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If you ever left, what got you back into the hobby?
frankhardy
Posts: 8,168 ✭✭✭✭✭
Many of you probably never left the hobby. I am 32 years old and I started collecting when I was about 7 or 8. However, Michael Jordan got me to collecting basketball cards instead of baseball cards around the age of 13. I did that for a few years then I just quit totally. Then comes 2001. I asked my uncle (who collected at the time) if he had a few cards of a certain Cardinals player and that I told him that I wouldn't mind getting a few, just to have. By the way, that player wasn't Albert Pujols. It was J D Drew (go figure). My uncle had some J D Drew cards and gave me 3 or 4 without charging me, of course. It was then he said, "Have you ever checked out Ebay?" He said, "You could buy a lot of 10 or 20 J D Drew cards for just a few bucks." I got on Ebay for the first time and was hooked. Oh, yeah, I never did buy any J D Drew cards off of Ebay! The first thing I bought was a 1987 Fleer Update Set for about $4.00 plus shipping. I thought that was a steal at the time.
So, my question - if you ever left the hobby, what got you back into it?
Second question - if you even remember, what was the first card you bought off of Ebay?
So, my question - if you ever left the hobby, what got you back into it?
Second question - if you even remember, what was the first card you bought off of Ebay?
Shane
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I'd credit this forum to bringing me back to the hobby largely. It was this forum that peaked my interest in '07 A&G and at attempting pre-war and vintage. For the first time in a long time, I have a group of people, readily available, who share my interest in the sports cards and memorabilia. Makes the hobby very enjoyable.
As for the first eBay purchase...I joined in February of '98 and lied about my age by four years so I could have access to the plethora of Frank Thomas items that were being listed at the time. Despite eBay's much smaller scale, there were more than double the current Frank Thomas auction listings on the bay in early years. Granted, eBay stores and BIN were just a twinkle in the eye of the big eBay in the sky, but there were a lot of true auction listings back then.
Then last summer following my divorce I was cleaning out the closet found my old baseball cards I had saved(about 2 small binders).... Next thing I know I am on ebay and the rest is history....
So basically I am taking the money she spent on clothes and I am buying cards with it...
As a side note, I can tell you I was almost gone from the hobby before I ever got started back.. 2 of the first 3 cards I bought on Ebay were fakes
So that is why I never by raw (vintage stars) on ebay...( I have bought some raw late 70's/80's sets)
Forget blocking him; find out where he lives and go punch him in the nuts. --WalterSobchak 9/12/12
Looking for Al Hrabosky and any OPC Dave Campbells (the ESPN guy)
My first ever ebay card was a 1949 Bowman Johnny Pesky PSA7. Six months and 60 more 1949 Bowmans later... I'm still in it.
<< <i>My first ever ebay card was a 1949 Bowman Johnny Pesky PSA7. Six months and 60 more 1949 Bowmans later... I'm still in it. >>
great looking card there Teknobailey,,, great set as well.. good luck
I stopped collecting around 10th grade when a so-called friend took me to the cleaners. I told myself that I would store the stuff in my closet until I was older. I forgot about them until right before I got married. I was cleaning out my old room at my parents house and found them in the back of the closet. I remember sitting on the floor in the room for a couple of hours just flipping through the binder pages. I remember we couldn't afford to get special hobby binders, so my mom would give me her business manual binders to use. They were big and bulky, but hey, they worked.
So, this is around late 2005. I looked up a hobby store in the phonebook and found it. Went in there and bought some nice supplies for my old cards since I could afford it now. He told me about ebay. I got on there and spent about $200 just buying old wax and commons. I remember when the package showed up at my door step. I had bought about 20,000 cards and the delivery guy had to help me get the stuff in my apartment.
I then did a google search for baseball card clubs and this website came up. I've been hooked ever since.
Second question - if you even remember, what was the first card you bought off of Ebay?
Left the hobby in the mid 80s. Started in 1971 when someone in the 2nd grade gave me some cards. My first was a 71 Jim Colborn. There was also a Munson thrown in the stack of cards.
What got me back in was moving 400K cards in boxes too many times. I knew I had some good cards and would once in a while over the past 10 years pull out some cards for my church's auctions.
I never left - but I collected very little - there weren't a lot of show either.
Major impetus: my son entering the hobby in 1989.
After that - it was full steam ahead - even after he gave it up at age 11.
Major change: developing FOCUS - establishing a plan and a budget.
mike
edit: The first card - I wanted to go check my ebay - was a newbie error - I read the auction wrong and bought what I thought was a PSA graded card and was GEM!!!!! It was from Kane04 - and it was the card that I got a refund FROM Gem - probably the first in the history of mankind!
I quit for the most part when I got to college mainly because of the vast proliferation of product and rising cost of doing anything in the hobby that was worth a damn, also it was seeming more childish.
I got back in this year because I have some disposable income and Ebay makes building sets and collecting goals a possibility, and provides a little excitement on a daily basis. I also enjoy the Set Registry. Building sets of 90's Finest Refractors has been fun and frankly was not something that was possible in 1995.
saucywombat@hotmail.com
I had collected cards as a kid. I was probably around 12 at the time, and it was 1992. My brother's college roommate worked at a card shop, and sold me the 1992 Fleer Ultra All-Star set of cards for $25. The Frank Thomas at the time was a $50 card, so that was a big deal for me. The set was short 3 cards. A Barry Larkin, Gary Sheffield, and a Ryne Sandberg. I was able to trade and pickup two of them, but never got the Ryne card. For whatever reason, I stopped collecting cards, but always kept that 1992 Fleer Ultra All-Star set.
I remember the cards that I collected were 1992 Topps baseball because the packs were $0.50 at the time.
Then, 2004 rolled around. My at-the-time-girlfriend (now wife) wanted an autographed Favre jersey, so she started browsing eBay. I thought, "Hey, I wonder if the Ryne Sandberg card that I need for the 1992 Flee Ultra All-Star set it out there!" I was, and I bought one raw (never worried about condition). I had no knowledge of grading, PSA, etc.
Being a WI kid, I was a huge fan of Brett Favre. I asked the wife if she thought I should collect Favre rookie cards. Just the 1991 cards, and just the cards under $10. Well, that started innocently enough, until I had them all. Then I found out about card grading. I couldn't figure out why someone would pay $200 for a 1991 Stadium Club Favre PSA 10, when the same card could be had for $35 in a BCCG holder. Well, I found out soon enough.
The $10/card soon turned into $25, which turned into $50. Before I knew it, I had just spent $200 on my first 1991 Stadium Club Favre PSA 10. Then the collection went onto the 1991 Star Pics Auto card, the 1991 Wild Card Stripe cards, and the 1991 Stadium Club Super Bowl XXVI card.
I sold everything off recently, but still know quite a few of the Favre collectors, and still love looking at everyone else's cards and talking about the hobby (when I have something worthwhile to say). While I like the vintage cards, I just couldn't relate to the players, so I couldn't ever get into collecting those sets. The only thing that stuck was Favre. Go figure.
~IMS
Last year, one of his sons asked me for baseball cards as a birthday present and that spurned a new interest. Now were in a process of splitting up the 12,000-15,000 cards from our childhood. His two boys are in for a real treat.
I started collecting in the early 90's. Stopped sometime in high school when I had no more money and focused on school. Went to college...and then got back into the hobby 2-3 years after graduating. The internet got me back into collecting. Ebay and this message board got me interested again. I tried to renew my boyhood interest in modern cards and pack busting, but i soon became disillusioned and angry with the high prices, the seemingly endless supply of card products, the flip for a buck dealers and my internal struggle to appreciate the cards as they are vs. their investment value (i.e. finding the high dollar inserts was more important). I stopped for a short period, but went back again after discovering post and pre war cards. Since then, i've been collecting on a full time basis.
My first card off ebay was a PSA 9 Mike Piazza Bowman rookie card. My 2nd buy was a newbie transaction...a "complete" 1983 fleer set. The set was not complete (not even close) and I had to force the seller to send me the rest of the cards.
Still not a complete set!
Started back in late '99, once we had our son we weren't going out to dinner all the time, and I thought I'd just look at ebay and maybe rebuild the '70 and '71 sets I loved so much as a kid. Then the '54-56 sets I had, then a few pre war, then a couple more here and there.......
Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's
<< <i>I collected from '72-75. Had about half the T206 set, a bunch of T205's, lots of Topps and Bowmans. Sold them off because it just didn't seem relevant to me at the time- girls, cars, surfing and skateboarding seemed a lot more interesting.
Started back in late '99, once we had our son we weren't going out to dinner all the time, and I thought I'd just look at ebay and maybe rebuild the '70 and '71 sets I loved so much as a kid. Then the '54-56 sets I had, then a few pre war, then a couple more here and there....... >>
Anthony
You've picked up some really great stuff since 1999!
Very impessive.
mike
I found Topps Heritage in 2002 and bought a few boxes, but nowhere near enough for a set so I drifted away again until the beginning of baseball season this year. I found (most) of my old cards, the 2002 Heritage set, and kind of got started again. So I'd say the Heritage sets brought be back into cards.
A little over a year ago, I revisted my small collection of Nolan Ryan cards that was stored in the closet. I had dealt with PSA and BGS in the past (Though I was "out of the hobby," occasionally friends would have graded cards, and I had to move some A-Rods in 98 that had been collecting dust). Looking over my Ryan box, I decided I wanted to get them graded and slabbed, mainly for the protection offered. I also found an auto'd card in there that I sent to PSA/DNA. The whole thing got me to wondering what newer Nolan Ryan cards had been issued.
In about a month's time I: got my Ryans slabbed, received the auto'd card back from PSA/DNA as genuine, discovered 2006 Allen & Ginter, and decided I wanted to put together a full graded run of Topps/Donruss/Fleer Nolan Ryan cards from his active years. Mission accomplished, btw.
So now, I'm back... mostly interested in retro sets. If a set has a good design, I'll try to collect it. If it's too insert-heavy or outright lame (06 Bowman Heritage), I won't. Sets that include a Nolan Ryan card tend to attract my attention *grin*
mosaic's Nolan Ryan Basic Topps registry set
mosaic's Big 3 Nolan Ryan Run Showcase
In 87 when I started College I sold 80% of my collection to a guy who owned a shop in the town I went to college in, I think I got around $800 dollars for them. Which I promptly took and bought a new stereo with. After that I didnt get back in until after I got married in 98. I cant remember my first e-bay card purchase of a card. Im in for good now !
If there is anyone looking to thin out some of their cards, I would be interested in 1992 Topps Football Gold Cards. Let me know. Donations would be accepted as well.
1992 Topps FB Golds (72% complete)
1997 Topps FB Minted in Canton (10% complete)
1999 Topps FB Record Numbers Gold (80% complete)
2001 Topps FB MVP Promotion (35% complete)
As far as the first ebay buy....no clue.
Around 93, 94 I was tiring of modern cards, too many produced, too much to keep up with, no suprise here. And sports weren't the same. The strike in 94. The NBA kept going for awhile, but the sports were starting to change.
I was big into star basketball, probably had 75% of my collection in it at one point at the peak in 93, 94. Then got burned on those when they declined.
Then quit til about 2000, 2001. What got me back in?
Just alot of nostalgia. Alot of powerful memories collecting as a kid. Different than collecting toys, GI Joe, or Transformers.
I dont even know if PSA got me back it in very much. They helped, I don't want to go back to the raw card days of the 90's. Now I collect mostly 80's, early 90's, and some vintage.
Along the way I finished up college, got married, and now my wife if pregnant (which may change my collecting habits once again).
All in all the hobby has been a lot of fun and has given me the opportunity to meet great people who I otherwise would not cross paths.
J
you have the same luck with foresight as i do!!!!!
i was kinda in when psa was taking hold around 98/99 (i was submitting mad mcgwire and maddux rookies). but this "in" was for only $ to pay for my beer and women habit
i came back officially in 2006... searching for childhood fun i guess.
having a blast ever since. love the fact that i can buy a case of 1986 topps for like $50
1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold Ozzie Smith
2006 Bowman Chrome Orange Refractor Chris Carpenter
so i'm feeling a bit detached from collecting and trying to figure out what to do next and i find myself at a Dodger home game sitting way up in the cheap seats and it's like 99 degrees out in August and there's an ad in the game program.....for a 1987 Topps Baseball set, for like $14.99 + s/h (approximating here) and now i'm getting interested.....
i did not purchase the set.
i did, however, ask a lot of people a lot of questions, and then one day i placed an ad in the local papers and pretty soon all these people were calling day and night asking me questions.....i met some of them at their homes and they showed me the garage, ya know, the one where there oughta be a car, but there are too many boxes and cases in the way, so i was polite enough to help clear out space and i even paid them for the privilege....i think somewhere along the line i did finally end up with that 1987 Topps Baseball set