Question for Team collectors
 

What concessions do you make since it is impossible to collect all the cards from your favorite team ? I am a Cardinal collector and collect from 1887 (American Association Browns) to present day. A few concessions I've made are collecting fronts and not backs, no variations, no sister set cards, no parallels. Most of my Cardinals are collector grade as over my 36 years of adult collecting I have preferred quantity to quality.
Do you limit your team collecting by time frame, type of cards, one of each player, one from each set ? Just curious to see if anyone has similar "rules" to mine.

Some 'Rules' are a necessity
 

There was a time when there were only a few cards of each player each year and even that can become daunting. To have limits is to assure sanity.

I thought things were going to be easy when Topps came out with Total Team sets several years ago, but it waned after a few years. I collect Braves' cards, but trying to snag cards of everyone who gets called up to cover the latest Tommy Johns surgery or hangnail is near impossible.

As far as the 19th century teams are concerned, however, I would allow wide variety as quantities were scarce back then.

That's just my opinion, though...there are many on this site much more experienced than me. Good luck whatever course you decide.

Everything from the beginning up to 1990. I have no interest in anything after that.

(To me, different backs are not different cards - I don't collect backs.)

Cheers,
Blair

Phillies here...everything up to 1989...so far, I have not really made concessions...I want EVERYTHING...I just made the realization early on that unless I win several lotteries and live to 300 years old, I probably will not own one of everything and I am fine with that. My wantlist was HUGE 20 years ago and now it is merely big. I used to average about 3 cards a week 20 years ago and now I average about 6 cards a year on my list if I am lucky...more competition, higher prices, and just scarcity of things on my wantlist limits me.

Joshua

You make your own rules.

Im a Tiger collector. Personally I don't collect local issues, or variations. I also don't collect issues I don't like (T207, 34 Goudey, 55 Bowman) or sets I choose not to spend the money on (T202, 49 Leaf, CJ's). I haven't decided about the candy issues yet.

Agree with brewing. You make the rules, it's your collection.

O's 1954 to present, since there is so many different issues out there, at this point I've decided topps regular issue cards, I may collect others like donruss, fleer, bowman etc... but I am finding topps regular quite a task already, especially with the short prints, etc. I am in no rush to complete, just like the journey.

Good Luck

White Sox fan here...

About 5 years ago, I started a Sox type set for the years 1901-41 with just one example for each type.

The only exceptions that I've made are that I'm trying to complete a M101-4/-5 team back run and a 1941 Goudey master team set.

Oh, and I'm also working on a T206 master team set with all possible front/back combinations too.

I would start with trading all of your Cardinal cards for Cubs players. Where I grew up, they would burn your home to the ground for having such obscene material in your home. Go Cubs Go!

On the more serious side, i have a complete run of Topps Cubs cards from 1951 to present. My rule is I collect only the base set and update set as there are so many insert cards that it would drive you crazy trying to collect those in addition to the base cards.

Being more of a generalist collector I don't really have rules or limits besides budget. I collect pretty much everything, just not in an organized or aggressive fashion. In other words, I'm "working" on all sets, but I don't get hung up on completing a set.

While I prefer RedSox cards, if there's a card of another team that's the better deal I'll buy it. For T206 I think I need two poses, and loads of front/back combinations. Neither of the ones I need are all that hard to find, I just haven't come across a good deal at the same time as having the money for it.

I handle the inserts/paralells the same way. If I get them in a pack, cool. If I find some at a bargain that's cool too. But I'm not scouring shows and Ebay for all four colors of printers plate for the front and back of every RedSox card.

I consider all that stuff to be its own set, so for instance my 2011 Topps second series set was "complete" at 330 base cards. All the other stuff I got is stored with it, and I have a spreadsheet I use as a checklist, but haven't checked off a spot since probably early 2012.

Steve B

I'm a big Phillies Phan, like Joshua, but I try not to be a completist.

It really wouldn't be hard for me to pick up many of the "mainstream" Phillies cards, if I had the time, money and space. Alas, probably short on all three.

Thus, I focus on the rare and esoteric. I have a T206 Phillies proof card, a handful of E104-III Phillies, an E107 team set (less one basically impossible team name variation), some postcards, etc. And a few Mike Schmidt cards.

But I stopped many years ago trying to collect too much "stuff", because it really took up a lot of space and ultimately become unenjoyable to me. I once had 200-300 different Steve Carlton cards, for instance. Now I have between five and ten. They're all cool ones, though, and I really enjoy them (1972 Topps Candy Lids, 1973 Topps Comics, 1973 Topps Poster, 1972 Topps Traded, 1974 Deckle Edge, 1985 Topps Mini)

Thanks for the feedback
 

This Cardinal collector has now heard from team collectors of the Braves, Red Sox, Phillies, Tigers, Orioles, White Sox and Cubs on this issue of what accommodations (if any) a team collector is willing to make to collecting all cards from his/her favorite team. Any team "completists" out there ?

Yankee team collector here. I collect Yankee cards from their start in the early 1900's thru current, but i do put some limitations on that.

I dont worry about whats on the back, i will go after front variations for sure, but not different backs.

Yankee collecting is hard financially due to the incredible number of superstars from years ago, so i dont hold the line on condition. I buy what i can afford, and to me its way better to have a Goudey Ruth in PSA-1 condition than not to have one in nicer condition because i cant afford it. I do though try real hard to get good eye-appeal on my lessor condition cards, it takes some work, but all low graded cards are not equal on the eye, some are so much better looking than others, and those are the ones i go after.

I try to get every Yankee card i can from 1980 and older. Starting in 1981 when multiple sets started being produced, i collect a representative sample of Topps cards each year and also any other cards that i really like, but no way do i try to get them all.

In 35 years of collecting, i have a tremendous amount of Yankee cards, and love when i can complete a team set from any year, particularly the old ones like T205, T206, T207, Goudeys, Diamond Stars, etc.

I think being a team collector is a fantastic way to collect as it gives you an enormously varied collection full of great old cards and really nice newer ones too.

I've dabbled occasionally in being a Pirates collector, but it's always been a side interest for me. I usually target 1 particular set/issue at a time and make a run at it. I have never completed a team set in this fashion though as invariably I'll stumble across something that I want for my other endeavors which I place a higher priority on for my collection and the Pirates become sacrificial victims.

I still have some stranglers around that I'm sure I will pick back up on that include a T206 Pittsburgh master set (minus the obvious one) and N172 Pittsburg master set.

Hi-
While I do not collect every Red Sox card, I collect one image from every player who played for the Sox. It can be a card, a photo, or a newspaper clipping. Pretty much anything with the player's image wearing a red sox uniform, from their Red Sox years. I downloaded an all-time roster a year or two ago, and I add the new players every year. I think there are about 1700 total players, and I only have about 500, so this will take a long time.

Alan

First Cleveland Card or Collectible
 

Among other things, I am trying to obtain the first Cleveland Card or Collectible from every player that ever played for the Cleveland Indians from 1901 to present. I, too, started with the all-time roster and I am slowly working my way through all known cards and updating the list as new guys arrive or are called up from the minors. There are plenty that are known that I may never obtain due to price or scarcity, and there are plenty more for which a 'card' or collectible by any definition is unknown at present (unknown to me at least). When you throw in owners, coaches, GMs, and Managers' there are more than 2,100 to deal with thus far. I also include many players pictured on an Indians card that may not have had a professional plate appearance or inning pitched with the team (yet), but who have cards recognized as belonging to the team (distinct from cards with their minor league affiliates), such as recent Bowman draft picks, etc.. For each player I start with the oldest and nicest condition card I can find, then 'upgrade' where I can until I have an item from the first year possible for each. Then I am done with that player. In most cases this means I am opting for the first known card, such as the 1947 picture pack card of Larry Doby or the 1957 Sohio card of Roger Maris, over their more conventional and popular cards (i.e., 1949 bowman Doby and 1958 Topps Maris). There are more than 700 players on my list of unknown cards, but even that is something I hope to whittle down as I identify RPPCs, etc. that are readily available but not all catalogued. I am in it for the long haul or until I reorganize the whole thing for another project.

In a certain way, I collect cards from E121-80 and E 121-120 of the Yankees and Giants. This is my 1921 World Series collection. My great great uncle was the center fielder for the Yankees is the reason for this collection.

As a Detroit Tiger collector since the 1970's I have been able to obtain a complete run of 1948-1955 Bowman Tigers and only missing 2 cards to have a 1952-2014 Topps base set. I enjoy trying to get earlier subsets (1964 Topps Stand Ups, 1971 Greatest Moments, Supers, etc.) but am laying off of the newer subsets. Now, I'm working my way back and just starting to pick up Goudeys, Play Ball and Diamond Stars. I love the artwork from this era.

Sorry to add on to an old thread – hope I’m not breaking the forum rules with my first post.

But I was interested in seeing others’ descriptions of their team sets. I’ve been compiling one since the early ‘80s, in a different way than what I’ve seen from other posters. My goal has been to collect just a single card of every Royals player and manager, in chronological order, since the start of the team in ’69.

Beyond needing a card of everyone to play in or manage a game, I set things up so that the card has to both show the player in a Royals uniform and identify him as a Royal if such a card exists. Next best is one of those two. If that isn’t possible, I look for him on a Royals minor league card. Last priority is to get a card of the player on another team. At the moment, it appears that the set is “complete,” but of course I can’t ever know for sure that I have every player at the highest possible category as I’ve defined them.

I’ve actually been very lucky in that every Royal has had a card—and that’s not counting other collectibles like postcards and team-issued photo cards (which I do not include). For one player, it took me 20 years to find the existence of a card for him, but it was a real thrill when I did—the alternative would have been an eternal hole in the set…

Anyone else doing this sort of thing with their favorite team?

In addition to collecting Detroit cards I've been hoarding Tiger autographs as well since the mid 1970's. I'm currently up to 965 different Tiger players.

Welcome to the forum and good luck in your quest. There won't be a lot or Royals talk on the main forum but there are other sections of our board too. It sounds like you have had a very fun journey so far. (and the journey is a lot of the fun for a lot of us)

As a Cardinals/Browns collector myself I started out trying to get every different card I possibly could. That task was overwhelming, so I backed off of that and now just collect cards of the HOF's or very good players.

Great thread. Another Cardinals collector here. I have always been a set collector at heart, but would go after Cardinals as a second passion. Once I finished completing all the key sets back to '48, I turned up the dial on my Cardinals quest. Finished off most of the post-war cards (still need a few '62 Jello and Hunter Wieners) then went after the pre-war. I'm fairly condition conscious except for certain sets (CJ). I've learned to be patient and not go after my needs if I consider the price too high.

The Redbird Club seating area at Busch Stadium has a large concession area with walls decorated with large renditions of hundreds of vintage Cardinals cards. Very well done and really a cool place. I love walking through that section knowing that I have the real things at home.

As someone who attempted this for a little over a year for the Cleveland Indians, it got overwhelming fairly quickly

There are always several chokepoints to contend with (Pepsin Gum, E107, specific zeenuts, Diaz Cigs, AA Worches) The main issues I came up with was the fact that displaying a collection such as that is near impossible since there are so many size variations in cards over the years. I ended up settling on doing everything from 1947(My dad's birth year) to present, still enough annoying little issues to keep things interesting(Shopsy's Frankfurter's Jack Kubiszyn where are you), and I can continue to build the collection with the team

Might want to send a pm over to bwbc917, Chris's Cleveland collection is insane in some of the impossible early players he's gotten

It can absolutely get overwhelming if you don't narrow your scope at first. I'm collecting 52 - present Topps base cards. Focusing on the commons first, then filling in the Teds, Yazs, and high #s. After that, I plan on working backwards and collecting Bowmans. I know I'll never be able to collect all Red Sox cards, but completing each year's set is a nice, attainable reward.

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I limit myself to working on a particular cubs teamset but make sure I get everything possible. I'd rather have a few 100% complete cubs card sets then a lot of incomplete ones.

Yet another Cardinal collector here. Seems to be a lot of us on this site. I started collecting everything Cardinals at first then started to narrow my scope some. I know I'll never get everything but I still collect every Cardinals card from every year and set. I found that with a huge want list that I can trade with almost anyone pretty easily. I don't usually collect inserts unless its a Cardinals insert set, but will take them to even out trades. I do collect Cardinals certified autos though and now have 192 different players. I collect all variations and backs but did not collect much pre-war stuff until I found this site a few years ago. Adding the 189 T206 different Cardinals and backs to my wants, not to mention all the others, makes my want list a little crazy. But collecting the old stuff seems to be what I like best. Now my want lists go back to 1887 and seem endless since now I'll even take St. Louis Whites, Federals, Brown Stockings, Perfectos, and Browns depending on my finances.
I'd streamline my focus more but it's just too hard to drop cards off my lists. I just love everything Cardinals!! GO CARDS!!!

Wow, sounds like some major team collectors on here. For those who collect everything or as much as they can from one team, approximately how many cards does it consist of, several thousand?

Also, do you guys keep all of the cards in binders and pages, if so, I imagine that is a lot of binders and pages.

Personally for now, I am sticking to Topps team sets, and maybe getting into other mainstream sets like Bowman, Fleer, Donruss etc., whether I tackle other cards, I don't really know. It looks like it would be fun and quite a journey!

Hi Ken, was this your uncle (Norm McMillan) or someone else?

If I can ask, who was your great great uncle?

In his case, a Cardinals collection would be 1,990 players (I thought I read that were over 2000 now, might be an old number

It's why we call it the behemoth

I have accumulated 20,000 different Red Sox cards from 1903 to 2005. I moved on to set building. There is a huge effort in compiling the list and now with parallels of parallel's it is over whelming.


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It depends on how and what timeframe you collect for the number of cards. If someone is trying to get as many as possible from one team then from the last few decades they could get tens of thousands of cards. For me, from 1981 thru now i only collect each year approx the 72 - 90 cards i like best (including a base Topps team set) all in plastic sheets.

However i DO try to get every Yankee card i can from 1980 back, and i go back to 1904. I do have a ton of old Yankee cards. I put my cards in albums back to back, whereas many people do not put them NOT back to back, so my number of albums is cut in half from many others. I have 10 albums of Yankee cards, and 3 albums of cards from other New York teams. Small albums though so they are easy to handle.

Another Cardinal collector checking in.

I have attempted to get every card there is of Lou Brock up to 1981 (with a wide definition of "card").

I then made a list of the top 20 players at C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, and relief pitcher, and top 60 starting pitchers and 60 outfielders and have largely focused on that the last 5 years.

The Lou Brock items can be seen here. I now update it 3-4 times per year.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=174114

That's an interesting way to do it. I used Baseball Reference and chose the top 50 in team WAR, with a couple of exceptions (Maris, Cepeda).

Detroit Tigers collector, I like one of everything including parallels and all manufacturers. I do not collect back differences or print runs less than 25. Every winter I compile a complete Tiger cards checklist of the previous year and add it to my checklist binder. I think the binder is approaching 50 pages back and front, five columns wide and fairly detailed. Wish I could quit! ;o)

Tribe
 

As noted by Seiklis in June I am heavy into Cleveland. Trying to find a picture of all players 1901-present: still need 3. Trying to get a type set containing Cleveland players. Now down to "hard to find" and "expensive" stuff so I spend my time on the moderns. Have about 45 different poses, colors etc from 2014 and that's probably only the tip of the iceberg.

I'm a Pirates collector. To keep a more narrowed focus I "try" to stick to higher grade pre-war material of just about any Pirate player and high grade post-war HOF'ers. I do collect pretty much anything high grade and baseball related but my main focus is definitely the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Toronto Blue Jay Fan
 

Being a Blue Jays fan, the team collection for me is quite easy. I do narrow the collection to just Topps Series 1,2 and Update. So, I have all Topps Blue Jays from 77' to 2015. With all the garbage produced in the 90's, I think going for every card is a bit too much.

Another Cardinal collector on the board. T206 with as many different affordable backs.

Same with the T205s. Working on a T205 display of 22 cards. 12 different fronts and 10 different backs. With the backs representing as many different brands as affordable.

Hornsby as a Cardinal

1931 Metropolitan Studios (My favorite Cardinal cards)

Musial cards

1951 Bowman

1957 Topps

Gibson & Brock

1967 Topps

For other team collectors, what do you do for storage /displays?

Currently using binders but not crazy about them.

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Mets team collector here. I decided that I wasn't going to get involved with the gimmicks of modern cards, such as colored parallels. And although front/back combos weren't an issue for me, I decided to simply go the route of every Topps base card from 1962 through present day would be my focus.

I finished it a couple of years ago and now just update it yearly.

As far as storage, I use http://www.ebay.com/itm/330484751308...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The boxes are great and come in different wood finishes, so I use different boxes for different collections.

How many ungraded cards do those hold?

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This is my first post on this board.

I collect NY Mets PSA graded cards. Since the Mets were formed in 1962 (same year I was born), my task is a bit easier than someone who collects Reds, Yankees, Giants, etc.

Obviously, it's your collection, so you make your own rules. Here are my "rules":

1. It would be virtually impossible for me to collect every card of every player, so I collect one card of each player. I store them alphabetically.

2. I don't like cards with "action" shots. I like to see the player's face. I really prefer portraits where the player is facing the camera. If he's smiling, that's a plus.

3. I will accept PSA 9 grades for those cards issued from 1962 through 1969. But cards issued 1970 or later must have a grade of PSA 10.


I used to collect heavilly back in the late 1970s. Back then I really didn't care too much about the condition of my cards. (Stupid me!) I got back into collecting about a year and a half ago - mostly on eBay where I buy & sell.

- Charles

I love binders, my whole card collection is in them. Even cards i bought graded have been removed from the slabs and put in plastic sheets in binders.

If you are looking to display cards, many wall displays are available, and also many little mini-easels can stand-up cards on a shelf. Nice to do that with a mirrored background.

As to storage, i dont keep any part of my actual collection in storage, its ALL in albums so i can look at them. I do have a few smallish backup boxes of cards of the teams i collect, those are more for trading or giving cards to friends, and once in awhile i look thru them to see if someone in there is now a favorite of mine. I buy plastic boxes that are made for fishing lures, if you find the right boxes they have just the right size spaces for cards.