What Type of Sports Card Collector Are You?
We're not judging. But if you can figure out which kind of collector you are, then you can make bigger strides in improving your collection!
Each Happy Hobby Sports Card Newsletter For Collectors has a handful of great sports card subjects, helping sports card collectors working with limited budgets!
This Week’s Newsletter Highlights!
⚾ WHAT TYPE OF COLLECTOR ARE YOU?
⚾ BASEBALL CARD TRIVIA!
⚾🏈🏀 CARDS THAT MAKE US HAPPY!
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Happy Hobbyist
leads the way once again this week!Whether you are new to the card-collecting hobby, a returning collector, or even a veteran collector, learning to maximize your money while collecting on a budget is a must. Collecting sports cards as a hobby is meant to be fun, however, rising prices can leave many collectors frustrated and possibly take away the joy of the wonderful hobby. In this series, which started last week, discussing the different types of rookie cards you should consider, we are going to lay out some tips on how to put together a great collection while working with a limited budget.
David Gonos chirps in with his own comments with footnotes interspersed throughout.
⚾🏈🏀 WHAT TYPE OF CARD COLLECTOR ARE YOU?
That is one of the first things you must define if you are going to maximize your success and enjoyment. Some of the different types of collectors out there include Flippers, Investors, PC collectors Prospectors, Rippers, Set Builders and Type Collectors. Let’s break these down a bit.1
Prospectors: Collectors looking for Bowman 1st prospect cards of future Hall of Famers and All-Stars. Prospectors want to find the first card of that next great player.2
Flippers: These folks want to buy low and sell high. Flippers are looking for that player, either a prospect or rookie, who everyone else has overlooked, so they can grab a cheap card and sell for a profit.
Rippers: Collectors who enjoy nothing more than ripping through everything they can get their hands on. New/old, pack/box -- it doesn’t matter, rippers just look for the joy of the unknown and the potential of that next big hit.3
Investors: Collectors who are looking to buy a card they hope will appreciate over the next several years. Investors don’t just collect vintage cards; present day cards can be an investment as well.4
Set Builders: Collectors who enjoy the challenge of putting together the entire base-set of a particular series. Set builders typically get more joy out of pulling the cards needed to finish the set than just buying those last couple singles.5
PC Collectors: “PC” stands for “Personal Collection.” PC Collectors focus more on purchasing singles of their favorite players or teams. PC Collectors often branch out from just flagship products to get their favorite cards from more obscure or scarce sets.6
Type Collector: This is someone who likes to collect examples of different sets, maybe from different years, different sports, etc.7
As a budget-smart collector, it is important to know which type of collector you are so you spend your money where you will get the most joy. The great thing about this list is it is not all inclusive and you can also define yourself as a multi-dimensional collector, meaning several of these categories define you.
What is Your Collecting Budget?
This question goes together with the first question. Your budget may be the limiting factor in what defines the type of collector you are, so consider both questions in conjunction with each other. It is crucial as a collector to set your spending limits and put together a realistic budget to allocate your spending as well to ensure when you look at your collection, you are happy with it.
Once you know your limit, it’s time to set up some categories to allocate your money. Here are some examples to consider:
Boxes and Packs
Check out a sports card release calendar, so you don’t miss out on a release later in the year because your funds are depleted.Singles
Consider both rookie and prospect cards!Vintage
This is like buying singles. However, this might be a bigger purchase, which means more of an investment.Breaks
I don’t buy into a lot, but I like some discretionary funds if the mood strikes.Grading
This may not be for you, but if you like to grade cards, account for this, it is always more expensive than you think.Supplies
If you do this right, you can take advantage of a Black Friday deal and cover all your needs for the year at once.
How you allocate your spending should match the type of collector you defined yourself. If you like ripping more than anything, boxes and breaks should be a higher percentage of your budget. If you are more of an investor, increase your vintage percentage.
One of the most critical parts of budgeting is tracking your spending, so make sure you put your purchases into a spreadsheet or a notebook, so you can stay on pace and not spend beyond what you planned in the first two months of the year.8
Every other week, Patrick shares, “Patrick’s Prime Prospect Picks,” where he chooses a 1st Bowman card with possible upside!
⚾ BASEBALL CARD TRIVIA!
Send me the answer to this question – you could win this free card from me: 1976 Topps Robin Yount!
Which year’s Topps flagship checklist is the only set to have cards of Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams and Stan Musial?
Email your answer to gonoscards@gmail.com and you can win this 1976 Topps Robin Yount Card! Rather than take the first person who answers it right, I’m going to do a random drawing of all the people who answer this question before midnight, Friday, April 18th. The winner will be announced in the April 24 newsletter.
From April 3 newsletter Which year had a Topps baseball set that denoted three All-Star outfielders from the same team? (In other words, all three of one team's outfielders made the All-Star team, and all three had an "All-Star" designation on their card in that flagship set.) Prize: 1993 Fleer Ultra Ken Griffey Jr. #619. Answer this question before midnight, Friday, April 11. The winner will be announced in the April 17 newsletter.
⚾🏀 CARDS THAT MAKE US HAPPY! 1981 Topps Traded Danny Ainge #727
Before we dig in, I want to credit the team at the Baseball Cards Daily Newsletter for first discussing this card early last month. I had previously thought Danny Ainge’s first card was in that 1982 Topps set, Card No. 125, but I was very wrong!
(Interestingly, Topps stopped producing basketball cards in 1982, so Ainge was the only NBA player with cardboard that season!)
The 1981 Topps Traded set was the first true “Traded” set, although, there were versions of it all the way back to 1972. That’s when Topps would use a High-Number series essentially the same way: detailing cards of players either in new uniforms or who should have been in that first set. In 1974, Topps would add “Traded” cards basically as inserts – the first insert set! They’d do the same in 1976.
Topps began releasing a Traded set in wax packs in 1990. Nowadays, “Topps Traded” has been rebranded a few times (remember Topps Updates and Highlights!?!), until finally just landing on Topps Update, which comes out around November each year.
In 1981, though, Topps released a Traded set as a standalone boxed-set product for the first time, available through J.C. Penney!
1981 TOPPS TRADED DANNY AINGE ROOKIE CARD #727
Ainge was a three-sport star at North Eugene Oregon High School who made it to the majors in 1979 with the three-year-old Toronto Blue Jays (Ainge was their 15th-round pick in their first draft in 1977). He’s reportedly the only person in history to be a high school first team All-American in baseball (outfielder), basketball (guard) and football (wide receiver).
At BYU, where Ainge starred as a shooting guard, Ainge would win the 1981 John R. Wooden Award as college basketball’s best player. Meanwhile, when he wasn’t on the court, he was in his third season playing for the Blue Jays, where he’d total just two homers and 37 RBI in 211 career games.
That was enough to get him some baseball cards – and probably a better contract with the Boston Celtics, who drafted him 31st overall in the 1981 NBA Draft. How tough was the decision to continue playing baseball for an expansion team or join an NBA team who just won the 1981 NBA Finals, with a 24-year-old Larry Bird? It was probably an easy decision.
1986 FLEER DANNY AINGE ROOKIE CARD #4
Ainge was one of just 13 athletes to play professionally with an MLB team and an NBA team, along with Dave DeBusschere, and “The Rifleman,” Chuck Connors.
It’s his 1981 Topps Traded card that now stands above the rest, and one that should be owned by all fans of the BYU Cougars, Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Celtics and Utah Jazz, who hired him to be their current CEO of basketball operations in 2021.
Side note: I was a Lakers fan in the ‘80s, so I didn’t like the Celtics, and my Dad was a huge hater of Danny Ainge, mostly for his on-court whining and being regarded as a dirty player, which might not be altogether true.
Ainge also had a 1978 TCMA prospect card with the Syracuse Chiefs, as well as a 1981 Fleer rookie card.
⚾🏈🏀 WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE HAPPY HOBBY WORLD?
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Coming Next Week!
🏈 NFL DRAFT SPECIAL
⚾ PATRICK’S PRIME PROSPECT PICKS!
⚾ BASEBALL CARD TRIVIA!
***Important Card-Collecting Articles on DavidGonos.com***
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Have a #HappyHobby!
Podcast Music: "I dunno" by grapes - 2008 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0)
While it’s true, you can be a combination of some of these things, you almost certainly can’t be all of them. Trust me. [See David Gonos from 2021.]
As Fanatics brings the NBA and NFL licenses back to Topps next year, Bowman and Bowman University Chrome cards are going to become even bigger in the second half of this decade. It’ll be interesting to see how Fanatics works with the WNBA, since Panini will retain that license. We might only see female ballers on Bowman products while they’re in college.
Hello, Scott Hedrick. I imagine Scott and his brother shredding packs and boxes each weekend like the Tasmanian Devil. Wrappers everywhere!
There’s also the version of the Flipper/Investor, as someone who seeks low-priced cards they can either flip right then for a profit, grade and flip, or hold until the opportune flipping moment (the playoffs or a call-up in baseball).
Consider this: About 1% of all players who have ever played in a Major League Baseball game have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Don’t overextend yourself.
Hello, Josh Scarberry. I like to think Josh would have named his kids Series 1 and Series 2 before his wife stepped in.
“PC Collectors” is like “ATM Machine,” or “Los Angeles Angels.” The second word is already part of the first word.
The Type Collector is like the guy who wants the Sampler Platter as an appetizer. He only likes mixed nuts, and he has a tough time getting a bucket big enough for his frozen yogurt and the dozens of different toppings.
There is no worse feeling than coming across a great deal on a single card you’ve wanted, right after you bought and opened a bunch of blasters and boxes.
 | A guest post by
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Nice article, Patrick, highlighting the different types of collectors in the umbrella of our wonderful hobby. Entertaining footnotes by David, as well. Haha, I love and approve of the Tasmanian devil image as we rip packs, and that was a total reality for 7-8 years before we cooled off a little as wives and kids came into the picture.
And although I’m a ripper at heart, I do think I have a sprinkle of almost every other one in there, as well (other than flipper-I very rarely sell anything even in general).
Cool “Cards That Make Us Happy,” also. Had no idea Ainge could play football, too. Pretty interesting, cause you look at him in his basketball playing days and it certainly doesn’t scream out “elite athlete,” to me, anyway.
Well done, as always, fellas!
Im dying laughing over with my two Children Series 1 and Series 2 😂🤣😂 this was a great article and the footnotes were great! We both got great laugh out of this!