Hobby regrets

As many of you know, I sold my original collection back in late 1991 early 1992. Never regretted selling it and never missed having the stuff around. That is until lately. I've found that I wish I had a kept a few items. It's not even the most valuable or rarest stuff that I miss. More than anything from my collection I am starting to really miss the complete sets of Cloverleaf Dairy and oversized Peters Meats complete panels that I acquire when Gavin Riley sold his collection. I also miss the 30+ OJs I had of Minneapolis and St Paul players. A run of radio picture team photos from 1930-60 of the Minneapolis Millers and St Paul Saints, many with autographs. I'd also love to have back all the wire photos I used to have that ranged from 1920 to the late 60s. They included type 1s of Gehrig from Lou Gehrig day that everyone is familiar with, a rookie callup of Mickey Cochrane and of Joe DiMaggio. The only other stuff I miss are the early pennants like the 1914 Boston Braves World Series and the Yankees World Series from the 1930s along with a lot of other WS and AS game pennants.

I don't miss any of the other stuff, not even the Firesides or 19c cards.

Regrets? I've had a few, but then again - too few to mention.

In all seriousness, the only regret I have is that it took me 20 years to find a collecting focus. For two decades I wandered in the wilderness collecting all sorts of things from modern shiny cards, to football autographed memorabilia, to Goudeys and T206s. I was literally all over the place accumulating a lot of nice individual pieces that people liked, but it would be wrong to call it a collection. Too much collecting based on what other people liked, rather than things that had sentimental meaning to me. I was more hoarder than collector.

Last year I sold the modern sports cards, and all of the non-cabinet vintage. Now I'm in the process of selling off the non-Giants cabinets, and eventually I'll sell the autographs. Dramatically downsizing for a focused collection. I took a beating on most of it, but I think in the end I'll be much happier with a Giants-only collection.

From now on, I'll do it My Way. (Thanks Mr. Sinatra!)

Regrets? Lots of them. Starting from when I was young and traded my very first baseball card, an 83 Topps Tony Gwynn, for an 89 Topps set. My friend was like, "are you sure you want to trade your first card?" and I said yes. Maybe it was weighing down on me somehow, I don't know. Then I traded my '67 Topps Mantle to a friend for a '68 Seaver and some other stuff. I hadn't wanted to trade it, and finally I succumbed in order to be nice since he kept on asking. But later I wanted to trade back for it and it was a nay. I still have the Seaver and have thought of contacting him... I googled him and he's a doctor down in NJ. I already contacted the guy whom I traded my Gwynn to and he said his mom threw his cards away. Crazy to think a mother would do that in this day and age but his mother was rather cranky, so I believe it.

Bigger financial regrets included consigning a t216 Wagner to Legendary a few years back. They buried the card between pages and pages of commons so that no one saw it. It went for 5k... a few months later, an SGC 40 went for 11k in Goodwin while mine was a SGC 50 and high end. So that was a big mistake. I wanted to give Doug Allen a chance since everyone was reaming him out online. Big mistake.

I also got ripped off when I was about thirteen for about half my collection. Some kid came over and had a T206 he said was worth a hundred dollars. So I gave him a hundred dollars worth of cards, things like Yount rookies, Dale Murphy RC, and others. A few days later I went and bought a price guide and saw that the card was only worth $10. I confronted the kid but he lied and said he already sold all my cards! I thought about stealing his bike, but then let the whole thing go.

I don't really miss any of the high-grade T206's that I used to own, but I do regret selling to early - I left a lot of money on the table. There are none of my vintage cards that I regret selling (don't even miss the Delahanty much). I guess at the end of the day, they are just cards... just cardboard. But if I ever sold my Jimmy Ryan, I would regret it because I got it from this board and it used to be Brandon's. I'd also regret it if I ever sold my bigass Frank Chance card.

In the 80s my collecting was all over the place, but I don't regret it. I look at as an exercise in helping find my focus in collecting. It's also cool to be able to say I've owned at least a type from most card sets produced.

jbonie wrote:

I don't really miss any of the high-grade T206's that I used to own, but I do regret selling to early - I left a lot of money on the table.  There are none of my vintage cards that I regret selling (don't even miss the Delahanty much).  I guess at the end of the day, they are just cards... just cardboard.  But if I ever sold my Jimmy Ryan, I would regret it because I got it from this board and it used to be Brandon's.  I'd also regret it if I ever sold my bigass Frank Chance card.

i feel like this. i don't regret selling any card, only regret might be not getting more money for them. imo this is probably the attitude of 95%+ out there. you can throw around the word "collector" all you want but no one is attached to anything, if you offer enough money you can have it (except maybe chris because he's a freak for those giants cabs).

I regret not being more aggressive in my younger years in acquiring rarities...like bl 460 t206 at pennsylvania show in late 80's...m113 newsboy a the same show. I regret having sold Loudy so soon...through REA!