By the mid 80's, they were the heart of my baseball card collection. Pulling rookie cards of Gwynn, Mattingly, Gooden, and Canseco felt like winning a jackpot on a slot machine. Things started to shift for me in the 90's. That's when I started trying to hoard inserts and eventually collect autographs and memorabilia cards.
These days modern inserts do little for me, but I still enjoy picking up autographs and relics. As for rookie cards? My interest was resurrected a few years ago along with a lot of current collectors.
However it's not quite the same as when I was a kid. Back then, I relied on my parents to buy packs for me, so I might only add a handful of nice rookie cards to the collection each year. As an adult, I'm fortunate enough to have the discretionary funds to allow me to add nice rookie cards with a click of a button.
That doesn't mean I hit up eBay and blow my savings on cardboard. In fact, I've cut back a lot recently which has allowed me to dig into my collection and appreciate cards that have been looked at once, thrown into a box, and in some cases forgotten.
This Reggie Jackson is a perfect example:
1969 Topps Decals #NNO
As an avid Oakland Athletics fan and card collector, I have long yearned to own a copy of Reggie Jackson's 1969 Topps rookie card. Unfortunately, they've always been a little too pricey for my taste..
So last summer, I settled for the decal version instead. It's not a card, nor is it considered a rookie... but I was happy to finally add a 1969 Topps Reggie Jackson to my Oakland A's collection. It's just a shame that it's taken me almost a year to share it on my blog. Why? Like I said... I forgot about it.
I won't be going back into my classroom for the rest of the school year... and it's starting to look like my summer school gig may be cancelled. The good news is I'll be able to sit down, go through some more boxes, and appreciate some abandoned purchases that have been buried for far too long. Stay tuned. I'll be sharing whatever I find in future posts.
In the meantime...
Do you have any boxes or binders sitting in your collection that haven't been opened in years? Do you ever feel like you neglect certain parts of your collection?
Looking forward to reading your responses. Happy Thursday and sayonara!
19 comments:
I have some binders that I rarely go through - 90's hockey sets, mostly. Everything else I've skimmed through recently since I cataloged my entire collection in December/January. But there are some things that I want to enjoy a little more while we're all in quarantine.
I go through my player binders pretty regularly but some of the sets I have completed and paged up and my team binders/boxes of Giants/Niners/Trojans aren't looked at all that often. That is something I am trying to rectify lately and taking some time to enjoy by collection as opposed to adding more and more all the time.
Love the Reggie, I have one as part of my Reggie collection but it is nowhere near as nice as yours.
I think it's a rookie "card". Adding to all my binders lately.
Very nice Reggie card. I have no authority, obviously, but that's a rookie in my book. And you KNOW Topps would smack and RC on that if it was a current rookie.
My collection is relatively small, but yet I feel like I ignore the complete sets. They are boxes so not really easily look-at-able. Whereas my Strawberry, Kruk and Vintage/HOFer card collections grow somewhat regularly.
Never,I log everything once I acquire it,I hate "loose ends".
I too love the lil Reggie! Similar to Peter, I definitely ignore the complete sets. But I've been all over the rest lately! Even though I have it in my mind to downsize the collection, every time I look at it, I end up wanting to go get more...
OH YEAH, all of the time.
I know exactly what is in my collection at all times...I even keep track of the exact order I get cards.
Now, knowing what box they are in? That's not really something I know. Once I finish scanning everything and get my sets back together, I plan to label each box...I am not sure if I will write the contents on the box itself, or number them and make an Excel chart listing the numbers. The intent was always to wright directly on the box but the number idea hit me while typing this reply and I think I might like it better- that way I can always adjust the boxes as needed without having to cross anything out.
I often forget what I have or let things get unruly. Probably part of a main reason I hate sorting.
I even addressed the not knowing which boxes things were in a couple of days ago in my recent Lost & Found post.
I need to get better with looking at/enjoying the cards already in my collection. But I'm nowhere near the stuff I constantly see on Twitter where people somehow forget about Mike Trout autographs they threw into a box seven years ago (or things to that effect).
Question one: No.
Question two: "neglect" isn't a word I'd ever use with my collection. It's MY collection, I pay attention to what I want. If I'm not paying attention to it, there's a good reason and it isn't "neglect."
Finding things you'd forgotten about is one of the joys of collecting, no?
And then you find a second one and you think 'maybe I need a system here'
I have so many boxes and binders I haven't looked at in many years. This past weekend I found two Giannis rookies sitting in them when I did a quick dig through looking for my Psych base sets to binder
Yes and no. Maybe I'm neglecting the sets that I put together in the 80s and 90s or purchased just to keep the complete run intact. I have also been working on purging some of the oddball oversized stuff that was in a box untouched for a few years.
Having so much volume, I've got plenty of stuff that I'd have to dust off to look at. I do lament the fact that when I build certain sets, all I look at is the card numbers, and then close the box for years. I try to make a point of at least going through the set when it's done and trying to appreciate it a little. I am also at the point that I find stuff I didn't remember I had. Might start offering up some neglected batches or sets that I don't care so much about.
Like others, I've ignored complete sets. So far I only took a nice look at my 1981 set. Since I am also home throughout May I hope to look at all of my sets from the 1970s.
chris - oh man, there are definitely 90's hockey sets that haven't seen daylight in years sitting in my collection
arpsmith - i haven't even started building my team binders. right now most of my team pcs sit in boxes, with the exception of player pcs. it's gonna happen one day though... i hope
friend - i like to think it's a rookie, but i have friends who will argue with me that it's not
peter k. steinberg - that's so true about modern topps. every card produced of that player gets a rc logo. i totally understand the "not so easy look-at-able". i've got stuff buried under tons of other stuff.
sg488 - nice. i'd love to be able to snap my fingers and have everything in my collection inventoried. i used to think that one day it would happen. i think a better goal for myself would be to inventory my gwynn pc first... and move forward from there
the diamond king - that's good that you've been diving into your collection. i'm taking it one box/binder at a time. if i don't work this summer... i might actually get to see a good percentage of it
johnnys trading spot - nice ;D
billy kingsley - i'm so jealous of you organized collectors. i actually have a lot of my sets inventoried, but some are buried under a lot of boxes... so they don't get to see daylight very often
the lost collector - the good news is we get to appreciate them all over again when we stumble across them :D
nick - if i owned a trout autograph, no way i'd forget about that. although i did find a dennis rodman autograph sitting in my collection that sells for triple digits. still... it's not a trout.
night owl - lol. you crack me up buddy. one of my students keeps me on my toes, because he requires precise language. glad to hear you don't neglect your collection. you're the yin to my yang.
jongudmund - exactly. i love finding forgotten treasure. and i totally need a system, because i've bought duplicates more than i'd like to admit. in fact it happened two days ago with my sportlots order
sport card collectors - wow. nice find. gotta love buried treasure
gcrl - my goal is to sit down this summer and go through my bindered 80's sets at some point. i feel like i haven't flipped through them since i put them into 9-pocket pages. you should post those oddball oversized stuff on your blog. maybe some readers would be interested in purchasing them from you ;)
gca - sounds like we're not alone. i'm sure there are plenty of people who will be interested in your trade bait.
runforekelloggs - if i had a bunch of kellogg's sets, my other sets would get really jealous... because i'd give them a high percentage of my attention
I feel like I have definitely neglected parts of my collection. I have a longer summer break this year, so I am going to hopefully get some sorting done.
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