Buy/Sell/Trade Forum

I intentionally keep a relatively small (<5,000 card) want list so I can focus.  By maintaining a relatively small wantlist, I can more effectively focus on completing sets.  As I start gettting closer to completion, I'll add more to the wantlist.

But honestly, I really don't "want" that many more cards.  I like building sets, but most of the sets I've built the last few years don't do much for me.  I've built several Heritage base sets the last year or so, and I just realized I really don't like Heritage that much.  The photography/print quality on the cards is terrible, especially since 2011.  But recent Stadium Club sets have caught my eye.  The photography and production quality is wonderful.

I'll probably focus on vintage and just stick to that.

It is not about the number of cards in your want list and FS/FT list it is about the matches for some people.

If you look at my want list of 19,429 there is only close to 200 matches out of the 19,429.  If you take away the cards out of the 200 that members are not active and other things it gets me down to only 15 cards or so.   There may be only one or two matches (for me) that I do not have a match for them.  

Then you look at my FS/FT list of 8,029 There is someone that wants every card.  I could add 10,000 more cards and it would not help me out.  Unless someone was will to trade 100 cards that I have for one real nice card I want.  

That is why I have more cards on my want list vs my FS/FT list.  

I know I'll never get all 150K+ St. Louis Cardinals baseball cards, but how will people know I'm interested in them if they aren't on my wantlist? So I added all of them. I still only have about 7K of them now. My total wantlist for all sports and non-sports cards is over 241,000 and it's still not complete. I know I'll never get them all, but I'll trade for as many of them as I can acquire. I have nearly 84K traders listed individually and a bunch of unopened product. There are 2 goals with my collection: acquire as many cards as possible for my PC AND get as many of my traders into the hands of those that want them. The larger my wantlist, the better the chance to move my traders.

I have a very specific PC - only 1 player - so I do often find it hard completing trades with. I do have some other cards I will take in return but recently it feels like I am just taking back cards I don't really want to accomodate others.

I also don't include these "other" cards on my want list as I don't want people thinking I would specifically want to trade just for those cards. They are more just trade filler for me.

For what it is worth I have a touch under 5k cards on my want list and 3k FS/FT though they are just my duplicates. Realistically most of my collection is for trade for the right PC cards.

i don't think its so much having the cards available to trade Vs cards on you're wantlist... i KNOW without doubt that i won't be able to get some cards based on their rarity but this site is also a great resource of information... For example,, there a are few i communicate with, and if they ever see a rareity card that i am looking for, i would hope they message me and tell me what site or location to check out. and for the matter, if one i was looking was in their LCS, i would send money for them to buy. But having every single card on the WL, maybe a pipe dream and unrealistic goal. Its good to know that at any given time someone just "may" get a pack and have your card in it.. and boom..there it is :-)

As I have oft stated in the past my collection is on random.  I do not have any desire to complete sets.  I collect stuff that I like, that's it.  The database is a tool I use to, hopefully in the coming months, document what I have.  I keep my want list very small because I already have  bunches of stuff that still needs added to one of my collection.

To answer the question asked. I think some members feel they would trade any double they had for anything the didn't have so I'm fine with someone having a huge wantlist. I tend to move cards in and out of my wantlist and keep it smaller so I can focus on trading for a few things at a time. For me it's just easier that way.

I blame mine on Billy lol. I believe he once said that though he knows its unrealistic, he would like to have at least one card from every set or insert. I also figure I'll never get certain cards unless I let it be known that I'm interested in them.

So far all plausible reasons for the sizes of the want lists but from all the responders, the want list tops out at 341k.  Most responders may think they have a significant want list but they are actually quite small in comparison even to mine that sits at 45k.

Some had the reasons I had surmised, team collectors, player collectors, alumni collectors (budler - if ever I list a trader that hits your want list, message me and it will be in the mail the next day, PIF). I like the explanation of keeping it "focused".

I was hoping to hear from members who have over 500k on their current want list.  I know they exist; one sits just shy of 1M on his want list.  I am curious why anyone would build such a want list as I can't imagine any focus to the collection. Yes, I want every baseball card that I don't have yet but to add all baseball to my wantlist will simply remove any focus on specific sets or players. Even at 45k, I get trade offers that hit sets that I have less than 10% of the set.  I much rather get cards from multiple sets that are within the 10% of completion.

So how and why does one list 1,000,000 wants?

I collect 4 teams and a bunch of individual players.  I have put every Blackhawk and Notre Dame football card on my want list but am reluctant to do so for the Bears and White Sox because there's so much i don't want. IE minor league cards and junk wax stuff.  I wish there was a was to put every insert or parallel of a team on my want list because I'd do that for the two teams i mentioned.  Also continuing to go in and manually update each team and PC is tedious because I'm like all over the place.  15 different Bears and 20 different Sox players plus I get infatuated by rookies every year.  For me changing how I collect or hoard as I used to do wasn't helping my life or space.  I've moved so much stuff to my FS/FT list. Almost 70K that at one point I thought I couldn't live without.  Now i just don't care.  Sticking with teams and PC's is much more rewarding o me than set building.