5 Collecting Resolutions for 2012

Every year, I try to make some New Year’s Resolutions in regards to hockey card collecting. This year, I’m making them public. Maybe this will make me more accountable for my collecting habits, right?

So, here are my 5 Collecting Resolutions for 2012:

5. Avoid Retail Packs En Masse
I like opening up blaster boxes as much as the next sports card blogger. Packs are fun to open and for $10 to $20 you get an easy blog post out of the deal.

But I also get a pang of remorse. Why spend $20 on a blaster when you can spend $60 or so on a hobby box and have vastly better odds of getting rookies, cool parallels, jersey or autograph cards. Plus, my local Target doesn’t really need my $20.

Will I still buy blasters and/or retail packs? Sure, once in a while. But if I am going to build a set, this year I will stick to hobby boxes.

Why am I saving these again? Oh, right…

4. Deal With Empty Boxes and Wrappers
When I buy a box of cards, I put the empty box and wrappers aside to deal with later. I save 4 wrappers with the least amount of tearing along with the top of the card box.

The problem is, I am notorious for putting this off. The boxes and wrappers pile up, taking up space on, under or around the “card table” in my “Room of Hockey” until it becomes unsightly. So in 2012, I will be more diligent in dealing with the empties.

200…201…203…wait, 203? Aw, hell…

3. Check All Sets When I Receive Them
This is probably my worst habit. I buy a set off of eBay, but don’t bother to actually check and see if each and every card is there until I have leisure time to put the set in pages. But that could be days, weeks, even months after I’ve bought it.

This is bad, bad, BAD.

I’ve been shorted a card numerous times during 2011. And really, you can’t complain to the seller about a missing or damaged card two months after the fact.

The whole reason that I buy sets in the first place is so I don’t have to mess around with tracking down more single cards. So this year I will strive to check the sets the day I get them.

I am the Crazy Cat Lady of Mario Lemieux RCs

2. Don’t Be A Hoarder
When I like a card, I tend to buy many copies of it. I’m not talking about having one copy of a card in a complete set and another copy for my player collection (a la Chris Chelios). I’m talking many, many copies of the same card, for really no good reason.

Why do I have 6 copies of the 1990-91 Pro Set Stanley Cup Hologram?

Because it’s cool, that’s why. But 6 of them? Wouldn’t that money be better spent towards Young Guns of Sid and Alex, or a Stan Mikita rookie card…or, you know, cards that I don’t have?

This year, I am going to ask myself that question whenever I buy a pricey card that I already have. (That includes you, Mario Lemieux).

1. Complete These @#$% Sets Already
A great deal of my want list–not just what I post online, but my 53-page Word document–is comprised of sets that just a few cards away from completion. And many of the cards I need can be found on the Beckett Marketplace for around a quarter each.

So, what’s stopping me? Sellers on the Beckett Marketplace don’t gouge on shipping, and this is a really good way to kill off many sets at once. Plus it is less time consuming than sifting through quarter boxes at a show in the hopes of finding that elusive Mark Fitzpatrick card.

This year, I am going to knock off as many sets as I can. I might even keep track of how many sets I complete in 2012.

Question: Do you have any collecting resolutions for 2012? I’d love to hear about them.

mm

Author: Sal Barry

Sal Barry is the editor and webmaster of Puck Junk. He is a freelance hockey writer, college professor and terrible hockey player. Follow him on Twitter @puckjunk

12 thoughts on “5 Collecting Resolutions for 2012”

  1. Can you resolve to keep them in your Room of Hockeyness? You have the stuff all over the apartment. 9_9 You have 95% of the second bedroom for this. Hockey stuff is in the dining room, living room, almost the whole coffee table, there are two hockey tables across from my easel. I find anything in my kitchen, it's getting peanut buttered and going to the dogs or getting baked in the next lasagna. We'll see how well your 'rookie card' holds up to Gomez.

    da GF

  2. LOL. that's the least anonymous anonymous comment ever! YOU GO GIRL!

    Good luck with the resolutions and send me the Chelios cards before they get peanut buttered.

  3. Are you looking for Chelios cards, dayf? I was setting some aside for Fuju, but he changed his mind and decided to NOT start another player collection.

  4. I think an apartment of hockeyness is awesome–everyone should have one–I see nothing wrong with that (as I'm ducking some swats to my head)

  5. Chelios is my favorite player, but I don't really need to be taking in more Hockey at this time. If I can get rid of more cards than I take in I wouldn't mind a pile O' Chris.

  6. In all fairness, my three large dogs and art supplies are all over the freaking apartment. The dogs move around of their own volition, and he knew about those when we moved in. I did not know he was relocating several metric tons from storage at his grandmother's home to an inner city apartment. I have two book cases and the corners of a small six by eight 'sun room' with windows on three sides from ceiling to knee to try and smash 3 easels, two paint boxes, and over 80 canvases into. My paper, portfolios and printmaking works are heaped in the corner of the dining room. Either I better become a real 'in demand' artist, we win the lottery and move someplace bigger or the 1-800-GOT-JUNK truck from "Hoarders" comes for the hockey. >:( Or a new Canadian program called "Hockey Hoarders" starts on CBC this spring. I'm calling them now.

    da GF

  7. And there are two hockey tables in the dining room in addition to the two other hockey tables across from my main easel. :p So there's four of these freaking things around.

    da GF

  8. Not sure I want to tell you where to get more cards at this point, but it is a card blog! I always get my singles from sportlots.com. I save a lot on shipping since it seems there are 5 or 6 main hockey sellers that have huge selections so you may be able to knock out a few sets on the cheap.

    As for collecting resolutions, my only one is to stop starting sets because I'm bored and then hate myself for tracking down singles just to get the set completed so I don't have to ever deal with it again. I'm looking at you Black Diamond.

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