Has the hobby turned into gambling? Do you buy product looking to keep anything?

[Mozzie22]

When I was a kid, I collected for the hobby of it and kept all of my cards in binders and made sets and even looked at the back of the cards. I traded for cards that I wanted and never cared about the value. When ebay finally came around it changed the perspective of collecting for me. I was able to unload my entire Griffey collection for a decent amount of change and I got the taste of making money off of cards. Now the only time I ever look at the back of the cards is to look at the serial number or the set number if I am sorting. Rarely do I keep anything I pull because if someone is willing to give me a certain price for a card, you better believe I will sell it.

I think for myself to actually consider this a hobby that I would actually keep and display my cards would be if I had an incredibly high expendable income, such as winning the lottery, whereas money would never be an issue and I would be able to appreciate the cards more. Until then, I don't expect the life expectancy of a card to sit in my collection for more than six months.

This might be the most depressing thing I've ever read on this site...:-(

 

[jrinne]

I have my PC but in all honesty, everything has a price. The only stuff I wont sell are gifts.

 

[predatorkj]

I gamble on wax sometimes but never to sell. My thought is, if I get a big hit, I just think about the cool card I am now holding that I didn't have to pay market price for. But mostly that is just a side dish compared to my main reason which is putting base sets together. Cause a lot of these guys who go around flipping, are the same kinds of guys who throw away their base cards. And I love em to death because I'll go snag a damn near complete set from my shop all day long because these people were after a mega rare hit they never got. The base cards never entered into the equation for these guys. It makes my life easier because they leave them at the shop and I get them for cheap.

I guess the only thing that gets my goat with flippers and gamblers is they will sell just about anything. Ruth, Mantle, Cobb, you name it. It's like nothing is sacred to them. Nothing is a big deal to them. But money. Which is fine. But to me it's like going to an art museum and instead of appreciating the paintings, people just wonder how much they'll fetch when sold. There are some truly awesome cards out there and it's like people who gamble and bust only see money. To hell with the legend, the history, the player. None of it matters. Which makes me wonder why the hell they don't just go buy scratch offs or do the stock market.

I guess to each their own. But caring about the sport and the players and the history associated with something Ruth may have worn, or a bat knob Clemente may have swung...it's hard to see others just ignore it.

 

[smapdi]

One could say it's always been gambling, depending on who's buying the packs. When packs were 25c and the most valuable card you might find would sell at a show or shop for $1, if you could find one, it was less of a big deal, but still there. Now that there are new packs and cards that sell for 10,000x that, it magnified an existing issue. But i's a distinction made from the point of view of the buyer. If you buy a pack of cards with the intention of selling whatever singles you find inside for more than you spent, that's gambling. Or if you buy a box hoping to hit a particular card when you could just buy that card by itself, that's another form of gambling, though it might just be incurring undue risk. If you buy a pack with the intention of building your collection, that's collecting. Same action, different intent, different inferences one might make. That you are running the risk of getting less market value out of a pack than what you put in is what some people might perceive as gambling, but others might not.

 

[padremurph]

I collect both Padres singles and open a box here and there. I'll usually sell the hit from the box if it's just too good to be true or I don't root for that particular player. Last year I busted 5-10 boxes for the whole year and ended up pulling a Nimmo red ref auto and a Harper paper auto when Bowman first dropped. I considered keeping the Harper however I got $750 for each of the cards and couldn't pass that up. I also pulled a Guerrieri BC auto however I kept that because I figured it would be fun to follow his starts. Now of the day ever comes where I pull a monster Padres card or some awesome Ruth, Jeter, Strasburg, etc I would definitely park it in my PC

 

[sigma_chi]

I sell pretty much everything I pull. I don't see anything wrong with it either. It really bothers me when people gripe about it.

 

[JackLondon]

In terms of autographs/game used cards, if it is not someone I really collect, or if it is an auto I already have (from another product), I will sell/trade the card. If I pull a card of a hot rookie, I sell it.

I don't buy much wax at all anymore, so it doesn't come up too often. The only gambling I do with cards is buying wax in the hopes of getting something for the PC. I don't expect to get anything worth a lot.

 

[reljac]

Flat out, I sell everything I don't collect.

I for the most part don't collect pitchers for instance, but I do have a top-25 Nolan Ryan PSA Registry set.
I focus on collecting guys I think may have the best chance of being future HoF hitters
I typically don't collect speed guys

I do collect Nolan Ryan, Albert Pujols, graded vintage, future HoFers etc.

That being said, I do enjoy a good case break, but I typically sell anything that doesn't interest me...
I just unloaded 2011 BDPP Gold Autos of Kyle Crick & Tyler Anderson and Blue autos of Barnes and Archie Bradley, refractors and base of Bundy and Bauer and Fernandez last night from the last few cases I opened.

I did however keep all autos of Bubba Starling, Travis Harrison, etc.

I may buy more cases and rinse and repeat.

 

[MansGame]

Another thread started because of this article on eBay about the bat knobs on eBay... if you read the responses at the bottom by readers, you'll find a lot of comments around the hobby and what's happened to it... though no one says "it's gambling now", they do point to it being about big ticket cards being sold and it's not for collectors any longer but people with deep pockets looking to make a pay day, etc.

Otherwise, great posts everyone! As someone said, I collect Albert Belle and nearly only Albert Belle now adays, so I'll essentially be up for selling anything I pull if I break new product. Also, as mentioned by someone, everything DOES have a price... including my Albert Belle PC. Last, and another point some said which I liked, my entire collection from when I was younger to now is essentially a collection to me and I enjoy it as a hobby but it will be nice to have something to pass down to my kinds one day!

 

[ffgameman]

It's still a hobby for me, largely due to budget. Yes, I hope to pull a big card in the few boxes I open per year, but I also hope to pull something for my collection (or that can be traded for something for my collection).

I have only sold three cards:

1. 2006 Topps Barry Bonds HRH #600 on-card autograph 5/5
2. 2009 SPx Francisco Cervelli Rookie Autograph /99 (when the card was hot)
3. 2010 Topps Wal-Mart Black Border Buster Posey RC (when the card was hot)

 

[dp33]

Not a gamble at all. Why just last night, a few of us opened a box of 2006 Bowman Draft at the shop in hopes of finding the mythical Longoria super. No way would I have sold that card if I pulled it...


... sadly, I pulled a Kasey Kiker gold refractor instead. Which I'm going to keep.

 

[mrwhitesox30]

Economically speaking, it's always gambling when you open up a box or case. You're spending x amount of dollars and betting that the contents of that box or case will be worth the amount you spent, even though you know it won't more times than not. There's also the entertainment factor, so if you buy a $200 box of cards and get $50 worth of cards out of it you just got $150 of entertainment from opening up the packs. I don't get any extra entertainment value from opening boxes myself than seeing others do it, so I'd much rather just buy singles and check the box break boards to see what products are being issued.

I don't see any correlation between the percentage of cards you keep from a box and whether or not you're a collector. I didn't really start to enjoy this hobby until I stopped buying packs and boxes and just started buying the cards that I wanted. I probably haven't bought a box or pack in 10 years, and I know I haven't lost money in any year since. I still sell cards when they get hot or if I decide I don't want them anymore, but because I get to choose exactly what I buy and how much I spend on each card there's a lot less risk.

 

[noaskiecards]

Yes

 

[hofmichael]

This is why I stopped cracking wax.I realized modern cards have very little appeal to me.The only wax I crack now is base Topps baseball and football.I build my sets and sell off the rest.

 

[uniquebaseballcards]

Economically speaking, it's always gambling when you open up a box or case. You're spending x amount of dollars and betting that the contents of that box or case will be worth the amount you spent, even though you know it won't more times than not. There's also the entertainment factor, so if you buy a $200 box of cards and get $50 worth of cards out of it you just got $150 of entertainment from opening up the packs. I don't get any extra entertainment value from opening boxes myself than seeing others do it, so I'd much rather just buy singles and check the box break boards to see what products are being issued.

I don't see any correlation between the percentage of cards you keep from a box and whether or not you're a collector. I didn't really start to enjoy this hobby until I stopped buying packs and boxes and just started buying the cards that I wanted. I probably haven't bought a box or pack in 10 years, and I know I haven't lost money in any year since. I still sell cards when they get hot or if I decide I don't want them anymore, but because I get to choose exactly what I buy and how much I spend on each card there's a lot less risk.

I see what you're saying, but the bolded/underlined part depends on whether or not you're a SET collector. If you're collecting/building the set, IMO its very helpful to bust some of its wax to help build a 'connection' to that set.

 

[RL24]

It's simple really, the question asked is all wrong. The hobby is not gambling. Opening wax most certainly is gambling. Even if you plan on keeping everything you pull.

Gamble: An act of gambling; an enterprise undertaken or attempted with a risk of loss and a chance of profit or success.

When you open wax, you undertake that enterprise for the chance of success. Even if you plan on keeping everything, you aren't hoping you pull crappy cards. You want something good. And that something has stated odds of pulling it. Defenitely all a gamble.

I don't get why anybody would care what somebody else does with the cards they open, but whatever. I have 3 players I collect, it takes up a ton of space. I own very few cards that don't have one of those 3 players on them. If I open wax, the odds of me pulling something with one of those 3 players, even a base card, is slim to none. My best PC pull was a Sabathia Topps Gold. You can bet I would never get rid of that, but the rest of the cards in the box were worthless to me. I would sell them or trade them in order to add more cards that I actually do collect to my collection. It's very simple really.

I have a long story, tl;dr long, but to make it really short: Once I married a gambling addict and when we got divorced she took me for half of everything- we each got $14K of credit card debt. (Of course 6 months later she was playing a slot machine and won $26K, but....) Anyway, I would always get so pissed when she wanted to go to the casino, where she was going to lose $400, and argued that with baseball cards at least you walk away with something... Anyway, after we broke up I really got into cards and enjoyed opening wax. Then I realized that I enjoyed it so much because it was scratching my itch to gamble. I have terrible luck anyway, so the combination of the two made me quit buying boxes. Nowadays I have 0 desire to go gambling and 0 desire to purchase any wax. I'm cured!!!

 

[AK11]

I would consider myself a collector first and a seller last. I keep anything I pull that I deem to be a player I like and only sell if I'm running low on funds or the card I pulled is valuable enough to sell and is an unwanted player in my PC. My bucket shows lots of different players from prospects to veterans from four sports but it all comes down to my personal player preference. I tend to hold stuff longer than I should.

 

[Gonzaleznut]

I gamble on wax sometimes but never to sell. My thought is, if I get a big hit, I just think about the cool card I am now holding that I didn't have to pay market price for. But mostly that is just a side dish compared to my main reason which is putting base sets together. Cause a lot of these guys who go around flipping, are the same kinds of guys who throw away their base cards. And I love em to death because I'll go snag a damn near complete set from my shop all day long because these people were after a mega rare hit they never got. The base cards never entered into the equation for these guys. It makes my life easier because they leave them at the shop and I get them for cheap.

I guess the only thing that gets my goat with flippers and gamblers is they will sell just about anything. Ruth, Mantle, Cobb, you name it. It's like nothing is sacred to them. Nothing is a big deal to them. But money. Which is fine. But to me it's like going to an art museum and instead of appreciating the paintings, people just wonder how much they'll fetch when sold. There are some truly awesome cards out there and it's like people who gamble and bust only see money. To hell with the legend, the history, the player. None of it matters. Which makes me wonder why the hell they don't just go buy scratch offs or do the stock market.

I guess to each their own. But caring about the sport and the players and the history associated with something Ruth may have worn, or a bat knob Clemente may have swung...it's hard to see others just ignore it.

Couldn't have said it better myself!! I am a buy and hold guy. If you don't want it in your PC forever, you shouldn't buy it.

 

[uniquebaseballcards]

If eBay or something similar did not exist, to what extent would there be gambling...?

 

[shayscards79]

I sell about 95 percent of what I pull. The only think I really keep is Colts stuff. Otherwise I do have a small pc of football and baseball stuff, but I rarely pull something the I have to add to it.