General Forum

As I'm getting my nephews into collecting and watching them get into the hobby, I've found it fun to observe what direction they take their collection. I know I was all over the place as a kid!! 
I wanted to ask you all your opinion on at what point does a player, team, set collection officially become a collection to you?
 

Is it the second you get that first card or is there a number of cards that makes it official?In theory it's the moment you have collected one item.  If it's a player PC, is it 10 cards, 20, 50 cards or a percentage of the player's cards? Is it a certain % of a set? Or is it a collection once you basically state that you are collecting it and are in hunt mode? 

 

I know there will be varying opinions and I apologize if this has been discussed at length before, I just wouldn't even know what to search the forum for on this one. Excited to hear your thoughts. 

My personal opinion, is once you decide to get your first cards, you are starting your collection.

As soon as you say "I'm going to collect X", you're collecting X, whether you have any cards of X or not.

Seems to me that if you are getting them into the hobby and theyre interested they are collectors no matter the # of cards. I gave my dad a single Lee Trevino autod card, but he wouldn't have said he was a collector. On the opposite end, Ive seen flippers (that only drone on about the next flip and complain how the guys bigger than them are ruining the hobby) say they're collectors in an attempt to appear relatable to the people that arent spending big money to find that homerun card that they can turn a profit on. Thinking out loud that its a collection if it has meaning/value other than just money

It's a collection when you decide you want more, doesn't matter how many you have. 

If you only have something to try and make money off it, you are a dealer, not a collector. 

It's not a hard and fast rule. You can change as your life changes. 

One thing I think about here...I have over 2000 football and baseball cards each. I document them and treat them with the same respect that I do the sport and non sports topics I actively collect. Yet I don't consider myself a collector because I don't actively seek them...mostly. I do actively seek the non-sports cards like the fun inserts in Allen & Ginter. So does that make me a baseball collector?

It's already been said in other ways, but it's a matter of intent. If you seek out and acquire things with intent, that's a collection.If you happen to find yourself with something that you did not seek out (someone gave it to you, or it came along with a larger buy of something else you did want, etc.), that's just stuff.

To me it was when I opened that first pack of 1973 Topps baseball.

Back in the (my) old days, I would say it's a collection once you make a trade. I started as a 7-yr old in 1960, and I distinctly remember trading a Tito Francona to my best friend for three Roberto Clementes (don't worry, our friendship survived that).

Very recently, because I mostly follow college sports now, I made a distinct plan to collect a set of 10 cards from my favorite teams - 4 UNC basketball, 3 Nebraska football, and one football card each from Wisconsin, Stanford, and Pittsburgh.

I think in both cases I was definitely "collecting".

I pretty much agree with what's already been said.  For me it's all about intent.  Once you decide what and who you want to collect it's done.  The focus can change and likely will many times over the course of collector's journey.

I think it's any number of cards and no matter where or how they got them. I had baseball cards bought for me 40 years ago when I was 3 years old. I have them still and it's a part of my collection. If someone has just 1 card that they love, that is a collection, but they aren't what I would call a collector.