Hey ,

Sorry if there's an already similar thread but I was just wondering:

How much time do people spent/invest in their trading cards? Or to put it another way how actively involved are you day to day/week to week/month to month etc.

(This can apply to those lucky fellows who work in the industry and get paid to spend all day with cards )

For example I honsetly only look at my collections once every few weeks and every few months I get a sudden urge to want to buy cards and if funds permit away I go! Either hunting out needs or starting a new set. I have traded in the past but not done so in quite sometime.

Just wondering about everyone else?

Oh and if you could say (estimate) how many collections/sets you have(this can be multiple for same tv show/film etc) that would be cool too.

Nowadays I only collect 8 sets: all Charmed sets, James Bond: TWINE and considering starting another undetermined set too.

Long post! Thanks -

TC00.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TC00,

I guess the answer to how much time day to day, week to week - varies.
If I am actively collecting a set, by that I mean buying packs or a box, I will spend an hour sorting through cards, including extras, and putting them away. I always read the backs once the set is complete - which also takes some time, and if I want to put the set in pages, that also takes some time.

I have devoted weekends to the hobby, in the form of attending a show, then sorting through the stack of goodies that I purchased.

lately I have been stuck at home with an injury and while I've only picked up one box in the last month, I still have sat at my desk, sorted through some odd packs and promos, and found time to look at my hobby publications - NSU and the Wrapper.

Your question is one with no bad answer,all the people here have jobs, family responsibilities, etc,that come first, but that we have anytime for our hobby is a good thing. It provides relaxation and escape, or at least it should.

You have to catch up to me TCOO - I have way over 300 sets, dating back to 1951, and looking forward to more.

A little hear, A little there. I am constantly on the look out for new (older mainly) cards for my collection. Quit keeping up with how much I spend years ago. It got depressing seeing how much total I had tied up in cardboard! Now if I have the $ when I find something I buy it. If I don't have the cash I pass!

Days, Nights, Weekends, Holidays... I will be dealing with cards until the end of time!

If I had to guess, maybe 10-15 hours per week. It all depends on what I'm doing within the hobby. Reading posts here, browsing eBay, sorting through the mountain of boxes I've accumulated, working on fantasy sets, admiring the collection, etc.
Lately, I've put a ton of hours into a card set highlighting the works of local artists. That's been one crazy time sink the past few weeks... But I wouldn't have it any other way!

At LEAST 2-5 hours a week or more, including this site, E-bay, agonizing over my ever growing want list and envying all the cards pictured here by collectors that I don't have - yet!

I collect way too many sets; BUFFY, CHARMED, XENA, STAR TREK, JAMES BOND, ANGEL, ALIAS, X-FILES, LOST, TWILIGHT ZONE, etc., etc. I include the older sets because I have very few completed, although I only need a card or two to finish off some of them.

I got back into the hobby about a year ago. After about a fifteen year hiatus.

A friend of mine gave me a shoe box filled with mostly Skybox Star Trek cards. He found it at a yard sale for a dollar. He emailed me about them and said, "hey, didn't you collect cards a long time ago?" So, I took the shoe box, spent about 10 hours sifting through all the cards, and then pulled my small collection out of the attic to combine the two. To which I'm still working on to this day.

Since then, I spend about two hours a day, reading, emailing, hunting for promos, and talking with friends and family about cards.

It's a great hobby, my 9 year old son likes it, and as long as you budget yourself and stick to your goals {primarily mine is Trek} you should have fun hunting. I also used to collect Star Trek toys in the late 80s thru the 90s. You get the same feeling when you complete a set or series. It's all the same high.

Fred

I spend a lot less time on the hobby now than I did when I first took an interest in non-sport cards. Its different when you are trying to build a collection than it is when you are a few years in and have most of the cards you want and still can afford.

I put in a lot of time online trying to track down and win many cards, but now its generally only the newly released products that I'm looking for, most of the older cards that I'm missing are ones that I just can't find at prices I'm willing to pay.

So I visit my local hobby store once a week, usually on weekends, to see if a new box interests me and I look on that auction site maybe an hour every other week. Have kind of soured on that, and I spend a half hour or less catching up on Card Talk most evenings. That's more than enough to keep me busy these days.

There is not a day goes by where i am not looking at or sorting cards or searching for ones i do not have.

How many do i have? Let's put it this way, i can only just about get from the bedroom door to the bed, a few more and i will be sleeping in the garden shed.

I guess I could say I started collecting about 2 years ago, it started innocently when I found the full set of Buck Rogers cards that I used to collect as a kid on ebay and bought them, as soon as they arrived in pristine condition with the stickers I was hooked.

I must have spent a few thousand pounds in the first few months just going crazy buying everything, then as I went along I worked out what I was interested in and started to focus, I spent even more.

I pretty much have most base sets I want, there are a few outstanding older sets thatI have my eye on and I will buy as and when they come along at a decent price.

I mainly buy autograph cards now and they are really taking a bite out of my wallet. I have the Lord of the Rings, Battlestar Galatica, Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis, James Bond (full bleeds only), Firelfy, Serenity, Babylon 5, The Prisoner, Hammer Films, and a few other movies sets like Planet of the Apes, Tomb Raider etc.

For me, I probably spend more time on ebay than working with my cards. I love the chase, and finding a set that is rare and difficult to get complete. Nothing beats the feeling when a new card/set arrives. I do put all my cards in sleeves, then 9 page protectors, then into binders.

It's funny, I was talking to a friend the other, shopping on the internet is not really like spending real money, so when things arrive it's like christmas, gifts just keep turning up And it's great they are mostly trading cards.

Every day
sumo

Every days as a collector and designer/finding actors

My time spent with cards is directly attributed to my current financial situation. When the money is running then I can sit up until 2.00am sorting, cataloguing making lists (a favourite pursuit!!) and putting away. I collect every set issued from 1975 to 2000 which is a total of 1130 sets. Currently I have completed 737 sets including all promos, wrappers, inserts and base cards. Like Wolfie space is my enemy, and I have just completed building a new rack but it overflowed al;most immediately!

Wow, that is an amazing collection. I am jealous of how well organized you are, I just have a couple of plastic bins filled and a few plastic cases with inserts in no actual order.

As far as time: I really enjoy pulling out the Star Trek Legends sets and paging through them, but other than that I really just flip through my autographs/inserts a few times a month. Part of the reason I put so much of my collection up for trade was because I never looked through it -- for example, I had 6 Xena base sets that I swear I never looked at other than the day they first arrived.

quote:

Originally posted by cardaddict:
At LEAST 2-5 hours a week or more, including this site, E-bay, agonizing over my ever growing want list and envying all the cards pictured here by collectors that I don't have - yet!

I collect way too many sets; BUFFY, CHARMED, XENA, STAR TREK, JAMES BOND, ANGEL, ALIAS, X-FILES, LOST, TWILIGHT ZONE, etc., etc. I include the older sets because I have very few completed, although I only need a card or two to finish off some of them.

You appear to be my evil twin, for I am *exactly* the same.

OMG!! btlfannz what an impressive collection. How have you managed that? Very jealous, do you have a listing on all the sets from 1975 - 2000, that would be really useful for me to figure out what I'm missing from my meagre collection.

All of my data bases are in Excel format and available free to any Card Talk member who wants then.The main idex can be sorted by any of these columns:
Set Name
Country Of Origin
Type (Trade card, Stickers etc.)
Subject (Movie, TV etc etc
Year (as is on the card)
Set (Number)
Wrapper (Paper, Foil, Wax, Cello)
Album
Gold Cards
Holos
Stkrs
Foils
Auto
Parallel
Subsets
Extra Items
Just bear in mind that most of you collect from 2000 onwards whereas I do not record sets beyond that year (with some exceptions for overflow sets like Buffy, Charmed, Olivia etc.

I have also seperated out my major interest which is Fantasy Sets and that is in some detail.

Then I have seperate listings for Promos, comic promos, widevision, Star Trek promos, oversized promos, and a partial listing of pre-1975 sets
Whew!! Email me those listings that you want to btlfannz@fastmail.fm. Some lists are more comprehensive than Jeff Allender's (although I do data share with Jeff he's gone off the radar again, I do hope that he's OK) some of my lists are works in progress. All of the lists are in a constant state of review and updated as better data comes to hand.

I have also been working on for many years now a collection I call Type Sets. If you look at the picture I posted at the second shelf from the top there are 17 ringbinders in a row. They hold about 900 (of 1130) samples of all sets from 1975 to 2000 with wrappers on one side and 9 random cards from the set on the other. There a lot of these sets that came 7 or 8 cards to a pack so it drives me crazy trying to find a single common just to complete a 9 pocket!! Ahh, it's a hobby (no wait - what was it my wife called it?) Oh yes, a fanatical obsession!!

I am in the same boat as btlfannz, my wife thinks its a fanatical obsession and is always concerned about what I am spending on it
- especially now that I am between jobs
but this has freed up a lot of time to spend on my hobby
I previously was spending 2-3 hours a day on the hobby, but current situation is more like 8+ hours a day
- especially as I am trying to break down all the boxes, etc I got at the 2 Ohio shows before the Philly show in May
need to make sure my lists are completely up to-date before the show
I am also try to work on a website to display my collection

I also have a very large excel list that I made up - mostly using Jeff's site
I am a completest and have to have all promo, etc for each of the sets
(have PM's btlfannz to have a look see at his list)

Here is some pictures of my collection
(should clarify, my non-sports card collection - I have a few more )

I currently have the majority of my binders lined up beside my desk as I am putting cards away
- I started out with 6" binders but am finding out that might have been a mistake

What does everyone else use ??



Here are my sets that actually have binders for them



I noticed while downloading these pictures my wife had taken a picture of me opening a box from a recent purchase that shows the usual state of our dinning room table



couple more pictures - the other side of my desk with my cards to be put into binders



and the box of all my extra sets, which I wrap up in the plastic fill that the original box was sealed in, so it has the company logo on it



thank you all for letting me share this with you
- what was the original question

hope to some day have a shelving system built like btlfannz to store all my binders - or better yet a basement to build my own custom bat cave

Man I am VERY impressed with the photos of these massive collections.

All I can say is, my obsession is not nearly as bad as I thought it was, and I hope you guys thank your spouses for putting up with your treasures.

Plus I'm REALLY, REALLY jealous.

I am also extremely impressed by these collection pictures, so I just had to go take my own. My binders are squeezed into whatever space I could fit them, so they are in the closet, up near the ceiling, etc.

now thats a nice collection
- will show this to my wife
to show that my collection isn't that bad

love all the actual binders
(I am working on it, but keep spending my money on cards instead!)