Thursday, August 12, 2010

OPINION: DO YOU ENJOY YOUR COLLECTION?

A quick back and forth with another blogger got me thinking about something tonight.

Do you enjoy your collection?

What I mean by that is...do you admire the pieces you've picked up once they are in your possession? Do you display them for all to see or do you have them in shoeboxes in the closet? Do you get more enjoyment in searching out the item rather than owning it?

Once you have the card, jersey, puck, autograph...whatever...what is your enjoyment level of it?

What I love about these questions is that there are no right or wrong answers. That is one of the big things that I enjoy about this hobby. My collection is done by MY RULES!

I have the bulk of my collection in boxes in my closet. My Trevor Linden cards are in top loaders and in a couple 3000 count boxes. I bring out the boxes every couple months when I add a few cards to it and sift through the cards I have in my collection. I enjoy looking at them but I think I get more enjoyment out of seeing the collection as a whole (almost 1000 different Linden cards). It's been over a decade of collecting and I think it's a pretty cool accomplishment.

Finding a new card is a huge thrill and when it arrives in the mail I get that feeling like it's Christmas morning. Once it is in my collection, I am still proud of owning the item, but I've checked the item off the list. No more pursuing it. That's a bit of a downer.

When I see rare Linden cards pop up on ebay that I already have, I get a little sad that I don't need to go after it. And it's fewer and farther between finding Linden's that I do need.

I like that people have goals in there collecting. I like that people get enjoyment out of collecting. I like it even more that everyone is different in what gets people excited about their collections.

At the end of the day - as long as you are enjoying the hobby as a whole, then that is a good thing.

4 comments:

  1. I like my collection as a whole on most days.

    I love my hockey collection. I like it so much that I am constanly finding ways to rearrange it just so I can go through it again. I build sets so the thrill of the chase is never more fun than when you are seeking out those last few cards. I also have player collection binders that I started when I was a kid. I always like to go through them and see who has since retired. After last season, there aren't many current players left in there.

    As for my other collections, I love my Steeler collection. I'm always looking for ways to display it but haven't found the right one yet. The rest of my football cards can pretty much burn in a fire and I wouldn't care either way.

    My baseball collection is also one of mystery. I used to love it, then stopped loving it, tried to sell it, thought I lost it, and then fell back in love with it when it was found again. That was about a year ago. Now...I really could care less about it again.

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  2. I love my collection and will sometimes just thumb through it to see it all. Other times, I'll bring my big ol' box to the local card shop and show him all my new pickups and such. Since it's 99% hockey and the owner is a huge hockey fan, I feel like he appreciates it.

    I used to collect all sports when I was younger and did that up until a few years ago. I got rid of just about everything except hockey and decided to focus on that. I think I enjoy my collection more now than I did then and I think that is because my collection is more focused. Before, I would just collect players in all sports that I felt were either great already or underrated/underappreciated (ex. Brian Giles). I would only collect rookies, too. Things got to be too scattered and there was also the issue of too many different products.

    I made the decision to just do hockey and have never looked back. And within that, I narrowed it down to goons, HOFer on card autos, HOFer cards, and Bruins. Still pretty wide, but also pretty narrow within the hobby.

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  3. I would say I enjoy my collection now more than ever, especially my Jimmy Howard and MVP master set collection projects. I find myself looking through theses stacks of cards every time I sit down at the computer.

    As far as the rest of my cards, most of which are in binders, I like to flip through the pages once in a while. It's fun to see a given card and remember when and where I got it.

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  4. I'm in the same boat. I started when I was really young, which was slightly after Upper Deck came into existence. I always liked the photography and the excitement of opening a pack.

    I started to focus on what I wanted to collect, mainly Avalanche cards, but occasionally Nuggets, Broncos, Rockies too. I always enjoy looking at my binders and paging through, seeing the faces of old players and reliving past seasons.

    I've started some other projects too, like completing some lower-end sets from when I was younger and getting a serial numbered card for each player on each American Olympic hockey team of my lifetime, both of which should be interesting. I think my enjoyment of collection springs from being a hockey fan and the cards can be a relatively inexpensive (mainly because I really prefer base cards and low-end inserts to game-used and auto stuff) to remember and enjoy this wonderful game of ours.

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