Watching others scramble to pay the most for the "hottest new release" while I pick up great looking cards for spare change.

You didn't have to give away THAT collecting secret.....

I have a new favorite thing about this hobby: giving away collecting secrets here on TCC

I enjoy the posts from "J"....

Here's my top 5

1 pulling pc from a pack,whether it's a common or higher end.

2 talking and helping other collectors with their collections.

3 sending out freebies to a collector who never knew it was coming

4 finding hobby boxes at walmart when looking for the latest retail release.

5 shooting the breeze with the hobby shop owner while buying a few packs and hitting something awesome.

take care Steve

Is it that obvious?

That is fun....although the prices are often a little too high.

Adding Iverson Cards To My PC Collection!

The occasional big quantity PC add at a doable price.

I love finding more and more cards of the players i love...everyday

I like being able to discuss various (and sometimes controversial) hobby issues with other collectors in a friendly manner at TCC in the Hobby Talk forum.

*Being able to obtain autos of my favorite athletes (believe me, it must not have been easy back in the day)
*This sight, and being able to talk sports with friends over the internet
*Having a piece of history (at least in a forum I have always liked) be a photo, GU, or auto
*Busting boxes and finding something special once in awhile
*Winning an auction on Ebay for a price I didn't think the item could be purchased for
Hmmmm - More than I can say in this post... - LOTS

Feel free to post more.

I like watching other collectors pull amazing cards.

Getting far more in a package than you thought you would get.

I enjoy chatting with other collectors in the hobby. It's not all about trading - it's about having a good time.

Finding people who actually enjoy working a $10 deal over the course of a few days.

I love when someone buys or trades a card you have that u thought no one would ever want and you in return get a card you want.

It has happened to me here a few times!

Probably do low-end trades and talk to people here in TCC.

I like finding new cards to chase.

The anticipation of waiting for the mail to come.

I agree! It also great to find unexpected cards in the mail!

agree 100%

Giving stuff away to people you know will get more of a thrill out of it then you do.

The part I liked about the hobby was finding "true" rare cards that had incorrect release information. I was never on bandwagons, so to find these true gems were always fun. Very, very low supply, no demand as no one knew about them.

My first response to the question was "not much" and I felt like I could make a much larger contribution to the "what don't you like about this hobby" thread. As I was reading through the posts in this thread however, I realized that my initial "not much" response was not in answer to the "What do you enjoy the most about this hobby?" question but rather was more of an appropriate answer to a more specific question such as "what do like most about what this hobby has become"

A little background if you will permit, and an advanced warning that this will get a bit long. It's a slow day and this is my first venture back to a card collecting site in about a year so I have a lot of things to say. You have been warned. log out now or hold your tongue later.

I started collecting Green Bay Packer cards probably not quite 20 years ago. My first trip to a card shop came when I was in my early 20s. I had alway been a Packers fan and I had a few odds and ends laying around but not much in the way of cards. I went into a card shop just to check it out an I got hooked. My first few visits were spent splitting my time between admiring the new Packer inserts that were selling for outrageous amounts of money in the case and going through the guys nickel box for commons. After a few weeks I had depleted those nickel boxes of cards that I needed and I moved on up to the quarter box. After a couple of years the 50 cent and dollar boxes eventually fell victim to my relentless pursuit of all cards cheap relating to the Packers. Remember, 20 years ago a buck could still buy you a decent looking card and not simply because they had been overproduced ad nauseum.

That's when I started buying packs. My reasoning was that if I pulled a decent Packers insert great, I would keep it, if I got an insert of some other stud it was almost like pulling my favorite player because I could always trade it. At that time Favre, Marino, and Smith were all booking for the same so a 20 dollar Emmitt Smith insert was the same to me as a 20 dollar Favre. All I had to do was find someone with the 20 dollar Favre who wanted the 20 dollar Smith. Enter usenet newsgroups and rec.collecting. whatever it was called. I made lots of trades and built up my collection, and had a lot of fun. Soon the packs turned to boxes and I was sitting there with team lots of hundreds of cards that I had no interest in. Usenet to the rescue again. Trading team lots became my thing and again I had lots of fun my and my Packers collection grew and grew. What also started growing was the box prices, and the strict attention to "book value" when it came to trades. It was no longer acceptable to trade my 500 Bears cards for your 500 Packers cards. Everyone wanted to know the player breakdowns and the number of inserts etc etc. Then they would come back with comment like my lot books for $20.00 more than yours so I will pull out a couple of the inserts to make it even. Thats fine as far as it goes but it was getting that so a mixed lot of 500 Packers commons might only net me 2 or 3 cards that I needed and the few inserts that were being pulled were the ones I really needed.

I really started to get disheartened by the whole thing and was cutting back when the whole autograph thing started up big time. Autographs never meant anything to me. As far as I was concerned if you didn't get the autograph in person what was the point and I couldn't think of a single person that I would have waited more than 2 minutes to have sign a piece of cardboard for me. Game used was next and then ultra low count parallel sets and ultra high prices to go along with them. I quit completely for about 5 years. I started up again about 5 or 6 years ago but found that everything I enjoyed about the hobby back then was even rarer now than when I quit and the things that made me quit were even more rampant. I did do a quite a bit of buying of Packers lots on Ebay and did build my, by now seriously lagging, Packers collection back up to where most of the base cards and low end inserts were now safely tucked into their respective 9 pocket holders in their appropriate binders. However, after a couple of years of trying to trade my low end cards for other low end cards that I still needed I found that no one was interested in them any more. I was not one of those who tried to trade my three 1995 one per pack inserts for a brand new 1 per box game used. I was realistic in what I was looking for but it seems like there was no one interested in the low end cards any more. So I quit again.

The Favre race to 420 has once again renewed my interest. In watching Ebay I see that most of the cards can be had for about $1.00 $1.50 each. That is a doable thing for me and I may try to go for the set. I clicked on my old link here and this is one of the first threads I found. After a very long and probably not so mesmerizing post here we are. What do I like most about his hobby. Most of them have already been mentioned. Finding that one particular card that you have been really searching for and finding it in a box of commons for that matter. Finding the only card ever made of that one player that only played for one season as a #4 wide receiver. Getting the new team set of whatever brand when a team set was really a team set and you didn't have to pay extra for the rookies. Getting that last card to fill your 1976 wonder bread team set. The list really does go on. The two things that I like most about the hobby though are number 1, seeing posts from people in this thread who haven't forgotten what it was like. And # 2 seeing my 7 year old nephew's face light up when he opens a cheap pack and pulls a common of Devin Hester or Brian Urlacher or Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. I've been buying packs again just for him and I am dreading the day when he picks up his first Beckett. Until then, I will try to enjoy the hobby again for what it has meant to me and the heck with what everyone else thinks.

If you are still reading I think you will know exactly what I am talking about and I wish you all the best in your all collecting endeavors.

Welcome back sschind and thanks for your thought-out post!

I quoted Cody's message because it was shorter, but I also agree with the things posted. Even though I started collecting last year, I notice that almost no one collects because they like a player, the BV issue pops almost inmediately when trying to trade. I must admit that sometimes I ask for it, but it's just to make sure I'm not scamming the other trader.

sschind,

Haven't seen your snake avatar in a LOOOONNNNGGGGGGG while, glad you are back...trading "low end" stuff is VERY hard nowadays...the hobby does have it's way of turning people off especially with the prices!!!

Ease on back and enjoy the hobby once again!

The "what do you dislike about this hobby?" topic is over twice as large as this one - surely we enjoy more about the hobby than we dislike!

i enjoy writing about what i dislike about the hobby....

I enjoy watching players pictured on cards I have do great!

I enjoy seeing the Member of the Month feature once again on TCC!

Agree!
I enjoy the funky collections.
Take road_runner_1964 for example.
An absolutely insane reckoning for a collection.
Look at the results. There are many more on this site.
Collect Hard!,
RGBII

I enjoy seeing a no name turn into a big name...Tony Romo!

I like when you buy a 5-8$ pack and pull a card that books 50+ and i LOVE TCC AND SHINY CARDS

They say people who have a hobby they enjoy have less of a chance of stress-related health issues. That's good enough for me!

You get to set your own rules on how to collect and no one can or should tell you differently.

I enjoy watching the frenzy that Allen and Ginter will create beginning tomorrow.

ffman

skatalite's banner.

Newcomers from Beckett:

Feel free to share what you enjoy about collecting!

I enjoy being part of a hobby with many kind and caring participants, whose thoughts go beyond cardboard!

trading cards that you thought nobody would ever want for something you really want. : )

buying an enormus box of cards for 25$ to find 3 derek jeter RC's, two being the gold foil version. That was boneriffic.

buying one pack of card costing you 2-6 bucks, to find the 200-400 dollar case hit. wHOOO

Unexpected pack pulls are always a nice find!

I like finding new things (sports, players, teams, etc) to collect!

I like staying connected to the hobby through TCC. It is interesting to see what other products are out there, even though I don't buy them myself.

I like the element of surprise, like you never know what youre gonna get when you open the pack. i also like how collecting cards is something you can do for your whole life.

im finding less and less things to enjoy..i might quit collecting in the next few months..

NO!!

Hmmm. What I Like Most About Collecting Is....Actually Getting Something That They Touched Like A Jersey Card/Ball Card/Pant Card/Shoe Card.Expessicaly If He/She is A PC Player.
Also Thinking That Their Autographs Are REAL.Like They Signed That Themselves.You Know What I Mean?
But Yea.I Hate Those Collectors That Collect For The Money.
Eww.
Thats It For Know