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Card Collecting for a Beginner


Coach Rab

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I am thinking about getting back into card collecting.  Since most leagues and PAs are selling their card trading rights to Panini (football), Topps (baseball), etc etc, I am thinking my plan for collection is to buy 2 boxes of unopened packs each year for each sport.  1 box for the enjoyment of just opening the packs, and the other to just leave unopened to check the value of the unknown in 20 years.  

My questions are (1) is there value in this, especially with the NFL switching to Fanatics who has never made a card and (2) is there even availability for this option without losing/wasting a ton of money?

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 9/3/2021 at 2:10 PM, MavGrad99 said:

I am thinking about getting back into card collecting.  Since most leagues and PAs are selling their card trading rights to Panini (football), Topps (baseball), etc etc, I am thinking my plan for collection is to buy 2 boxes of unopened packs each year for each sport.  1 box for the enjoyment of just opening the packs, and the other to just leave unopened to check the value of the unknown in 20 years.  

My questions are (1) is there value in this, especially with the NFL switching to Fanatics who has never made a card and (2) is there even availability for this option without losing/wasting a ton of money?

It depends on what sets you are going after Mav. Topps has the baseball rights. They can put logos on the cards opposed to other companies like Panini. That makes their cards a lot more desirable especially with rookie cards. In football it’s the opposite. Panini is the more wanted. 

As far as value, that’s a good question. What killed the 80s/90s market was too much product. There’s a ton out there today but the thing working in its favor is the numbered cards, autos and parallels. Some folks that will help keep their value up. 

If you were going to buy 2 boxes, I’d suggest buying hobby boxes over blaster boxes or complete sets. They’ll usually have more and better hits. They’ll “guarantee” more hits. 

As far as money, demand is still higher than supply. Flippers are buying up $20 blasters and doubling their money. If they do breaks, they can probably make $100 by selling off individual teams in breaks. Breaks are you buy into a box for your team and not the entire box. Maybe $10 for the Marlins. Any Marlins pulled you get. No Marlins, you busted.

If there’s a hot prospect(think LeBron, Luka, Bryce Harper, Trevor Lawrence), that’s the boxes that will hold value more. 

I’ve switched from buying boxes to buying singles off EBay. I get the cards that I want and I like for my collection. 
 

Hopefully that helps you some @MavGrad99.


 

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  • 1 year later...

And if you want to buy older cards, start checking the auction sites online from surrounding towns. I use Texas Hi-Bids (I believe is how it's spelled), always have auctions that you can bid on. Win some, lose some--sometimes get really lucky--or unlucky--as right before christmas I went to my local auction site--had tons of cards listed.....I bid the minimum on a lot of them ($5), especially with unopened packs of 6 or more, meaning that the packs were less than a $1.....Left christmas day for a cruise, auction was the 27th....wife gets the emails from bank, asks me "did you bid on something this week at the auction"....I said "yes, a couple of small items, probably won't win any"....she said, "well I guess you're wrong, you just spent $140 at the auction".....Close to 30,000 cards total. Now I have to store them. But prices of unopened packs are about $3-4 at the card shows, So I am hoping to quadruple my investment at the next one in Allen....

On 9/24/2021 at 5:48 PM, Stoney said:

It depends on what sets you are going after Mav. Topps has the baseball rights. They can put logos on the cards opposed to other companies like Panini. That makes their cards a lot more desirable especially with rookie cards. In football it’s the opposite. Panini is the more wanted. 

As far as value, that’s a good question. What killed the 80s/90s market was too much product. There’s a ton out there today but the thing working in its favor is the numbered cards, autos and parallels. Some folks that will help keep their value up. 

If you were going to buy 2 boxes, I’d suggest buying hobby boxes over blaster boxes or complete sets. They’ll usually have more and better hits. They’ll “guarantee” more hits. 

As far as money, demand is still higher than supply. Flippers are buying up $20 blasters and doubling their money. If they do breaks, they can probably make $100 by selling off individual teams in breaks. Breaks are you buy into a box for your team and not the entire box. Maybe $10 for the Marlins. Any Marlins pulled you get. No Marlins, you busted.

If there’s a hot prospect(think LeBron, Luka, Bryce Harper, Trevor Lawrence), that’s the boxes that will hold value more. 

I’ve switched from buying boxes to buying singles off EBay. I get the cards that I want and I like for my collection. 
 

Hopefully that helps you some @MavGrad99.


 

 

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On 1/17/2023 at 1:06 PM, Mr. P said:

Garage sales in wealthy neighborhoods. They are always throwing out their grown kids stuff. So many steals to be had. 

Got another great story about garage/yard sales. 

Had been out garage sailing for hours with the wife, about to have our #2 kid, and she was going to stay home a year. Headed back to the house, saw a sign in the neighborhood across from ours. Drove to look at it...it's June, hot, about 1 pm.....drive up to the house, ladies got 5 tables still full of stuff......I see 2 6' tables with cards on them....I ask "how much for the cards"....She says "what will you give me".....I said "$20 dollars".....She said "they're yours".....I gave her $20.....got somewhere around 50K cards total......but the best thing was....she hands the money to another lady sitting under the tree and says "That'll teach that Son of a ******** to cheat on me"......I laughed, bought another $50 worth of stuff valued way more than than and left....Sold a Michael Jordan Rookie Card from that purchase to pay for the entire days shopping spree and dinner that night, plus a little more that the wife didn't know about....:rofl:

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  • 6 months later...
On 9/24/2021 at 5:48 PM, Stoney said:

It depends on what sets you are going after Mav. Topps has the baseball rights. They can put logos on the cards opposed to other companies like Panini. That makes their cards a lot more desirable especially with rookie cards. In football it’s the opposite. Panini is the more wanted. 

As far as value, that’s a good question. What killed the 80s/90s market was too much product. There’s a ton out there today but the thing working in its favor is the numbered cards, autos and parallels. Some folks that will help keep their value up. 

If you were going to buy 2 boxes, I’d suggest buying hobby boxes over blaster boxes or complete sets. They’ll usually have more and better hits. They’ll “guarantee” more hits. 

As far as money, demand is still higher than supply. Flippers are buying up $20 blasters and doubling their money. If they do breaks, they can probably make $100 by selling off individual teams in breaks. Breaks are you buy into a box for your team and not the entire box. Maybe $10 for the Marlins. Any Marlins pulled you get. No Marlins, you busted.

If there’s a hot prospect(think LeBron, Luka, Bryce Harper, Trevor Lawrence), that’s the boxes that will hold value more. 

I’ve switched from buying boxes to buying singles off EBay. I get the cards that I want and I like for my collection. 
 

Hopefully that helps you some @MavGrad99.


 

Also, don't forget about being extra careful with the cards and possibly considering getting some of them graded. It's a bit expensive, but if you get the right grade, the card can be "worth" a LOT of money. Just think if you buy a pack of cards for however much, get a "superstar" (say, Patrick Mahomes) in that pack, and spend the $20-$40 to get it graded, and it comes back as a 10. Now, you've got a card worth hundreds (possibly over $1,000, I don't know).

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1 hour ago, Monte1076 said:

Also, don't forget about being extra careful with the cards and possibly considering getting some of them graded. It's a bit expensive, but if you get the right grade, the card can be "worth" a LOT of money. Just think if you buy a pack of cards for however much, get a "superstar" (say, Patrick Mahomes) in that pack, and spend the $20-$40 to get it graded, and it comes back as a 10. Now, you've got a card worth hundreds (possibly over $1,000, I don't know).

Very true. Raw verse graded can make some big bucks.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've bought a few newer packs. Panini (Donruss) still does baseball cards, but not of current players. "Rated Rookie" has been replaced with "Rated Prospect", and the players that they have on the cards are now retired players. Although you can get some pretty neat cards, still. I recently pulled a 2023 Nolan Ryan Cooperstown, and a "Marvels" version Pete Rose, a Rollie Fingers Diamond King, and a Ken Griffey Jr. Diamond King from a couple of sets. I've also ended up with a Joe Morgan, an Ichiro, and a couple of the "special" cards (i.e. they have different color variants).

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  • 4 weeks later...

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