Selling 80% of your collection for ‘52 Mantle - would you?

[raulus]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

Huh?! What's strange about acquiring only what you like and therefore not wanting to part with it? Granted, a very small part of my collection (<3%) may consist of cards that I now regard as peripheral to my interests but overall I take real delight in what's in my binders.



I collected cards as a kid between the ages of seven and thirteen but I paid only five cents a pack at the time or won them in flinging games. Those cards got scattered with the wind before I even finished ninth grade.

I've been re-amassing the cards from my childhood (and now many more) since 1979. But like I say, I've bought only those I wanted. As individual cards these were all generally affordable decades ago although of course I couldn't afford too many all at once. The main problem in those early days was finding the cards I wanted so I could only buy what was available in three card shops. (That's still the case for Post cards in nice condition.)

I've written up my card collecting story here:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=353515

For me the thought of trading even a minor part of my card collection for a single card is bizarre.

I suspect the big difference in approach here is whether collectors are focused on quantity or quality. Some of us want one of everything (or most everything), and we’re less focused on having the nicest copy. Others would rather have a handful of really nice pieces. Particularly if that means that we get to own a piece that had been a lifelong dream.

Not sure there’s one right way to collect, so we’re all welcome to figure it out for ourselves. And sometimes our priorities can change over time as well.