Do You Participate in the PSA Registry?

[Gorditadogg]

2.

I use it to organize my player collections, mostly. I like the app, I can show people the cards I have from my phone. I also like the new feature where you can go to your card and link to the PSA auction site for that card to get current prices.

I don't compete on the registry and have no idea where my collections rank (not very high).

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[Exhibitman]

Not my style. My job is competition; I don't want it in my downtime. I don't even like to play blackjack; craps is my game because it is a game of chance.

[cardsagain74]

While you naturally get the competitive instincts involving the registry, sometimes I see people make purchases that still baffle me.

Such as about a year ago, a few '59 T PSA 10 pop 1 commons were picked up in auction for around $10,000 to $13,000 each.

You can't complete a PSA 10 set of those (or even close). They're not exceedingly rare, as 563 10s from that year exist. If you're making an extremely high grade set, you could get a stack of PSA 9s for the cost of one 10.

So while naturally anyone who's spending that kind of $ on a '59 common probably has money to burn.....still, is it really worth 10 grand a pop to raise your set's registry average from 8.98 to 8.99? Or to move from 5th place into 4th in the '59T rankings eventually?

I guess it is to some *shrug*

[Empty77]

I discovered the registry only after getting back into collecting and starting the one player set that I mostly work toward. So I use it for organization but am mostly indifferent to where I place.

The nature of the items I pursue keeps me near the top, but I can honestly say that's just happenstance; the items I acquire I do so for myself and would do so whether or not the registry existed. So I figure I would be 2.5 on the scale: involved, sure, but not "active" in the sense that I am not doing it for the sake of the registry rather than myself. As a corollary to what someone else said, I never feel any personal pressure to buy something that isn't what I want, just because it would fill an open registry slot, even though purposely leaving them open suppresses my ranking. I'm completely fine with that.

I'm fairly private by nature and virtually no one even knows what I collect or even that I collect. I guess the registry, like the forums, is a way to be engaged, but without having to fully advertise who I am or what I'm about.

[JollyElm]

Bringing it back to the top, so the poll doesn't die too quickly...

[savedfrommyspokes]

I find it interesting how some collectors feel that the registry is a "competition"....and it very well maybe, but IMO, for the minority of users. Some of my better collecting buddies I have met, I have met via the registry...we have completed trades, looked out for cards for one another, not bid on a card we both needed, etc....ultimately rooted for our friends to succeed. One registry friend of mine worked the 71 and 72 sets at the same time .... the competition was non-existent, my 72 set was nicer than his, his 71 nicer than mine. I feel he worked as hard on my set as I did on mine or his.

It's been 13 years since we finished these sets...he has since sold his 71 and 72 sets and we have not worked on the same set since, but I still hear from him a few times a year to catch up on life and collecting.

My most ironic registry story occurred when I took my kids to a card shop in a town about 2 hours from home. While flipping through the dollar boxes with my kids, I hear a customer telling the owner about his visit to town and his 1962 PSA set. As the conversation was just a few feet away, it was hard not to hear. The collector disclosed he was solidly in his spot for this set....I pulled my phone out and confirmed on the PSA app what I already knew, he was only a handful of PSA 8s ahead of me. So I entered the conversation and disclosed the fact he was just a few ahead of the guy behind him.....both of the owner and the collector looked at me funny before the collector asked, "how do you know this?". "I am the guy behind you"...what were the odds that two guys ranked next to each other in the top 20 of a set were randomly in the same out of town card shop at the same time?

This was a few years ago, could have stayed and talked with this guy for hours, but my kids nagged me to go play mini golf.

For me, the registry has been more about friendships and meeting folks than the "competition" of it.

[Empty77]

Originally Posted by savedfrommyspokes

I find it interesting how some collectors feel that the registry is a "competition"....and it very well maybe, but IMO, for the minority of users.

That's a neat story.

And I agree. (I've been slowly working on some registry participation data [basic arithmetic rather than the rocket science type that would be beyond me] that may indicate the registry is not the driver behind price inflation that many in the industry/hobby seem to presume and consistently assert that it is.)

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by Empty77

...that may indicate the registry is not the driver behind price inflation that many in the industry/hobby seem to presume and consistently assert that it is.)

And there it is!!
This is precisely why I started the thread/poll. It is constantly being asserted that everyone competing in the registry is the reason prices keep going up across the board. I hear this time and time again. Ultra expensive, rare cards? Sure, I can believe it's at least a partial factor there, but suddenly-extortionate 1972 high number pricing is due to the registry chasers?? That is simply impossible to believe. This is why I wanted to see how many of us are motivated by the registry, and the results show (granted it is not scientific) that a very small portion of us consider the registry to be a driving force in our card purchasing decisions.