Lately I’ve been thinking about the different approaches we take in acquiring new cards for our collections. There are many different types of collectors and just as many different approaches. These are the three main approaches that you’ll see employed by T206 collectors:
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Bargain Hunting
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Big Game Hunting
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Treasure Hunting
Bargain hunting is the strategy of looking for the best possible deal on a certain card. It often means passing on a number of copies before finding one at a price the collector is happy with, Typically this approach is used for cards which are fairly common. Big game hunting refers to hunting for a card that is significant in some way, be it perfect centering, perfect registration, scarce front/back combo, or a card that is exceptional for the grade. This approach requires paying a strong price in order to secure a card you may not have a another chance to acquire anytime soon. Treasure hunting is pretty self-explanatory. It’s buying scrapbook lots where the back is obscured, or looking through the thousands of eBay listings hoping to find a rarity or an oddity that fell through the cracks.
My collecting style is a combination of all three approaches, and I imagine I am not unique in this regard. Lately I’ve been thinking about which approach leads to the most satisfaction or happiness. I’ve made a few purchases in the last couple months that required me to “pay strong” if I wanted the cards. It made me realize how I tend to be more excited about a card (or group of cards) that I had to pay a strong price for. Now, I’m not advocating that we all go out and pay high prices. It actually doesn’t have anything to do with the exact price I paid. What I mean is I care about those cards more; I wanted them more. Think about it: By definition, when you are bargain hunting, you’re saying you are indifferent to buying a card once its price reaches a certain point. I’d argue that, in a certain way, that means you don’t really love that particular card, although you may love the pose in general.
There are some obvious situations where bargain hunting is the best approach. If you’re working on a low-grade T206 set, your love for the project may be greater than the sum of your love for each individual card. In that case, trying to build the set as cheaply as possible makes a lot of sense. In other cases, though, bargain hunting may be a sign that you are not as satisfied with your collecting focus as you could be. I say this because I was in that position five or six years ago. I was plodding along, working on a T206 set I wasn’t likely to finish in the next decade. I needed most of the cards in the set, so it didn’t really matter to me which one I got next. As a result, I was hunting for bargains exclusively. For me, this turned out to be a sign that I wasn’t fully satisfied with my collecting focus. I was more excited about the deals I was getting than the actual cards I was buying. It took me a little while, but when I found a focus that was right for me, my approach changed. I still love a good bargain (who doesn’t?), but now I am a lot more likely to set my sights on a certain card that is important to me, and pay whatever I need to (within reason, of course) in order to add it to my collection.
So… what’s the secret? It’s likely going to be different for everyone, but for me it was rather simple: If you find yourself constantly losing auctions or making offers that aren’t accepted, that means you don’t value a card you were going after as highly as other people do. If, on the other hand, you feel like a card is a great value at it’s current market rate, that means you feel the card is undervalued. If you collect things that you feel are undervalued, it gives you a little room to make an above-market offer or bid and still be ecstatic about the purchase.
I’ll give an example. I recently had the chance to buy a group of very rare T207s. Even though I would be buying a group, there was no bulk discount. If I wanted them, I had to pay an above-market rate. If we were talking about a stack of mid-grade Piedmont-backed T206s, I probably wouldn’t have been able to justify paying above market for them. Luckily for me, I think rare T207s are undervalued. I was absolutely stoked to be able to buy a big group all at once, and I was thrilled with the price.
Granted, this isn’t always a realistic approach. If you mainly collect mid-grade T206s with common backs, you are just going to be at the mercy of the market. In that case, you’ll have to focus on finding good deals and/or cards that are very nice for the grade. This example is also a good illustration of why having a few different collecting focuses can be a good thing.
So, if you ever find yourself struggling to add cards to your collection, or if new acquisitions don’t excite you as much they used to, it might be time to take a step back and make sure your current collecting focus is actually aligned with what will bring you the most happiness.
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