I walked into a card shop yesterday.And boy have things changed in thirty years. I think im catching the bug, but this stuff is expensive.....

I'm really looking into collecting the cards I wanted in the 80s. The new stuff in a bit much to me.

I collected from 1987-1992 then got back into the hobby in 2012 and been involved ever since.

My best advice is dont open any new product. Its waaaaaay over priced and there is next to no chance of hitting anything in those packs that will come anywhere close to breaking even. You will come out way ahead by just buying single cards and sets that you want instead of trying to pull them from packs.

Next.....dont get sucked into the grading game unless you view your collection as an investment. Graded cards are more liquid when you go to sell them but if you are a true collector that collects for the fun of it then graded cards just mean more expense for the same card. I dont need someone to tell me a card is a 10. I will be the judge of that for myself.

If you do insist on buying graded then buy PSA. They are king. Dont pay more for a PSA 8 than you would for a nice raw card. In most cases a PSA 8 equals a nice raw card when you go to buy and sell.

I managed to stay away

Also dont buy the hype!!

For example:
Right now Paul Skenes is the big guy to chase. There is no way he can ever live up to the hype surrounding him and the insane prices people are paying for his stuff right now. In all my years of collecting there has only been two prospects that have ever lived up to their hype. One was Griffey Jr. and the other is Ohtani. For every Griffey and Ohtani there are 2000K others that failed to live up to their hype. Trout on the other hand was not expected to do much and he turned out to be a generational talent. His stuff can be had pretty cheap right now due to injuries even though he is a first ballot Hall Of Famer.

Yes - collect mainly those through the early 80s, with a few unopened boxes from the early 80s, but do have some cases of 85, 87 and 89 Topps.

My favorites are:
1954 Topps Baseball
1961 Fleer Basketball
1975 Topps Baseball

Ese, I scratched that itch a lot as a baseball we kid from about 1978-1983 or so, had probably 5-6 boxes of Topps cards back then. Sold those all off in garage sale decades ago. The other day did happen to find a rookie Topps card of one the newest MLB HOF inductees, Mr. Ichiro Suzuki. Not sure of value but guessing $100-500. HS bud of mine ran across a great haul at a garage sale on his street in his early teens, earlyish mid 80s. Elderly women was selling a shoebox of baseball cards which had been her deceased husband's. Well lo and behold, there were 2-3 rookie Mickey Mantles in it and back then the cards were like a painted pictoral type card. We took one up to Houston late in HS and he sold it to a swank collector, using some of the proceeds to buy a newish, 1986 IROC Z.....Believe he still has the other 2 Mantle cards to this date.

Where do you get your prices from?

I have a rookie Brett Favre card. Been waiting 20 years for it to crack 4 bucks.

Lmfao, yep same here.....

Are you the one that had Jordan rookies?

I was a collector in the 80's to early 90's. I still have them all in the attic in plastic totes.

I go to eBay and auction houses for pricing.

I can't remember what I've posted about in the past, but I do have a Jordan rookie PSA 8 (and an unopened pack with his sticker on the back) but my two biggest are 2 Bailey Howell 1961 Fleers PSA 10 rookies (only 3 exist). Received a big offer for them last week but not ready to let them go.

I figured out what happened to that Jordan rookie, and why it went to the moon. A bunch of investor groups got together and we're buying them up, and drove the market.

Only card I have is an Upper deck Griffy jr. card I got when a guy borrowed $40 from me gave me the card instead of $60 back.

Nice card, it on my list.

Folks I know who buy storage auctions typically just dumpster them.

Ive collected my whole life. Try not to buy into online breaks, its expensive and addictive. Same with opening new product. Its fun to do, like buying a lottery ticket though. When i stopped breaking product, I put the money into buying the cards I wanted and built a nice collection. Mainly focusing on Mickey Mantle, Roberto Clemente, and Nolan Ryan. All of my vintage cards are graded by PSA, BGS. I didnt manage to snag a 52 Mantle but have all 1953 on up.

99% of what you find in storage units and garage sales are 1986 into the early 90s which arw basically worthless .

I collected in my youth, and have picked up some things here and there from garage sales and estate sales. I went through all 75k +/- cards and got all the commons and sold those in lots for a decent amount. Have some really nice ones that I am considering sending out to get graded at some point. Scored a massive box of cards at en estate sale for $10 that had 1960's baseball cards, tons of unopened Garbage Pail Kids packs, Star Wars gen 1 cards, Black Hole, and other random cards from the 70-80's. Collected autographs back when I was a kid, also. Got a Mickey Mantle & Hank Aaron, as well as some other greats from back in the day. Still keep my eye out, but not really into the new stuff as much. I do watch some of the card breaks of the people who hit those 1/1's and that's cool to see.

Never have been a collector of cards. The only set I have is a Nolan Ryan I got the last time i watched him pitch. Have had the unopened set ever since.

I collected in the most worthless era it seems....unless things change. 88-92ish.

I have a half dozen mahomes rookie cards. I imagine they are worth something but haven’t checked.

I bought my boys a huge collection of cards back nearly 20 years ago. Gave them as a gift. They've just sat in a closet. Have no idea what to do with them! MLB NFL NHL.

Lol 100% i was right there with you.

Topwater nailed it...... most of those were the trash wax days.....I have a binder with all the cards I thought were good, and today they are almost all under a dollar. 😆 of course I had to pick the worst time to collect.