General Forum

Trying to determine which players make pages and which players go to the box.  How do you decide who is a star or semi-star?  Anyone have strong criteria they use for this?  I want to care less about pricing and just display players worthy of pages.  Thanks

In the past for my sets I used a $10-$20 price barrier....but not basing it on price, if I was to seperate mine, I would do as such:

Older/Vintage - HOF and award winners

Newer sets - it's always tough as to what rookies fit the hype.  I would pull based on performace and not so much hype.  Can always go back if that rookie busts out in a year or two, but there have been PLENTY of rookies that have been hyped and then fizzled in the majors or never even made it.  You can always go back and get that plesant surprise that hey!  I have 5 of those cards....

In my PC, I collect all of the HoF whether I thought they were worthy or not.  Then for stars, it is the players I enjoyed watching.  This will obviously vary from fan to fan.  Being in Canada, there are Blue Jays players that most would put in the commons box such as Stieb, Key, Henke & Ward.  But I also know someone who collects Darren Daulton cards as a Phillies fan; his cards are in my commons traders. 

It is to each his own but I think that when you collect based on the value of cards, you are in this for the wrong reason.  I am here for the enjoyment of the hobby and the game.

I don't have player collection binders, so really the only time these designations are relevant to me is when buying or selling cards. And its mostly by feel. "Stars" are probably HOFers or major award winners, as noted above. "Semi-Stars" gets rougher, but someone who was a multiple all-star probably cuts it. The Blue Jays listed in the post above are all probably "semi-stars" in my view. Players whose names the more-than-casual fan would recognize. Going back, with perspective, it's almost harder and clearly subjective. Rusty Staub? Mark Grace? Leon Wagner? Semi-stars? George Foster? Star? I dunno. Depends who you like.

Happy collecting

v3

Sandyrusty's second paragraph is RIGHT ON. 

I am a team collector. the Phillies. Now look at the price of some of Rhys Hoskins cards, they IMO are really high, " star worthy". Yet, look at his career, what has he done over the long haul of his short time in the big leagues? Yes, there have been spirts, but nothing long term and great.  

I would rather take that $$$ and buy some vintage of common players that I dont have.

I will also trade Jeter cards that I have doubles of for " lesser cards", to get what I want and move inventory. 

sandyrusty wrote:

In my PC, I collect all of the HoF whether I thought they were worthy or not.  Then for stars, it is the players I enjoyed watching.  This will obviously vary from fan to fan.  Being in Canada, there are Blue Jays players that most would put in the commons box such as Stieb, Key, Henke & Ward.  But I also know someone who collects Darren Daulton cards as a Phillies fan; his cards are in my commons traders. 

It is to each his own but I think that when you collect based on the value of cards, you are in this for the wrong reason.  I am here for the enjoyment of the hobby and the game.

Back in the old days of card collecting (LOL - I'm joiking on this terminology)...

I started collecting in 1978. Well, my first cards obtained were in 1978. I started really collecting with the 1979 set, and trying to put the 726-card set together. It wasn't until a couple years later, I started collecting Phillies and stars. My definition of "star" back then was VERY loose. Seemed that if someone had some good stats or got talked about a lot (especially hyped in the hobby), in the binder they went. Of course, there were players that I didn't consider stars that probably were, but I didn't collect Tony Perez, Eddie Murray, Dennis Eckersley, or Bruce Sutter back then, yet they all made it to the HOF. I did collect Eric Davis, Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Don Mattingly, and Dale Murphy as well. I still have Mattingly and Murphy collections, but the others went back into the commons box. So, aside from a few players I'll continue to collect (HOF or not), if it isn't a Phillie or a HOFer, a common it is.

Yes, I do still have a "current stars" collection (not listed here yet) that includes the likes of Miggy, Trout, Altuve, among others. Are they all sure-fire HOFers - no. Borderline - maybe. Fun to collect - yep.

What does this all mean? Basically, you should decide who is a star to you and who is a common. You like Ryu? Collect him. You like Cozart? Collect him. Trout? Collect him. Don't like Altuve - send his cards to me. :) Or put him in your commons. Make up your own rules. Change them as you go along. Make exceptions. You get a sweet card of a player you don't collect, start collecting that player for the fun of it.

I agree with Bru in that HOFers are HOFers regardless of sport. Semi-stars is a very fragile title. Bru and I have traded often and I'm sure I've traded some Henke, Steib, or Key to him for some Cruz, Cedeno, or Caminiti.

Just enjoy collecting.

By the way, engine614 I collect Jeter, too, a HOFer, and will gladly trade with you when we have matches.

I think it's a personal choice both as to what names and why you want them in pages. I am a set collector so pretty much all of my collection goes in a box in numerical order. If there is a highly valuable card in the set I will put that in a penny sleeve and card holder and have it on top of the other cards.

I used to feel I wanted to try to get all my collection in pages so I could just pull an album and view but I have had a few cards get damaged over the years moving albums and having cards slide up. I have also seen people damage cards getting them into sheets so now for me I am happy having a box for the set and putting the cards in there. If I want to look at a particular set I can pull the box and do it.

I imagine you could do that same method with individual players as well and sore them alphabetically. I am just more of a set guy. I want to give Sal Bando and Charlie Moore some love too!

I had separated my base cards into stars/semi-stars and commons, until about two years ago. The criteria I went with was a) all Hall of Fame players (and Hall-worthy players like Pete Rose, Bonds, Clemens, etc.) automatically go in the star player box.  b) any retired non-HOFer who was an obvious star like Bo Jackson, Mattingly, Penny Hardaway, etc. would go in the star box as well.

For current players I initially had a minimum of three years at an All-Star level before I considered someone a bona fide "star". This eliminates the one-year wonders and flameouts. That said, I eventually caved on that so players like Judge, Soto, Alonso, Zion, etc would be in the star box after one year. 

After that it's up to you. I had a lot of fun deciding where to draw the line; Matt Chapman? Marc Gasol? Kris Letang? It depends on your preference (and your zip code)

It appears you want to know which players/cards in pages in binders so you can display or look at them at times not becuse of price.   VS putting them in boxes to store.     It is up to you What you think is worthy to show vs in a box.  We all can give you what we think.  Problem with that you may not every want players/cards that I think is pricless.

As for me all my PC is in pages all others are in boxes.    I can view my PC easly and can show people them.   The HOFers are with the pllayer that may have only one card.

One guy I know and visted his basement.  He has cards displayied on the wall dispay cabnets and in binders plus a lot of boxes.   There were cheap cards on the wall and in the binders when some of his high priced cards were in boxes with commons of that player.   He showed off the cards He like.  

Sshillinger wrote:

Trying to determine which players make pages and which players go to the box.  How do you decide who is a star or semi-star?  Anyone have strong criteria they use for this?  I want to care less about pricing and just display players worthy of pages.  Thanks