The thin line between hoarding and collecting

[both-teams-played-hard]

Do you have an accumulation of '81 Donruss wax wrappers? Are you saving them because you think they will be valuable "one day"? How about newspapers from the day after the "big game"? A year's worth of Sports Illustrated from 1995?
Be honest...are you saving the sharpie Tony Gwynn used to sign his '83 Fleer rookie card? The delight of hoarders and silverfish everywhere: back issues of Sports Collectors Digest. Of course you're keeping them for nostalgia and prosperity's sake.
How about a season's collection of ticket stubs from the Peoria Jackballs minor league team?
We're all friends here...just admit your problem.


http://www.hoardersanonymous.org/
http://www.1800gotjunk.com/

[Fnazxc0114]

Nope no problem. Im actually pretty tired of collecting right now. My interest usually picks up around Jan, but i dont hoard anything.

[harpt]

Dude...I have a welcome Back Kotter doll I can't throw out. I may have a problem as well.

[frikativ54]

Great question! When I used to collect baseball cards, which are comparatively inexpensive, I got into hoarding a bit. If there was a prospect I was following, I would try to get duplicates of all his cards. I was kind of obsessed with Jeff Bagwell patch cards too, before I got into the whole game-used craze. But now with game-used items being so expensive, I don't have enough money to be a hoarder.

For me, I am satisfied with a few jerseys, a couple bats, and other odds and ends. Of course, there is the desire to add new and unique items, but I think that's there for all of us. What I've never understood are those people who need to have tens and tens of one game-used item, with different variations of use. In my mind, there is enough of the stuff to go around - what's the point of hoarding? So other people can't have it?

There's only so much display space...and then they go into the closet. And what's the point of having them, if they are not out to enjoy?

[Fnazxc0114]

Frik for those guys that have a bunch of multiples it their choice. I dont get it either, but thats not the focus of my collection, im happy with a few nice items. You know now that i think of it there might be a box of garbage pail kids in my closet.

[sox83cubs84]

My collection is just that...a collection of jerseys worn by guys I like/know in MLB, and caps and bats given to me by many of those guys.

That said, the one area where I DO hoard is when I see free or low-cost items of popular players that I can maybe make a few bucks on. Sometimes it works (late 1980's Midway Aiurlines magazine with a Cal Ripken Jr. focus), sometimes it doesn't (medical magazine with ex-Yankee and AL president Bobby Brown on the cover). Rither way, it's fun, and, if the items are dead weight, I'll end up giving them away.

Dave Miedema

[godwulf]

Great topic. One that hits rather close to home, for me, I'm afraid. I mean, I've watched those "Hoarders" shows, and no, I'm not like that by any means, but...I do have over a thousand bats, with only about fifty on actual display, and the rest "stored", in one way or another. I can't honestly say that I particularly enjoy them, at present. The same with the probably close to 200 jerseys, only about a dozen of which are not in a closet. Yet, I keep buying bats, and adding them to one of the big "lean-to"s in a corner of the master bedroom...or buying a jersey I just can't live without, and hanging it up, out of sight, in a closet.

As for non-GU stuff pertaining to my team, I do collect every program, magazine, yearbook, media guide, etc, that comes out, but rarely buy a duplicate, and then only if it costs next to nothing - then it's hard to resist, of course. Right now, most of them are pretty well organized, on shelves and a filing cabinet, so I don't feel bad about that stuff.

Baseball cards - um, well...there was a time when I would buy lots of 3- or 5,000-count boxes of unsorted cards, mostly commons, very cheaply, and spend days and weeks sorting them by player, then by card, then finding the best copy of each card, and putting those cards in binders. I haven't had time to work on it lately, so I still have probably six or seven 5,000-count boxes to go through...plus about twenty or so boxes of duplicate cards that I know I don't need, but they've been sitting in a corner of the family room for at least eight years, and I can't bring myself to do anything with them.

Okay, here's the one that will probably drop a few jaws. I have saved every page of the sports section of the local newspaper containing an account of an Arizona Diamondbacks game - not the whole sports section, just the page or pages dealing with the game - since the inaugural season of 1998. They are stored neatly in large plastic storage boxes, three years to a box. It started out when we first got the franchise in '95, and I saved the paper with the headline and big story on the front page; then, it seemed only natural to save the account of the first game; then, it just became a habit to keep every account of every game.

Now you know. Am I supposed to feel better?

[Dewey2007]

godwulf, I hereby christen you the official "unofficial" historian of the AZ Diamondbacks! I wish I could find someone around where I live who has saved local sports pages for the last 15 years. There are a number of them I would love to have. Keep doing what you do unless what you're doing is doing you!!

Great topic. One that hits rather close to home, for me, I'm afraid. I mean, I've watched those "Hoarders" shows, and no, I'm not like that by any means, but...I do have over a thousand bats, with only about fifty on actual display, and the rest "stored", in one way or another. I can't honestly say that I particularly enjoy them, at present. The same with the probably close to 200 jerseys, only about a dozen of which are not in a closet. Yet, I keep buying bats, and adding them to one of the big "lean-to"s in a corner of the master bedroom...or buying a jersey I just can't live without, and hanging it up, out of sight, in a closet.

As for non-GU stuff pertaining to my team, I do collect every program, magazine, yearbook, media guide, etc, that comes out, but rarely buy a duplicate, and then only if it costs next to nothing - then it's hard to resist, of course. Right now, most of them are pretty well organized, on shelves and a filing cabinet, so I don't feel bad about that stuff.

Baseball cards - um, well...there was a time when I would buy lots of 3- or 5,000-count boxes of unsorted cards, mostly commons, very cheaply, and spend days and weeks sorting them by player, then by card, then finding the best copy of each card, and putting those cards in binders. I haven't had time to work on it lately, so I still have probably six or seven 5,000-count boxes to go through...plus about twenty or so boxes of duplicate cards that I know I don't need, but they've been sitting in a corner of the family room for at least eight years, and I can't bring myself to do anything with them.

Okay, here's the one that will probably drop a few jaws. I have saved every page of the sports section of the local newspaper containing an account of an Arizona Diamondbacks game - not the whole sports section, just the page or pages dealing with the game - since the inaugural season of 1998. They are stored neatly in large plastic storage boxes, three years to a box. It started out when we first got the franchise in '95, and I saved the paper with the headline and big story on the front page; then, it seemed only natural to save the account of the first game; then, it just became a habit to keep every account of every game.

Now you know. Am I supposed to feel better?

[frikativ54]

Okay, here's the one that will probably drop a few jaws. I have saved every page of the sports section of the local newspaper containing an account of an Arizona Diamondbacks game - not the whole sports section, just the page or pages dealing with the game - since the inaugural season of 1998. They are stored neatly in large plastic storage boxes, three years to a box. It started out when we first got the franchise in '95, and I saved the paper with the headline and big story on the front page; then, it seemed only natural to save the account of the first game; then, it just became a habit to keep every account of every game.

Do you ever look through your sports page collection? Or do you just keep them in a box as storage?

[camarokids]

Dude...I have a welcome Back Kotter doll I can't throw out. I may have a problem as well.

I loved that show. When I was kid I would name lizards that I caught in the yard Arnold, after Horshack!