I don't know if this is something that just happens to me, or happens to other collectors as well. Sometimes I'll see a card so many times online, either in blogs or eBay listings, that I'll forget whether it's familiar to me because I own it, or just because I've seen it so many times. I'm sure there are times I've passed on a card thinking I had it already when I merely recognized it from online. For example, when Penny Sleeves sent me a '73 Johnny Bench recently, I could have sworn I had it already, but no, I'd just seen it on every other blog.
I recently goofed in the other direction recently. I "broke my rules" to bid $3 on a lot of three cards highlighted by a '54 Topps Phil Rizzuto. What a great card of one of my favorite vintage players (and all-time favorite announcer). While I remembered the '54 Bowman Rizzuto I'd gotten from Tim Wallach Cards, I'd completely forgotten that I bought a lot with a '54 Topps Rizzuto a short time later. I didn't remember until after I won the auction. Oops! At least I didn't spend a lot. Now I've got this as trade bait:
At least I needed the other two cards in the lot. Jim Greengrass had a couple of 20-HR seasons with the Reds in the 1950s; and Johnny Klippstein won 101 games and led the AL in saves in 1960.
I recall a couple times when I bought or traded for a card I already had, and at least one instance of assuming I had a card I didn't because it appeared on the blogs so frequently.
ReplyDeleteI try to limit it to the dime and quarter boxes, but I've built a 10% tolerance for dupes whenever I go to a show or shop and get more than a few cards. Sometimes it's just not worth taking ten minutes to look something up in your lists instead of just spending the quarter and taking the chance.
ReplyDeleteYou know what they say. The time to buy is when you see it. So I don't mind if I end up with dupes of cards I like.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to cheap vintage cards (up to $1 per card), I don't really track whether or not I own a copy or not. I can never have enough familiar names sitting in my vintage binder. However if I was dropping $50 on a single, I'd probably take the ten to twenty extra minutes to check my boxes/binders.
ReplyDeleteBy the way... I received your PWE last week. Haven't opened it yet, but I'm excited to see what you sent.
DeleteThis used to be a fairly common thing for me back before I started thinning out my collection. These days though, I see almost all of my stuff so regularly, that I pretty much know what I do and don't have at any given time.
ReplyDelete