What's Your Biggest Hobby Related Regret?

[bloodwings19]

20 years ago, my brother sold all my 1984-85 Topps Yzerman Rookie Cards to a friend of his, I had at least 10 of them (all at least PSA 9+. This was when I was inactive in collecting and I wasn't home. The guy also bought a lot of Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa rookie cards. My brother was very young, so I don't blame him. I'm actually driving one of his car (not cards) that he let me drive right now

[Tank67]

Instead of getting a McDavid young guns for about $199 or so (actually I think it was less) at a card show I had my dad get me a few 15/16 series 1 hobbies to try to pull it for about the same price…didn’t pull it, and never picked one up before the prices rose

[BaseballKing]

Originally Posted by mattr27

Have you tried selling on comc? I was able to sell a bunch of cards I didn't want from epack on there.

I used to sell on there but gave up on them. Way too many problems. If I wasn't such a card addict I wouldn't even buy from them.

As for my hockey cards I do want them. The whole concept of epack is awesome in that you can trade and make sets. I didn't realise until after the fact that it would cost so much in postage and that comc were doing it.

It wouldn't be worth sending canvas cards and inserts to comc presumably as they sell for 30 cents. How does that even cover the processing/postage fee?

If they only charge epack customers sales commission then that would be ok. But if there is a processing fee plus postage you would lose money.

[mattr27]

Originally Posted by BaseballKing

I used to sell on there but gave up on them. Way too many problems. If I wasn't such a card addict I wouldn't even buy from them.

As for my hockey cards I do want them. The whole concept of epack is awesome in that you can trade and make sets. I didn't realise until after the fact that it would cost so much in postage and that comc were doing it.

It wouldn't be worth sending canvas cards and inserts to comc presumably as they sell for 30 cents. How does that even cover the processing/postage fee?

If they only charge epack customers sales commission then that would be ok. But if there is a processing fee plus postage you would lose money.

You can send directly from epack to your comc account without any fees. I found it a great way to sell epack cards I didn't want. Every once in a while I'll ship cards I have in hand to comc, usually stuff worth at least a dollar but not worth it to sell on ebay (up to like 10 dollars or so).

The fees suck and it takes so long to process, but it's worth it for me. The sales add up and I was able to get some PC cards I wanted. The cards I sold would otherwise just be gathering dust in some box in my apartment.

[Sportcedes Benz]

I stopped collecting when I was 16. I loved everything about cards: buying, selling, trading, collecting, building up a watch list on ebay (hey you know you do it too). My first slabbed card was a Brady rookie from a hobby box I bought, when no one, including me - a lite Michigan Wolverines fan, knew who he was. I bought and held some 2000 football hobby boxes. The point of those two anecdotes is that I would have bought and collected more because it just made sense. I'm sure I would have bought more Brady's too just to collect them. I probably would have bought plenty more players who didn't pan out too, so at least that didn't happen.

No one else I knew was collecting sports cards, so I had this stupid idea in my head that I was too old to keep collecting. If only I had listened to my heart (lmao!). At least now I know better :P

[hermanotarjeta]

I traded almost all my singles from other sports - topps Dan Marino rookie, score Barry Sanders, fleer Karl Malone, topps Jerry rice rookies, etc for packs of 1990-91 upper deck French high series packs. They were $20 apiece and the best card I got was a Canada’s captains card. Dang, I feel ripped off today, got caught up with the hype at the time. They told me only 300 cases were made, haha.

[nbahobbyaddict]

Originally Posted by GKG51

I had a chance for a gem PSA 10 McDavid right before the pandemic for $450, thought hard and didn't pull the trigger.

yup i've been there!

[BaseballKing]

Originally Posted by mattr27

You can send directly from epack to your comc account without any fees. I found it a great way to sell epack cards I didn't want. Every once in a while I'll ship cards I have in hand to comc, usually stuff worth at least a dollar but not worth it to sell on ebay (up to like 10 dollars or so).

The fees suck and it takes so long to process, but it's worth it for me. The sales add up and I was able to get some PC cards I wanted. The cards I sold would otherwise just be gathering dust in some box in my apartment.

Thanks for that info. I didn't realise that. I gave up communicating with them earlier this year. I couldn't get them to even reply to 2 shipments that were overdue by 2 and 3 months and 5 and 7 months all up from request date. Add in the epack shipping request and I had 3 orders with them 2 of which were 7 months old. That's why I stopped sending them submissions. No communication. I used to do it and would then convert store credit into BO credits or buy a nicer card.

I'll send them some of my epack doubles/triples. I just want to be sure if I charge 30 cents for a card I'm not actually losing money. i.e. If I charge 30 cents for a card I'll actually get 5 cents? If so that's alright. Thanks again.

[mattr27]

Originally Posted by BaseballKing

Thanks for that info. I didn't realise that. I gave up communicating with them earlier this year. I couldn't get them to even reply to 2 shipments that were overdue by 2 and 3 months and 5 and 7 months all up from request date. Add in the epack shipping request and I had 3 orders with them 2 of which were 7 months old. That's why I stopped sending them submissions. No communication. I used to do it and would then convert store credit into BO credits or buy a nicer card.

I'll send them some of my epack doubles/triples. I just want to be sure if I charge 30 cents for a card I'm not actually losing money. i.e. If I charge 30 cents for a card I'll actually get 5 cents? If so that's alright. Thanks again.

Cool cool, yeah they're far from perfect, and I think they're experiencing a lot of issues other companies are dealing with sky rocketing demand for sports cards (like PSA etc). But overall, once I got the hang of dealing with them, learned which cards to send them and which ones not to, and to be PATIENT with cards I wanted shipped, I really like using them.

[thenightman]

Originally Posted by mattr27

What’s everyone’s biggest regret in the hobby? Either cards you spent too much on or maybe something you missed out on that ended up becoming unaffordable? Or maybe selling cards before they exploded in value?

With hockey card prices going crazy in the past year or so, I definitely passed on some cards early on that I regret not jumping on. But one regret that sticks out to me is losing out last second on a BGS 9.5 Elias Pettersson FWA on an ebay auction that closed at like 450 dollars and I was so mad about it that I spent an extra 300 dollars on another that same day even though if I was just a little bit patient, I could have gotten one at the original comparable price.

Thinking $250 for the PSA Yearly Service and $9 a card was too expensive.

[rohara99]

Originally Posted by thenightman

Thinking $250 for the PSA Yearly Service and $9 a card was too expensive.

Lol. No kidding eh!

I think I paid $5/card to grade with SGC back like 20 years ago.

[mfw13]

Not hoarding wax from the 70's/80's......

[WillBBC]

Selling at least five PSA 10 McDavid Young Guns for like 400 bucks each.

And a FWA BGS 9 for 1300.

And two other rookie autographs for 400ish.

They helped fund some great PC stuff but I really wish I kept the FWA.

[GOTcollector]

The decision to start collecting Toronto Maple Leafs cards in the first place. Selling the whole collection once the season starts. Some days staring at them brings me nothing but anger, and some days looking at them makes me feel nothing at all. Still love the Leafs but at this point I would rather invest my hard earned dollars into my other collection.

[kaisersoze]

Originally Posted by GOTcollector

The decision to start collecting Toronto Maple Leafs cards in the first place. Selling the whole collection once the season starts. Some days staring at them brings me nothing but anger, and some days looking at them makes me feel nothing at all. Still love the Leafs but at this point I would rather invest my hard earned dollars into my other collection.

if you have mats sundin rarities, hit me up.

[rrk100]

Not buying up boxes of 2005-06 Upper Deck Series 1.

I made sure I did not repeat that mistake in 2015-16.

[csmtampa]

Hitting over 10 McDavid YG's on UD Epack and selling them on COMC

I had a crazy streak where I bought 6 packs and hit 3 McDavid Young Guns!

[glorbgorb]

Selling off roughly 85% of my Jaromir Jagr collection nearly two-years ago. At least they went to another Jagr collector, but his prices have gone up a LOT in the last 18-months. For example, a Cup Patch /10 I had sat on COMC for over a year, and I sold it for $85 back then. One recently sold on eBay for nearly $700.

[Thebigbea]

Regret coming back to the hobby after 15 years break.. I guess with Covid and lockdown, not much to do other than joining breaks.. been getting horrible luck.. pick a team a few times in the cup break, 0 cards.. than other times I didn’t join, the guy hit 4 cards worth over $3000.

[cardsin47]

Regret pertaining to Hockey Cards? ( I have lots of regrets in every area of life — you’ll see / I’m 56…. If you’re not there yet, give it time —- you’ll need a spare bedroom for just your regrets!! )

….. right before COVID, I sold a ‘15 UD series 1 Hobby Box and a ‘15 PSA 10 Young Guns McDavid because each had gone up about $100 since buying them —- seemingly within hours of getting my 200 bucks - COVID hits, and they each tripled shortly after!

[OPChockey]

Originally Posted by mfw13

Not hoarding wax from the 70's/80's......

This.
Opening older wax packs involves some risk, but is also very fun. Holding a minty pack fresh card(s) in your hand and then sliding it into a card saver is a great way to pass the time.

[PatchSentinel]

I don't really have too many regrets with hockey cards. I guess I would have to go with opening too much wax as my main regret, but then I wouldn't have some of the cards I have now as a result. There were so many years where I kept thinking to myself, "Man, I love cards, but what in the world am I doing? I know I'm buying them for fun, and they're bargains compared to housing, stocks and other types of assets; I can roundabout justify the 'fun factor' to an extent, but when's it gonna hit [as investments]? Cards are worthless."

Now that cards have finally taken off as investments, it's strange that wax in no longer a bargain like they used to be. I think spending more over the years on singles would have been the better way to go, especially picking up the rarer stuff when absolutely nobody cared.

[Retired hobbist]

Originally Posted by PatchSentinel

I don't really have too many regrets with hockey cards. I guess I would have to go with opening too much wax as my main regret, but then I wouldn't have some of the cards I have now as a result. There were so many years where I kept thinking to myself, "Man, I love cards, but what in the world am I doing? I know I'm buying them for fun, and they're bargains compared to housing, stocks and other types of assets; I can roundabout justify the 'fun factor' to an extent, but when's it gonna hit [as investments]? Cards are worthless."

Now that cards have finally taken off as investments, it's strange that wax in no longer a bargain like they used to be. I think spending more over the years on singles would have been the better way to go, especially picking up the rarer stuff when absolutely nobody cared.

Yes in some ways I would love for those days as collecting was collecting. If you still collecting tier 2 stars like Stasny and Goulet types it's similar to the mid 80's but on high end stuff I wouldn't touch unless I got them for dealer prices or close to it.

Too many ways for product to get damaged or we could go through the another price dump and freeze similar to the junk wax era of the early 90's.

[edogg]

Originally Posted by OPChockey

This.
Opening older wax packs involves some risk, but is also very fun. Holding a minty pack fresh card(s) in your hand and then sliding it into a card saver is a great way to pass the time.

Before the pandemic, 2018 or so, I bought 2 packs of 78-79 Topps just rip some old vintage hockey. $15 each from BBCE. One of those had a delicious NM Bossy rookie that I got graded by PSA (an 8). Good times.

Now for my regret. I really did pretty well as a kid in the late 80s early 90s with building a Gretzky base PC, I had every Topps base Gretzky except one, the rookie. Because it was the one I couldn't afford, my dad it for me from some guy he worked with for like $125. Thing is, it was in a screwdown for about 30 years. Right up until I sent it in to PSA in 2019. This card has gorgeous eye appeal, great centering, sharp corners. Some minor defects but I'm thinking a 6 or 7. Comes back as "altered" because of the mfing screwdown. So burned by that damn piece of plexiglass.

[Giroux]

Spending way too much money as a newb trying to pull a Lafreniere YG.