I'm curious.

No, seriously... I'm really curious and wondering.

This year at Gencon, as I was trading with different folks, I saw a lot of trade binders that doubled as folks "collections". From what I noticed, many folks only collected so much of any given UFS set, rather then actually trying to collect the whole thing.

More so I've been noticing a number of folks posting in different threads about how small / limited their collections are, and how keeping up is difficult.

Accordingly, I'm wanting to find out more about peoples collecting habits. I'm not doing this to brag, or make anyone else feel bad about how many cards they do or do not own. I'm really curious to find out what the collecting habits are of most players, and what drives people to aquire the cards that they do, or make the choices they do surrounding their collection.

For example... Me:

I'm something close to a "Mr. Suitcase." I actively seek to maintain a complete collection. That means 4 of almost every card. Stuff like Forced to Eat Kittens I've only got one copy, because I don't ever see being in a position to play 4 copies of it. Promo Characters I'll often only collect 1 copy of it, unless A) It's stackable B) I get handfuls launched my way, and have more then I could ever trade away. (Seth etc.)

Currently I've completed all sets through set 12 (Shadowar & Soul Calibur IV). I expect to finish Tekken by the end of October. (I don't tend to race to finish a set before the next set comes out. I'll finish it as the opportunity exists. Set 12 was different as some how I completed it within 2 months of it coming out?! (Thanks to those at Can Nats who helped me polish off the set!)

When a new sets comes out, I'll buy at least one box, attend a number of pre-releases, and then over the next few months acquire more boxes / singles as needed to complete the collection.

On the other hand, I don't tend to "over collect" on many cards. for example, I have my 4 Knight Breakers, and I'm content with that. Anything after 4 I'll happily trade. But I do know that some folks need to have 8, 12, or 16 copies of a card.

For commons I tend to keep at least 12 copies of each common, and stuff after that tends to go to a "chaff" box that I'll give away to other players who need them.

So what about you?

P.S. I'm hunting for the unreleased Donovan Promo (the one that's 4 pointed and will never be released) and have an extra copy of the never to be released 4 point Mitsurugi promo. Contact me if you'd like to swap.

About me.

I was collecting promos. Mainly because they where overflowing. But then i got sick of the never to be printed-released crap so i just stopped knowing i couldn't ever fill the missing spots in the binder(s).

Beside that, i then to get a playset of each commons/uncommons. about the rares and UR, i try to stay in my deck's target. I'll get what i need to play and I won't bother getting the uber stuff. i'll trade it for moar stuff i need instead.

Personally, I like getting at least 1 playset of C's and UC's. If the C/UC is particularly good, then we talk more playsets. Our playgroup is small (and we've all been tight since high school), so we usually pool our $ and buy cards together, so we spread out anything the other might need.

I try to get a play set of C/UC as well. I just bought a starter box of shadowar to fill out the rest, get padma, and those SE exclusives. I have some pretty good finds on my hand right now but I dont really know what I want. By the time I do know, A)those cards arent worth anything, or B)I can barely get 1 powercard (fury of the ancients etc.). I really like having one set at a time right now because i can buy about 2 boxes per release. Before I could only get 1 of each and therefore was unable to even fill out my C/UC. As of right now, My SCIV and Shadowar R/UR collection is ridiculously lacking. However, I did get some nice pulls off Tekken. It feels ridiculously hard to keep up with those people that buy 4-5 or even 7-8 boxes of just one set (even if they came out in 2 sets).

EDIT: The reason (I think) I have trouble thinking of what I want is that I am still comparing cards/attacks to those undercosted/overpowered cards of the sets before the rotation. Also it seems the ways I like to play (I.E. Stacking striking thunders in my momentum) are hindered with all the momentum discard.

Me and like upwards of 2 other friends of mine all share the same collection we get by relying on our talents as players to remain competitive with a smaller collection. We buy packs for the most part and trade with the rest of our play groups to get what we need to finish off a deck. We collect random cards that we find to be awesome as well i believe we are up to 3 pages of back to back promo stonemails. Our collection is messy we collect as much as we can while still having a low amount of anything needed.

I collect promos. With the exception of this newest batch (ie Kisheri, Arrayed for Battle, Kyoufu etc, I do have the ones in my photobucket though) I have just about every promo that's been seen, even the unreleased ones. I got all... 34 iirc... staff cards from the STG days too, but outside of promos I don't do a whole lot of collecting simply because money is tight for me.

It would be funny if Scott Gaines had a shirt made out of YWNE's.

Waitresses around the world would cower...lol

Eh, I just collect things that I play, insofar as the rares and the like are concerned. I tend to try to get a playset of anything I'd actually play, and 1-2 copies of things for trade bait. Beyond that, I just shoot for a full playset of every common/uncommon, just in case.

But for fun? I collect *Donovan*, Dan, and Ukyo. So far I'm up to 11 Donovans, and ~8 or so Ukyo, and I always try to have people sign 'em.

Antigoth said:

Great topic, man. This is where I've noticed I differ from most players (other than yourself I guess). Up to Block 3 I have almost one of every single card and playsets of most. Around Domination/Cutting Edge I was having a hard time getting any rare's/ultra-rares, box after box of less-than-stellar pulls and my collection is less complete than I'd like.

But yeah, Grandmook and I are avid collector's and have the biggest personal collections in the area. The Dallas group has a great pool of cards, but they pool there cards together (which is not a bad thing at all). We just take pride in our own personal collections and only share on special occasions.

I'm on lunch break right now, so I'll follow this up later...

Also, what Ron just said - I like to keep a sharp on on what are good/strong/important/whatever cards, and then try to make sure that our playgroup has at least 2-3 sets of them. If it's something that I personally will play, then I focus on my own set first, then expand outward. This is how I came to have 6 Ira Spinta =/

That way, if someone needs something, we have them covered, and if we all want to play X card at an event, no one has to go without, except in rare cases (unable to get more than 2 sets of BRT, for example).

...The biggest dynamic about my collection is how it affects the acquisition of newer cards. Almost every card has some sort of value to me. We used to have a player who upon opening almost every pack would ask me "Is this card any good, Ron?" and I'd be like, "yes, in certain situations, that's a very useful card..." and continue to explain why it wouldn't be great for his Yoshimitsu deck, but tell him he might want to try it in his Haohmaru deck, etc.

Since nearly every card has value to me, and I play a different deck every single week, it's hard for me to part with cards I only have 1 of. I quickly discovered that such was not the case for other players. We had a really cool call just north of where we live who was obsessed with Terry. When me made trades at first, I felt guilty, but soon realized I shouldn't. All he wanted was cards that would benefit his Terry deck, so he didn't think twice about trading me his Assault Type Beta: AI Tarfs or his Punishment Mode TYPE: Mega Slash for my copies of Unorthodox Style or Material Advantage.

I won't just drop a character-only card, because I know I will get around to playing that character and want to play that card to add to the flavor of that deck. But, it's a double-edge dynamic if you look at it the other angle. Try getting a Kuzuryu Reppa for a Screw Pile Driver. Maybe not the best example, but hear me out. SPD is a throw, has a speed of 5, is ultra-rare, and has a decent enhance with access to earth's plethora of damage pumps. KR has less speed, is a mid zone, does not do half damage if completely blocked, and is a guarantee in terms of acquisition. (Yeah I know, not the best example since it has a great enhance and Order was top tier when these cards were played, etc.). The point is: on paper SPD is the superior card and the better trade, but if the person in question doesn't want to play Zangief, they'll never go for that trade.

So yeah, there's a reason why I haven't posted a trade list yet. I don't have many cards I'm willing to part with...and it's particularly difficult to offer a trade with some of you people who only have only thing listed in their wants...I'm looking at you, Hatman!

Me collect characters.

D@Mm, it i so hard to get certain characters. I'm still looking for Jon Herr

Personally I prefer the Dark Stalkers sets and have contemplated completing sets or playsets for both releases. As I already have pretty much a playset for both of the commons/uncommons, this wouldn't be too hard but I haven't yet, mostly due to laziness...I do have a complete set of the promos, except for Donovan (curse you Wakeen for taunting me with your superiority!!!). Otherwise some my group do collect random things...Secret Projects...anything Vega...20+ Misers?...etc.

PS I do have some more *Donovan*'s for ya the next time we meet Wakeen. -Chris

saikyo_crusher said:

You have just aroused him in ways that are not safe for work.

I'm a pretty die hard collector. I try to get a full playset of all Legal cards. Barring a couple promos and Hyoko-sen, I've managed to do so with everything up to SCIV/SW.

Non legal cards, I'm a bit less obsessive. Stuff that was never released I try to get at least 1 if possible. (Still missing Donovan). Never tourney legal things like staff cards, I'm not interested in at all. Couldnt tell you why.

If I like a card, I'll try to collect a set. If I REALLY like a card (and I would include it in many decks, like for example Genius Alchemist or Razor's Bite), then I'll get as many of them as I can. This means that I'll buy a playset of them whenever I shop in a secondary unnamed market. I remember back in the Schmetterling days I would always get Schmetterling's and Challenged's.

But in general I tend to only want a playset of every card I like, unless I plan on making two independent decks (that hasn't happened a lot). And I don't necessarily want a set of every card, but simply of the cards I would play.

I was an obsessive collector up until I found out UFS would have rotation. I once tried to obtain 4 copies of every card printed including character cards (excluding non-tournament legal cards i.e. staff cards).

Now I only collect playsets for rares that I plan to use and 2 playsets of commons and uncommons with few exceptions of versatile cards that would see play in multiple of my decks.

I usually buy a box to take care of c and uc and then coolstuff rares I want. WIth Sciv I did buy 4 boxes though (had a bunch of coolstuf creit I wanted to burn).

I'm a really bad collector. The game is much more important to me than the collection... I'm in it for the experience, and not necessarily what I carry on with me once the experience is over.

That said, anyone who's ever traded with me knows that I do have a large selection of traders. Simply put, anything not in one of my two immediately 'in play' decks is usually up for trade - this is a good thing, and usually means I don't have problems getting exactly what I need for my current deck creation.

I also share a collection for building purposes with another player in the group, i.e. I buy the majority of the cards, but what he does buy he gives to me, I build us decks, and we go from there.

Collection wise I do like to get 1 copy of each card (nothing earlier than block 3) if at all possible to keep for memory-sake, but I don't priorize getting these cards at all, and so far I have been lucky to come across these '1 of' sets with prize support in a lot of cases.

- dut

I collect characters, I am currently down 1 Omar and 1 JJ. I made a deal with JJ for his card, but I have not yet heard back from him if he got my envelope. Other than those 2 characters I own at least 1 of every character that was released and legal for tournament play, plus some old staff promos.

I have 3 or 4 complete sets (1 of each card) I try to get 3 or 4 of every card I think I will use in any decks I might build. I need to get 1 more Furry of the Ancients and a few other cards to finish out what I want from Shadowar and SCIV. Tekken is pretty much done with 1 or two cards.

Ender Dragon said:

Is that a Felicia/J. Talbain only card? Just sayin'

ROTBI said:

Yeah.... I'm a sick sick individual and probably need help.

I usually buy 3-4 box's of each set at release, then another box or two over the next few months.

I like to keep 12-16 copies of each UC and C and a play set of each R UR.

when a new set releases I go out of my way to get at least one of each card 1st. Then try and get the cards I know I want to use, then will trade for whatever I need to finish playsets. While I do not have a playset of every card, I do have at least one copy of every UFS card that has ever been released, and am working on the last few un-released cards i'm missing.

But like I said, i'm probably a little crazy

Umigame

Umigame said:

I tip my hat to you. I started off this way, but between bad luck with pools and a finite wallet, the growth of my collection, while still impressive, has stunted.

With my 'Collection', I keep four of everything, save characters without any real intent for completion. I keep a Legacy and Current Block 'Fodder' box, for my Excess (And Banned cards go in there too), but trading in my area is nonexistent, and honestly, the Fodder Box is exactly as it sounds.

I've not had the time money or wherewithal to hunt down Cards of Interest to me, but I'd like to try once my sitch is more stable.