I guess I have always been a collector. Over the years, I have collected hockey cards, comic books, Canadian stamps and coins and most recently cards based on the characters from the ‘Marvel Comic Universe’.
My first foray into ‘collecting’ was back in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s when I purchased packs of hockey cards (hey, I’m a Canadian……..). However I didn’t really try to collect these cards into sets. Rather, they were used for three main activities:
* Trading with friends for my favourite players
* Playing ‘wallsies’ at school – tossing a card towards a wall and the player whose card came closest won all of the cards that were thrown
* Making ‘clackers’ for my bike – using clothes pins to attach the cards to the back frame of the bike so that the card would run through the spokes ‘revving up’ the sound as if I was a motorcyclist.
As you can see the end result of two of the three activities generally meant damage to, or the complete destruction of, the cards. Not acceptable results for a collector! To make the matter worse, over the years these early hockey cards have increased tremendously in value and I shudder to think of the current value of those ‘clackers’!
I also went through periods where I collected Canadian coins and stamps (including the Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee sets produced by the Commonwealth countries). While I liked collecting these items, I really didn’t pursue them for long as the hobbies got expensive and my financial resources were needed to support my growing family. I decided to try and keep up with my coin collection by assembling annual sets of the Canadian coins pulled from general circulation (but I still have a bit of back filling to do).
Back in 1963 I got 'hooked' on the classic Marvel Comic Books. I can remember taking my allowance to the corner store (with any other money that I could earn) and buying all of the Marvel Comics that I could (for $.10 each at the beginning and maxing out at $.25). It didn't matter about the title as long as it was from Marvel………..they were all GREAT!! The comics were read and then piled in my closet for safekeeping (no special storage at that time).
Unfortunately, this collection met an untimely and unfortunate demise as well. My mother decided to houseclean when I went to college and, you guessed it, one of the first things to go into the trash was my collection of early Marvel Comics...what a loss!!! I have no idea as to how many titles I had but there were a lot of them. I never read a comic after that and it wasn’t until the 1990’s that I came to realize the true monetary value of those early gems……..a BIG loss for me and no great gain for the dump!
However this early dedication to Marvel Comic books formed the roots for my passion for card collecting. Back in 1992, my eldest son (who was then 8 years old) came home from the corner store with a couple of packs of Marvel Universe III cards. When we opened them up, I was blown away! Here were trading cards depicting the super heroes of my youth and I never knew that these types of cards even existed! Well, I went back to the store several times buying more packs and soon had a complete collection of the base set and then went on the hunt at local card shops to complete the hologram series, picking up other sets and insert cards at the same time. I soon ‘graduated’ to buying and breaking down a couple of boxes at once, usually completing the base and insert sets all at once. I partnered with a local card dealer to sell and buy cards at the local Ottawa card shows (1992 – 1995) but I soon found that there was no real money to be made this way, especially when I was pulling out sets and inserts for myself! However this friend has, over the years, provided me with many rare additions to my collection.
I stopped actively collecting the cards in 1995 (once again ….. had to take a family focus) but started up again in 2006 when I retired. Since then I have been busy catching up with the sets that I had missed in the intervening years and back filling my collection with sets from the early years that I don’t have.
As a collector, I am a ‘completist’ with a goal of assembling a complete collection of Marvel card sets that I can pass on to my son. This includes the entire series of card and sticker sets from the 1966 Donruss Super heroes set up to and including the most recent titles. I aim to collect the entire card set including the base and header cards, insert sets and parallel sets (where applicable). Also, I collect promo cards, case/box toppers, sell sheets and some boxes for the sets that I have. I have some ‘special’ sets and cards put out as inserts in comic books and as marketing items for various stores and products. I have avoided purchasing the popular Sketch cards due to their cost and the impossibility of getting a complete set, though I once considered getting enough of the Sketch cards from each series to fill a 9-card sheet…….but I decided not to go down that slippery path! Also, I have not chased down autographed cards.
I recently expanded my collection’s focus to include the card sets from the Marvel movies. I figured that though my son has no real history with Marvel Comics (what kid can afford them), he loves the recent movies that have been produced and I believe that this refocus will make the collection more meaningful for him in the future as it ties in with something from his own youth.
By using Ebay for most of my purchases, I am able to obtain the cards that I want quite cheaply (in some cases), especially when you look at the prices on sealed boxes and the number needed to complete the sets! It just doesn’t make any sense financially anymore for the ‘mainstream collector’ to break down boxes to obtain the sets……..the online dealers break down multiple cases of cards and, hoping to make their money off of the Sketch cards, they sell off the base sets and inserts at low prices, usually way below the values identified in the Non Sports Update magazine’s Price Guide.
However, I do miss the thrill and anticipation of sitting down with a box or two and breaking them down and seeing what I get. I spent more time handling (and admiring) the cards and had a greater appreciation for them. Ebay, though it provides an easy way to collect, basically turned the hobby, for me, into more of a financial transaction and I lost the sense of ‘collecting’ that I had in the early years. But without access to Ebay I would never be able to track down the cards that I need in any kind of a systematic and cost effective manner…..a two edged sword! However since most of my energy has been focused on back filling my collection Ebay has proven to be an invaluable resource for obtaining lots of items at a reasonable price in a relatively short period of time. Hopefully I will soon be able to finish the core elements of my collection and be up to date……then maybe I’ll re-look at breaking down boxes to help rekindle the passion for the cards (but who am I kidding………cost will always be the determining factor).
ottawa_ed
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