When I started collecting baseball cards as a kid my goal back then was to collect every Chicago Cubs card made. Being young at the time, and knowing nothing more than the Cubs it was all about getting cardboard of players from my favorite team. My only two options to acquiring these cards were buying packs at the towns lone gas station/convenience store. The second was on the rare trips to Provo when my dad worked a Saturday. Head to the card shop in town, and buy either a team set or singles from past seasons. Using these two methods I had quite the collection of Cubs cards. As with any person when they grow older things changed drastically.
My loyalty to the Cubs changed as I moved on to collecting only Nolan Ryan cards. Deep down inside I was still a Cubs fan, but had no desire to collect their cards. The Cubs binder would be cast aside, and Nolan Ryan would be the focus. I collected mostly everything that had Nolan Ryan on it. The exception were the team leader cards, or the Fleer cards with two players posing together. Some of these still haven't made their way into the binder. This was my player era of collecting.
After the Ryan era came another era in my collecting. This era we will call the set era. Life had changed again as the Cubs were gone, and replaced by the Colorado Rockies. Nolan Ryan was still the man, but getting his cards were no longer a passion. While I do still add his cards, and need to organize this part of my collection. Trying to build some of the sets from when I collected in the past became the new focus. During this time I wasn't terribly committed to the idea, but gave it a little of my time.
All this has led me to where my collecting is right now. Currently the collecting stands at a mixture of the last two collecting era's. Since starting this blog I came back with a force on trying to complete sets. Not only do I have the old sets still being worked on, but a big batch of new sets have come into the picture. Along with the sets I've been toying with collecting a few players for player collections. The player collections have been a year long process of narrowing down who if anyone I wanted to collect. Finally I narrowed it down to the big two of Mike Trout, and Wilin Rosario.
Thrown into the mix are Kyle Seager, and Juan Nicasio as secondary player collections. My guess is in the not so distant future these two will either be full blown wants or will finally fall to the wayside. Lurking into this group is new Mariners catcher Mike Zunino. Mike is someone I currently have two cards of, and am undecided on where to go with him. His fate lies in the hands of the Nicasio, and Seager collections. If one falls to the wayside odds are Zunino will step in.
While all this is a blast, and has me enjoying collecting baseball cards like when I was a kid. This has left me a dilemma. As anyone knows there are a ton of Mike Trout cards out there. Hopefully Rosario joins into this fun along with one, two, or all three of the secondary guys. Lets be honest though, my problem currently falls with Trout.
This is where I am looking for advice, or honestly an answer to a question. Being new to both sets, and players at the same time. When you buy packs of cards for a set you are building, and you get a card for a player you collect. Do you put the card in your set first, or do you put it with the player collection? So far I have no set method. Sometimes the card ends up in the Trout collection. Other times he ends up with the set he goes into. The plan for my collecting is to get two of the same cards. One for the player collection, and one for the set collection. Sometimes this might take awhile, but hopefully eventually I will get two cards. Keeping the two cards in mind, which way do you, or in this case which direction do I possibly go?
In this situation, I keep the card with the set and just keep track of the card as far as the player collection goes. I don't go out of my way to try to pick up a second card.
ReplyDeleteI always put them in my set first, then I stick a post-it in my player collection binder of where the card would go. This reminds me that I have one in my overall collection, which makes makes both sides of my collecting brain feel good until I track down a second card. In some cases, I only have one the one card, and it remains in the set, but that doesn't stop me from adding it to my checklist with an asterisk stating where it can be found.
ReplyDeleteI only player-collect half-heartedly, so card always goes in the set first (if I'm collecting it) and if I get a dupe that goes to the player collection.
ReplyDeleteI don't really bust a lot of packs, but I am often confronted with deciding if I should put a card in my player binder or in my set. For example, I recently picked up a 2002 Topps Gallery (partial) set that has a Greg Maddux that I need for my binder. I ended up keeping it as part of my set.
ReplyDeleteI have multiple collections, and sometimes that means multiple copies of a card. I usually put cards in my type collection first, since that's the most important for me, then set building if I'm doing that, and finally in my player collection. But, then, my player collections are usually just flagship Topps cards so obtaining them isn't that difficult.
ReplyDeleteI don't buy packs of cards very often. But I apply the same rules to finding cards at shows and stores and in trades.