Subjective Value

By now most of you can probably tell that I don't particularly care about the book/Beckett/fair-market value of my collection. The "value" I attribute to my collection is purely in terms of how much enjoyment it brings me in just having it. Thus far that level of enjoyment has been extremely high. High enough for me to continue collecting in spite of knowing that the money could be used in a way better manner (e.g. actual investments like stocks and bonds).

But every now and then I wonder about what would happen if that enjoyment ever disappears. What would happen then? Why would that enjoyment ever disappear in the first place?

I'm not really talking in terms of "what if I leave collecting?", but more along the lines of "hmmm, this card isn't nearly as special to me as it was in the past, what should I do with this card then?".

Real talk, I don't have a good 80% of the really nice cards I used to have back in 2013, because I've moved a lot of them and the shift towards what means a lot to me now has been drastic. A Posada autograph numbered to 10, a Pettitte autograph, a Cano/Melky dual autograph, various other items that were pretty scarce and unique, all gone. At one point I really wanted to have them. If I didn't I wouldn't have dished out assets (cash or cards) to get them. But at some point later on I basically decided "meh, I can live without them". And given how I haven't missed them in the time since, that appears to have been the case.

So if that happened to my nicer cards, can it happen to one of my key collections?

Of course when I say that, that could only mean that I'm wondering if I'll ever stop collecting Torrens. Or if you want to read even further into it, if it means I'd dismantle my collection and get rid of all of it.

I'd like to think that I'm at the point of no return now. The point where I go all in no matter what.

In theory that's not a bad stance to have. More cards? The optimist in me thinks that that just equals more fun. Bring it on!

But the cynic in me knows that that's a double edged sword.

Essentially I'm locked into a non-verbal agreement where I feel obligated to go after every single card that's set to be released in the future. It's fun to think about when you've got things under control, but as I've learned in the past 12 months, it can all get really overwhelming really quickly. Especially if you're unfortunate enough to have to deal with dumb parallels or dumb gimmicks like those 5x7's or 10x14's.

So to make an ass/example of myself I recently picked up several of these very parallels. I've gone on record in the past stating that if you want to assemble a halfway decent rainbow/collection, you need to start with the obscure/rare stuff first. In recent times obscure has become synonymous with crummy gimmick.

See what I mean? I present to you all two Torrens cards that have only one real discernible feature, a foil stamp! These are the Limited and All Star parallels respectively. Remember those big boxes of complete flagship sets that we always see and ignore at Target? Well some of them have these dumb foils on the front, making them parallels. I had a hunch something like this would happen (thanks a lot Acuña!) and it came true. To make matters worse, the Limited version is an online exclusive.

This is the type of shit that makes people give up on player collecting. It's what pushes me to the brink of quitting. Do I really want to spend money on this stuff? Well in the end I did, making me a total moron and leaving me feeling like a moron too.

Since I was picking stuff up I decided to go after some other cheap Series 2 Torrens parallels too. Most of which cost less than the $3.50 shipping fees. I forgot to mention it in my rainbow building post but, nothing will make your heart sink more than seeing that the serial numbered cards (that have print runs higher than 25) you want have $3.50 shipping fees attached to them. True story, just ask P-Town Tom, he knows the struggle/pain/torment.
Thank goodness the pink there at the bottom had free shipping.

But I know that this is the type of stuff that separates and elevates my Torrens collection from other Torrens collections (if there are any :P). This is the kind of dumb blind loyalty that got me through two rainbow builds.

I was going to put in a non sequitur here about how weird obscure cards show up in the weirdest places later, but then I got word that Torrens had a Topps Chrome Sapphire card. Topps Chrome Sapphire is Topps Chrome's online exclusive version. The only real difference is that there's a special cracked ice blue tint to the card and maybe there are a few parallels (too many parallels in my book). I hate that these exist. It means I have to chase them, not just this year, but also next year when they resurface as "Buyback VIP 1/1" variations. BLARG.

So when all his said and done, what am I supposed to do with this stuff if I ever do feel like the value these cards once had to me dissipates?

I don't know, I'll get back to you after I find the series 2 purple parallel that was sold exclusively at Meijer, the Topps Chrome Sapphire superfractor, the Topps Chrome Sapphire red refractor, a ton of other parallels, and my will to live.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.