Is it a percentage of total cards produced?
In this overproduced era of parallel options it is nearly impossible to collect ALL the cards of a modern player. Prior to 2015, I was pretty successful with supercollecting Charlie Morton. I had 1 of every card produced (including parallels) except 1/1 printing plates. Of course the number of releases (and thus the parallels) that Charlie has appeared in since 2015 has basically tripled.
Is it having a certain number of cards of a player? It is far easier to amass 500 unique cards of Ken Griffey Jr than it is Ken Griffey Sr. based solely on the number of unique cards produced of Griffey Jr vs Sr.
I still consider myself a supercollector of Andrew McCutchen and yet I only have half of the cards produced due to all the parallels and printing plates out there.
I never considered myself a supercollector of Gerrit Cole, but I do have 300 unique cards of the former Pirates ace.
I still consider myself a supercollector of Charlie Morton and yet I have only sought out base cards since his departure from Pittsburgh.
With the 2019 year coming to a close and 2020 quickly approaching I have decided that I am NOT going after every parallel produced of Cutch. Similar to my stance I took with Charlie Morton, I will always like cards of Cutch and Ground Chuck more in Pirates uniforms, but not put premiums on seeking out cards of my 2 favorite modern athletes in Astros, Rays, Phillies, Giants, or Yankees uniforms.
This will hopefully allow others to help out with needs for my PC too as very often I hear "don't you have every McCutchen card?" or "what are your needs?"
I am growing as a collector and in doing so I am shrinking my immediate mindset upon a new release of "get them all immediately".
I chose to show off this trio of 2019 1984 cards to show my transition.
Pictured are the box topper, base, and mini.
Stay tuned as I show off some of the craziness I picked up this year that has been drafted in blogging limbo for months.
Seems many of us collector's have taken the same stance. I'm figuring (more like hoping) enough of us once go get them all right off the bat guys stop doing that, maybe.....just maybe Topps will take notice.
ReplyDeleteSupercollecting is a bit of a misnomer. I have more than 1200 different Michael Jordan cards, yet I don't actively seek him out. My favorite player in the NBA is Elton Brand and I've only got about 550 of him, he wasn't even ranked in my top 10 of most cards until I started buying anything I needed cheap on COMC.
ReplyDeleteI don't even actively chase my all-time favorite athlete's cards (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) because the majority of them are censored due to Budweiser being jerks.
At this point my definition of being a supercollector hinges on how many 1/1's and rainbows you've got. Like you have to be at a 90% completion rate on every main rainbow (no plates) and 75% completion rate on every master rainbow (yes plates) or else you're more of a person who's just been able to amass a large volume of base cards with some parallels thrown in rather than having the most complete collection you could ever have.
ReplyDeleteOf course I say this is an idiot who's had the fortune of not supercollecting the face of an entire franchise. And by this logic not even I would qualify as a supercollector.
Interesting...never have seen it explained this way. I tend to agree, though.
DeleteI honestly don’t know. But I’d consider myself a Tino and Ty Hensley supercollector. I just don’t know how I’d define it.
ReplyDeleteDo you know any other collectors out there and how far behind (or ahead) of you? Awesome collection!
ReplyDeleteFor me I consider myself a budget super collector. My limits are budgetary than anything else, but my over all collecting rule is I'll collect anything for my Yount collection as long as the price is right. I've given up any hope of picking up all the autos, or super rare cards produces so I usually allow myself one new autographed card a year.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of a supercollector, you and The Junior Junkie are the first bloggers that come to mind.
ReplyDelete