Player collecting...it's a disease and this is how I know!

[Mozzie22]

Player collecting is a disease and I have been infected for over 20 years now. I was thinking about this today and I couldn’t stop wondering whether I was devout, pathetic, crazy, or typical. I started a list in my head of, “You know you’re an incurable player collector when:” list. Here is how I know I’m a “Super Collector” because I do all of these:

1. Organize, reorganize, and re-reorganize your collection just because you like going through your cards.

2. Love your cards…I don’t mean “like,” I mean love them to the point that you’d rather lose a body part than to have your collection lost/stolen.

3. You search EBay 10 times a day just hoping you get that card that was just added with a BIN option.

4. You search the completed listings on EBay even though you know you’ll just be torturing yourself on the off chance that something slipped through one of your million searches.

5. You love seeing other people’s player collection websites/posts unless they are of your player and then you secretly hate them… a little.

6. You’re favorite threads on FCB are the ones about errors and variations that open your eyes to new cards you now must obtain.

7. You Google your favorite player’s name once a month even though you know nothing new is out there.

8. Cards aren’t good enough to appease you and so you collect magazines, coins, figures, candy, bobble heads, or anything else with their likeness on it.

9. You continue to collect even though your wife/significant other gives you that, “How old are you?” look. ( I make no apologies)

10. You consider getting another job just so you can afford the cards you know you can’t afford.

After 20+ years of being a player collector I’m still passionate about it, it still excites me, and I’m proud of my humble collection.
Am I alone in my "illness?" I'm guessing no.

 

[wideright]

I'm a set collector, but I fall under about 8 of those ten things. First I only do 1 or 2 searches on ebay per day because I've grown quite bored of the endless same searches. Then, I do value my body parts more than my cards :lol:

Disease? Yes. Curable? Maybe I don't want to be cured

 

[dadofandrew]

lol Wade I hear you bud. I do multiple searches and one actually paid off yesterday. I found the Good Humor Big League Ice cream stick for Ozzie last night in a ebay store. I have been looking for one of those for many years

 

[sportscardtheory]

I wish selling was a disease I had. I buy so much and sit on so much without selling. I would be rich if I listed all my cards and only held a select few.

 

[jarcar]

Great post!!! :lol:

I'm glad I'm not alone. As I was reading this I was thinking, that's me, yup me again... :lol:

 

[wolfmanalfredo]

I fall under those categories as well. I also spend too much on cards myself, and when an emergency comes along I have to cut the funds from somewhere else. Its hard sometimes, but I love my collection

 

[ChasHawk]

I fall under at least 8/10. In number 9 I am very lucky however, as my wife fully supports my collecting hobby. There are much worse hobbies to have.

As far as #5 goes, there is another eBay user who always buys up anything #'d to 10 or less, and has WAY more $ than I do. I've actually talked to him, and he was very complimentary about my collection. I still secretly hate his guts though

 

[Anthony]

Holy smokes! All of those apply to me--I was surprised to see the google comment--I do that once in a while to see if anything new about my player pops up or if my collection page shows up in the search results. I used to have some of my cards show up early in the image search--but not so much anymore.

 

[Therion]

Many of these apply to my Astros autograph collection. There are two collections that blow mine away and I hate them both (but not really)

(but really)

 

[Russ S.]

Going on 22 years now, and there is no cure......

 

[Tomlinson21RB]

I hit these:

1. Organize, reorganize, and re-reorganize your collection just because you like going through your cards.
2. Love your cards…I don’t mean “like,” I mean love them to the point that you’d rather lose a body part than to have your collection lost/stolen.
3. You search EBay 10 times a day just hoping you get that card that was just added with a BIN option.

5. You love seeing other people’s player collection websites/posts unless they are of your player and then you secretly hate them… a little.

7. You Google your favorite player’s name once a month even though you know nothing new is out there. I tend to check ESPN instead of google

9. You continue to collect even though your wife/significant other gives you that, “How old are you?” look. ( I make no apologies)
10. You consider getting another job just so you can afford the cards you know you can’t afford.

My two favorite things:
Every now and then flipping through the pages of commons/inserts. You see those couple every time that you didn't realize were as nice looking as they are, and see your favorites again. Also, if you have cards organized by set it's always fun to see completed sets of parallels or master sets from a particular year.

Picking up that one card that fills a specific hole in your collection. It only happens rarely, but when it does its refreshing and makes you remember why you do it and how great your collection is.

 

[Mozzie22]

lol Wade I hear you bud. I do multiple searches and one actually paid off yesterday. I found the Good Humor Big League Ice cream stick for Ozzie last night in a ebay store. I have been looking for one of those for many years

I've always liked the Good Humor stick, nice pick up. I'm glad to hear others out there share my player collecting affliction!

 

[theplasticman]

haha, nice!

 

[ThoseBackPages]

its pretty sick, wish i never started lol

 

[pghbuccos]

I match 8 of the 10...

I have never googled Jason Bay to see if anything new is out there but I will now .
my wife fully supports my collecting and says she loves how happy it makes me.

so I guess I now match 9 of the 10.

 

[Bill Menard]

It's actually OCD - but don't let a psychiatrist tell you that taking medication can help you stop

 

[predatorkj]

Eh...I get tired of looking for new Bagwells sometimes but I am quite content with what I have for now.My biggest excitement comes from adding new things to my collection.Even if I go a month without doing so...the thought that at some time in the future I will add something to my collection is what keeps me going.

I also enjoy the heck out of looking through my cards.

 

[tramers]

having a minor league team here doesn't help . look at my illness [ buckets]

 

[44 Magnum]

My wife gives me the look of you bought what, everytime the mail stops by the house. Glad she is supportive of my passion.

 

[Mozzie22]

My wife gives me the look of you bought what, everytime the mail stops by the house. Glad she is supportive of my passion.

My wife gives me that same look too. She just pretends I don't spend money I think. :lol: