I won big in A Cardboard Problem's case break of 2010 Topps 206. In addition to a team set, a handful of Bronze and mini parallels and two, count 'em two autographs, I also came away with these:
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| 2010 Topps 206 Ty Cobb Silk (#/50) |
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| 2010 Topps 206 #T2C45 Miguel Cabrera Gold Chrome (#/50) |
That's four hits from that case for the Tigers. And here I am, about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Karma (cardma?) is going to come back and get me, I just know. Why? Because I kind of want to sell them.
It's odd, actually, because even with my draconian new collecting policies in which I only collect pre-designated items for specific collecting needs, things like "Silk" and "Mini" tend to pass muster. And, in fact, I find both of these cards to be pretty nice examples of both silks and minis. The problem, I think, lies with the alt ighty ollar. These card are semi-big hits that I wasn't going to chase down on my own. I could sell them and buy cards that I would have gone after, say, other Tigers autographs from T206. Or from A&G. Or any number of other mid-dollar value cards that I would prefer to have in my collection.
At the same time, would I regret selling them? I could chase down the rest of the Tigers from T206, only to find that I'd be only two cards away (A Cabrera Silk and a Cobb Gold) from a master set had I not sold. Would I regret not keeping them in that scenario? Can I summarily dismiss the silks and gold minis as unnecessary parallel subsets that I can ignore? Would I feel differently if these cards were not parallels, in the "they use the same picture as the regular card" sense of the word?
Probably, Maybe and Yes. I'm a bit OCD with card-set completeness, so completing the rest of the set and having only a silk or a gold to chase down is appealing and this gives me quite the head start. Which leads me to #2--If I sell them I can mentally separate the need to chase down silks and golds. To me they won't count. Like the stamp card that I'm not going after (unless I can find it really cheap...) Now, had Topps made these inserts and not parallels, maybe we'd be talking.
I don't know. What do you think? Are these cards worth keeping? If it was your collection, what would you do? What is your opportunity cost of keeping versus selling? Why do I keep going back and forth over this? Why do I have so much homework that needs to get done??
Any help would be appreciated.
