"Compulsive collecting" now an official addiction

[steve B]

I collect a lot of things. I had a mindset of quantity over quality, and was mostly a completist, wanting to have every available item in a set. I'm still tempted by big lots of pretty much anything.


Then I saw a few things that changed that a bit.
One was an amazing collection of stamps. Just one series, assembled with a large budget but along the lines of each item had to really resonate with the collector.
The other was semi sorting a collection so I could tell the auctioneer what was what, biggish collection with some great stuff and a lot that was overlooked. Like some really nice cards still in a small brown paper bag they'd probably been in for a very long time.

Those two things really prompted me to start writing up some of my stuff, and looking at ways to move the things I'm just not that into. Like why do I keep 1/10th of a set of 2006 Topps put together from finding them in random boxes of cards and a few packs.

I also got interested in things where there isn't really a "checklist" of what exists, looking a bit deeper at some sets and at the same time realizing that even on a simple fronts and backs level completing sets like T206 would be impossible. It sort of always was given me not being rich, but when I started back in the late 70's it seemed possible.

Being freed from trying to have anything "complete" was very interesting.

As was the realization that I could collect digitally. as long as there were decent scans I could "collect" hundreds of cards I could never own. And study them in some detail. I called it collecting vicariously at first. Now it's just one of those things I do.
I still want to complete a few sets, and miss my mostly P-F 48 Bowman set I sold in the mid 80's. But it's not a pressing thing.