Now that 2012 is wrapping up, I got to thinking about my card collecting habits and what I might change in 2013. I won't make any resolutions, never holds , just realizing mistakes made and considering other options. I was also wondering what fellow non-sport card collectors foresee for next year. So I posted three general questions, but I'd really like to read all your thoughts about what you expect you will be buying and why.

Happy New Year and may your first non-sport card of 2013 be a good one!

Question:
How will your non-sport card spending in the coming year compare to this year's spending?

Choices:
I expect to spend more.
I expect to spend less.
I expect to spend about the same.

Question:
What non-sport products do you think you will be buying in 2013?

Choices:
All new releases.
Mainly new releases, with some old ones.
All old releases.
Mainly old releases, with some new ones.

Question:
How do you expect to allocate your non-sport card budget in 2013?

Choices:
Buying mainly boxes/cases.
Buying mainly individual cards.
Buying a combination of boxes and cards.

 

I will be buying cards from new sets and full sets of old sets.

I shall be spending about the same as last year ( bad news for dealers there. )

I'll be spending way more which I'm both happy and sad about. I only purchase cases of products that I feel I must have master sets for, and this coming year there are 4 (so far). I'll probably get a case of the next Bond set from Rittenhouse, since it appears it'll be quite Skyfall heavy, and I am determined to own every single Craig era relic and full-bleed auto. Psych from Cryptozoic is definitely happening, as well as their Batman and Archer sets depending on the content. I usually just buy the individual cards that I want, but this year there seem to be more must have sets!

I made a few too many foolish purchases this year (i.e. paid too much, didn't REALLY want that, etc.) so in 2013 I plan on spending a little less. I'll mainly be going after new releases and I plan on buying the cards I want individually.

I will likely be spending more, but I'm going to try and spend less. I plan on doing master sets of Vampire Diaries Season 2, Fringe Seasons 3 & 4, Castle Seasons 1 and 2, OUAT, Psych, Alphas, and possibly Revenge, Grimm, and Transformers.

In terms of old sets I am still trying to complete the LOST master sets (mainly down to promos on this...have a couple autos left...Watchman gold from Revelations, and the two Disney Expo promo autos), Avengers Assemble (down to about 3 inserts, 10 costume cards and 5 autos, but I still need a bunch of artists), Farscape master sets (have a ways to go on the first four seasons and Farscape in Motion, pretty close on Through the Wormhole), Stellar SI releases (pretty close on all of these except 2003), Alias sets (have a long way to go on all of these). I will be working on Buffy and Angel sets again too, but don't plan on finishing those this upcoming year.

I also hope to pick up a ton of PSCs from the 4 artists I have running lists with. Hoping to get 4 or 5 sets done by Andy, possibly get close to having the GoT set that David Desbois is working on done, 3 or 4 sets done by Steve Stanley, and Gary Kezele as well.

I expect to spend less, since I spent so much this year.

Need to finish a few sets I already started, and start a couple more that I have been holding off on. Besides Grimm, nothing else really comes to mind with new sets.

I'll be buying mostly singles, and maybe a few boxes.

Just a little OT, and a LOT self promoting, but if anyone is interested in knowing what new sets are coming out in 2013, be sure to check out the upcoming Feb/Mar '13 issue of NSU. We have our annual 2013 Preview story and there are a bevy of new titles, follow-up sets, and info mentioned in the story.

Great poll, Raven.

For me, I am going to try to focus a little more on some of the sets I have been working on for a while. Hopefully, I will finish up Smallville Season 6 this year and make progress on 7-10.
I hope to get my Twilight Zone autograph set from 114 of 150 to at least 125 of 150 this year.
I have two boxes of Big Bang 3/4 preorder and I have to see what is coming out to but most of my pre-orders will only be a box or two.

Interesting question. . . similar sentiments have come up on several other boards as well and as usual at this time of the year I'm stumped for an answer. Like last year there was very little on the horizon that I was interested in. . . the same holds true this year despite a ton more products getting released.

I am looking forward to Pop Century, the return of Sad Littles, 5FINITY's release schedule, more from Marty and Boo, Transformers by Breygent . . . and . . . well I'm sure other stuff will come up (hopefully more 258 West Mystery Packs and Breygent SDCC Packs). . . At this point I just have no idea what the year will bring.

Oddly, even with more and more licenses being picked up I don't watch (and frankly haven't heard of) most of the shows depicted in the newly announced sets.

Ultimately regardless of what sets come out -- with the tax increases this year I'm going to have less cash, so that will impact things too. . .

The question How do you expect to spend your money should include "buyinging Master Sets". I've bought cases/boxes in past but the breakdown is so poor now it is not worth taking this route. You still end up with high end cards to purchase including Multi-Case dealer incentives and you are left with lots of spares others only want to pay £1 or £2 ($2-3) for if you are lucky. In the long run it will work out cheaper buying master sets.

paying high end prices for sketch cards is ending for me as from jan 1st,i am a great fan of a certain sketch artist and have over payed for nearly every sketch i bought in 2012 (could have bought a new car,fitted kitchen and a down payment on a house in its place) especially with kitty dittie sketches,i paid 2 and a half thousand pounds and only got 1 card by this artist,so look out all the ebay money grabbers with £250 starting prices,you ll be keeping them



bond is the only thing i'm really looking forward to in 2013 hope to get as many full bleed autos as possible and a nice full photo base set instead of gimmicky borders with more design than image,and one day,maybe,a diamonds are forever card with willard whyte on it

would like to see some company think about twin peaks,it will be worth it + (its never going to happen but) a proper dr who set with autos (not just the new but from the beginning)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: cheifbrody,

I'll probably end up spending about the same amount in 2013 as I did this year. My purchases will be split between sets/individual cards and sketch cards (the latter of which I purchase a lot of.)

For the new sets, I will buy some boxes/packs from companies (like Breygent and Cult-Stuff) who guarantee at least a base set and a certain number of inserts. Otherwise, I will buy base sets and/or mini-masters from the 'Bay. I am not a big gambler.

The new sets that I have my sights set on are Grimm, Batman and The Art of Robert Aragon. Oh, and anything from Cult-Stuff that catches my eye.

Old sets - need to finish up my Vertigo and Sandman inserts/promos and get going on Universal Monsters Illustrated and Hammer.

OK, so far we have 35 votes and only 11 replies, so someone is not sharing their thoughts.

For my part, I'm happy to see a few of my personal observations already mentioned by others.

I expect to spend less this year in the sense that I hope to curb some of the stupid spending I did last year. As an autograph collector who likes to bust packs (don't we all) I lost focus and chased too many products that I had little actual interest in.

I picked up one or two boxes/premium packs of TV shows I've never watched (True Blood, Spartacus, Vampire Diaries, Fringe, NCIS), franchises I don't follow (Star Trek, Star Wars) and in one case something I never even heard about (The Guild). Please understand these are all good cards and a I got a few nice hits, but in the greater scheme of things I didn't need them.

I also wound up buying a few hot products that were sketch based and had sketches as the main hit (Mars Attacks, Bettie Page, Divas, Vampirella). This is not me at all and some of the subjects were not even familar to me. As a result, although again I did get a few sketches I liked, most were of no real value to me.

Not to make 2012 sound like a bad year for me, I got some great autographs from old and new stuff and the new sets have really been outstanding in design and content. You can't find anything new for under $40 and most are $65 and up, but that just makes it more important to be selective and know what you want.

I intend to do a lot more targeted individual autograph card buying this year, eBay dealers will be happy. I also intend to keep myself from buying random products because they are there or because the limited hits are really popular. That should leave me with more money to get the cards I really want, maybe.

Anyway that's the plan, and it should last at least as long as those first January 2013 sets start coming out.

raven,i don't understand the old release/new release vote ?
is an old release a product that came out a few years back or a new release of an older subject ?

I'm probably going to be spending my money filling gaps in older collections or building up some older sets now that prices have dropped.

New Trek sets will get my attention this year.

My problem with last year was the exclusivity of some sets. I was very interested in collecting the Big Bang Theory set, until the cards came out and the prices went through the roof. Now, I'm not averse to high-end cards - I've bought several cards from the $100+ price bracket recently, but when half the auto-run is so limited that prices are at that point, it puts me off. My completist nature won't let me invest in half a set, so I've not bought any.

quote:

Originally posted by cheifbrody:
raven,i don't understand the old release/new release vote ?
is an old release a product that came out a few years back or a new release of an older subject ?

I meant the question to be very general, do you expect to be buying more cards from new 2013 products or buying more from cards from products already released?

I see your point though, some people would call a new release as anything within the past 12 months. I wasn't considering subject at all. There are many old Bonds and only one new Bond for example. Or BBT Season 1 - 2 is the new release until BBT Season 3 - 4 comes out.

I guess the better question might be, are you looking to mainly buy the most recent sets and inserts or are you mainly buying to complete older sets or pick up older cards to fill in gaps? I think most collectors are doing both old and new cards, but some extraordinary overpricing on a lot of the new cards is making older ones the better value. That's just my impression because I know I'm going to be trying to fill holes myself.

As for me , I will still be trying to complete a lot of older sets .

Well I'm moving to the UK for two years but still using my Australian address for purchases (for import tax reasons), so I expect my buying to decline. Dropping the Marvel that I had been using to fill the gap now that DC sets are back. Perna Studio sets and Warehouse 13 will continue as they are released. But the only new license I am going to add is Once Upon a Time.

I normally tend to buy a little bit from a bunch of different sets, but my goal in 2013 is to do it a little differently. I want to focus on a few sets and work on those throughout the year. I kind of did that a little this year with Game of Thrones.

For 2013 I do need to limit my spending (I want to pay off my credit cards and buy a house early next year) and so right now my goal is to focus primarily on Game of Thrones season two - I will buy a binder and one box, and then pick up the autographs I want throughout the year (Melisandre, Sansa Stark and Davos Seaworth would be musts).

I also plan on getting a box of Star Trek Into Darkness and working on that autograph set, and I am waiting for the configuration of the Blake's 7 set but I will probably pick up some of that as well. And honestly, that is probably it. In 2012 I picked up a couple of boxes of Fringe but pulled two of the same low end autograph - I just feel like Crypto has collation issues still, and I wouldn't commit to another box until my odds are better (but an Anna Torv as Fauxlivia auto card would become a holy grail for me). Of course, no doubt some manufacturer will surprise me with something I have to pick up so all of this is subject to change.

quote:

Originally posted by tangent:
Well I'm moving to the UK for two years but still using my Australian address for purchases (for import tax reasons), so I expect my buying to decline. Dropping the Marvel that I had been using to fill the gap now that DC sets are back. Perna Studio sets and Warehouse 13 will continue as they are released. But the only new license I am going to add is Once Upon a Time.

OMG, I'm moving to Canada for two years and will still be using my Aussie address, so I won't be buying very much either
Once Upon A Time is one I'll be adding and also Grimm.