I saw this question posed on Twitter today and thought it was an interesting enough question to ask here.
What is your White Whale? The card you obsess about, but never seem to be able to obtain.
To take it further, why haven't you been able to obtain it? Too rare? Too expensive?
For me, it's an easy one to answer. The card is a 98-99 SP Authentic BGS 9.5 Vince Carter rookie. I've wanted the card since the days of Yahoo! Auctions. I tried, and tried, to trade for one back in those days. To this day every time I find one for trade, I inquire about it. The problem isn't that they're so hard to find. There are plenty of them on eBay. The problem isn't that the card is too expensive. It's high, but not so high that I wouldn't pull the trigger if I wanted to. The problem is that when I first started collecting all those years ago I didn't buy cards. I bought packs/boxes and traded. I still don't like (I will, I just don't like) buying cards, and I can probably count on my hands (maybe one hand) the number of cards I've ever sold. Because of that, I've always wanted to trade for one. No other card brings up this absolute refusal to buy in my mind, which is strange because it's the main card I wanted to trade for as a kid, before I could even afford to buy cards. So that has followed me all these years. I want one, but I only want to trade for one. THAT...is the problem. It's so rare to see one for trade. In fact, it's been many, many years since I've seen one for trade. Combine the fact that they're hard to find for trade with the fact that the person who has it also has to want/need something I have, and it's just a recipe for nothingness. Regardless, though, the search will continue. One day, maybe me and this card will cross paths. Until then, I'll keep fishing.
What is your White Whale? The card you obsess about, but never seem to be able to obtain.
To take it further, why haven't you been able to obtain it? Too rare? Too expensive?
For me, it's an easy one to answer. The card is a 98-99 SP Authentic BGS 9.5 Vince Carter rookie. I've wanted the card since the days of Yahoo! Auctions. I tried, and tried, to trade for one back in those days. To this day every time I find one for trade, I inquire about it. The problem isn't that they're so hard to find. There are plenty of them on eBay. The problem isn't that the card is too expensive. It's high, but not so high that I wouldn't pull the trigger if I wanted to. The problem is that when I first started collecting all those years ago I didn't buy cards. I bought packs/boxes and traded. I still don't like (I will, I just don't like) buying cards, and I can probably count on my hands (maybe one hand) the number of cards I've ever sold. Because of that, I've always wanted to trade for one. No other card brings up this absolute refusal to buy in my mind, which is strange because it's the main card I wanted to trade for as a kid, before I could even afford to buy cards. So that has followed me all these years. I want one, but I only want to trade for one. THAT...is the problem. It's so rare to see one for trade. In fact, it's been many, many years since I've seen one for trade. Combine the fact that they're hard to find for trade with the fact that the person who has it also has to want/need something I have, and it's just a recipe for nothingness. Regardless, though, the search will continue. One day, maybe me and this card will cross paths. Until then, I'll keep fishing.
