I was wondering how long others here have been collection and how (if) your collecting interests and habits have changed with time. What is it that keeps the collecting hobby alive for you? And of course if you can keep it trading card related all the better.

I realised the other day that I'm about year shy (2020) of having been an 'official' collector of Non-Sport cards (Not including Collectable Cards Games) for almost 20 years. If you include the CCGs then I passed that mark last year!

I've been on these forums since 2005, collecting since 2000. My collecting habits have changed over the years naturally. From what I collect to how I store my collection and the size of my collection has grown and shrunk over the years too.

I began with Pokemon cards in 1997 and then serious Non-Sport collecting with Charmed cards in 2000. I'd intended to stick only with Charmed sets (haha!) but over the next decade until around 2011 collected over 200 sets. I then massive culled my collection and only bought a handful of new sets over the next few years.

Now I collect only single or bargain sets of cards. I tried starting whole new sets with the odd official binder or sealed box but I eventually sold these. I find I'm not as attached to newer sets as I once was. Disappointed most brand new sets and boxes are way out of my price range these days. I'm more particular about what I add to my collection too as I'm more pushed for space.

I have a list somewhere of all the sets I collected and was shocked that the sets numbered 200+. Most I forgot I'd owned. There's only a few sets I wish I'd held onto but they're not expensive should I ever wish to rebuy them. I don't actively 'miss' them. Probably more the money I put down on them.

I started in 1991 with the BORIS set, went crazy with buying because I had a good paying job and could afford it, stopped about five years ago when I could no longer afford the cards and became discouraged with all the parallel sets, etc. However, I still buy the occasional sketch card.

Mainly now, I collect books, which I have been doing a lot longer than trading cards.

If you count the cards you got with sweet cigarettes ( somehow I don't think they would get away with that now ) then my first sets were the Gerry Anderson ones like Thunderbirds and Stingray in the 60's.

Otherwise it was Babylon 5 Ultra in 1995.My main focus used to be autographs but over the last five years that focus has switched to mainly sketch cards. They are just nicer to look at mainly due to the jump in quality since small companies like the Perna's started up.

How I buy has also changed as factors like the fall in the value of the pound, more aggressive customs charging, and the general rise in costs has taken effect. I used to buy what I wanted when it first came out but now unless it is something I know will sell out like the Perna sets I wait for sales such as Black Friday.

This is an interesting topic that I've thought about a fair bit since you posted it. . .

The core of what I am collecting hasn't really changed -- autographs and sketch cards. . . As with others how I collect has changed significantly.

A few years ago I sold off the bulk of my collection, and in that process realized that most of my collection was an accumulation and not really a collection. I'd buy cheap wax chasing autographs, then I'd put the sets together and box them up . . . at one point in time that made sense because I could sell or trade sets, but over time the demand of sets dropped significantly. I found out how little demand there was when I sold the bulk of my collection.

Now I am significantly pickier with what I buy. I generally avoid buying wax that contains base cards because I have an aversion to accumulating extra cards. The sort of exception to that is ePack where I will buy packs, but can totally avoid the base cards by trading them or selling them on COMC.

Card collecting has popped into my collecting habit/addiction in various ways over the years. The very first cards I collected came out of packets of tea. Anyone else in the UK remember the Brooke Bond Tea collections from way back in the 60s and, I think, early 70s ? I still have several albums of those cards hidden away in my back bedroom that I dust off to flip through every few years.

When those stopped, or at least I stopped getting them, card collecting pretty much disappeared from my life. I vaguely remember getting some Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet cards at some point and I have about half a dozen really old cigarette cards that I have no recall of where they came from. In recent times, I came across trading cards through my longtime interest in the career and works of the late Ray Harryhausen. Strictly Ink released, somewhat controversially it later turned out, a Harryhausen sketch card set. The full trading card release never happened but the sketch cards managed to sneak out and I bought tons of them. I still have most of them. For several years since then I have collected a variety of sets with the focus on fantasy and sci-fi and mainly sketch cards. Due to my more recent circumstances and finances, I now only pick up new releases by the Pernas. That may also have to end next year...not too sure right now.

In accordance with the 'last in, first out' rule, if need be, my card collection will be the first to go if my finances deteriorate even further. My Ray Harryhausen, Doctor Who, comic and Myth and Magic figures collections will be further down the list

Sports Cards - Signed Sports Cards - Certified Autograph Sports Cards - Certified Autograph Non-Sport Cards

Packs - Boxes - Single Cards

It's gone something like that, with many collateral base sets compiled in between. Not unlike others, I too have slowed down on buying and have just begun to look at downsizing my binders. It's a matter of reclaiming space and also realizing how much was just accumulated for no good reason I can think of now.

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