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.
1987 Topps Alf Bouillabaseball #20B
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).
1984 Donruss Champions #7
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.
2006 Ace Authentics Legends of the Game Materials #LG2
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!
