Have you ever made a general statement similar to... "every collector should try to pick up one of these"? If so, you're not alone. I've written posts encouraging people to collect specific things... and I've left comments on blogs along the same lines.
But deep down inside... it's these types of statements and comments that go against the heart of my collecting philosophy... which is... to collect what you want to collect... as long as you're having fun and not intentionally hurting others in the process.
Cynical Buddha wrote a very interesting post a few weeks ago about this very subject. Originally I had planned on featuring it in my This Week in Blogging post, but I wanted to elaborate on things, so here we are.
His post essentially defines what a "collector" is, then breaks them down into different categories. By the end of the post, I realized that I pretty much fell into every one of them. And since it's always good to do a little self-reflection... today I figured I'd break down who I am in regards to collecting... while summarizing CB's collector descriptions.
Here we go...
#1: The Hoarder - A collector who collects everything, but rarely sells or parts with anything from their collection.
My collection ranges from baseball cards to Star Wars cards... and the last time I sold a card was years ago. The one thing that keeps me from becoming a Super Hoarder is storage space and despising clutter. That's why I have no problem giving away or donating cards.
#2: The Sports Collector - A collector who collects cards from one or more sports.
1990 Players International Sample #1
If you had a few days to dig though my collection, you'd find baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer, sumo wrestling, golf, track & field, racing, surfing, horse racing, skateboarding, gymnastics, and probably a few other sports that have slipped my mind.
#3: The Team Collector - A collector who focuses their collection on a team or two (or three or four).
I collect a bunch of different professional sports teams ranging from the Oakland A's to the San Jose Earthquakes, but I even collect cards from college teams like San Jose State University and other Bay Area colleges.
#4: The Player Collector - A collector who collects a specific player... or players.
1991-92 Hoops #579
A few of my larger player collections fall under my team collections, but not all of them. I also enjoy collecting guys like Steve Carlton, Frank Thomas, Barry Bonds, Thurman Munson, Greg Maddux, Rod Carew, Jackie Robinson, Jose Altuve, Clayton Kershaw, Michael Jordan, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Joe Sakic, Martin Brodeur, and Mike Modano.
#5: The Set Collector - A collector who likes to build base or insert sets.
1981 Topps #430
I love owning complete sets. Okay... so these days I do prefer to buy them over building them. That being said... I'm still in the process of building a ton of different sets and I'll probably always have a least a handful sitting on my active list.
#6: The Hit Collector - A collector who enjoys collecting hits. This can be defined as added value content like autographs, relics, serial numbered cards, parallels, printing plates, and inserts.
I'm still one of those collectors who gets excited when I pull a hit from a pack of cards. I caught the bug back in the 90's and have been dealing with it for thirty years.
#7: The Refined Collector - A collector who is very, very selective in regards to their collection.
1996 Pro Stamps Padres
Five years ago, I was in full shopaholic mode... which is why my collection contains a little bit of everything. These days... storage space is limited... so I am very, very selective in my card purchases.
#8: The Vintage Collector - A collector that focuses on vintage cards.
1956 Topps #125
One of my favorite things to collect are vintage cards. CB told his readers to define "vintage" however we want. I agree. It's up to you to set your own parameters. Personally I consider cards produced in the 70's and earlier as vintage.
#9: The Theme Collector - A collector that focuses on collecting cards within a specific theme.
Although I haven't joined the Frankenset building club... I do have several collections with very specific themes: damaged cards, left-handed athletes, hometown heroes, draft busts, and hockey enforcers.
#10: The Oddball Collector - A collector who collects cards that don't fall under the categories or rules they've set for themselves.
2017 Topps GPK Battle of the Bands #3a
I've been putting aside cards that were unique or had sentimental meaning to me for years and in 2020, I put them all into a binder titled, Sports Card Smorgasbord. I feel like it fits CB's description to a tee.
In addition to these ten categories, I've created two more. Both of these topics were addressed by CB in his post and were included as part of the categories mentioned above. However... I feel that these two areas have enough of a following to be their own categories.
#11: The Graded Card Collector - A collector who focuses on collecting graded cards.
1958 Topps #343
There are only a handful of bloggers who fall into this category, but I am one of them. What started with buying vintage cards slabbed for authenticity purposes... eventually led down the path of picking up graded rookie cards.
#12: The Non-Sports Collector - A collector who collects non-sports cards.
1977 Topps Star Wars #58
Although the bulk of my card collection is sports related... I have enough non-sports cards to fill up a couple 5,000ct. boxes. Plus my card collecting timeline started with a pack of 1977 Topps Star Wars cards.
Well there you have it. My collecting style in a nutshell. As you can see... I collect pretty much a little bit of everything.
A huge shoutout to Cynical Buddha for putting together these collector "categories". It was nice to reflect on who I am as a collector. And I'll wrap up this post with something he highlighted in his post and something many of us have written over the years...
There is no wrong way to collect!
Buy what you want to buy... and collect what you want to collect.
Happy Tuesday and sayonara!
16 comments:
Amen, Fuji! Like you, I've checked many of these boxes over the course of my collecting lifetime. Working on minimizing and condensing these days, but have worn just about every one of these hats at times over the years :-)
I don't care what anyone says, every collector should have Bouillabaseball cards, no expections.
I definitely fit a few of these.
Technically, I consider 1980 and older (before the big 3) as vintage but because my vintage collection goes to 1987 (the last year I collected as a kid), people assume that I consider the 80's vintage.
Yeah, your categories are pretty much like mine, except for the Graded stuff, can't stand it. Got to free them.
I didn't know that you collect golf and track and field cards. I don't hear that much and I rarely see anything like that at shows.
There is no wrong way to collect for sure. Gotta have fun to make it a hobby!
Yeah, it does appear you fall into every category. Which is something that makes your blog so fascinating to read.
Good post! I'm sure there are many more themes, too. Like others are saying, collecting what and how you like.
I'm an eclectic mix of all the categories, except I've not much of a "hit" collector, unless one of my fave players and maybe someone from my team is the "hit". I am also not a graded collector although I do have a handful of graded cards 4 or 5 maybe. I will sometimes buy a graded card for someone else when I put together "gift" packages like "Secret Santa" packages.
I think people who collect error cards would fall under the Oddball theme. There are also wrapper and package (full and empty) collectors "Completest Collectors"?
RE: The Alf Bouillabaseball Cards. Yep I got All of them, I have Alf series 1 & 2 complete with the B-Baseball cards and the stickers as well. I noticed that some of the stickers had different backs there are puzzle backs and info backs I think some of the differences are on Jeff Allender's House of Checklists website, but maybe not all the combos. I know there are some combos I'm missing but have "all" the stickers, just not all the back combos.
Right now, I can identify in the Hoarder/Sports/Team/Set categories...
I am definitely a team collector, set collector and "hit" collector - and in that order.
There's also a list of different kinds of collectors in The Great American Baseball Card F, T and BG Book, though it hearkens back to a simpler time of collecting. The authors list the dabbler, the addict, the connoisseur, the compilator, the fan, and the gambler. I'm probably mostly a mix of addict, compilator, and fan, with a little gambler mixed in.
For the more modern collector definitions, I'm a vintage, set, team, and player collector.
Dang I fit those categories except 3 lol
I qualify for #1,2,3,5,8,and 12.
Something for everyone in the hobby!
shoeboxlegends - i should probably work on minimizing and condensing too ;D
rosenort - i bought a box of alf cards just for the bouillabaseball cards. the only downside is that most of them were damaged by the gum
jeff laws - i've learned over the years that different collectors have different definitions for vintage. i'm okay with that.
johnnys trading spot - i've freed a few cards from their plastic prisons... but with a lot of them soaring in value... it's probably not going to happen again any time soon
runforekelloggs - they're mainly in olympic themed sets or si for kids magazines
sumomenkoman - it's not worth collecting to me... if you're not having fun.
peter k steinberg - thanks. i appreciate the kind words and you taking the time to check out my posts
the lost collector - i'm sure there are too. i'd love to hear them. chances are it'll be another box i check off
captkirk42 - i do have a few wrappers i've saved over the years... and a couple of empty 80's wax boxes. as for the bouillabaseball cards, i need to go out and buy a set. the ones i pulled from my box were damaged by the gum. but at least the alf cards were nice
matt - i'm really trying to end my hoarder status. the sooner the better
craziejoe - nice. i like how you ranked them. maybe i'll do that when i have some free time
gtt - not sure what the connoisseur is... but i feel like i fit the others you listed. i'll have to dig out my copy and read it
matt - sounds like you're a jack of all trades
sg488 - 50% of the categories makes you a pretty rounded collector
gcrl - yeah. whether you fall into one category or ten categories... the key is having fun.
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