Anyone have some help for someone just getting into sports card collecting?

barrytrot

I've collected coins for a long while and currency for a few years. Prior to that, as a "kid" I collected sports cards. Or I should say I bought a lot of packs and didn't know what to do with them

Anyway, I'm planning to get some select cards, my favorite players, a few all time greats, etc.


Of course, I know zilch about collecting cards so I figured I better get some advice first so I don't pay for lessons at a much higher price


Questions:

1. From a few hours of research it appears that PSA and BGS are the top certification services. Is that correct? Or am I in error?

2. Does collectors.com support one of the services? For some reason I've gravitated to their services and have been happy to do so.

hhmag70

PSA, BGS and SGC are the big 3.

Collectors Universe is the parent company of PSA.

Good luck with you collection.

bigreddog

I would say ONLY PSA and SGC are worthy.

orioles93

Stick to PSA and SGC. Also come to these boards with any questions. You can get a lot of help from the board members here. Theres a lot of valuable information that can be had here for new collectors.

Sean1125

Modern-BGS I believe they have the best slab by far and their prices/grading system seems to fetch more with MOST modern cards
>1994~-PSA Easily the overall collector choice, I believe them to be strongest price wise in late 40's to the 90's
Prewar/T cards- SGC I don't deal with prewar, but I see it pretty much "preached" that sgc is king for pre war and tabacco cards.

Toro

What he said, good luck!

Brick

Welcome to the card side of collecting. I second or third the notion that PSA or SGC are the way to go. When I returned to purchasing I decided to only be a spectator on ebay for two to three weeks. I feel most overpayments are made when we are inexperienced. Good Luck.

jeff8877

Stick with PSA or SGC as others have said. Use the "completed listings" feature of ebay to see what actual sales prices have been. This will give you a sense for what things sell for and what you should pay. Nicely centered copies usually go for a premium. All cards in a particular grade are not necessary equal do to the subjectiveness inherent with grading.

Good Luck

Jeff

Sheamaster

Same with coins, you have a ton of options when deciding what to collect - players, sets, modern, vintage, etc, etc.

I would recommend starting with a certain player, and doing that player's set registry. Do you have a favorite player? If so, start there. If you're favorite player is vintage, perfect, as there aren't a zillion cards to get. Just decide what grade you want to use as your threshold, ie, I want to start a Walter Payton Basic set with a goal of PSA 8. Modern is good too but there are a ton of cards each year.

I would also recommend sticking to one grading company. I collect vintage and modern and use PSA for both for consistency with the slabs, etc.

Just my two cents. Go to the PSA website and search the player and set registries...good luck with the venture!

Darin

It depends on what you collect. If you like Bowman Chrome rookie cards, its hard to just stick to PSA or SGC.
BGS seems to be the King of Bowman Chrome and all modern auto cards.

Yankees001

The best advise I can give is for graded cards stay with the big 3 (PSA, SGC and Beckett (BVG, BGS))

Figure out what you want to collect. Stay on the sidelines for a while and find out what things are worth, or check out ebay completed auctions.

Dave

hankcaddy

I agree with most everyone
patience is your friend here.....take your time a research what you really want

are you a set collector? team collector? playoer collector? or more of a type card guy ?
options are all yours every collection is different...most of all have fun

ThoseBackPages

<< <i>Same with coins, you have a ton of options when deciding what to collect - players, sets, modern, vintage, etc, etc.

I would recommend starting with a certain player, and doing that player's set registry. Do you have a favorite player? If so, start there. If you're favorite player is vintage, perfect, as there aren't a zillion cards to get. Just decide what grade you want to use as your threshold, ie, I want to start a Walter Payton Basic set with a goal of PSA 8. Modern is good too but there are a ton of cards each year.

I would also recommend sticking to one grading company. I collect vintage and modern and use PSA for both for consistency with the slabs, etc.

Just my two cents. Go to the PSA website and search the player and set registries...good luck with the venture! >>



a lot of useful info provided so far. i agree most with the quoted above.

Most of all, enjoy yourself! There is no "wrong" way to collect cards!

barrytrot

Great advice from one and all!

I bought a few lower end ones off eBay. I probably paid a 20% or so premium but the price level was low compared to my "pain threshold" so I am extremely happy thus far.

ThoseBackPages

<< <i>Great advice from one and all!

I bought a few lower end ones off eBay. I probably paid a 20% or so premium but the price level was low compared to my "pain threshold" so I am extremely happy thus far. >>



Don't forget about the "Buy/Sell/Trade" area on these boards as well. Good place to pick up some good deals.

Blackie

All advice given is great and go with your "gut" instinct. If you think your paying to much for a card, you probably are. Buy the card.......not the plastic. If buying graded cards (which i do for my set registry, protection of the collection etc). I prefer SGC but PSA is great as well. Choose a company you like or not at all; choice is yours but remember the fun of collecting and enjoy the hobby.

Semper Fi

Blackie

fkw

If your going to be serious and not ONLY collect the extremely common Topps cards, Id suggest you read read read before spending the $$

the best $60 youll spend will be buying the next 2 books*

before spending serious $$ Buy a few good reference books,
the *SCD Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, in general, is the best, most of its short writeups on the older sets is based on the next book (Lipset)

If you plan on going for 19th Century-PreWar cards, the *Lew Lipset Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards is the best reference book, its now almost 30 years old but you can find reprints of the 3 volume set in 1 book now.

Also if PreWar learn all your ACC#s (American Card Catalog numbers, ie R319, T206, W517, D303, M116, H804, N172, etc.), if serious, buy a copy of the American Card Catalog (only about 5% is baseball related though)

also "Old Cardboard" Magazines (and their website), and old auction catalogs are good reference tools (I have 150 auction catalogs and use them often)

if the cards are well known, use eBay's completed auctions for a guide of value...

If you want to get serious in PreWar cards, read all you can on Net54 message board, and ask lots of questions

If you want to collect plastic, read this board

collect what you like, not what others tell you to collect (but listen to their advise and make your own decisions)
good luck and happy collecting

barrytrot

<< <i>If your going to be serious and not ONLY collect the extremely common Topps cards, Id suggest you read read read before spending the $$

the best $60 youll spend will be buying the next 2 books*

before spending serious $$ Buy a few good reference books,
the *SCD Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, in general, is the best, most of its short writeups on the older sets is based on the next book (Lipset)

If you plan on going for 19th Century-PreWar cards, the *Lew Lipset Encyclopedia of Baseball Cards is the best reference book, its now almost 30 years old but you can find reprints of the 3 volume set in 1 book now.

Also if PreWar learn all your ACC#s (American Card Catalog numbers, ie R319, T206, W517, D303, M116, H804, N172, etc.), if serious, buy a copy of the American Card Catalog (only about 5% is baseball related though)

also "Old Cardboard" Magazines (and their website), and old auction catalogs are good reference tools (I have 150 auction catalogs and use them often)

if the cards are well known, use eBay's completed auctions for a guide of value...

If you want to get serious in PreWar cards, read all you can on Net54 message board, and ask lots of questions

If you want to collect plastic, read this board

collect what you like, not what others tell you to collect (but listen to their advise and make your own decisions)
good luck and happy collecting >>




Good ideas and I love having more reference books. I've bought the ones you recommended now!

barrytrot

One note: Many of the cards I will want are Basketball and Football also. So if the rules change for those, let me know

Brock21

Don't buy Mickey Mantle cards for cash in an IHOP........

Griffins

I"ll agree with Frank's advice, and add that a full run of VCBC (vintage and classic baseball collector) is money well spent.

If you're collecting graded cards stick to PSA or SGC exclusively. If you are considering starting a particular set buy a lower grade example and make sure you like it first- and make sure to research how often examples come up and if there are any cards in the set that are extremely tough.