What are your top collecting priorities?
Are you trying to finish out the 2010 sets?
Are you primarily a team collector looking for recent stuff?
Maybe you only collect subsets and that's where you spend your money.
I'll tell you my top priorities and they all involve one thing. Organizing.
I'm in the labor intensive act of organizing my entire Texas Rangers collection. I just recently sorted out all my Rangers (I'm 100% sure there are other Rangers scattered thoughout my boxes) by manufacturer. I sorted them into piles...Topps, Upper Deck, Fleer, Donruss, oddballs....the list goes on and on and on.
The next step was to pick a stack and start dividing them by year and brand....it's maddening and exciting at the same time. I started with Topps and sorted out the flagship cards from all the other stuff like Chrome, Stadium Club, Heritage...you get the picture. I've got all the flagship stuff from 1961 (Senators) to 2010 sorted and I'm working on generating wantlists for those years too. I'm using Texas Rangers checklists I found at rangerscards.com to create wantlists. They don't have all the checklists for every product from every year, but it's a great starting point.
Ultimately, my goal is to have a wantlist for every Ranger card I don't have.
I've been envious of people who have such complete wantlists on their blogs. If you're one of those people, you know it because you put a lot of work into that thing. It also makes your trade packages even better when you get to knock cards off that list.
I love trading and the work I put into the wantlist will pay off in the long run with packages that help me reach the ultimate goal of completing.
I still have a lot of sets to complete along the way, but that's for another post.
So, back to the original question, what are your collecting priorities right now?
For the record, I've completed the 1987 Topps Rangers.
Dude, good luck!
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I'm in a bit of a standstill. I had been collecting Seneca Wallace hardcore again, but I met a guy with multiple 1/1's, and so now I'm stuck. I'm a little OCD and a complete-ist, and will never be entirely happy with my Seneca collection knowing that those 1/1's are elsewhere.
Before it was easier, out of sight out of mind, ya know? So I'm waiting, and messaging, and hoping things work out.
I'll second the Mooss's good luck to you!
ReplyDeleteGoals? Man...For CC right now I'm focused on Bowman Chrome Refractors and not waiting until next year to get the 206 relics (like I did last year!). The big thing is I got a little birthday money recently and I'm knocking off a few of those "I should never spend this kind of cash on a baseball card" cards. I'm working on a post for the first one.
Right now I've been filling in holes in my SF Giants collection. Other priorities are to finish my 1976 Kellogg's and 1973 Topps sets.
ReplyDeleteI will echo the Moooss...
ReplyDeleteI was hardcore into my PCs - Carl Crawford, Danny Tartabull and Jared Sandberg but I hit a wall. I want to finish 2009 and 2010 Heritage, but all the SPs are crazy. I guess '65 Topps is what I am working on most.
My extra bedroom has stacks and stacks of unsorted Rays cards. I really hope to sort them someday soon... Good luck Brian!
I'm making more of a mess, and buying wax again, even after saying I wouldn't. Always focusing on the player collections gets tiring, and at this point, I am really only chasing super nice Markakis cards anyway. Need to get organized, but can't complain about it if I keep buying boxes, now can I?
ReplyDeleteHonestly though, my top priority is not letting you knock me out of the fantasy playoffs. Bring it fool!
Right now I'm working on completing my 09 Upper Deck set along with 09 Topps 206 regular and mini piedmont sets. I'm always trying to add stuff to my Orioles team sets. (everybody check my lists if you're interested in trading!)I'm still adding stuff to my Ripken Collection and starting to collect Nick Markakis a little more. I'm waiting on Topps Update and Bowman Draft so I can bust some wax and work on those sets.
ReplyDeleteMy top priority is to sort out the cards that have been piling up on my desk for the past few months.
ReplyDeleteOnce I get that out of the way, I'm going to try to figure out which base Topps Mets cards I still need from 1962-2010 and start working on my all-time Mets autograph collection some more.
My priority right now...blogging.
ReplyDeleteAs a collector of vintage material, I am at the point where I'm not needing an awful lot of stuff, and what I do need is fairly costly. And, since I've recently left a job, moved to another city and waiting to begin another job...hobby funds are pretty low.
So I write about stuff. It's a lot cheaper than buying.
I'm trying to finish off 2009 Topps still, and I wouldn't mind putting together all the 2009 mini Goudeys.
ReplyDeleteI've also got a grand plan to finish my 1982 Topps collection. I've got a handful of cards from that set (I was 5) that are mostly destroyed but I think it would be cool to finish that set using the crazy used condition ones I got as a kid.
Ryan, I probably have some 2009 T206 for you.
I'm always trying to get as many base Red Sox card as I can but right now I am trying to chase down 2010 A&G Mini and Bordered Mini cards. I learned in years past that the trade opportunities dry up for them fast.
ReplyDeleteHaving made a huge checklist myself I know how much work you have ahead of you. I actually made many different kinds of lists in multiple configurations before I settled on a basic Excel spreadsheet sorted by year and set that I could upload or download for everyone else to see. It is far superior to anything else I tried to create and easy to maintain.
I found http://www.teamsets4u.com/checklist.html to be the most helpful site out there for making my team checklist.
Wow, thanks for the great response.
ReplyDeleteBring it on Beardman!
For me its collecting proven players. I'm not on the rookies bandwagon. Too much speculation. I look back at my collection and the players I used to follow and 40% of them are long forgotten.
ReplyDelete1. WOLVERINES!
ReplyDelete2. Baseball sets
3. Football sets
4. Detroit Tigers misc. stuff
I am currently trying to complete the 2010 Topps insert sets that I decided to chase (VLC, CYMTO, TR's, 20/20, HOTWS) and on the player side I have been enamored with some of the old school Yankees (Mantle, Ford, Berra, DiMagio) and on the Mets side I have been hot on the Seaver and Wright front. I also have turned up the effort on some of the offbeat collections like team cards and cards with American flags. That's my current hot list but I tend to go on spurts where I will change focus on what's hot for me at the moment. Sometimes a card or cards from a trade will change my direction for a different focus for a while.
ReplyDeleteI'm focusing on a list of top rookies of current and retired players. Then trying to finish off an '07 Bowman Heritage set. I'm not so much of a team collector, but I do love vintage Tigers and Tigers rookies. I just can't take on the immense project of being a super team collector--don't have room or the time.
ReplyDeleteWhat are your top collecting priorities?
ReplyDeleteTeam collecting - Cardinals
Are you trying to finish out the 2010 sets?
Yes. Base + CYMTO + Legendary Lineage + Peak Performance + Vintage Legends
Are you primarily a team collector looking for recent stuff?
Team collector? Yes. Recent stuff? Yes and no. I like the recent stuff, but I have been slowly acquiring cards from the '69 Topps set (year I was born).
I recently undertook the task of organizing my cards also. I didn't get as detailed as some of you guys, but I have separated my cards by teams.
My collecting priorities right now are to get lots of the young Mets that I think have potential like Ike Davis and Jon Neise. I am hoping the two of them stay with the Mets and succeed.
ReplyDeleteI also still try to get my hands on cards with or made from weird materials.
I've been trying to get more organized and also want to take Bad Wax's idea about donating cards to children in the hospital and do that here in my town.
ReplyDeleteI recently narrowed my priorities to the following, in order:
ReplyDelete1. Finish the sets that I actively collected as a kid. This is any of the 3 major sets from 78 to 90. Also 97/98 Topps. I missed out on buying a Factory set of each of those years while in college.
2. Collect other sets that I had bought a box of with the intent of hand collating the sets. I went through a phase in the early 90s of only buying certain boxes with the intent of completing the set.
3. Detroit Tiger Topps cards.
4. Sets from 69 to 76. This would give me a run of topps sets from birth to present.
I guess I count as a "primarily team collector". I'm thinking I'm going to chase the Year in Review, 2008 subset. they're interesting looking cards, blah, blah, blah. And better organization always helps. My cards are strewn all over right now.
ReplyDeleteRight now my priority has been completeing my 1971 Topps set. Its getting more difficult as my wants are being reduced to the high series and star cards.
ReplyDeletejust to get cards of the players i enjoy collecting and 1 superfractor!
ReplyDeleteMy priority is to trade and try to casually finish a couple sets, something I've never done before. I want to get a more uniform display collection so that I have something to show for spending so much time and money. I also am trying to get as many homegrown and Virginia Tech guys as possible.
ReplyDeleteRight now, I'm focusing on getting excited about the hobby again. I jumped right in and now I think that I'm trying to do too much at once. I bought a ton of boxes at the same time that I decided I wanted to do video box breaks (which meant I also got a new computer) and so posts are taking a lot longer now than they would if I were just posting a couple of cards for a post. Combine that with trying to get everything organized with a limited amount of time to spend on the hobby to begin with and something I can't even figure out where my priority really is. Lately, I've ended up downstairs with the family a lot more than I have upstairs with the cards.
ReplyDeleteThe contest is closed. Feel free to still leave an answer to the question.
ReplyDeleteOrganizing is a never-ending task.
ReplyDelete