Taking Another Look At Hoarding Versus Collecting

A few months ago, I commented on the ways that card collectors resemble hoarders in some respect, mainly focusing on a lot of people who's goal is quantity over quality. The "I have to get every type of X" mentality has left many people with a garage filled to the brim, a room filled with cardboard boxes, or even a basement that is more card storage than anything. Because collecting cards usually extends to other parts of collecting sports memorabilia in general, it can get pretty crazy for a lot of people in our beloved hobby.

Recently, I went through the tedious task of cleaning out my collection, because for someone like me, having a card that you cant display is not worth the time. I have sold parts of my Joe Mauer Collection, my Adrian Peterson collection and my Vikings/Twins collection with reckless abandon, just to make room for things that have more immediate importance to my life. I even listed a huge lot of junk that I have pulled from boxes over the last few years. Really, cards sitting in box, most that will never see the light of day don’t serve a purpose right now, especially when our apartment is soon to be filled with toys and orther Noah related items.

Funny enough, while cleaning everything out and posting on eBay, I watched an episode of American Pickers after an episode of Pawn Stars had ended, and I had some interesting feelings about what was going on in the show. For American Pickers, two gentlemen scour the south for backwoods farms filled with old junk that they can sell at elevated premiums for people who want to decorate their homes, stores, or whatever. Its really a novel concept, especially when you see the stuff they buy and how much they pay. To them, hoarders/collectors are the meat of their business, and it drew some very interesting parallels to our hobby. First, I established from this show that if you are organized and knowledgable, you are a collector, but if you are in a state of disarray, you are pretty much a hoarder. But in all reality, is there much of a difference? We are called collectors because we keep everything organized (mostly) in small boxes arranged by a metric that we deem worthy? I think its borderline at best, and I am wondering how many collectors out there really collect just for the fun of it, rather than just acquiring as much as possible to fill some hole that collectors usually have. Even if it isnt conscious, I have a feeling there is something to that theory. Secondly, if you have a bunch of nice stuff, you are definitely a collector, whereas a hoarder has loads and loads of worthless junk. Sound familiar? Lastly, if you have the space to display, and do display your collection you are a collector, where hoarders just pile everything in any open space, or keep excess amounts of stuff regardless of space issues. Again, sounds a lot like people I know.

Trust me, I am not free from judgment myself, as I have to consciously avoid gathering too much. Unlike the past, when I buy packs now, I don’t keep the junk that’s not a hit anymore, mainly because the shop owners almost always give the cards to people at the store. I mean, what is the point of keeping all of those? They take up space, they arent/will not be worth anything in the future, and like many of us, I already have space issues trying to fit the stuff into a space in my house. I have strictly become a quality over quantity guy, even more classified as an autograph collector rather than a card collector. I think that type of switch in my habits have led to a lot of changes to the collection that I have. If its just going to sit in a box, its not worth keeping anymore. As a result, I have a shelf that is filled with cool items and half a box filled with autographs of my favorite players only.

I want to explain now that I don’t really get what drives someone to collect in excess. When I did it, I just did it without regard for much of anything. I just knew that if it fit my wants, I had to have it without a rational thought telling me not to do it. Eventually, I boiled it down to a combination of unconscious personal vanity, or wanting to have the best "X" collection in the world, and a need to fill free time. Now that I have something to fill my free time and then some, and my personal vanity of needing that best collection has subsided. Honestly, when I started this blog, a lot of my card hoarding habits stopped. Instead of plundering eBay for deals and venturing to shows and shops for forgotten treasures, I spent time writing and making this blog better. Now, a combination of this blog and my son have forced me to re-evaluate a second time, this time with me trimming more fat from my collection than ever before. I hadnt sold a Mauer card in three years, and it was tough to see some of the rarer ones go. But now that I have a lot of extra space and some extra coin in my pocket, I feel better about my station in this hobby.

For you super-collectors out there, I would frequently evaluate why you do what you do. Is it really worth your time to acquire what you acquire even though you know that most of what you buy is not something that needs to be bought? Instead of buying that extra hobby box or making that trip to target, maybe its time to start organizing and stop hoarding. Its definitely worth the time to think about it, and who knows, you may come to the realization that quality may be much more important to the well-being of your life than quantity.

First Look: 2009 Topps Football

At this point, I think base Topps is completely worthless in this hobby, mainly with Chrome now at a ridiculously low price tag, and the fact that low end football doesnt have the same following as low end baseball. Add in that Chrome usually comes out a week or two later, and there is no reason to even think this will be a good buy.

With that, Topps has decided to make it a little bit more interesting by adding, you guessed it, manufactured letter autos of the RCs. Lets hope they dont end up like the disasters that were Topps Lettermen Letters. They also added dual autos and some extra gimmicks. Wow, didnt see that coming.

Ill wait for Chrome, but regardless, the design isnt great in my opinion, baseball OR football.

h/t Freedom Card Board

A Comment On First World Versus Second World

I will say that over the last few days and weeks, there has really been some nasty sentiment towards my fellow 2nd worlders and anyone who doesnt subscribe to a quantity over quality way of thinking. It seems that people have the idea that if you are not set collecting, or collecting the way they do, you arent as real of a collector as they are. I consider the people writing these posts to be my friends, and I know they were not trying to take stabs at any particular person. The problem is, it’s the sentiment that I really dislike, and I really want to take some time and address it for the 8th time on here. Again, I am not calling anyone out specifically, and mostly I am just referencing the posts for the discussion.

Before I go into this, I want people to understand that not every apple is a good apple. Anywhere there is money to be made, there will be people who take advantage of the situation. Those people suck, and I am not in any way condoning what they do. However, that A) doesn’t mean they arent out there, and B) doesn’t mean that some of them don’t really understand that what they are doing sucks.

Now, back when I first mentioned that most collectors were set up into first world and second world (first being the set collecting, retail and low end buying, mostly baseball collectors, and second being the high end buying, high end busting, jersey and auto lovers, mostly from Football and Baksetball), I said that each had their own merits. That is exactly the truth. I dont try to insuate that people arent at my level of collecting because they are first worlders. Yet, post after post from first world bloggers over the last year took that buffer I try to exude and disregarded it. That is crap. There is no hierarchy of collectors, you are not more of a collector because you go after sets rather than autos and jerseys.

Guys, believe it or not, the second world is the place where the hobby is headed or already is. Modern set collectors, though prevalent on the blogs, are not the majority of the people I see at shows, they are not the people I see on the boards, and they are definitely not the people I see at the five or so shops I visit in my area each month. As I have said before, there is nothing wrong with being a first world set collector until you start thinking that you are the right way to do things and all who do it differently are wrong or lesser of a collector.

To have the idea that its wrong to embrace the new world of collecting is really too bad. Yes, it isnt 1994 anymore, and yes things have changed, but that doesnt mean things arent just as good as they once were. Also, to say that collecting revenue is directly related to the invent of high end and super high end is a farce. As I said before, there are a lot of things that contribute to the way of the world, and the rising cost of boxes is not necessarily the only reason things are taking a turn for the worse.

I will be the first one to say that my viewpoints are not widely accepted, and I will not hesitate to agree with people who think that I talk way more game than I have. So dont think I am speaking for anyone but me. I just dont like the way people are looking at things, and I think that this blog is a perfect soapbox for that. Thats all I was hoping to accomplish.

Looking At Where We Are Headed

There are quite a few instances over the last few months where I have read about the trends of the hobby heading this way, or the trends of the hobby heading that way, but no one seems to really understand the true trends. The first worlders claim that the hobby is spiraling to a point where high end products will take over the low end, and their world will cease to exist. Second worlders are claiming that the hobby is losing value and that the higher end products they love to break are not as worth their time. Really, these "claims" are only just sounding the warning bell with nothing more than a thought. I dont think that either of these things are really true, but I hear them echoed more than any other idea or trend. Im curious as to why.

First off, to address the claims that high end is shortly becoming the only end, I want to say that is crap. The amount of high end products that come out every year really doesn’t change. UD and DLP never really just delete a low end product and replace it with a high end one. However, because high end is a much more volatile market, the products change more often. So, when Upper Deck deletes a high end product and replaces it with another high end product, it creates more names on the market, but the number of sets each year really doesn’t change. Plus, with three competing brands in football, that can seem like the price of boxes is drastically climbing, when in reality, its just every company coming out with their own version of high end. I mean, lets face it people, high end is in trouble in today's economy. Retailers are becoming more wary of higher end products because they know its only a sale until the next product comes out, and after that, they may have to dump it at a loss. Its easier to take a loss on a sixty dollar box rather than a 300 dollar box. Its why the middle products like Topps chrome and Icons are always so popular - its easier to afford the loss.

Really the trends are heading towards a bigger gap between the high end and the low end, but not in terms of the number for each. Personally I think that the middle products will start to envelop the low products, and the retail will become all that is left of low end. From there, you will have the majority of the boxes at or around 75 dollars, with the gap being pretty wide then to the few 300 dollar products and above. If you look at it, this has already started to happen. In an effort to bring more content to a person paying for that 75 dollar box, they have put out the retail low end with nothing in it to help offset the massive and growing costs of autos and memorabilia. Even the once expensive Chrome products have come towards the middle of 75 dollars to help them to sell more. Exquisite will continue to be high, but the other products will hover around that 75 dollar mark. The gap will grow.

Secondly, its pretty obvious that cards are not going to be worth as much as they used to be. As long as people have less disposable income, they wont have as much money to spend. Thankfully, content is being added to products to help offset those bigger price tags on the boxes, so to you second worlders, the value is being replaced with both quantity and in some cases quality. If you buy an expensive product, chances are that there will be a guarantee of something good in the near future. Upper Deck is already seeding top tier autos at one per case, and top RC autos at more than that, so that’s a start. I would expect that to come from others in order to compete. So, it will become easier to pull something great when you decide to drop top coin on these things. I also think that the quality of the card designs has increased ten fold over the last 5 years, and really there are only a handful of repeat ugly offenders, and they are usually all from the same company.

Funny enough, I think this epitome of non-essential goods is a depression proof business, so if anything cards will only become more of a way to get away from that awful feeling that things arent going well in this country. Do I think you should go spend 5 grand on a dual logo? Fuck no. But I do think you should ride out any fears that the economy will prevent you from having an awesome collection that is worth a lot of money.

LCM 08 Is Live, But I Am Sad

After looking at the two pictures above, are you not as sad as I am? The LCM mirror blues from last year were great looking. I still miss my Peterson. The windows had that tapered look and they looked like they were just right in the way they fit the card. This year's are a oil drum full of suck with the 3 square windows of floating event used crap. Besides the ridiculous auto from lazy brat Chris Johson, the cards are a complete downgrade. I had serious high hopes for this set and now I feel like Donruss has severely let me down. Limited is coming out soon too, and I cant help but wonder if we are in for a raping because of a switch back to packs. Base cards suck in non-lowend products. Lets leave them to the First Worlders and their lower end products.

Chris Johnson, I hope you are run over by a stampede of Buffalo. Your auto is horrible. Epic Fail.

An Ode To DLP Baseball

One of the first posts I ever did on here was a plea to bring DLP back into the baseball market with more than just draft pick and college sets. Well, I finally got my wish with threads baseball, and I couldnt be more happy than I am right now. Yet, without an MLB license or any of the big name signees, will it be at all possible for them to make a worthy return to baseball?

For the answer, I have three words for you that say yes: SHOELESS JOE JACKSON.

I also broke the SJJ story a while ago, and I believe that his "relics" are a great addition to this set. Any set with Shoeless Joe is an EPIC win, considering that he barely has any cards. He remains one of the game's greatest players, and we deserve more. Was he guilty enough to suffer this fate? Im not sure, but his stats from the 1919 series speak for themselves.

We also will get a healthy dose of people who have been absent from cards since DLP left, mainly Aaron, Mays, and company. This is beyond a victory for collectors, especially with the crap that Barry "the Steroidisaurus Rex" Bonds brought to the title of HR King.

Lastly we also get Pete Rose, who I agree should be included. However, the guy is the epitome of how not to be a baseball player, so he is not my favorite, and I wont be getting his cards. Others will, so thats good for this set to have him as a part of it.

Basically, when it comes down to it, I miss DLP Baseball A LOT. They were everything they are to football now, and you will see the shear awesomeness when we break Absolute next wednesday. In fact, I have yet to see a VETERAN based product that was done as well as they were done with DLP. They took boring base card focused sets that I couldnt stand, and made them into ridiculously cool products that everyone could appreciate. Since they left, 2nd world baseball has sucked a whole fucking truck of dicks, and I am tired of it. For fuck's sake, not everyone can survive on collecting retro sets filled with players I dont want a base card of.

If there is a future for National Treasures baseball, I will be there busting boxes. If there is a future for the return of a new Timeless Treasures, ill be there too. If we get 2008 Absolute Memorabilia Baseball, there will be a happy dance, follwed by a case break on this site for sure. Thats how much DLP rules.

So listen UD and Topps, you may have some big shoes to fill coming up, I hope. So big that I hope a lot of the first worlders start to recognize that the grass is greener on the other side when its Absolute they are busting.

How Do You Feel About It?

Every so often, I get cool emails from readers with interesting points. I want to highlight this one, because he was nice and made some great points:

Gellman,

Thank you so much for organizing the group breaks over the last few weeks. They are really cool to see in addition to the ones I see on YouTube. A lot of these products only get busted around the time they are released, so its cool to revisit the ones like NT and Exquisite BB/FB. I would like to join, but unfortunately my funds are limited. Its for a good reason, as my wife just had a baby, so we are spending most of our cash there.

Your blog is unbelievable though, I read it most days before the news. Says a lot dont it? I would read a lot of the other hobby stuff online, but one can only take so many posts on retail blasters and retail packs. Most of the time I just ignore them, and come here for everything. Thank you for focusing on the "second world" as you put it, because the "first world" is more than boring.

Keep up the good work,
Rick [Last Name Omitted For Privacy]

Well guys, I do agree with a lot of what Rick here says. Some products just dont get busted after release. With that, do you guys like the group breaks and want to see more? Are there certain other products you want us to break? Im sure Holy Hitter would love to hear suggestions.

Also, congrats on the rugrat, buddy. Best of luck to you and your new addition.