drive my buying decisions. I think that formula has worked out pretty well for me.

How about yourself? Has your focus been similar, or have you taken a different route. I imagine some of us have been down a long and winding road on the way to where our collections stand today. Feel free to share your story and inspire us with your collecting passions.

[Leon]

My Focus has always been type cards. I tried a few sets but always come back to type collecting. Variety is the spice of life!
.

[BioCRN]

1800s-current graded Cubs. HOF, stars, notables. 1888 Allen and Ginter Cap Anson...check. 1991 Bowman Rick Wilkins...check. It's almost 250 cards and counting. The focus has expanded for the "notables" over the years and allowed me to make the collection more robust.

1950-2011 graded HOF, stars, notables. Everyone who's 1960+ is a RC. It used to be 2001 based on the Pujols/Ichiro hobby milestone. I expanded it to 2011 a few years ago because I wanted to bring things up to the Trout era.

Those are my main 2 collections. There are others, such as a Mark Grace ungraded collection in a binder and various oversized Cubs vintage/pre-war.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by BioCRN

1800s-current graded Cubs. HOF, stars, notables. 1888 Allen and Ginter Cap Anson...check. 1991 Bowman Rick Wilkins...check. It's almost 250 cards and counting. The focus has expanded for the "notables" over the years and allowed me to make the collection more robust.

1950-2011 graded HOF, stars, notables. Everyone who's 1960+ is a RC. It used to be 2001 based on the Pujols/Ichiro hobby milestone. I expanded it to 2011 a few years ago because I wanted to bring things up to the Trout era.

Those are my main 2 collections. There are others, such as a Mark Grace ungraded collection in a binder and various oversized Cubs vintage/pre-war.

Nice, my younger brother who got me into the hobby was a huge Mark Grace collector.

I started out collecting Wade Boggs cards and then quickly added error cards of any kind to my want list. Over the years I have collected pretty much everything card related. I still collect cards but it is pretty rare I find something I want. A hobby friend and fellow member got me into bats. I have a cool Eddie Mathews Spline bat and then I have around 40 different Wade Boggs bats. I have pretty much everything from a little kids T-Ball model to one of his 1/1 All-Star bats. They have become kinda like cards. Because I have so many different models it is very rare I run across one I don't already have.

[conor912]

Originally Posted by Leon

My Focus has always been type cards. I tried a few sets but always come back to type collecting. Variety is the spice of life!
.

I'm the polar opposite Tried type collecting, but the thrill of accomplishing a goal and completing a project always lures me back!

[Bpm0014]

I collect everything and anything T206 related. After I put together a 521 card complete set I didn’t know where to go from there. So I then started collecting everything and anything related to the T206 set (with a focus on their game used bats). I’m up to roughly 40 game used bats. I’ve also acquired a Hal Chase game used mitt, a Pat Moran game used mitt, a bunch of type 1 photographs, and a couple single signed baseballs. Side note: All funded 100% through poker and sports betting winnings.

[HercDriver]

I started collecting, buying my first packs as a seven year old, in 1974. It's still my favorite Topps set, like getting that first kiss from your girlfriend, I guess. As the years went on, I worked my way back, and completed most of the Topps sets, but just couldn't get myself to pull the trigger on the Mantle and Mays cards, because, as a Cubs guy, I just couldn't give two shits about either one of them. I went to my first big show in Chicago, around 1981 or so. I don't think it was the national, but maybe it was...maybe my year is wrong, whatever. Anyway, I was wandering the aisles, looking for Cubs, and a dealer had a T205 Chance, with mouse bites on a corner or two. I had never considered a card that old, but was immediately intrigued. He said he'd throw in a few more commons, so I went all in, with my limited budget. That started me on my T205 quest, which was completed about 15 years later. Along the way, I started looking for T202s, just as beautiful, and pretty cheap. I never finished those, but still have them, and might go back to them. The T205s have always been my love, so I decided to go for a complete back set. I chose Sovereign, so I could get all the Cubs, and there was no Cobb. I knocked that out a few years ago, and decided to go with the T206 Sovereign backs, just to complete my smoke 'em, if you got 'em set. I'm still working on those, and unfortunately, four Cobbs. So that's where I am now. I also collect a few hockey sets, being an aged skater myself. I'm not in a big enough social group to play softball anymore, like I was forever in the military, but I still have plenty of options to lace them up and play hockey, so I really like those old hockey sets. You've probably seen my auctions on the BST. I'm a long time member of OBC, so I'm always checking lists for those guys. When I pull the binders out, I put the extras on the BST. Anyway, that's my story, in a nutshell, I suppose. I really wish there were more traders here, but I guess PP back and forth is trading, in it's own way...

Cheers,
Geno

[Jstottlemire1]

I've collected Ruth and Cobb mainly with a sprinkle of iconic rookie cards over the years. When I got sick I sold alot of my collection to fund medical expenses and have since taken on the task, a tough one at that of building Jackie Robinson Bond Bread set in PSA. Also I've built his basic set in a high eye appeal mid grade run that I slowly work to upgrade. The Bond Cards are the highest of priority though and all in nice crease free condition so far. The population and availability on a few however may lead to adding a few examples of what comes to the market. This will take a lot of time and patience I expect 6-8 years perhaps.

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by robw1959

For those among us whose collecting focus has shifted over the years, how and why has it shifted?

My collecting focus hasn't so much shifted over the years as expanded. Back in 1979 I set out to reacquire the cards and premium coins (Hockey, Baseball, CFL, Warship) I had during my childhood collecting years of 1959 to 1965. When I started to get close to completing those goals, I expanded my focus to those cards of which I was aware but didn't actively collect as a kid for financial or other reasons. For example, I collected the 1962 Shirriff Baseball coins as a kid:



But after after acquiring a set, I branched out into collecting all the metal Baseball coins including these 1963 Salada ones:



And now that I've acquired all the Canadian 1962 Post Baseball cards but the super tough short prints:



I've started to peck away at the American 1962 Post Baseball cards as well:



And of course I've stretched out in both directions beyond my collecting years as a kid (though more back in time) to basically any cards from about 1950 to 1972 that I think look neat, e.g. 1954 and 1955 Topps Baseball.

[OhioLawyerF5]

My collecting focus is most generally summed up as Cincinnati Reds. That said, I don't just collect everything Reds. I mostly have 4 parts to my collection: Modern, Vintage, Pre-War, and Larkin. I collect rookies and first bowman autos of present-day Reds players that I like. I try to limit it to one or two cards per player. I also collect full Topps player runs of all Reds HOFers (and a few non-HOF stars) from the golden era, through today. Which basically includes names like Rose, Robinson, Bench, Morgan, etc... I also got at least one autographed card featuring those players in a Reds uniform. My Barry Larkin PC mostly focuses on rare 90s inserts/parallels. That hunt keeps me busy pretty much indefinitely as some of those cards are not only very expensive, but only come up for sale once a decade or so. Then my pre-war Reds collection is focused on all HOFers who ever played for or managed the Reds in their career, no matter how short the duration. My goal is to get every card of those players in a Reds uniform. The fun in that is finding some obscure sets for players who only spent a few years (or even a few games) with the Reds. Most of my collecting time is spent chasing Larkin cards. I pick up the modern stuff whenever I decide I want something of that player, as it's generally easy to find whenever I look. So it takes mere minutes. The pre-war search I try to use my time at card shows for. I rarely search online for those cards.

[here2havefun]

Collected all throughout childhood, then got back into the hobby in late 2018.

Early 2019 I got hooked on Venezuelan Topps issues, that's been a core of my PC since then.

I have other PC segments, but the Venezuelan Topps have been the cards that have brought me the most joy.

Biggest pickup of this year:

[bcbgcbrcb]

The first things that I remember collecting were Disney ceramic miniature statues when I was about 5 years old. We lived in Miami at the time and made an annual drive to the Magic Kingdom. When I was about 7, I started to visit the newsstands every month buying the latest Marvel & DC comic books. By 9, I became hooked on sports cards, beginning in 1977 and within a year, I was collecting not only baseball but football, basketball and hockey, buying packs at the local candy store. During the late 70’s and early 80’s, I put the complete sets together each year. By the mid 80’s, I was big into the rookie card craze, which is something that would stick with me as my collection began to grow, eventually morphing into collecting autographs during the 90’s, primarily obtained at minor league games and spring training each year. By the early 2000’s, grading was becoming a big thing and I got into BGS 10 Pristine rookie cards of guys like Bonds, Griffey, Sosa, Kobe, etc. Prices for these were starting to reach 4 figures and one day, while scouring eBay, I noticed a 59 Topps Bob Gibson rookie card for $40. I thought, why spend thousands on these modern cards when the player could have a career ending injury at any time when I can buy a HOF legend for pennys on the dollar. Thus, my transformation to vintage card collector began in 2004.

For the next 10 years, I set out to collect a rookie card of every member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, or as close to a rookie card as I could afford. By 2014, I had something for every one of the 310 individuals and decided to move on to a new challenge so I sold everything I had at auction and put all of those funds into Negro League baseball memorabilia. I did that until 2021 when, once again, I pivoted and started primarily collecting iconic cards from all 4 sports, which is pretty much what I am still doing today, with an increased emphasis on obscure stuff.

[BuzzD]

For the past 40 yrs or so I have tried to collect everyone who has played for the Yankees, and particularly in a Yankee uniform. If no BB card exists, I search for original photos in a Yankee uni, and in absence of either a card or photo, I collect autographs, non-NYY cards and non-NYY original photos. I will use original pages from guides, original team photos, etc as well. A particular subset is players with only a single game as a Yankee. My latest purchase is a 1926 photo of George Kiddo Davis, who after graduating from NYU had one game. It is a wide-ranging collection including many really scarce images, type cards, an even 1 lantern slide of Boardwalk Brown, a 1915 Yankee who only appeared in a 1915 team photo otherwise. The hunt is not confined to vintage items. For example, I cannot find an original image of Rick Honeycutt in a Yankee uni. There are other post WW2 recent examples as well. Send PM if anyone wants a link to my Flickr page to get a better feel for this effort.

[Zach Wheat]

Started out collecting the early '52 Topps set and then branched into early T cards (T200, 201, 205 & 206). Probably should have listened when someone warned me about my goals.....along the way learned a lot from some great guys

[WillowGrove]

Originally Posted by BuzzD

For the past 40 yrs or so I have tried to collect everyone who has played for the Yankees, and particularly in a Yankee uniform. If no BB card exists, I search for original photos in a Yankee uni, and in absence of either a card or photo, I collect autographs, non-NYY cards and non-NYY original photos. I will use original pages from guides, original team photos, etc as well. A particular subset is players with only a single game as a Yankee. My latest purchase is a 1926 photo of George Kiddo Davis, who after graduating from NYU had one game. It is a wide-ranging collection including many really scarce images, type cards, an even 1 lantern slide of Boardwalk Brown, a 1915 Yankee who only appeared in a 1915 team photo otherwise. The hunt is not confined to vintage items. For example, I cannot find an original image of Rick Honeycutt in a Yankee uni. There are other post WW2 recent examples as well. Send PM if anyone wants a link to my Flickr page to get a better feel for this effort.

Buzz I found this photo in a NYC Newspaper so one does exist!

[brewing]

I've been all over the place in my collecting.
Collect every Topps set from 1969 to present,
acquire every post war HoF rookie card,
then every Topps card of all HoFers,
Accomplished all of these pursuits.
Complete the major release Tiger team sets up to 1980.

Then at some point about 10 years ago, I started to abandon all but my Tiger team set pursuit. Mostly because those other cards did not bring me joy.
Flipped that money into T-206's and completed 520 this year.

Now my only focus is collecting pre-war Tiger team sets and type cards of Tigers.

Since we are here for the cards. Here is a picture of a team set I'm working on. I acquired this card here and I'm down to 1 to complete the E121 Series of 80 Tiger team set. Veach arms folded.