the chase or the cheese?

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dry cereal
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the chase or the cheese?

Post by dry cereal » Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:11 am

I always find the chase is more fun than the cheese. I like looking for product and I get little satisfaction from owning the things I "catch". Thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Enjoy owning things?

notsofasteddie
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Re: the chase or the cheese?

Post by notsofasteddie » Sun Jan 03, 2010 2:17 pm

dry cereal wrote:I always find the chase is more fun than the cheese. I like looking for product and I get little satisfaction from owning the things I "catch". Thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Enjoy owning things?
Cheese is nice; Chase is better!!

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Post by hammr7 » Sun Jan 03, 2010 3:36 pm

It depends a lot on the item. For standard offerings and for well-documented rarities I would tend to agree, since the chase lets me do something. Completing a set allows me to be finished, but the set itself is often for personal gratification only, since I rarely display items any more. The alt 4th set is a perfect example, since the chase has been long but there is enough product and knowledge in the community for the chase to ultimately be complete.

However, I also collect very obscure items, so some of my best "scores" were opportunities that just presented themselves out of the blue. In many cases I didn't even know the items existed before I had the opportunity to make the purchase. So there was absolutely no chase, other than making sure the item arrived safely (and there have been many sad stories in that regard). In these cases the cheese definitely exceeded the chase.

And there are some chases that have turned completely frustrating, especially since eBay started driving away smaller sellers. I have near-sets and near-collections, and sets I wish I could start, that may never be complete, simply because they are so obscure (anyone have any Resaurus prototype MTG figurines they want to sell???). In such cases the people who own them may not even know what to call them, if they were to ever offer them for sale.

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Post by berkumps » Sun Jan 03, 2010 5:25 pm

Chase > Cheese in my case for sure.

Makes me wonder why I even collect, as things rarely get a second glance once filed away (although there's something to be said about knowing it's there).

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Post by kalimno » Mon Jan 04, 2010 12:47 am

Chase is a part of the collecting effort. Without challenge, the trophy would not be valuable.

Having said that, for people in my situation when acquiring even the most simple card is a chase, it begins to be exhausting.

Chasing Alternate 4th Edition or PSA 10 Alpha cards is a fun challenge. But when the latest FNM promo that has been printed in huge quantities is a challenge that is another story.

As long as the cheese is worth it, having a chase is fun. Whether it ends in cheese or not is not much of a concern, as collecting rarely has an end.

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Post by mystical_tutor » Mon Jan 04, 2010 4:49 pm

A very old question that really is a smoke screen for hiding the inner motivation for collecting in the first place.

The Psychology of collecting is a very difficult can of worms with almost as many legitimate answers as what love is. I won't go into it here but you must check your motivation to understand either the chase or the cheese.

Collecting? Speculating? Accumulating? Ego Satisfaction? Success? Bragging rights? Self Actualization? To mention a few.

I might suggest that if you are really interested answer this question first:

Would I be doing this if no one else in the world knew about it or cared?

I will mention my motivation. Honestly I am proud of the success of the game as my son had a little to do with it. Beyond that I have found it fascinating to document the history of that success and the cards are that history. Specially promo cards. I would like to be able to display for myself and anyone interested that history--if no one else cares it still has an intrinsic value to me. So, I will putter along collecting, cataloging and displaying these cards as long as I have resources and physical/mental capabilities to do so.

And a BIG thanks to those of you that have and are helping me to do this.

Gary

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Post by kalimno » Mon Jan 04, 2010 6:38 pm

One small question Gary: Could speculation or accumulation be considered collecting in the first place ?

Bragging rights is a must :)

Other than that doesn't collecting in a serious fashion mean that you value and enjoy certain objects more than the majority ? For billions of people on earth what we are chasing and spending small (or large) fortunes and a lot of time is a few cents worth of printed paper.

Ofcourse I can only speak for myself and I don't care what anybody else thinks. For me one significance of collecting is that it is the one thing I do for myself and myself only.

Not for family, not for friends, not for the clients, or the community. My entire life goes by doing something for family, friends, clients and community. It feels good to be doing sth. for myself, selfish me :)

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Post by mystical_tutor » Tue Jan 05, 2010 6:04 am

kalimno wrote:One small question Gary: Could speculation or accumulation be considered collecting in the first place ?
In my opinion, NO. I sure run into a lot of people that want cards "for my collection" that sell them when ever they can make a little money. There are some dealers I have met that are good dealers and good collectors too. More power to them and I'm not talking about them but I'm sure you have had the same experience.

There can be a blend, however, of Collecting and accumulating. In my other hobby I am both (though the activity in that field has been dormant for years). I love German Luger pistols. I have about 40 of them and would take every one I could lay my hands on if I could afford it. To me it is a magnificent engineering feat considering it's date of origin. Wanting them all is accumulation only. But I want to know everything I can about each one--every proof mark, it's history, why that design was made etc, ad infinitum ad nasium. That is collecting.
kalimno wrote:Bragging rights is a must :)

Other than that doesn't collecting in a serious fashion mean that you value and enjoy certain objects more than the majority ? For billions of people on earth what we are chasing and spending small (or large) fortunes and a lot of time is a few cents worth of printed paper.

Of course I can only speak for myself and I don't care what anybody else thinks. For me one significance of collecting is that it is the one thing I do for myself and myself only.

Not for family, not for friends, not for the clients, or the community. My entire life goes by doing something for family, friends, clients and community. It feels good to be doing sth. for myself, selfish me :)
Now your touching on the motivation factors and that is where the mystery of collecting lies.

You see the "chase and the cheese" question seems to me to be closely related to Frederick Herzberg's application of Abraham Maslow's theories. Though their works have been strongly challenged in relationship to some fields of human endeavor--specifically the teaching profession--I believe there is a lot of application to the field of collecting and specifically to the Cheese-chase aspects of it.

Gary

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Post by kalimno » Tue Jan 05, 2010 9:30 am

Maybe a little addition here:

In stamp collecting there is what people call a study. Certain people buy every copy they find of a single stamp regardless of condition. They try to find how the sheets are laid, characteristics, information on printing, printing house, varieties, under which circumstances it was printed etc.

Certainly people do it not because the are academicians in the field. They are mostly fascinated by some features. Just like you say you are. No collector or seller would ever want hundreds of copies in bad condition, only a student of the field would.

There is also one further possibility ofcourse: Everybody falls in love sometime, somehow :)

And logic in love - as the Borg would say - is irrelevant.

Ari[/quote]

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