Starting Over in The Hobby. Collected as a kid and recently found some of my stuff and it piqued my

tander123

interest. Starting looking around today and holy cow there is a ton of stuff out there now a days. Kind of overwhelming. I went to a Dodgers game recently and Topps was there and have been playing around with the Bunt app. That too has increased my interest to get back into collecting.

So, advice for a "new collector" in the 21st century and some questions.
1. Favorite collecting apps and sites you use to help determine value, rarity, what's coming up, etc???
2. What do you all like to collect and why do you collect what you do?
3. Best place to buy collecting supplies?
4. Best place to unload your "worthless" old stuff?
5. If you could start over, what advice would you give yourself?
6. Anybody in Utah? Any collecting clubs or anything?
7. All my kids are out of the house and looking to pick up another hobby Looking to pick some "invesment" type cards. Any you recommend?

Anyway, just looking to get some advice and do some learning to make it more enjoyable, and not get scammed

TIA

mcastaldi

I picked up cards again in my 30s and built two fully-graded sets 72T & 75T baseball. I sold those off in the early 2000s. The sale of the 72 set paid for most of my wedding (still married).

Then I put what I had away for about 17 years. Raising kids, making a living, etc. My wife recently told me I needed a hobby - so I pulled out what I had and started going through it. As you said, lots of stuff. Ultimately I decided to build nice raw sets from 74-84. And I shocked myself that for several of the sets I’m 50-60% complete. So now it’s just playing the long game and chipping away at it.

Best advice I can give -

• Decide what you really like and collect that.
• Decide what will be raw & what will be graded as they present different challenges.
• Decide what is ‘good enough’. Is a card you feel is EX/MT OK? Or do you need it to be certified as mint by a grading service. There’s no wrong answer.
• When you buy graded cards, buy the card - not the number on the holder.
• Decide what you’re buying/collecting for love or interest and what you’re buying as an investment as your attachment and decisions will be different for each.

And most important - HAVE FUN!!!

ndleo

A lot of people here don't like him, but Geoff Wilson has a good video if you are new to the modern hobby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lh7z41lnK8

yankeesman

Great advice so far. I've collected on and off since I was 16 (I'm now 53) and can say having a focus is important. My focus may shift from time to time but for a while I tried to collect "everything" and that can get frustrating. As mentioned "collect" what you love and "invest" with a different mindset. They're very different pursuits. And don't let anyone sway you from what you enjoy collecting. I've graded many a card that I know when I submit it is never going to be worth the grading fee but I ultimately want all of my personal collection slabbed so it's worth it to me. Biggest thing - have fun!! It's a great hobby.

GroceryRackPack

If you could start over, what advice would you give yourself?

Don't open anything up...

82FootballWaxMemorys

IMHO eschew Modern and Junk Wax

Estil

@mcastaldi said:
I picked up cards again in my 30s and built two fully-graded sets 72T & 75T baseball. I sold those off in the early 2000s. The sale of the 72 set paid for most of my wedding (still married).

Then I put what I had away for about 17 years. Raising kids...

My mean apt won't even let me raise more than one kitty

tander123

@mcastaldi said:
I picked up cards again in my 30s and built two fully-graded sets 72T & 75T baseball. I sold those off in the early 2000s. The sale of the 72 set paid for most of my wedding (still married).

Then I put what I had away for about 17 years. Raising kids, making a living, etc. My wife recently told me I needed a hobby - so I pulled out what I had and started going through it. As you said, lots of stuff. Ultimately I decided to build nice raw sets from 74-84. And I shocked myself that for several of the sets I’m 50-60% complete. So now it’s just playing the long game and chipping away at it.

Best advice I can give -

• Decide what you really like and collect that.
• Decide what will be raw & what will be graded as they present different challenges.
• Decide what is ‘good enough’. Is a card you feel is EX/MT OK? Or do you need it to be certified as mint by a grading service. There’s no wrong answer.
• When you buy graded cards, buy the card - not the number on the holder.
• Decide what you’re buying/collecting for love or interest and what you’re buying as an investment as your attachment and decisions will be different for each.

And most important - HAVE FUN!!!

What grade did you put together your sets in? Raw, slabbed?
Thanks

JoeBanzai

@tander123 said:
interest. Starting looking around today and holy cow there is a ton of stuff out there now a days. Kind of overwhelming. I went to a Dodgers game recently and Topps was there and have been playing around with the Bunt app. That too has increased my interest to get back into collecting.

So, advice for a "new collector" in the 21st century and some questions.

>
>

1. Favorite collecting apps and sites you use to help determine value, rarity, what's coming up, etc???

>
>
Ebay works best for me. Advanced search-sold items, gives you an idea of what the value is.
>
>

2. What do you all like to collect and why do you collect what you do?

>
>
I primarily collect players i enjoy watching from my local teams, but I also try to pick up cards that interest me. I can't afford guys like Mantle in high grade, but one card I picked up was a Fleer Glossy Griffey rookie, seems to be a card with good potential.
>
>

3. Best place to buy collecting supplies?

>
>
Ebay.
>
>

4. Best place to unload your "worthless" old stuff?

>
>
Give away or burn.
>
>

5. If you could start over, what advice would you give yourself?

>
>
None. I collect what I like in highest grade I can afford, stick to my budget (mostly), and seldom buy as an investment.
>
>

6. Anybody in Utah? Any collecting clubs or anything?

>
>
I'm in Minnesota.
>
>

7. All my kids are out of the house and looking to pick up another hobby Looking to pick some "invesment" type cards. Any you recommend?

>
Lots of cards to recommend, from Babe Ruth to Ken Griffey Jr. Depends on your budget. Hall of Fame rookies in high grade are usually a safe "investment". Certain players are over looked and some are overvalued. Safe bets are guys like Mantle and Clemente for vintage, Griffey and Henderson for modern. If you're more of a gambler, guys like Frank Robinson for vintage and Randy Johnson for modern seem to be undervalued. Well centered cards are all I buy.
>
>

Anyway, just looking to get some advice and do some learning to make it more enjoyable, and not get scammed

TIA

Welcome to the boards and have fun collecting!

Mookie1986

@82FootballWaxMemorys said:
IMHO eschew Modern and Junk Wax

Agreed, especially if you are in your 50's. I only collect up until 1983. Between junk wax and what seems like 50 cards per player each year, I can't get into anything from the last 40 years.

KendallCat

@mcastaldi said:
I picked up cards again in my 30s and built two fully-graded sets 72T & 75T baseball. I sold those off in the early 2000s. The sale of the 72 set paid for most of my wedding (still married).

Then I put what I had away for about 17 years. Raising kids, making a living, etc. My wife recently told me I needed a hobby - so I pulled out what I had and started going through it. As you said, lots of stuff. Ultimately I decided to build nice raw sets from 74-84. And I shocked myself that for several of the sets I’m 50-60% complete. So now it’s just playing the long game and chipping away at it.

Best advice I can give -

• Decide what you really like and collect that.
• Decide what will be raw & what will be graded as they present different challenges.
• Decide what is ‘good enough’. Is a card you feel is EX/MT OK? Or do you need it to be certified as mint by a grading service. There’s no wrong answer.
• When you buy graded cards, buy the card - not the number on the holder.
• Decide what you’re buying/collecting for love or interest and what you’re buying as an investment as your attachment and decisions will be different for each.

And most important - HAVE FUN!!!

Some excellent advice here. I think the most important thing is to collect what you like and enjoy. Don’t collect what other people like, don’t collect items because they’re expensive and you want impress others, and most importantly your last line is 100% correct as a hobby and you need to have fun.

I think there are a lot of people in Harvey that collect to keep up with the Joneses, and the reality is there are a lot of people in this hobby, who are pro athletes, or Hollywood stars who have tens of millions of dollars and can buy whatever they want. Several years ago I was doing a Mantle run and it was fun to do, but I abandoned it because we were just several cards from the 60s that I had no interest in picking up with Mickey on them. These days I try to find cards for my youth which was the mid 70s, and rather than try to grab everything in PSA eight or nine I try to find cards that look like they should be in a PSA 8 older, but might be a four or five. It provides a little bit of a challenge, and it allows me to collect more since my overall cost comes down dramatically. Just think about the difference between a PSA eight and a PSA nine where the price could be one of them is a $500 card and the other is a $5000 card. If they both look relatively the same, what is the benefit of spending the extra money 🤔

mcastaldi

@tander123 said:
What grade did you put together your sets in? Raw, slabbed?
Thanks

When I built the grades sets - what seems like a lifetime ago - everything was PSA8 or better. Times were a lot different then. Back then, PSA charged $6-$8 per card for grading - and the distinctions between what would come back a 7 vs an 8 vs a 9 were a lot more defined. Now, the lines between what's a 7/8/9 seem a LOT more arbitrary (to me). And then. . .pricing has just exploded. I don't think I paid more than $100 for a 72T Ryan. . .where now you can't touch one for less than $500 or so. The 75 Brett, same thing. I want to say that was ~$150 back then and now it's $500-$900.

Now, I don't think I could build a large graded set like that. First, the grading fees make it prohibitive to grade the commons. Then there's the price explosion. So I'm building the 74-84 sets raw. The 74-79 sets will be somewhere between NM and NM/MT. The 80-84 sets will generally be NM/MT or better.
That said. . .because of the market dynamics, I know I'll have to get most of the HOFers as graded. Not my preference, but not the end of the world. In those cases, for 74-79 if I can find nice examples of PSA/SGC 7 or better I pick those up. For 80-84 a nice example in a 7.5 or better works for me.

Stone193

5. If you could start over, what advice would you give yourself?

Hiya tander

That's a great question.

I started in 1990 and have been active ever since.

I wish I had focused a bit on affordable vintage HOF cards that were way more affordable in 7 and 8 range and begged borrowed and stole to get a 52T Mantle in around a 4 to 5 for pride of ownership.

The advice I would've given me that I do here all the time to newcomers/returners to our hobby?

Establish a very narrow FOCUS (keeps ya from trying to corner the market on everything - thus collect what you like and not be roused by the next best shiny thing?).

And an affordable BUDGET (this will keep you from screaming into the night when the credit card bill arrives! And if married? How do you face the wife?!!!!!!! )

And try to never ever break those 2 rules!

tander123

So many great ideas. Keep them coming. Love it!

erikthredd

Here's a site that allows you to see what the actual final sale prices are for ebay listings. Its great for seeing what the best offer prices sell for. https://130point.com/sales/

Estil

You know with the Olympics going on I think we all should be reminded that just like the Olympic creed/motto whatever says, the most important thing is not to have one of the biggest and/or most expensive collections or set registries or whatnot, but simply to participate in this great hobby. And the important thing is not the destination but the journey it took to get there.

woodstock2

Definitely collect what you love. @Estil is right that the journey is the important thing (with this and so much else in life). I was a kid in the 80s. I know others are different but I just can't get as excited about collecting players I didn't see play or cards I didn't open or search for as a kid. Just because things in baseball hit the fan during our watch doesn't mean we didn't dream of being those players as kids and a good bit of collecting for me has been chasing those memories. I know I'm not alone and as far as imvestment there is a niche area of some lower pop cards outside of grade-based rarities (Tiffany, OPC, variations like NNOF, and cards outside of baseball like GPK) even from that era.