Having recently gotten back into card collecting/investing, I've been intimidated by the number of card sets that come out. The relic cards, the game pieces. It's incredible and mind-boggling at the same time :wow:

I miss the days when there was just topps, don russ, fleer and a new company called Upper Deck. It seems to have gotten more complicated: how do you figure out which company will offer the rookie card EVERYONE will want? Is there a reliable card company to invest in more than others?

All I know is etopps makes things simpler for me. And that's why I'm in it.

I agree with you. I, too, have returned back to card collecting after having gone away to college and getting a career.

However, I do not buy any cards of recent players, UNLESS, they are of the Kobe Bryants and Jerry Rices and Barry Bonds of the world.

Salaries today are ridiculously outrageous. Alex Rodriguez gets $25M per year? There's no way palyers who make this much money are going to have enough desire to play long enough to approach the baseball stats needed to achieve immortality (and raise up their card prices).

Every once in a while, you get a Jerry Rice and Kobe, who you know, barring injury, will make sports history.

However, I still like opening packs and seeing which ones I get; I go to Ebay for my card stuff.

Man, are the prices cheap over there, compared to card stores.

And one more thing -----

I collected a ton of Garbage Pail Kids cards in my youth; who the hell thought they could be worth so much. Imagine my surprise this past year when I found out the 1st series set go for as high as $300; and each card for $5.

wooohooooo!!

I've always been careful with all cards I collect during the early to mid-80s, and you talk about it paying off $$$$$$$$$.

Welcome to the boards podstock aand if you ever have any questions just PM one of us Mods. Yes Plunge, it is overwhelming. I was considering getting back into it this past weekend because there was a huge cardshow by my house. I picked up a Beckett to look through it and I was shocked how 86-92 cards were covered in 2 pages while 2002 alone had like 8 pages of listings. I saw all the inserts and the like 100 different issues and I said screw it, I'm sticking with my etopps.

Welcome, podstock.

I'm glad I'm not alone about this. I've always felt less is more when it comes to selection.

welcome Podstock... and congrats on the GPK collection. They book really high, but there are very few willing to pay for it these days.

The selection is high, and the hobby is hurting. Card companies are doing what they can to make money. I don't fault them for doing that, but it'd be nice if they came out with less selection. There are positives and negatives... and the biggest is the pricing. I refuse to pay hundreds for a box of cards!

I completely agree that the hobby has overdeveloped itself and has actually driven away customers.

Swedishfish, Kingpin, etc.

Yep.

It all started in about 1988, with the Donruss set. I heard there were over 1 Billion cards made of 1988 Donruss.

After that, I stopped collecting.

You can't have cards skyrocket in value when there are millions of Mark McGwire out there.

No matter how much of a McGwire fan one is, you only need so many McGwire 1988 Donruss before you stop buying more.

I still collect from 1990s to present, but I buy only bargain boxes from Ebay folks.

Like someone said earlier, Beckett magazine has pages on end solely for late 1990s to present. The 1960s to early 1980s make barely a dent in the number of overall pages.

Welcome to the boards, podstock.

I've experienced the same after getting back into collecting after a 15 year absence, between all the cards that are available now and the grading boom I was lost... Luckily I asked some questions in some other forums and got some good advice as to how to narrow it down, when I was young I tried to collect all the cards, now I just stick to my favorite cards and my favorite players!!!!!