Collecting With Purpose

    Recently I decided to focus my collection and trade away the rest. It's a daunting proposition for an incurable pack rat like myself. But it's got me thinking that I should've done this a long, long time ago.
    For one thing, focus gives a collection shape and purpose. I've always thought that there are two ways of going after cards: Collecting and Amassing. The collector makes purchases with a goal in mind (like a complete set or to add to a player collection) while the amasser just buys and buys for the heck of it. No matter how I've tried to delude myself in the past, I've always been an amasser. And look what it's got me: an 150,000-card collection with no rhyme or reason to its makeup. It's frustrating, to say the least. But those days are behind me. I'm ready now to Collect.
    I've decided to focus on the Boston Red Sox, and though the team's history is dotted with superstars and Hall of Famers, it's a fairly easy team to collect: it's had long stretches of mediocrity–and plenty of bad players. Guys like Bob Bolin, Marc Sullivan, and Herm Winningham mean I don't have to pay a lot per card to finish team sets.
    It's another story when collectors choose a team like the Dodgers or Yankees, two teams perennially stocked with the game's brightest talent. Unless you saved your Koufaxes and Mantles from when you were a kid, cards of those two Hall of Famers don't come cheap. Even cards of role players and bench guys from the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies are usually more expensive than other commons simply because of the team affiliation.
    One team that I had been thinking of collecting is the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers have fielded many great teams over the years, and cards of players from their last World Championship team (1984) are woefully under-appreciated. Rookie cards of guys like Jack Morris, Kirk Gibson, Lance Parrish, Lou Whitaker, and Chet Lemon are cheap (each can be had, in near-mint condition, for between $5 and $10). Shortstop Alan Trammell shares his rookie with Hall of Famer Paul Molitor (1978 Topps #707), so his is considerably more valuable than the rest. Still, collecting Tiger baseball cards is not a very expensive proposition.
    Narrowing focus doesn't just mean collecting a team. Many collectors focus on individual players. Right now I'm putting together a trade with a collector who specializes in Mark Grace, the former Cubs and Diamondbacks star. I've heard from collectors who focus on Rickey Henderson, Ichiro Suzuki, Will Clark and J.T. Snow. Even a collector who pursues cards of Mackey Sasser, the New York Mets' back-up catcher of the late 1980s.
    There are literally thousands of ways to give your collection focus.

    Hopefully I've found mine.
Topics: Baseball Cards , Baseball , Ben Henry , Red Sox , Dodgers , Yankees , Tigers