Insert clever title here

I remember back when I used to buy cards and immediately log them into an Excel spreadsheet then put them away.  Nevermind, that was all a dream.  I used to buy piles of cards, boxes of cards, and let them pile up to the high heavens and then work on putting them away.

Who cares?  Yeah, that's exactly my point.  I have been back into buying cards since last summer or so and they have been accumulating on my desk since.  I have a stack of McDonagh cards and various other Rangers in a stack, and on my floor an empty binder that was purchased who knows when to put them in.  Collecting is work as much as it is fun, unless of course you don't care about wasting money buying doubles and triples of things because you have no record of what you have.

A couple of weeks ago Sooz and I went to see Dave at the Baseball Card Store in Midland Park, NJ, and I bought a bag of cards.  They are still in the bag.  I haven't even looked at them.  I feel like this makes me a "bad" collector or that I waste my money since I clearly don't get the same enjoyment out of the work part.  

Surely I can't be the only one who does this all the time.  I wish I had an elf to help me.  Even if he was an angry elf.

That's all.

P.S. I am bored at work and this is what I am thinking about.  Stay tuned, I may have more random thoughts soon...

Discussion: Have parallels/inserts changed your habits?

I sort of got into a discussion about this issue on Twitter and it's something I have been thinking about more lately just based on what I look for on eBay and at shows. I have made it known that I love blue refractors, so I can't say that I think all parallels and inserts are a waste.

My collection in the last year or so has shifted focus and I may have mentioned that once before. I basically look for autograph versions of my players and then fill in the base and base variations later on. I never thought I would be "that" collector who only cared about autographs but I talked myself into thinking my logic is actually logical.

If I were to do my weekly (read: daily and sometimes hourly) searches on eBay for Robbie Cano cards there are always tons of parallels, serial numbered refractors, and game used non-sense cards. Try and find 2009 Triple Threads Cano autographs, I dare you. I have seen the White Whales and maybe a triple relic autograph from 2009 but that's about it. So keeping that in mind, why wouldn't I go after his low numbered autographs and just regular autographs when they will be either non-existent in a few weeks or months or I will end up priced out as a result of scarcity?

Recently I have picked up only autographs of Cano and haven't bothered with anything else. Part of me doesn't even care about the rest of the cards but then the other part of me sees my page of 2011 Topps Chrome missing a regular refractor, atomic refractor, gold refractor, red refractor.... and it makes me mad for three reasons. Reason #1 - Mad at myself just because I'm mad about not having them. Reason #2 - That I have OCD and feel the need to fill those gaps in one day even if it's not now. Reason #3 - I (sadly) like having a page of the same refractor (there, I said it).

Now I know some of you might be going, well it must be nice to spend all that money on autographs. No, not even close. If you priced all the refractors that I am missing from Topps Chrome and Bowman Chrome if I were to just buy parallels it would probably afford me at least 2 Cano autographs maybe even 3 depending on what I went after. If I have $30 to spend on cards and there is an autograph I need in that ballpark vs. a bunch of parallels I am going for that autograph every time, no question.

Quick example, if you want to see how much a couple of parallels of Cano would add up to you can click and add them up.

2011 Finest gold refractor /50
2011 Finest red refractor /25
2011 Topps Chrome red refractor /25

Would it be nice to have those cards? It sure would. But it's always nicer to have a card like this instead.

I feel like I can save all the inserts and parallels I pull out of packs that I don't want to trade with other collectors for the ones I need rather than chasing those cards on eBay. I think this makes more sense anyway because it's not often that when we all rip wax that we pull the guys we collect in parallels. And if there are no trades on the cards I can always wait until I can get to a card show and rummage through bins for cards and buy a group of them for less than buying individual cards and paying for shipping online.

I would love to hear if your collecting habits have changed in terms of waiting on parallels and inserts and going after the autograph or game used cards first. Or do you go for the inserts/parallels first and take the quantity route for the bucks?

I've become one of "them"

Last night and earlier today it dawned on me, I have become the type of collector that used to annoy me. It hasn't gotten that bad YET, but I could see where this is heading but it's probably not for the same reasons as most of the people that bug me.

What am I talking about? I'm talking about the collectors who rip open hobby boxes and/or cases, then throw away all the base cards and give away the inserts while only keeping the autographs or game used cards. Sure there are plenty of collectors who just chuck the base cards and keep the rest, but that still kind of bothers me.

Let me go back to my trip to the card show in White Plains...

I walked around looking first for autographs. However the first stop I always make didn't have any so I was forced to look for base and inserts. Note: that didn't really do it for me. Then I moped around some more just wanting to find one lil Robbie Cano auto so I could feel like the day wasn't a waste. Rather then be able to bunch a bunch of stuff, I settled for 3 cards and was giddy about it for around 3 days.

When I search for things on eBay, it always goes something like this "Year, Set, Robinson Cano auto", or "Year, Set, Adam Lind auto", I don't bother with Pujols because I already know I can't afford it. Then when I find a card on eBay that I need/must have, I just stare and say:



Yes, I do still buy the base and insert cards I need. I love pulling base and parallels of my guys, or trading for them. I still love to look at a page in my binder of the same card in 9 colors. Do I look at it sometimes and get mad that we as collectors get hosed into buy 9 of the same card? Yep, I sure do. But the bottom line is no one is putting a gun to our heads telling us we need 9 versions, we choose to get them all because we are player collectors.

Shiny mail day a few weeks ago was fun, and I like nothing more than getting a bubble mailer full of Cano and Pujols cards. But... there is just something about opening a bubble mailer that has an autograph in it, or better yet a dual gu/auto. Sigh.

Does this make me "one of them"? Please say no. I think there is a distinction (somewhere). Anyone else reach this point in their collecting habits, or something similar?