Are You "A Need It Now" Collector?

Does the market sometimes drive your collecting? Does it say, "hey, this player already has 10 home runs in their first 20 games and you need to pick their cards up now!" Or does it say, "this guy is leading a 4-0 football team and has 10 touchdowns and no interceptions and could lead this team to the Super Bowl and be the next great. You own any cards of him?" Then it tells you after this information, "Well, if you don't own any of these guys you need to. I know it's not apart of your top PC, but you don't wanna miss out!"

I will admit I fall to this craze in the hobby. A lot of collectors are driven to sell when a player gets hot, but not me, I either dig out all of the cards I have of that player and feel satisfied or I end up having to seek trades to acquire them.

There is always that 50/50 chance when collecting like this that the player will pan out for you in the end. Some players I already had key cards of and held onto them too long when I should have traded them and the values fell flat, while others I acquired either through trade or bought and the same happened.  However, I have had times where I have gained on adding the "hot players" that had driven the market. It's all that risk of being in the business I guess.

I remember in 2014 how desperately I NEEDED a Johnny Manziel rookie card as he was going to be the next Dan Marino or big time super star. He was going to turn the Browns around and was the hottest thing since slice bread back then. So instead of grabbing a few cards of some guy named Odell Beckham Jr, I had my wife invest $6 into a 2014 Panini Prestige rookie card of Money Manziel. That card now I could probably find for .6 and his name changed to Less Money Manziel.

Then there were good moves like when I traded off a Heliot Ramos autograph for some guy named Gleyber Torres before he got hot.

Like I said, it's a 50/50 run.

I try not to get caught up in the market driven players, but I can't seem to get myself out of it. It's my hobby DNA I guess. I will cover more about Hobby DNA another time.

Currently I seem to be seeking out Patrick Malhommes cards as they are the hottest things on the football market. I do have one rookie card of Patrick that's just a Donruss base one, so I wasn't happy about that. I tried to seek out more but haven't had much success yet. I could have traded for an autograph, but I didn't want to give up the hockey cards that would have been required or paid to ship the trade to Canada.

I am not sure if Malhommes will even pan out past the first few weeks of the NFL season, but either way I am still seeking. It am starting to lean that way for James Conner of the Steelers as well.

So I gotta know, does the market sometimes or all the time drive your collecting in any way?

 Let me know in comments and help me not feel alone in this.

Neglected Hobby

I have two hobbies, one is obvious by the title of this blog. The other, is playing Madden NFL. It's the ONLY video game I buy and play on a yearly basis. I am one of those Madden nuts who must have it on release day.

Ever since I have gotten Madden NFL 18, I find my card hobby has taken a backseat some which is why some of my projects I have been working on have taken extra time. It is also why a lot of my posts from Aug-Dec were short and sweet and a bit behind.

This is the first time in my Madden history I can't seem to win a Super Bowl. I have played Madden since the beginning but became a die harder in Madden 96. I only play Franchise mode and never have gone online to play. I like to play it this way and don't ever plan to change.

I played three and a half seasons with the NY Giants. I made multiple trades, free agent pickups, my usual moves on making a team young and cheap. However, I went 20-36 in those years with the Giants missing the playoffs each year. I then gave the Jets a run after the Giants canned me and started out 0-6 before deciding I needed to restart my franchise mode over.

I carefully made a quick look at things and decided to go with the Browns. Yes, the Browns. They were already young, had cap space and pieces I could work with. For some reason or another, I was winning with them finishing 11-5-1 in my first season and winning the Division and claiming a playoff spot.

I even won two playoff games before falling to New England in the AFC title game. (in case you are wondering that is a Patrick Malhommes led offense)

While I was making my run, stacks and stacks of cards were growing deep on my desk from trades and pickups. Despite that, I couldn't stop playing to go take care of what I needed to take care of. I think part of my problem was how the 2017 NFL season went. Giants were embarrassing, the Super Bowl came down to two teams I didn't like and ended with a team that I hoped would never win. I used Madden as a distraction to control the 2017 NFL season and smooth things out in my mind. It has worked....some.

I just currently finished up my second season with the Browns going 14-2 and won the division, got a bye, beat the Jags in the Divisional playoff game all leading up to another match up with the Patriots who are also 14-2. I did beat them in the regular season pretty badly but I don't feel good about this game which I should have played by the time this is up and posted.

If I can somehow, someway pull out a big win over them and lead my team to a Super Bowl win, then, maybe, I can finally focus on Mt.Cardsmore and get that taken care of. In the meantime, it's all focus on the Lombardi trophy.

So I am sorry cards, you have taken a backseat for now. But, don't worry, I don't plan on neglecting you much longer. I have faith that the Browns can beat the Patriots and win the Super Bowl. 

I do hope you read everything above.

How many of you have a second hobby that sometimes overrides your card collecting? Let me know!!

(UPDATE:The Browns beat the Patriots in the closing seconds. Then played a two overtime thriller against the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl and were victorious 26-20. Now onto year three which has started out 7-4 record and some card sorting!)