I recently got into trading sports cards by accident.
So I've been buying and selling. But I have no other
goal than to make money. I like sports, it fits well with
my skills. But its just a piece of cardboard with a picture on it.
If everyone was like me, the hobby wouldn't exist.

I don't understand the minds of alot of these people. I'm
sure some % are there for the money, but what are the other
collectors thinking.

I can imagine once upon a time, that collectors were looking to collect
whole sets, entire years etc. But the sport card companies are coming
out with so many different sets, it has to be impossible to collect everything.
The amount of cards released this year for just hockey alone is mind blowing.

I can understand kids collecting. But alot of card shows are rooms full of adults. Just which I could understand and get in their heads alittle.

Besides kids I've never known anyone who collected anything. So its weird to me too that this huge world of card collectors exists, and I don't know 1 friend, 1 family member, 1 co worker that collects.

Any collectors reading? What is your thought process?

I am not a collector, but a friend's dad is. He collects coins, bills and newspapers... His garage is literally full of newspapers, like thousands upon thousands. He does not read them again or anything, he takes comfort from knowing they are there. I once used a newspaper to start a chemine fire and he flipped out.

He is constantly on the hunt for rare coins, and some medieval stuffs that he has no use for either.

If you ask me it's a really weird hobby, but to some extent, I can see some correlation with gambling.

In a way, they are chasing some form of high. What is/could become rare is valuable. It does not matter if it is objectively useless garbage.

At the same time, they are almost always part of some form of community. They derive pleasure from outdoing others.

I could be wrong, but my take on collection is about adrenaline and status, as well as self reassurance.

Collecting often takes on an obsessive quality in which "they gotta have more," and in that respect isn't far moved from materialism. As a more balanced hobby it can be like gold in the soul collecting something you love. If it is driven, not so much. If it is simply for enjoyment, a super cool hobby. I never collected until about age 40 ... since then I've had about 5 collections, each very rewarding and fulfilling. The first couple got a little driven. The Middle Way in collecting as in all things is best.

As to what got the first one started, a real natural, it was almost by accident. I threw poker chips in a drawer after trips for years, finally counted them and had 52 $1 chips from all the places I hd played. Seemed a lot. Then I picked a friend up from the airport coming home from Vegas, told him of my new collection, and he took me out in his garage in an old tool box and gave me some old vintage Vegas chips. Valuable. I looked them up that night, online, internet brand new, and was shocked at the value of old 50's, 60's and 70's Vegas chips. Sometimes $200 to $400 for $1 and .50 chips. I was HOOKED. Ended up with some 900 different $1 chips from Vegas and the only ones I didn't have were going for well over 1000 each. That was the driven part.

So find a collection you chill at and love. Amen.

Thanks for the replies, interesting.

FellaGaga, you say its rewarding and fulfilling. Is it rewarding at the end when your finished your collection? Or do you just enjoy looking through it sometimes and it maybe betters your day.

To be fair, I almost started a collection like yours with the poker chips. Same thing had 1 dollar chips. But I thought it would have been cool to just frame then up, would be a reminder of the places I've been, and also would look nice. But I never felt any need to go out and collect more, or try and finish the collection. So it wasn't even close to the level of serious colectors.

No, "finishing" is kind of the driven part. Enjoying each little piece along the way is the fulfilling part. There are tons of display racks custom designed for chips. Great for hanging/displaying.

I think we all have little collections of something. Sitting in deep thought like I am now, I do collect things. I noticed I buy shirts frequently from interesting/ vacation spots I've been. Because I don't care about fashion much, I actually wear them quite frequently.

As a kid I collected baseball cards, I was around 8 years old when I started. At around age 10, I used the cards to start my gambling career. I devised a game where me and a fellow collector would pick a particular team like "The Reds" we would then pick a category like "Lifetime HomeRuns" we would each make a stack of 5 cards and one at a time we would simultaneously drop top card in the middle, whichever player had the most "lifetime home runs" or "most RBI's" would win and sweep the two cards.

I don't understand the mentality of adults collecting cards though. For me it was all over by the time I was 14 or so. I sold my collection off to a friend many years ago. He said he wanted them for his kids.