A complete rookie

**Bzross** · 10-18-2014, 11:05 PM

Hi All,

i am am a complete rookie to the trading/ collecting of baseball cards. I moved to the U.S. (Houston) 18 months ago and my family are completely hooked on following the Astros to the point we have season tickets now.

My daughter has began to collect anything Astros related, has loads of signed balls, bats and a couple of jerseys, as the players are great at signing after BP. She is behind the dugout every game.

She has just started collecting cards this year, and gets them signed at the games.

i'm after some advice as to what are the best cards to collect? To date she has mainly been buying Topps Series & opening day cards, but these seem limited. Any advice on what to get from hobby boxes or boxes of cards would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Barry.

**Jeremy_Falcons** · 10-19-2014, 12:46 PM

Hello Barry and welcome to SCF.

**pwaldo** · 10-19-2014, 04:53 PM

Originally Posted by Bzross View Post

i'm after some advice as to what are the best cards to collect? To date she has mainly been buying Topps Series & opening day cards, but these seem limited. Any advice on what to get from hobby boxes or boxes of cards would be appreciated.

First welcome to the site!

Second to answer your question it depends on what type of cards you are looking for and the amount of money you are looking to spend. Also would you care if the boxes were a few years older or if they had to be from 2014.

**movel23** · 10-19-2014, 08:18 PM

Welcome to the site Barry, I'm a basketball collector so can't really help you with the baseball stuff but if you have any general questions please feel free to message me.
Alex

**Bzross** · 10-20-2014, 01:59 PM

Originally Posted by pwaldo View Post

First welcome to the site!

Second to answer your question it depends on what type of cards you are looking for and the amount of money you are looking to spend. Also would you care if the boxes were a few years older or if they had to be from 2014.

Thanks for the reply.

Budget isn't the issue, I'm helping out her daughter, so she kind of wants to keep it relatively recent for card age, with the exception any retired Astros who she has heard of.
I see quite a bit of trading goes on for autos and relics an wondering what are the best sets to get these in?
She is thinking of switching to Bowman Platinum any possibly A&G, but I was after a consensus as to what cards are considered worthwhile.

Thanks again.

**Greengoblin782** · 10-22-2014, 06:36 PM

Hey Barry, Welcome to SCF. Thanks for Joining!

Matthew.

**pwaldo** · 10-23-2014, 06:03 PM

Originally Posted by Bzross View Post

Thanks for the reply.

Budget isn't the issue, I'm helping out her daughter, so she kind of wants to keep it relatively recent for card age, with the exception any retired Astros who she has heard of.
I see quite a bit of trading goes on for autos and relics an wondering what are the best sets to get these in?
She is thinking of switching to Bowman Platinum any possibly A&G, but I was after a consensus as to what cards are considered worthwhile.

Thanks again.

There really isn't a best set for either in baseball. Baseball is different in the other sports as there are boxes made for a wide variety of collectors. Set collectors, vintage themed sets, rookie focused sets etc.

Something like A&G is good but the set does contain a bit of non baseball related material so if that's a problem it probably isn't the best set for you. Most sets don't contain many Astros game used or autographs outside of the rookie based sets since the Astros have a better group of young players than they do stars. So a set like Bowman Platinum might be better to get rookie autographs of those guys. But if I was giving advice I'd say to try and find a seller on eBay or here that has a whole bunch of Astros autographs and game used. You can get them for a buck to two dollars all day and if you buy a large enough group you can get stuff for under a dollar per. So while a $75 box may only get you a couple random ones you would be able to snag at least 20-30 of the team you actually want instead.

**arfmax** · 10-23-2014, 06:10 PM

Another option is to do a search for Astros Team Set on ebay, and then you can get all of the Astros from, say, Allen & Ginter.

The baseball sets that seem to have the most players per team are Topps Heritage, and Topps Series 1, 2, and Update. Other sets usually only have a rookie or two and a star or two.