How do you stay focused/motivated with your collection?

Over the past 12 or so years of collecting PG I've found there have been times when I have lost motivation or the focus on continuing the collection.

For me, I will either open up my Trophy Room on MERQARY and just scroll through the cards I own. If I'm at home I'll pull out the physical cards and just admire them as a form of art (which they pretty much are).

I'd love to hear about how you stay motivated with your collecting.
- Are you the same as me?
- Do you have another way that might help collectors through the off-season slump?
- Has it become harder to stay motivated with the increased value of the cards making it harder to buy?
- Is it overwhelming due to the increased quantity of cards being produced? How do you stay focused and not look at all the fluff?

To many parallels make it harder & harder to enjoy for me

I’ll add more tomorrow , details etc but I have to try to squash the urge to obtain every card ever made. Also have to do research on cards I don’t have every now and then because it will inevitably spark another set chase or card chase if I haven’t seen it before

PC cards of the bigger name guys I collect liek the Big O and Bird have definitely slowed down to a crawl - prices are up and interest isn;t as high as it used to be, not so much a collector's hobby now as it is for specualtors and investors. Still collecting though, have moved to more lower end, older sets and my lower tier side PC guys.

What keeps me involved and focused is having cards to chase in order to complete my PC/Goals. I tend to find I'll pick up a couple low end cards here and there for the PC to keep me "active" in the hobby as I love a mailday. However, I think the main reason I still love it is because I haven't acquired my grails yet and I enjoy seeing other people acquire theirs as I can live through them for a little bit

Ok !

First off you have to go back to the start ;

-why did you start collecting your PC player?
-do you still want to collect this player? remember, this will likely be consuming A LOT of your time so be as sure as you can!
-is it your main focus/where your money is going to be spent or is there some side PC/speculation that is in your budget too?



What's your start point/main goal?

-most players apart from rookie these days have THOUSANDS of cards so do heaps of research and decide what you like at this point in time - is it Rookie cards? is it autos? is it graded card? patches? serial numbered? rainbow chase? you have to narrow it down (for starters) and then

-have a goal and budget ; by the end of the year get this set done, get all jersey cards, 3 autos by xmas etc etc
and try not to go into big debt with your purchases - i've done it before and it makes it less enjoyable in the end - it's so addicting to buy every card you want but for most of us it's just not logical.



Set up saved searches and a network of friends/collectors

-key terms saved searches in ebay
-regularly check most recent added items in COMC and any platform you like to use
-start want lists on forums - the more people who know what you might like to have will widen the net as they say - you might have missed it otherwise
-instagram hashtag searches and like/follow/comment people on there who like similar sets and players - you can help each other out with doubles etc


Take a break if needed

-i've taken months off over xmas time before to recharge the batteries. even in the first part of the off season after the finals. good way to not be pounded into the ground by all the continual new releases and dribble people try to pass off as content in the off season. come back with a fresh view after having watched some classic games, youtube highlights, card/player reviews on youtube etc - it's good for you


Really focus down into what you want

-Hyper focus if needed - there's so many parallels and card releases that I could never want every card ever released of KG - most don't appeal to be - base 2021-22 prizm? nahhhh - 2007-08 Finest Refractors in PSA 10 ------ that's a goal! very specific works for me



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I am shocked at how much my collecting has changed since 2010 - I hated graded cards - loved inserts and Upper Deck/Topps stuff and loved autos
Now I don't really chase any autos at the moment, buy heaps of graded and still love inserts but different ones and for more specific reasons.

I was buying during the peak times as I sold other cards I bought or graded at lower costs to fund/put into what I would prefer - makes sense to do it!
and I'm buying now more than I have in maybe the last 10 years - so much stuff has popped up as people who came into the hobby for one reason or another (boredom, profit searching etc) have decided to leave again and liquidate what they have. It's been a bit overwhelming the last couple of months even with what I thought was a really focused list of what I wanted to get by the end of the year and even by 2030! lol

- Find cards I like the look of, rather than speculate about their future value. Aesthetics are the most important thing to me in a card.
- Discipline. Focus on 2-3 sets at a time, not dozens. If I want to go after something new, then something old needs to go up for sale.
- Don't worry about what other people are doing. There's an entire section of this hobby that I'm not willing to buy into.
- Be willing to move almost any card I have if the time or opportunity is right.
- Learn more through watching than buying. Think about how difficult it'll be to move a card in the future if I need to (how many there are, how many others will likely be for sale etc). This stuff costs money and I don't have bottomless pockets!
- Remember that this is a hobby and I get joy out of looking at the cards I have, because I like the way they look

1980bust said:

- Find cards I like the look of, rather than speculate about their future value. Aesthetics are the most important thing to me in a card.
- Discipline. Focus on 2-3 sets at a time, not dozens. If I want to go after something new, then something old needs to go up for sale.
- Don't worry about what other people are doing. There's an entire section of this hobby that I'm not willing to buy into.
- Be willing to move almost any card I have if the time or opportunity is right.
- Learn more through watching than buying. Think about how difficult it'll be to move a card in the future if I need to (how many there are, how many others will likely be for sale etc). This stuff costs money and I don't have bottomless pockets!
- Remember that this is a hobby and I get joy out of looking at the cards I have, because I like the way they look

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great points there - hardest part for me has been trying to see through/block out the BS influence or what people are pushing as cool, I really have to try to bring it back to would I really like it even if I was the only one liking it. It’s hard though as we still want people to appreciate/respect what we are collecting - I think thats what makes some people reluctant to post maildays or cards they have

i just numbered your questions from above.

1. Definitely have felt the same. Especially when they stopped making Camby cards. I tried to come up with some other chases - 92 dream team, #1 draft picks, NBA@75.
2. Off-season or other reasons I think the best thing is to go through your cards and be reminded why/what you collect
3. Definitely. The market has been weird the last 12-24 months. So many card prices still break my brain. Probably has also led to less trading and more razzing.
4. Still what I like, still don't understand the excitement around all the parallels (prizms)

GarnettFan4Life said:

I’ll add more tomorrow , details etc but I have to try to squash the urge to obtain every card ever made. Also have to do research on cards I don’t have every now and then because it will inevitably spark another set chase or card chase if I haven’t seen it before

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yeah that's definitely changed the approach for player collectors

Billyhoyle said:

yeah that's definitely changed the approach for player collectors

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I think this is probably the biggest reason I've lost interest. There is simply too many parallels for anyone to contemplate being a player collector anymore.

If there was just 5-6 parallels that make up a rainbow chase, I'd be so much more invested in looking for each of them. If you look at Prizm or Select, you're often looking for over 40 different colours. Why bother even starting...

I'm back here after almost 20 years being out of collecting (I use to collect Rugby League cards), in saying that... I was collecting for nearly 15 before then (bubblegum era).

What gave me the shits was the parrallels NRL cards, and 3 different series they started to do in 2005 or 2006, and the ultra rare captain signatures. I was spending maybe more of half my wages on cards, it got to a point where I thought "should I buy a house, or complete my sets". I later brought multiple houses over the years, and one thing I hated about the card collecting is 'storage' and 'insurance'. They're freakin heavy and they take up space, the biggest fear I have now... when I die and somebody gets all my stuff, they'll have no idea how rare some of them are and probably biff em, coz I haven't had the time to organise them (good old work, sleeping more and getting older).

I encourage you to take a break from collecting, you'll feel less stressed out/and more time avoiding eBay whenever a new set drops every 3 months or so hahaha

Card collecting isn't a sport/job, yeah its cool getting a complete 'masters set', but the reality is... not many out there whom have the money to buy it from you, they're all mostly all talk, no action when it comes down to the crunch. And when you pass them down to whomever... they're most likely gonna get ripped off when they gonna try and sell it to buy their grandkids a car.

That's my 2 cents, good luck to whatever you choose.

To me, collecting is a hobby. Therefore it should be fun - not a must have. For me, I do have comprehensive check-lists for my pc of cards I haven't yet got. Even though I've included all 1 of 1s and other super rare stuff in those lists, my attitude is this - if I get them, I get them; if I don't... Ah well. Basically, the pedantic perfectionist in me would like to have all the cards for my PC's, but the realist says get what you can and enjoy it.

Agree - if it’s not fun why are you doing it?

Take a break or quit and do something else

It's funny when I look at the date I created this post, I was struggling with the hobby website I had built as I couldn't get the web developers to build the website to make my hobby experience enjoyable. The website worked but not the way I wanted it to and it was probably causing more pain than fun which probably fuelled my post...

Fast forward to today, the original website is no longer, I learned how to build a website for myself to cater to the way I collect and have just recently been adding in my cards again.

For me, I see collecting like putting together a puzzle. I like to find the pieces and put them together. The puzzle I've been working on for the past 12 years is a PG PC. Link below to see my PC plus all my Set Chases! (A set chase is where you can see all the cards you own alongside the cards you're still chasing).

https://tradigram.com/personal_collection/pg13

@John L send me a message if you want to use the site as I can start uploading the Rugby League checklists. I have also just released a feature where you can send us the cards to scan, upload and store for you (currently looking into insurance). You can then sell them on the marketplace or just keep them there to show off in your PC.

There's such a mental balancing act to collecting: Do you chase lower-priced, easier-to-find cards and sets and go mental trying to grab everything you can because it's possible? Or do you chase higher-priced, harder-to-find cards and sets that force you to have patience and not be spending 24/7?

I've done both and definitely find the slower, higher-priced collecting more relaxing because there's less of a feeling of "what am I missing out on?" if you're not checking eBay every 20 seconds

But either way, I've never found it not fun - even the moronic eBay messages we all get sometimes are entertainment!

Other than spending money on card's & gambling on horses on Wednesday & Saturday, I m a manager for my local basketball comp & have 2 teams that i fund myself so thats when I take a break when I have to start organizing for the following season & takes about 2-3 to get everything settled I also try to stay away from anything card related on social media although from time to time I'll watch any of my fave influencer to stay updated.