I'm in... and I'm out. (Greetings from a NJ newbie)

[Blackjacker]

Hello from about-to-be-snowy-again New Jersey! I'll try to keep this on the short side.

I've been a blackjack player from the time I could count, thanks to my dad, and playing cards were a fixture in our house for as long as I can remember; we always had a couple hundred various casino and souvenir decks in the game closet.  As a player I've always appreciated them for their utility, though; I never cared much about the art or design, except for the Hamm's Beer Bear cards that my high school buddies and I preferred for our poker nights (we called them the "Care Bears") and of course the souvenir decks from the Mustang Ranch.

But a few weeks ago I was digging through my boxes of decks here, and became obsessed with noting the different tuck art, manufacturers, finishes, etc. So I hit the Internet to explore more cards (and mind you, I was originally only thinking of casino and souvenir decks, none of the modern "collectible" decks... until I saw them) and... wow. Full-blown obsession, indeed. I was hooked.

Surprisingly, to me a big part of the appeal is the tactile aspect of the tucks and cards. Maybe because as a blackjack player I'm more often than not not actually handling the cards? Whatever the reason, I do find that just turning a couple of nice slightly-embossed decks in your hand is strangely enjoyable.

In the span of a couple weeks, all of a sudden I had a couple hundred decks.  A bunch of different common Bicycles, Bicycle color decks, Monarchs, Black Ghost v1s, Chameleons, cards from Stockholm 17, Joker and the Thief, Robusto Classic Reserve, Black Lions... on and on.  No real theme or direction to my collection, just continually buying whatever I didn't already have.

Years ago I was a big collector of Jimi Hendrix on compact disc.  No bootlegs, official releases only, but ALL official releases - promos, test pressings, different pressings of the same release, and had well over 1,500 different individual Hendrix CDs. And one day it finally hit me - I was spending hours every day tracking down every bit of detail that I could, like dialing up former CD pressing plant engineers to take notes from them on how to decipher the #'s etched into the matrix rings of CDs - and I realized I wasn't collecting for the enjoyment anymore, I'd turned it into a tedious task of simply trying to check boxes off in a database, and then when the CDs arrived in the mail they were cataloged, bagged and filed in a box.

Fortunately, that "WTF am I doing?" moment came a lot sooner with my playing card obsession - like, two weeks into it.   I love the cards, but without having a clear theme or direction for collecting, that obsessive/compulsive collector part of me was taking me straight down the same road I'd been down with Jimi CDs - investing too much time and storage space and simply moving as many titles as possible into my "have" list.

So, unless and until I can come up with some kind of direction for collecting cards... I'm out.  I'm not a fan of the manufactured Kickstarter-type "instant collectible" trend that's been happening, and I think seeing how prevalent that is actually helped me hit the brakes when I did.

My wife is into sugar skulls and tattoos, so there's a few decks in those themes that I'm after right now, but that's it, and if I don't collect any more after that, I'm OK with that. At least I am for now, until I start handling those embossed boxes again... and that cellophane...

Anyway, I wanted to keep this short and not sure that I did.  A couple of my keepers in the photo below (Johnny Cupcakes' shop in Boston is a favorite of my wife... it took me forever to understand that they don't actually bake anything), and yes, that one in the middle means I've still got some Chameleons and #'d Robusto Classic Reserve decks to sell... if someone wanted to +1 my reputation so I could put up a FS post.

Anthony

[Don Boyer]

I know what you're talking about - there's a level of obsession that some collectors can develop when it comes to whatever unique item it is that they're collecting.  It helps if you remember that you aren't required by any collector's law or government edict to get every single deck, or every single deck in a given category for that matter.  Sure, there's a challenge to collecting them all, but I can also be perfectly happy with just most of them, or the more easily-obtained ones, or whatever decks simply strike my fancy for whatever reason when I see them.  Once you give up the need to have every deck, then you find yourself enjoying the decks you have more and appreciating the new designs - as well as developing a critical eye for what really does appeal to you and what doesn't.  For example, most newbie collectors (myself included) went and rushed out to get all the unique colored Bicycle Rider Back decks as fast as we could, like they were made of gold and turning to vapor before our eyes if we didn't snatch them up.  On reflection, though, was it really that great a deck to get, that Turquoise or Chartreuse variant of the same red and blue cards they sell at Wal-Mart?  I'm sure some of the colors are cool in your eyes, but I'd have to imagine that there's a few that you'd never pull out to play poker with the guys.  I have some yellow Magic Makers Bicycle Rider Backs that are such a bright yellow, they're practically radioactive!  I can't look at them for more than a few minutes without my eyes starting to hurt!

In short, collect ONLY that which makes you happy, and ONLY for as long as it makes you happy.  Be selective, be critical, be fussy, be picky - get only those decks you'll really enjoy holding in your hands, manipulating, shuffling, playing with, perhaps even learning a magic trick or two with.  The rest, you can admire from afar, content in the knowledge that they exist but that you'll survive happily if you never own a pack yourself.  That's when the hobby remains fun for a lifetime, not just a few months.  I'll never lose my fascination with playing cards - a simple pack that fits in a shirt pocket yet can provide so much entertainment in so many ways.  That's why I collect - not because I have to have every deck that comes out, or every Bicycle deck, or every Rider Back, or every (pick-your-favorite-category) deck... 

Hopefully, you'll take a breather and come back to the hobby, but if not, best of luck to you!