State Of The Collective Part 1: 2024 In Review, Sort Of...

At this point on the calendar, it's customary to do a review of the past year either in terms of the products that came out, or the sets/collections/projects that were started/progressed/finished that year.

I am limited to the latter, since the only new product I buy now is Allen & Ginter.  Stuart (of SR75 Cards) and I also broke a case of 2024 Heritage, but I've already documented that in detail.  So I'll give you bit of my take on the year, and then what I'm working on bringing in to my collection and what I'm trying to move out.

Thanks to Cardboard Catastrophes for the inspiration for this series of posts.

For a few consecutive years, I posted annual Collective Awards, but since my collecting has narrowed from (or never been) what's popular, they would look something like this now:

Favorite new product:  Ginter.  Heritage was fun, but didn't have retired players except for some of the inserts.  Didn't like Stadium Club.  Don't buy anything else.

Favorite thing about '24 Topps flagship: N/A - I stopped doing flagship in 2020.  Though I did like the design.

Favorite prospect set: Don't like prospects.  Don't even really like current players that much, except for my local NFL team.

Favorite shiny set:  Don't like shiny either, especially in things like Ginter and Heritage.  Got a hot box of the silver A&Gs though, and found a source for more, so I decided to go for it.

Favorite on-demand set:  Bleah.  I will go back and find my player collection guys when they appear, but won't pay more than a couple bucks for one.

Favorite high-end product:  Don't do those either. There have been a few years of Dynasty that look nice, but I don't collect anyone that appears in it.

Maybe, if I was into current/rookies

Favorite innovation from Fanatics or exclusive contracts:  Haven't seen any.  Have you?  Zebra-striped short print inserts are not an innovation.

Favorite grading company:  If I had to pick, it would be SGC, but only because I like the dark backgrounds in their slabs.  I own less than 20 graded cards total - most of those are T205 Giants - and a few more "formerly" graded cards.  Grading is also not a major factor in my hobby.

Favorite source for advice on what to collect:  I watch a few YouTubers, but they're mostly concerned with pre-war and/or HOF'er graded cards, which is fine, but not what I do.  I would think there are channels for set builders and "raw" bulk collectors like me, but I haven't found them yet.  The platforms like the "influencers" (read: investors) and company sites that hype up what to collect based on value are completely irrelevant.  I don't collect for the resale/flip value, I like what I like and collect it for nostalgia or connection reasons.

Apologies if a lot of that is the same old thing that I put in every other post or comment.  My tastes and criticisms haven't changed much over the years.

In general, I'd say 2024 was an OK year for my hobby.  I made a lot of progress on a couple vintage sets (Thanks Marv!), built several more through TCDB trades, and got a lot of player collection cards that way and by swapping from COMC sales.  Those sales and trades were the bulk of my activity on a daily and weekly basis.  Some of it was from the Storage Hoard that I mentioned in a March post.  I've recently added another vastly different batch that I've started to move through eBay too.  More on all that in the next couple posts.