Which do You Prefer? Loose or Carded?

[GotFrank]

Like 95% of them are opened. But like others have said. some specials are still carded. Like the cameo Super Chase racers, Convoy Bros, Time Travel Mater sets and the Australian, German exclusives. Also the Star Wars Cars which I think the packaging quality surpasses the Cars' quality. Don't get me wrong I like the design of the Cars. It's just they seem to have the same cheap manufacturing quality as the Disney Store Cars. That being said, collect how & what you like.

[MarknotaMack]

I do both. I have 99% carded and the 1% loose but that still fills my display cabinet. The 1% loose are duplicates as you can never have enough cars. Sadly I am low on space so everything is staying carded with the 2014 cars.

[Sapfir]

I collect cars to unpack them and store without blisters. But more often think about how to collect additional carded cars.

But in this case there is a lot of questions:
- do I have to collect all the variant of card?
- what to do with the sets, where 4, 5, 10 cars?
- collect or no blisters with errors?

And the most important question: Where is it stored?

[cac1959]

Sapfir - collect what you like.

I have a large collection of opened Cars stored in wall-mounted display cases... as well as several (too many, according to my wife) carded items.

You don't have to collect all variants - just what you want... several years ago I decided I wanted a set of Desert Back (DB) Cars... so I started trading for a few and purchasing a few... it turned out I was close to having the 12 Desert Back singles (DB12) as well as a set of the DB16 (Desert Back 16) singles, so I got all 12 DB12 and all 16 DB16... I decided I didn't want to worry about all variations of Fillmore/Filmore and cards with different date codes and points, so I didn't have a life or death case of Desert Back fever.

Then I came down with Super Charged sickness - but after trading for and buying about 10 of the ones I was missing carded decided I didn't need all of them... and I decided I didn't need to go back and finish World of Cars or Race o Rama series.

I did eventually complete the Final Lap singles series - when those came out in stores I only bought the new Cars... by buying the re-releases after the fact I ended up spending more money than had I bought them at the time.

As far as boxed sets, some I keep carded and on display on 6 bookcases or on a china cabinet... or in boxes... or in totes... some I bought and opened to get the Car that I needed and gave the others away or put them in the tote that's like a toy box for my grandchildren to play with...

I have some error Cars... I don't buy as many packaging errors as I used to (example: Holley with Wings with a Submarine Finn McMissile name tag)... errors such as missing eyes are cool.

My wife and I bought a house in March... it's much larger than the house we were renting... I have the basement for my study and Cars area and family room... I wasn't supposed to put any Cars items in the family room portion... but I have posters and puzzles on the wall and some boxes are in there too... I need to go through and finish putting things away and get rid of extras that I don't need... I have had a tendency to buy Cars because I found them in a store, whether I need them or not... I'm not buying as many as I used to... but I'm living my first childhood and not about to stop... I'm just along for the Cars ride.

And again, collect what you like and what you can afford... if I have to choose between a new single or a gallon of milk for my 17 month old grandson, I'm going to buy the milk.

[Sapfir]

Thanks for such a detailed answer, Chris.

Yes, I understand that the collect all the carded cars in all variants have probably unrealistic. And it really is like a fever. But still want to have a completed collection. Make it a variant loose cars certainly easier. Nevertheless, it is very nice to have carded cars, because cardboard of blister - a self-contained case for collectibles.

But, still, I think to collect loose cars, without regard to the cardboard.

[Jinzo]

Thought this was a new post :-D Anyways, here's my answer to this:
I'm 95% carded and the 5% opener. The main reason I'm a carded is because I absolutely don't have the space to display them at all. My TV stand serves for a small display stand for a few cars and that's it. Sometimes I buy multiples of Cars for that very reason to pop them open but 90% off that will end up in a giant box with the rest of them. My main aspects currently is just to have "One" of each.

I stopped caring for variants [I.E. Unibody/etc even though they look better and sometimes I succumbing to them] & obtaining different cards. I used to care to obtain the best cards but also stopped caring about that now that there's 1 new car out of 24. If I have the choice, I'll spend 10 mins comparing the quality on the actual care because of lately, Mattel's QA on Cars have been really awful. Again, If I have the choice.

Currently, I have kept on Carded cars. I have only bought 1 loose car, and that 1 loose car, happens to be coming out in 2015. There goes my lesson. Want to know which it one it? Okay... Kit Revster :-D For some reason, I going back and buying old "Fans" from Cars 1 after popping open my Cartney Carsper [2014] due to a crushed bubble and said... maybe I should put all of the Fans together and see how they look. Bought few boxed ones and then bought loose Kit because boxset was expensive.

Wish I can just pop them open! Trust me! Would really want to do that. Since I don't have the space to put them anywhere, I don't try. Have been collecting since the beginning in 2006? I keep on forgetting the year :-D Have tons of old Cars more to acquire [mainly Toons and few boxsets from Cars 1] and more to get once they come out. Addicting hobby this is.

I'm trying to get some pics up on my collection... well updated :-D Coming soon :-D

[ksammut]

I am mostly a carded person, but will open the occasional one I like to display in my cabinet.