Hello everyone!

I will start off saying, that I am normally a sports collector.To clarify, I am a team collector. As such I buy exclusively singles (with the exception of annual team sets). I never buy boxes as I have no interest in anything but cards relating to my team.

Occasionally I feel the need to take a break from my regular collecting habits. I will just stop for a while and pursue other interests. I am currently on one of these breaks.

Now in the past, I have occasionally picked up a nonsport set if it is a property I am interested and I find one cheap while browsing Ebay.

I find I am now wanting to get involved with this side of the collecting world, and maybe run it along side my normal collecting habits.

One thing I am wondering about, (which may sound a little belittling, but I promise is not) is why does it seem nonsport collectors are tend to be box buyers. I understand the hunt for autos and relics, it's the same in sports. but I mean for older stuff that didn't have any of this stuff. Just base cards. Why not just buy the set?

I will admit, a day or two ago I purchased a couple boxes of William Stout cards. I think I am just looking for the old feeling of opening packs and a little nostaglia as I remember seeing these at the comic shop when they were new, but I never bought any.

I guess I am also wondering what you do with all these cards from a box. For instance, the boxes I just ordered both contain 48 packs of 10 cards, or 480 cards. Both sets only contain 90 cards, not including the chase cards. So with perfect collation, that is roughly 5 sets per box. Granted I expect I will only make about 2 sets each.

Do you keep everything? Toss any extras? Sell extra sets on Ebay?

Just trying to understand why people collect like they do.

Thank you for your time!

Jason

When I used to get boxes of Comics Images cards, I often made 4 complete sets.There were also autographs in those boxes, very hard to find. Of all the Comic Images boxes I bought, I found only one auto, ironically in the last box I bought, after Comic Images had already stopped making cards.
I would trade or give away extra sets, even sold a couple of them. Now, most companies sell 24 pack boxes, and you'll be lucky to get one set. Most of my extra base singles go to a friend who is a dealer, he puts together sets to sell, as well as selling singles at shows.
As to the old cards, I still like to peice together these sets, I've done Davy Crockett Green and Orange, Battle, Charlies Angels and still working on a few, like World on Wheels. I like to collect them this way rather than spend a bunch of $ on the whole set.

Welcome to Card Talk Jason.

Whether it is old non-sport cards or recent ones, it is usually more cost effective and always less time consuming to buy that complete base set, or complete parallel set, or complete insert set. However that kind of buying doesn't give you the satisfaction of set building or the chance of perhaps pulling a great hit from a pack or box.

Same thing with sports cards, why buy packs or boxes when you know the factory set will be coming out? I think certain products even did offer team sets at one time, the last year I was involved in that market was around 2002. I believe most card collectors do it for the challenge and the feeling of accomplishment, often ignoring the easier way.

I give away my extra cards to the neighborhood kids, sometimes they don't want them.

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

I think that like you, us non-sport people go through different phases on how they collect over the years. With a variety of reasons such as money, life situation, family issues, space assigned for the collection all being driving factors. One example for me is that I lived in Afghanistan for 25 months in 90 sq ft of Conex box. My purchases were single cards from ebay that were shipped to my dads house.

Depending on what the main focus (autos, wardrobe, sketch, 3D, sub sets, etc.) is can also be what helps me decide. I have purchased cases, boxes and individual sets based on what I think I can get out of the deal. I do have many extra sets and singles, the hope is to set up an ebay store at some point and begin the thin out the collection there.

It is a bit sad that card collecting has lost its vast kid market as it would be cool to trade locally. I think between the rise of proper collecting etiquette and the 90s rip off boom the bulk of that market has been destroyed forever. Give a kid in the 70s a pack of cards and the response is "cool! my favorite team, player or movie!" Give a kid in the 90s a pack of cards and they want to know how much the "rare" insert is worth.

In the end, I collect what I like. Autograph collecting is something I have jumped on just over the last 15 years or so. Many of my favorite performers, whom I would probably never see in person have agreed to combine my childhood joys of card collecting with my adult interest of autographs into a very manageable hobby. The great thing about non-sports is that you never know who and for what set someone will be signing for next.

I'm probably the exception here in that I only collect from 1975 to 2000. Happy days, that excludes me from the vast majority of "hit" cards.

As you rightly pointed out, why would you bother buying a box (let alone a case) of something that you know only contains a 90 card base set with 11 stickers? So, I simply don't. The only justification for buying bulk is to find the "hits".

Even that has become a dangerous practise for the unwary. The unscrupulous out there have already worked out that the major hit always appears in the front left hand pile five packs down. Then re-sealing the box is easy with a hot iron.

The only time I will buy a box is when its cheaper than buying a set. I was on a site last week where every box had a BIN of $3.50. I bought about 10 boxes (sadly the shipping cost 47.50 - sigh).

Finally, speaking of just collecting by teams, we non-sport collectors are renowned for collecting thematically. I know at least two collectors who only collect a certain superhero. There was even a time when it crossed my mind to sort all of my superheroes into characters. Then I broke out into a cold sweat at the sheer thought of such a move and rapidly changed my mind back to sanity.

Buying Habits?

I never buy habits, i leave that to the nuns.

Welcome to the forum.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
Buying Habits?

I never buy habits, i leave that to the nuns.

Welcome to the forum.

Ba dum dum!

Just like others my collecting habits changed which directly affect my buying habits. I used to collect master sets so I would buy a few boxes and then trade or buy singles to finish off the set. As more sets had rarer inserts or parallels it made it more difficult to complete sets so I stopped for a while.

I just started back up collecting one specific character. He doesn't have many cards so just looking for sketches and printing plates now. My wallet thanks me!

Thank you everyone for taking the time to response. I really appreciate it :-)

In the 70's I started out buying baseball and football cards, and then one day, my brother and I were going to buy ice cream from the ice cream truck but then we saw that you could buy Star Wars cards. We missed the blue series but were just in time for the red series. That put me onto non-sport from then on.

I used to buy boxes in the late 90's-mid 2000's but it was a while between box purchases after that - did get a box of Topps 75th Anniversary (one base set with several parallels and a couple of autographs plus a 1 of 10 card).

I like getting a box because you can usually get one base set, a near-set, the expected hits, plus a shot at something rare.

quote:

Originally posted by jrbeasley:
Hello everyone!


Now in the past, I have occasionally picked up a nonsport set if it is a property I am interested and I find one cheap while browsing Ebay.

I find I am now wanting to get involved with this side of the collecting world, and maybe run it along side my normal collecting habits.

One thing I am wondering about, (which may sound a little belittling, but I promise is not) is why does it seem nonsport collectors are tend to be box buyers. I understand the hunt for autos and relics, it's the same in sports. but I mean for older stuff that didn't have any of this stuff. Just base cards. Why not just buy the set?

I will admit, a day or two ago I purchased a couple boxes of William Stout cards. I think I am just looking for the old feeling of opening packs and a little nostaglia as I remember seeing these at the comic shop when they were new, but I never bought any.

I guess I am also wondering what you do with all these cards from a box. For instance, the boxes I just ordered both contain 48 packs of 10 cards, or 480 cards. Both sets only contain 90 cards, not including the chase cards. So with perfect collation, that is roughly 5 sets per box. Granted I expect I will only make about 2 sets each.

Do you keep everything? Toss any extras? Sell extra sets on Ebay?

Just trying to understand why people collect like they do.

Thank you for your time!

Jason

Yeah, I liked Comic Images stuff too and bought at least 6-7 boxes of different sets (Stout, Olivia) but I never pulled an autograph either.

quote:

Originally posted by Don Norton:
When I used to get boxes of Comics Images cards, I often made 4 complete sets.There were also autographs in those boxes, very hard to find. Of all the Comic Images boxes I bought, I found only one auto, ironically in the last box I bought, after Comic Images had already stopped making cards.
I would trade or give away extra sets, even sold a couple of them. Now, most companies sell 24 pack boxes, and you'll be lucky to get one set. Most of my extra base singles go to a friend who is a dealer, he puts together sets to sell, as well as selling singles at shows.
As to the old cards, I still like to peice together these sets, I've done Davy Crockett Green and Orange, Battle, Charlies Angels and still working on a few, like World on Wheels. I like to collect them this way rather than spend a bunch of $ on the whole set.

As many have pointed out, current boxes usually have but one set if that.

So, many people start the collection with a box. That gives them a head start on the set and offers the potential to pull something nice.

More and more, I'm seeing people go to single cards after the first box. Boxes are just to expensive to be pulling all sorts of extras. So finding a dealer who opens is usually a good idea unless you want to rely strictly on eBay.

Ed

As a non completest I will usually by a box of a set that I am interested in (Mostly Star Trek / Star Wars). I enjoy opening the packs, and If I happen to pull something rare (like a VL Auto) its a bonus. I then put the cards in a binder (Promos / Autos / Chase / Base). Any extra base usually end up back in the empty box, which I then display in my home. (I have a office room with a shelf full of boxes, along with my Burger King Star Wars Glasses).

Based on what I pull, if there are additional Autos, or a chase set I like, I will see what I can find at the Philly Non-Sport Show, or check out the auction site.

The advantage of being an non-completest is that I don't care that my binder if full of blank spaces, and I don't get hung up on any of the very hard to complete chase sets or the 1/xxx cards. In fact Sometimes I will trade / sell some of the rarer chase cards since I know I will never be able to complete the chase set

As with all hobbies, sometimes money is tight, or other plans take precedent and I will not buy a box for a while. During these times, I will concentrate of picking up some free promos or cheap chase cards to fill in some old sets

Buying a box is fun. It is the thrill of not know what you are going to get and usually the starting point for putting a collection together. However as others have set, there was a time when you could buy a few boxes and finish up a minimaster set pretty easily with a little bit of trading. Now, when you look at 3/4/5 CASES to make a master set the idea of box buying is not what it used to be.
I can't tell you how many times I have opted out of a product due to the high cost of boxes or opted into a product because of a good price.

Well, I got both the boxes I ordered today. I think I will keep at the non sports.

The only problem I had was that one of the boxes almost every card was stuck together. There are a few that were loose and I will take those out and trash the rest and order another box later and hope for better results. Thems the breaks with older glossy cards.

At least the chase cards were all fine, :-)

Also went ahead and order a few other boxes. This is fun.

Are we still talking about Comic Images here? They had a very high gloss coating on them, which unfortunately makes them stick together. Through careful flexing, you should be able to get them apart. Enjoy the old cards JR, I still enjoy looking at the art cards from this time period.

Yeah, they were William Stout Lost Worlds and 2. Lost World only had a few that were stuck, but they were easily separated. But 2 on the other hand pretty much every pack opened up to a solid block. I think it had something to do also with how that box had been stored, as even most of the packs themselves were stuck together, but at least not badly.

Buying a box is always a thrill of what you might get. I think it's the same with packs.

I once bought a random pack of Star Wars and pulled the super rare Autographed Yoda Card which I think at the time was going in some places for $800??!

Another time I grabbed a pack of Angel Season 3, found out I had enough for the last pack on the side and in that I pulled an Amy Acker autograph.

In terms of boxes it's purely the thrill of opening packs, enjoying the cards and seeing which chase you might get.

As for what I do with extras. I originally used to sell online, then got into trading which was great, after that I gave them away to other collectors on the forum and now due to ridiculous UK shipping prices I donate them to charity instead.

Similarly due to the cost of import I no longer buy boxes either. The last box I purchased was about 6 months ago for a very good price in the UK and that was my first box in 2 years!