Thursday, September 28, 2017

Collection Recession

For the first time in nearly a decade, my collection's growth has pretty much stalled after I put myself on a strict hobby budget last month.

On one hand, it's a little disheartening because collecting cards is one of the things I'm truly passionate about.  I know some people say you can't buy happiness... but I don't subscribe to that theory.  Adding a new Rickey Henderson relic card or Jose Altuve autograph to my collection always brings a smile to my face.  Unfortunately my self imposed budget restricts these purchases.

With that being said... I think the pros of creating this budget outweigh the cons.  I know it's early in the game, but I'm proud of the fact that I've been able to resist temptation and keep my purchases to a minimum.

In fact, I've only made two hobby purchases in the last forty-five days.  The first was one of Gio's 1930 Baseball Stars custom sets over at When Topps Had Balls.  The other is a card I've been chasing for almost two decades.


No.  I didn't spend hundreds of dollars for this Walter Payton.  I actually pulled it out of a pack way back in the day and I've been in love with the 1999 UD Retro Inkredible autographs ever since.

Since then, I've been slowly chasing down all of the hall of famers in the set.  There are currently eleven guys on the checklist that are enshrined at Canton... and two more who will eventually join them.







I have slowly picked them up over the years, but the one that always seemed to elude me was Roger Staubach.  I've bid on quite a few, but have never secured one for the collection until two weeks ago when an eBay vendor finally accepted my best offer after submitting multiple offers over the past few months.

Without further adieu, I present to you my first and only eBay purchase in over a month:

1999 UD Retro Inkredible #RG

It felt good to finally cross this card off of my wantlist.

I'm still going to chase down the remaining eight cards I need to complete this set, but now that I have Roger out of the way... I'm no longer in any rush.  Seven of the guys are draft picks who never lived up to expectations, so I'll patiently wait for them to fall into my price range.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

16 comments:

Jon said...

That is a really cool collection that you've got going there! Congrats on finally getting that elusive Staubach.

cynicalbuddha said...

Those are really great looking cards!

Billy Kingsley said...

I like that design much more than the one used for the NBA set. I couldn't even think of completing that one, as it has both Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain in it. I'm seriously considering cutting my card budget down as well. Got something else I want to do and it needs money to do it.

Dennis said...

Great players on a great design, very nice!

Wes Moore the former JBF said...

Those are beautiful Mark!

Greg Zakwin said...

congrats! that's one gorgeous set!

ketchupman36 said...

The cards sure are INKredible look!

ketchupman36 said...

*looking

Kin said...

Beautiful....congrats!

BobWalkthePlank said...

Congrats...I love that set!

GCA said...

Wow, never seen those before. They're excellent!

Fuji said...

Thanks! It's one of my favorite autographed football card designs.

Billy - Yeah. Out of all of the 1999 UD Inkredible designs, I liked football the most. The basketball set would be a fun set to build though. Can't imagine what the Jordan and Chamberlain go for though.

Daniel Wilson said...

Inkredible looking set indeed! Congrats on the recent addition!

Collecting Cutch said...

Wow! Awesome collection of beautiful designed cards and fantastic signatures. Wish Montana signed bigger and bolder.

Hackenbush said...

Wow, awesome collection! Broadway Joe is the standout for me. Maybe it's identification with thew aggressor but I've always wanted a Fran Tarkenton auto. Congrats on sticking to the budget.

Fuji said...

daniel wilson - thanks!

collecting cutch - i know. he went the small route compared to everyone else

hackenbush - tarkenton and namath were two of the toughest signatures to find right behind roger.