Anyone else a minimalist collector?

[Wolverine]

2 years ago I finally got tired of having boxes of cards sitting around that I never did anything with and decided to do something about it. It's taken me 2 years but I've finally got a collection I'm happy with.

I started by sorting all of my cards and throwing away most of the junkwax era commons. 2nd, all the duplicate cards went into a give-away box for kids in the family for their starter collections. 3rd, I looked through all the remaining cards and kept only the ones that I liked, had value or were hall of famers. Most of the common insert cards, such as all-star, rookie of the year, etc, non-flagship cards were also put in the give-away box. I was left with 2 large binders, 2 small binders and one metal box filled with the most valuable cards in top-loaders.

Now when I look at my collection I'm extremely happy with it. I usually get the collection out once a week to look through. If I get a new card, I get rid of a card. I tried to keep it clean, one binder is all hall of famers and are limited to one or two 9 pocket pages, except for guys I PC like Griffey or Chipper Jones. The other binder is newer cards and a few pages of non-baseball. Have been collecting for 33 years, and now instead of looking at the collection with a pit in my stomach I look at the collection and am really proud of it.

Anyone else do something similar?

[Triple B]

I had monster box after monster box full of top loaded singles. Finally decided to pare it down and met up with a dealer buddy who bought me out. Most were $5-$10 cards and sold it to him for $1 per card across the board. I walked out with a small mint in my pocket and he had inventory for the next few years. I started with about maybe 20 monster boxes and have it down to one with my own PC items.

He came back to me about three years later asking if I had more. Now I put together smaller lots and sell to him.

I'm looking at paring it down again, but I'll wait until Spring Training.

[DrewTheMan]

I collect RC's, focus on the current year and grab some older RC's. When I open boxes, I sell off or trade all non RCs no matter what but never sell RCs. Im a RC collector.

[jjj5278]

No, but I should. I did get rid of tons of junk wax stuff to consolidate when I was moving for the 3rd time in 4 years. But I also managed to lose some decent stuff too during one of those moves. I’m trying to streamline it though.

[123precision]

I'm a player collector, RC collector, and HOF collector. I have a heavy duty case for the nice stuff, three binders, and a box for supplies and low end stuff. Keep it simple.

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[GlenSepper]

I collect sealed Blaster boxes. Only one of each. Used to only buy what I could find in stores but this year have purchased off eBay; otherwise I would only have two or three from 2020.

[speedyjg13]

I only buy singles and only 1 copy of whatever card I want.

[cardsin47]

Originally Posted by Wolverine

Anyone else do something similar?

Yes—- I just did this with my sealed wax. I sold everything valued at $200 or less, and bought with the proceeds boxes that started at $500 ( most were $1K+ ) I ended up with 1/4 the quantity, while my quality went thru the roof!, and I’m MUCH happier

PS - and with a mortgage, Wife, and Kids —— it’s not about the $$ - only thing that matters is the warm fuzzy of the collection

[YouTheManNick]

Currently in the process of doing this.

Something I'd thought about doing for ages and thanks to covid I've had extra time on my hands to do it.

I have a local shop that'll take base commons from any era, so I took all that stuff there for store credit. The downside of that shop is he lowballs the hell out of you for anything of decent value. So for that stuff I've sold some on Ebay and I've been using COMC for the rest.

All that's left is...

some complete sets. Will likely get rid of some, but there's a couple I'm definitely keeping.

Five 2 rows with toploaded singles. Down from about ten. Might be able to eventually get it down to three... but I don't wanna have too small of a collection.

My graded vintage stash. Those are the permanent keepers.

Four binders for various things.
1. Junk wax era stars and inserts that I've had since I was a kid. I purposely crafted the binder to look like something I would have made as a kid. Cards aren't worth much, but it's a good reminder of how and why I got into cards in the first place so many years ago.
2. 1990 Topps complete set. My favorite design that's not super old and expensive.
3. A couple of my favorite complete sets.
4. Non sports from when I was a kid. GPK, etc.


I totally agree that a smaller collection of just stuff you love is more satisfying. For me, there's a lot of stuff I love so I don't see it getting too much smaller. But compared to what it was six months ago it's night and day.

[jefflasvegas]

A friend of mine decided to do something similar a few years back. His goal is to have 100 cards. Not one more or one less.

He sold the rest of his collection. Whenever he buys a card, he has to sell one. So now he has a cool looking wall display.

I, on the other hand, try to keep my collection under a 1,000,000. I have a dedicated room but that overflows.

[ExtendRendon]

Love this thread. I've donated 90% of my collection and only keep the ones I care about. I focus on buying only a few singles; breaking boxes yields so many cards I couldn't care less about, and I hate the waste/environmental impact caused by producing all that packaging.

[MiamiMarlinsFan]

I’m not afraid to cull when I need to. This has been more of an issue with my comic collection than cards though. I got rid of some comics, and stopped buying new weekly comics. I’d rather have the open space than boxes and boxes filled with... stuff. Culling the collection is therapeutic.

[unclemonkey]

I was guilty of buying hoards of junk wax. Guilty of buying dozens of cases of Draft paper base.

Totally overwhelmed.

From 1.2M now down to about +/- 10k

Just like the above goal... mine is 100 slabbed PC.

Goal is to be under 500 by next spring.

Bought a couple 1/1's with the recycled cash

[tkraft24]

I wouldn't classify myself as a minimalist but have definitely cut down on what I keep and take in.

I grew tired of clutter a while ago so stopped ripping wax in 2015/16. Since then I've sold off or given away just about anything besides Cleveland Indians cards. I still have loads of Cleveland Indians stuff that I've outgrown and slowly move them locally. The only cards I buy are Indians singles and the vast majority with the intent of keeping in my PC.

Overall, I'm really happy where things currently sit. I might have three 3-row boxes of non-PC Cleveland Indians cards (all were PC at one point). Everything else is PC.

[YouTheManNick]

I always gotta tip my cap to people who can collect cards without ever ripping wax.

I know it's not a good use of money. I know it's likely gonna end bad. I know I'm gonna be stuck with extra cards I don't want.

But dangit. Every now and then a guy's just gotta rip some wax.

[cardsin47]

Originally Posted by YouTheManNick

But dangit. Every now and then a guy's just gotta rip some wax.

BLASPHEMY!!!!!

[crawley88]

I’m in the process of doing the exact same thing, but am not cutting my collection down that far


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[creasecollector]

2 and a 1/2 binders for my player collections/sets, and 1 binder for my traders. Nice and small and easy to manage!

[Allen Ginter 99]

I got rid of thousands of cards. My new policy is if it doesn’t fit in here I don’t keep it


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[Allen Ginter 99]

Originally Posted by YouTheManNick

I always gotta tip my cap to people who can collect cards without ever ripping wax.

I know it's not a good use of money. I know it's likely gonna end bad. I know I'm gonna be stuck with extra cards I don't want.

But dangit. Every now and then a guy's just gotta rip some wax.

I stopped buy wax this year. Got sick of opening 2-3 cases of Ginter to only be left with 90 percent of worthless cards. I only buy singles now. I did try my luck with a few hobby boxes


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[Archangel1775]

For baseball I'm staying focused on 2020 Finest Flashbacks. I'm also collecting Star Wars Stellar sketches and autos. Everything is too high out the gate now. I cant see this hobby lasting if things stay out of hand. When an average adult cant afford new cards, who can? Surely not kids. If they cant now, in 20 years-30 years with more disposable income, what are they going back and buying? Not sports cards.

[notfast]

I currently own about 30 cards. All graded

I have a stack of about 10 raw and 125 currently at PSA. No boxes of anything, no singles besides these.

Simple as it gets.

[cardsin47]

Originally Posted by Allen Ginter 99

I stopped buy wax this year. Got sick of opening 2-3 cases of Ginter to only be left with 90 percent of worthless cards.

Exactly why I do what I do! If you collect only sealed boxes ( my thing ... ) you can never lose, because you never open anything !

[creasecollector]

Great setup in that locker, Allen Ginter 99 !

[jayjones82]

I’m slowly trying to whittle my card collection down from 8 gazillion to 7.99 gazillion. Baby steps.