Looks like he got the ball rolling...
+8
Bosox Blair
fisherboy7
cccc
Bicem
sabrjay
jbonie
ullmandds
seablaster
12 posters
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Re: Looks like he got the ball rolling...
Bicem wrote:On the flip side, what's the point of owning just a small handful of cards? That's not really much of a collection regardless of what cards they are and would get boring pretty quickly to me. I have no desire to own thousands of cards either but a nice middle ground seems ideal.
I've settled on a 10 card collection because right now, I do not have the finances to pursue much else. All of my money is going to getting my sauce businesses up and running to a level where I can use that money to buy cards. When that happens, Nellie bar the door because I was be going crazy buying up cards I've long been looking for.
Re: Looks like he got the ball rolling...
Jay, if you don't mind me asking, who comprises your starting 10? I remember a Rockne in there I think.
I could pick out 10 favorites from my collection, but I wouldn't want to let go of some of my low dollar commons that I'm fond of.
I could pick out 10 favorites from my collection, but I wouldn't want to let go of some of my low dollar commons that I'm fond of.
seablaster- All Star
- Posts : 127
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Re: Looks like he got the ball rolling...
I'll start by saying that I've found this to be a very interesting thread. I couldn't tell from the title or until I read a few postings, but this discussion has gotten quite philosophical about the art/hobby/economics of card collecting, and I consider that a fascinating subtext to what we all do. Because of that (and hoping Sandy doesn't knock out my power before I'm done typing), I'd like to throw in my two cents.
I don't know Jamie (jbonie), but I'm gonna take the liberty of calling him that because everyone here does. Jamie hasn't really lost me at all with his train of thought. I think he touches on an important aspect of what many of us--what I consider for my own nostalgic and elitist reasons to be the better portion of us--are doing in this hobby. What I think a board like this is devoted to, and that's the art/passion of baseball card collecting. I can best express it in my own terms, which is to say that I collect because I want to own--and thereby preserve--a portion of the history of the game I love. Much like why I watch Burns' "Baseball" over and over and over (to the point of owning the gold DVD's): I don't want the history of this beautiful game--crucial as it is to our social history--to ever die. If I have to spend a gigantic chunk of my money to ensure that I own relevant pieces of that history and can help perpetuate it, then so be it (gladly).
At the same time, I don't knock the commerce of collecting. We have the liberty--even the responsibility--to view ourselves in the same way athletes do. We are part of a passionate endeavor, but we are also part of a business. These things we collect are worth money. We all knew this going in or figured it out a long time ago, so if you're still here and still doing it, then clamoring for the 'old days' is disingenuous. Your collection is probably worth a lot (I know mine is, at least to me), and there's no reason why you shouldn't feel good about that, whether communist or capitalist, because ultimately the history of the game is upheld. So if there are those who are in this purely for the dough, be their collection large or small, long-gathered or quickly-acquired, more power to 'em. Regardless of their intent, they serve what is (I assume) the intent of the majority of us here: The preservation of baseball's significance. Cultural, social, monetary, personal, or otherwise. Who cares? As long as it lives.
Long live baseball, gentlemen.
I don't know Jamie (jbonie), but I'm gonna take the liberty of calling him that because everyone here does. Jamie hasn't really lost me at all with his train of thought. I think he touches on an important aspect of what many of us--what I consider for my own nostalgic and elitist reasons to be the better portion of us--are doing in this hobby. What I think a board like this is devoted to, and that's the art/passion of baseball card collecting. I can best express it in my own terms, which is to say that I collect because I want to own--and thereby preserve--a portion of the history of the game I love. Much like why I watch Burns' "Baseball" over and over and over (to the point of owning the gold DVD's): I don't want the history of this beautiful game--crucial as it is to our social history--to ever die. If I have to spend a gigantic chunk of my money to ensure that I own relevant pieces of that history and can help perpetuate it, then so be it (gladly).
At the same time, I don't knock the commerce of collecting. We have the liberty--even the responsibility--to view ourselves in the same way athletes do. We are part of a passionate endeavor, but we are also part of a business. These things we collect are worth money. We all knew this going in or figured it out a long time ago, so if you're still here and still doing it, then clamoring for the 'old days' is disingenuous. Your collection is probably worth a lot (I know mine is, at least to me), and there's no reason why you shouldn't feel good about that, whether communist or capitalist, because ultimately the history of the game is upheld. So if there are those who are in this purely for the dough, be their collection large or small, long-gathered or quickly-acquired, more power to 'em. Regardless of their intent, they serve what is (I assume) the intent of the majority of us here: The preservation of baseball's significance. Cultural, social, monetary, personal, or otherwise. Who cares? As long as it lives.
Long live baseball, gentlemen.
LucasRiley- MVP
- Posts : 426
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Re: Looks like he got the ball rolling...
My Gang of 10 has actually shrunk a bit. It started out with
m101-5 Thorpe
e270 red border Speaker
t215 Jennings (Louisiana Find)
Propaganda Montiel Matin DiHigo
e92 Nadja Oakes
e92 Dockman Maythewson
National Chicle Rockne
t205 Cobb, Matty, Johnson
The t205s just went in the LotG auction, so I am down to 7 cards. They will be replaced once I get the distribution for retail end of business up and running.
m101-5 Thorpe
e270 red border Speaker
t215 Jennings (Louisiana Find)
Propaganda Montiel Matin DiHigo
e92 Nadja Oakes
e92 Dockman Maythewson
National Chicle Rockne
t205 Cobb, Matty, Johnson
The t205s just went in the LotG auction, so I am down to 7 cards. They will be replaced once I get the distribution for retail end of business up and running.
Re: Looks like he got the ball rolling...
LotG? What is the LotG auction?
edited: oh Love of the Game... will have to get used to that anacronym.
edited: oh Love of the Game... will have to get used to that anacronym.
jbonie- Custom
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Re: Looks like he got the ball rolling...
i don't have time to read all of jamie's stuff, but from what i skimmed through i kinda agree with him.
i'm really all over the place as far as pre-wars through to the modern stuff recently, but i like to think every piece i buy has some meaning or trigger some kind of pleasant memory for me. i look forward to every card in the mail and tbh it hurts the same selling an '87 donruss mcgwire as a t206 hof'er. if i don't get excited about waiting for the mail i'll probably quit the hobby and not look back.
at some point does completing the 50th set in your collection feel the same as completing the 1st? or are you just doing it because that's what you're supposed to do? is spending 50k to buy a complete t206 set the same as putting it together card by card? probably not.
i'm really all over the place as far as pre-wars through to the modern stuff recently, but i like to think every piece i buy has some meaning or trigger some kind of pleasant memory for me. i look forward to every card in the mail and tbh it hurts the same selling an '87 donruss mcgwire as a t206 hof'er. if i don't get excited about waiting for the mail i'll probably quit the hobby and not look back.
at some point does completing the 50th set in your collection feel the same as completing the 1st? or are you just doing it because that's what you're supposed to do? is spending 50k to buy a complete t206 set the same as putting it together card by card? probably not.
cccc- Hall of Famer
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Re: Looks like he got the ball rolling...
This thread definitely spans a bizarre cross-section; Art, Nietszche, Buddhism and Baseball Cards! Didn't think it was possible to combine nihilism, the dalai lama, and '87 donruss McGwires' but here we are. I'll add this....
Not sure if the method of collecting dictates the worthiness of a collection. Also not sure if the attainment of baseball cards and nirvana are the same, but a card in the mail feels pretty good.
Think I'll wake up tomorrow, go to the post office, and mail myself an '87 McGwire with USPS tracking, signature confirmation, and at least $500 in insurance. If Buddhists could deliver peace of mind that easily we'd all be in yellow robes.
Not sure if the method of collecting dictates the worthiness of a collection. Also not sure if the attainment of baseball cards and nirvana are the same, but a card in the mail feels pretty good.
Think I'll wake up tomorrow, go to the post office, and mail myself an '87 McGwire with USPS tracking, signature confirmation, and at least $500 in insurance. If Buddhists could deliver peace of mind that easily we'd all be in yellow robes.
pariah1107- Legend
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Re: Looks like he got the ball rolling...
Allow me to throw out some opposing views.
Following the line of Jeff's post above, I think there is a valid argument that a few cards is not a collection at all.
Look - my parents own a couple nice oil paintings. They enjoy them. Are my parents art collectors? Hell no. They are people who like to have a few nice things to look at.
This hobby would be incredibly deprived if it were not for the type of collectors Jamie is questioning here. Almost all of the valuable information we have gathered and compiled in this hobby came from collectors who obsessively built huge collections.
The antecedents to today's Richard Masson were Lionel Carter, Jeff Burdick, Buck Barker, Lew Lipset, etc. These guys were not just in it for some kind of glory. They built the scholarship of this hobby. They did it from having a broad approach to collecting. Decades of chasing many, many cards gave these guys incomparable experience. And we are all lucky they thought it important to share some of that with others.
We would all have lost a great deal if any of these gents decided to limit his interest to the three nicest looking cards he could find.
Anyone who brushes these guys off as people who don't really fully appreciate cards...well I can't begin to understand that. Honestly it just sounds like sour grapes to me.
Following the line of Jeff's post above, I think there is a valid argument that a few cards is not a collection at all.
Look - my parents own a couple nice oil paintings. They enjoy them. Are my parents art collectors? Hell no. They are people who like to have a few nice things to look at.
This hobby would be incredibly deprived if it were not for the type of collectors Jamie is questioning here. Almost all of the valuable information we have gathered and compiled in this hobby came from collectors who obsessively built huge collections.
The antecedents to today's Richard Masson were Lionel Carter, Jeff Burdick, Buck Barker, Lew Lipset, etc. These guys were not just in it for some kind of glory. They built the scholarship of this hobby. They did it from having a broad approach to collecting. Decades of chasing many, many cards gave these guys incomparable experience. And we are all lucky they thought it important to share some of that with others.
We would all have lost a great deal if any of these gents decided to limit his interest to the three nicest looking cards he could find.
Anyone who brushes these guys off as people who don't really fully appreciate cards...well I can't begin to understand that. Honestly it just sounds like sour grapes to me.
Bosox Blair- Custom
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Re: Looks like he got the ball rolling...
speaking of buddhism...
baseball fans have dreams about going to fantasy camps and meeting their baseball heroes and hang out for a week chewing the fat...i'd really like to fly to china go up to wudan mountain and spend a month there with the kung fu and taoist stuff, some real crouching tiger hidden dragon action!
baseball fans have dreams about going to fantasy camps and meeting their baseball heroes and hang out for a week chewing the fat...i'd really like to fly to china go up to wudan mountain and spend a month there with the kung fu and taoist stuff, some real crouching tiger hidden dragon action!
cccc- Hall of Famer
- Posts : 2550
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Re: Looks like he got the ball rolling...
Blair,
I don't think that the size of one's collection dictates whether one is a collector. If your parents owned three paintings, but they were all Andy Warhols, and spent a considerable amount of time learning about art, following the art world, and admiring their paintings, would you still not call them collectors?
But let's say that your parents owned 10,000 different paintings - then they are obviously collectors, of course... but is it really humanly possible to admire all those paintings? Or give each painting the time and appreciation it truly deserves?
My point is not that the fellows you mentioned didn't make contributions to the hobby - surely they did. But there is clearly some level of excess that I would not want to go to, even if I did have the necessary funds. At some point it just becomes an unhealthy obsession.
On a side point, I don't see how mailing oneself an '87 Donruss McGwire really constitutes peace of mind, but if that's Ty's experience, we'll have to take his word for it. But I'd probably be nervous that the card would get lost in the mail!
I don't think that the size of one's collection dictates whether one is a collector. If your parents owned three paintings, but they were all Andy Warhols, and spent a considerable amount of time learning about art, following the art world, and admiring their paintings, would you still not call them collectors?
But let's say that your parents owned 10,000 different paintings - then they are obviously collectors, of course... but is it really humanly possible to admire all those paintings? Or give each painting the time and appreciation it truly deserves?
My point is not that the fellows you mentioned didn't make contributions to the hobby - surely they did. But there is clearly some level of excess that I would not want to go to, even if I did have the necessary funds. At some point it just becomes an unhealthy obsession.
On a side point, I don't see how mailing oneself an '87 Donruss McGwire really constitutes peace of mind, but if that's Ty's experience, we'll have to take his word for it. But I'd probably be nervous that the card would get lost in the mail!
jbonie- Custom
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Re: Looks like he got the ball rolling...
I have enjoyed reading your opinions, Jamie...and I definitely agree on some of your points...esp in that one's collection...just like one's decor...and the clothes one wears is somewhat a reflection/representation of ones self.
The one thing I totally disagree about is your ideology(although you seem to have changed/modified your stance) that those with hoardes of cards cannot enjoy them as much as those with tiny little collections.
I am a collector by nature...not just bb cards...pottery...art...modern furniture...anything that strikes my fancy...and if you walk through my house and pick up any object...I will be able to tell you the story behind that object...where I got it...who made it...when it was made...as well as the meaning it has to me and why I like it.
I have recently decided that I want to simplify my life...and as a result I am trying to sell/get rid of excess...and only keep what I truly love and use/enjoy on a regular basis.
It is these "hoarders"...who's goal has been to collect/acquire every card...every possible variation...that are the "true" collectors to me! To me this shows the epitome of passion for someone to want absolutely everything!!!!! And I bet most collectors like this can tell you where each and every card came from...along with a story!
The one thing I totally disagree about is your ideology(although you seem to have changed/modified your stance) that those with hoardes of cards cannot enjoy them as much as those with tiny little collections.
I am a collector by nature...not just bb cards...pottery...art...modern furniture...anything that strikes my fancy...and if you walk through my house and pick up any object...I will be able to tell you the story behind that object...where I got it...who made it...when it was made...as well as the meaning it has to me and why I like it.
I have recently decided that I want to simplify my life...and as a result I am trying to sell/get rid of excess...and only keep what I truly love and use/enjoy on a regular basis.
It is these "hoarders"...who's goal has been to collect/acquire every card...every possible variation...that are the "true" collectors to me! To me this shows the epitome of passion for someone to want absolutely everything!!!!! And I bet most collectors like this can tell you where each and every card came from...along with a story!
ullmandds- East Coast
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Re: Looks like he got the ball rolling...
Ming the Merciless?
seablaster- All Star
- Posts : 127
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Re: Looks like he got the ball rolling...
I was supposed to be a samurai warrior...but I had people calling me Ming all night!!!!!
ullmandds- East Coast
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Re: Looks like he got the ball rolling...
Pete you look great, man!
jbonie- Custom
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Re: Looks like he got the ball rolling...
Thanks Jamie!
ullmandds- East Coast
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