Enough with the grievances - what are you thankful for in this hobby?

[chiprop]

Aaron Seefeldt

[hcv123]

1) I am grateful this hobby affords me the ability to earn a living working at something I love and spend incredible quality time with my growing teenage boys. I left a family business at the end of 2019 and started selling as a stop gap till I realized I could give it a go full time! 5 years later I think back and couldn't have scripted how incredibly things have unfolded.

2) I am grateful for the Net 54 members and others who have entrusted me to sell (consigned or sold outright) their valuable and carefully assembled treasured collections privately (as an alternative to selling via auction)

3) I am grateful for all of the purchases that were made from me by an incredibly diverse and passionate group of collectors over the course of the year. Additionally the ability to converse and share a passion for the hobby that can't happen with adults outside the hobby.

4) I am grateful that so many with so much knowledge freely share allowing me and others to continue to learn so much about this hobby!

5) I am grateful to Leon for creating and maintaining this wonderful site as an incredible central gathering place for all of us

6) I am grateful for the countless hours of joy pursuing my own collection has given me.

[Snowman]

I'm grateful for the remarkably incompetent graders at PSA, which allows me to pick up near mint cards for the price of VGEX cards by the truck load. And for all the lawyers in this hobby, without whom, we'd all be lost. Merry Christmas everyone!

[parkplace33]

Originally Posted by hcv123

1) I am grateful this hobby affords me the ability to earn a living working at something I love and spend incredible quality time with my growing teenage boys. I left a family business at the end of 2019 and started selling as a stop gap till I realized I could give it a go full time! 5 years later I think back and couldn't have scripted how incredibly things have unfolded.

2) I am grateful for the Net 54 members and others who have entrusted me to sell (consigned or sold outright) their valuable and carefully assembled treasured collections privately (as an alternative to selling via auction)

3) I am grateful for all of the purchases that were made from me by an incredibly diverse and passionate group of collectors over the course of the year. Additionally the ability to converse and share a passion for the hobby that can't happen with adults outside the hobby.

4) I am grateful that so many with so much knowledge freely share allowing me and others to continue to learn so much about this hobby!

5) I am grateful to Leon for creating and maintaining this wonderful site as an incredible central gathering place for all of us

6) I am grateful for the countless hours of joy pursuing my own collection has given me.

Howard, cheers to 5 years!

[conor912]

For having a collection that 10yo me couldn’t have ever imagined.

[Exhibitman]

Great friends and lots of fun.

A hobby that I relished ever since I was a kid morphing into a business that will keep me busy when I retire from my legal practice and a wonderful subject to hone my writing and indulge my ego on Substack.

Meeting women through cards, of course. Best way to test a woman's suitability as a potential mate. 30 years ago, coming out to a woman as a card collector and her not running away meant she might be a keeper. If she'd actually go to card shows with you, well, you gotta put a ring on it. I did, and after 30 years of marriage, while she won't come to shows with me anymore, when I tell her I am going to one, she just smiles and tells me to have fun with the other dipshits.

[HOF_Forever]

I'm very thankful for the wealth of knowledge that's on these boards. I'm also appreciative for the great dinner that was put on for members at the National. It was awesome to meet fellow collectors and gawk at the great cards people pulled out of their cases after dinner.

[Yoda]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Great friends and lots of fun.

A hobby that I relished ever since I was a kid morphing into a business that will keep me busy when I retire from my legal practice and a wonderful subject to hone my writing and indulge my ego on Substack.

Meeting women through cards, of course. Best way to test a woman's suitability as a potential mate. 30 years ago, coming out to a woman as a card collector and her not running away meant she might be a keeper. If she'd actually go to card shows with you, well, you gotta put a ring on it. I did, and after 30 years of marriage, while she won't come to shows with me anymore, when I tell her I am going to one, she just smiles and tells me to have fun with the other dipshits.

Proud to be a Dipshit.

[pawpawdiv9]

Thankful for this forum and its members here that have helped me keep interest in collecting and many entertaining discussions of knowledge
Especially thankful for my health thus far and support by n54 and guys like bnorth
If I can close out my big head set— I be thrilled
I have plans for 2025 and have a start already on t206s portraits
Staying healthy and positive

[BioCRN]

Originally Posted by conor912

For having a collection that 10yo me couldn’t have ever imagined.

Absolutely. I was in my early 20s in the late 90s before I could start to get a hold of those cards I considered out of reach for my collection that started in my single-digits of age.

Before then my big scores were getting a hold of regionally "rarer" cards that didn't come around too much before Ebay and other places got enough users to make these cards more accessible. I got a 1986 Peoria Mark Grace in the early 90s and that took years of searching to run across one. It wasn't expensive, it was just hard to actually find one to buy.

My money's been good enough and the availability been good enough for decades now. 15 year old me wouldn't believe the depth of my collection. 10 year old me would need a short lecture on what half the cards were.

[Aaron Seefeldt]

Originally Posted by chiprop

Aaron Seefeldt

Right back atchya DK!

[Mark17]

I'm thankful for auctions that have things I'm interested in, because I enjoy the anticipation and competitiveness of bidding.

I'm also thankful for post #14.

[BioCRN]

I'm thankful for the handful of under-the-radar buys and auction wins that come way cheaper than expected.

I get a few a year and some I remember for many years afterwards.

I'm not a high-end/high-grade collector, but patience being rewarded is occasionally as rewarding as obtaining the card, itself.

[GeoPoto]

I am thankful for the introduction of grading and encapsulation of baseball cards. Without which, the hobby would have been closed off from me.

I realize this is not the perspective shared by most members of this forum. But it is mine. Let me try to explain.

Most of you were much more involved at an early age in the process of collecting cards. You went to shows, hung out in card shops, had friends who did likewise, etc. You acquired an ability to evaluate cards by handling them. You became specialists in identifying fake cards and confident in your ability to judge a cards condition and value. You derived satisfaction from having these skills and enjoyed being part of the fraternity of collectors. The internet, TPGs, and AHs took that away, or at least blunted it. I can see that.

As a pre-teen, I did have baseball cards for a year or two but viewed them more as a way to play gambling games than as something to collect. After that, I paid no attention to cards for 50 years. Then, for reasons I won't even attempt to explain, I decided to become a card collector. This decision was only remotely possible because it turned out one didn't need to handle and evaluate cards and populate shows or card shops in order to find cards. It could all be done on the internet, safely, with high probabilities of avoiding fake cards and getting cards whose condition correlated with the prices paid so that they could be expected to retain their value, at least in relation to the market. Cards could be bought in auctions, providing greater assurance that the price paid reflected market prices at least on that day.

Since entering the hobby, I have learned that grading is far from perfectly consistent, and that significant card alteration can be done without leaving effects that can be readily identified. This leaves a lot of variances between the assigned grade and the actual eye appeal of the card. Obviously, eye appeal is subjective, but I have learned to factor centering, attractive borders, edge and corner wear, and surface conditions to arrive at a process that works for me.

There is no question, that I began with an inflated confidence in grading. I was prepared to assume that a 6 was better than a 5, 7 was better than 6, and so on. I've learned that it is often not that simple. I can see, for example, that, at least for me, the PSA 8 shown below is less attractive than the other two cards despite their lower grade. The centering and the greatly diminished likelihood that they have been trimmed, makes them preferable to me, before you consider the fantastic price premium commanded by the 8.

So, for me, while grading and encapsulation are not perfect, I am thankful for them for a simple reason. Without them, I would not be a collector. They are existential for me.