Please help a newbie :)

[Carey_Price_Fan]

Hi everyone !

I just beginning my personnal collection. I bought about 800$ in upperdeck hockey boxes years 2008-09 and 2009-10, especially Series I&II and ICE.

I did'nt know currently what direction I want to give to my collection. Collecting tons of cards of any kind, focus on rookies, focus on some of my favourite players ...

Do i'ts better to keep my cards as long as possible before to sell them ?

What's the currently trends about hockey cards collections ?


All your comments are welcome !


PS Please notice that I'm french, and sometimes my english can be very poor.

Thanks !


Some of good cards I have found :

Young Guns : Tavares, Myers, Niemi, Schenn, Giroux
Rookie Premieres : Karlsson, Giroux
Hockey Heroes Crosby header card
Frozen Fabrics Patch Auto Shane Doan #3/5

[stop__dreaming]

Salut,

First off, welcome. I am a newbie myself and have received some great feedback from people on here whenever I am stuck. One of the questions I asked when I joined is similar to yours, I was unsure on who/what to collect.

I therefore went for my favourite player, Simon Gagne, and decided to collect Game Used cards of him. I also collect 'cool' looking cards, too e.g patches, emblems, Rookies (as you said). It all depends on what you're looking for really. Just make sure you collect something that is personal to you and not going to make you look back and think 'why did I buy that' or 'what was I thinking..' if you know what I mean.

I don't really know about trends as I am new to this, as well. Might be a better question for someone else to answer, haha.

More importantly, just have fun collecting and don't go outside your budget (if you have one) as it does get quite addictive! I know I am having fun :)

[rainman67ko]

Hi and welcome to SCF and the hobby.

Spending time here on SCF, and reading other information available on the web, will get you up to speed quickly on the hobby and it’s trends. Check out the SCF newsletter links here - https://www.sportscardforum.com/articles/

Many collectors choose to focus there attention on a particular team, player, or players from specific regions or countries. There are so many products out there that it can be overwhelming. There are many of us who also build complete sets, subsets, parallel, or master sets, etc.

I focus on USA RC’s, then a couple of specific players, then Penguins, and I still build at least one new set a year, and do vintage sets too. I also collect some Baseball and Football.

Trying different products will help you get a feel for what you like and also expand your available trade list. Eventually you’ll want to build a website with photos. The easiest way is through photobucket.com or picasa (google). A list of your traders can be posted here as a thread or a blog and you can have links to these in your signature. Once you have 10 posts here on SCF you’ll see these links.

Best advice – It’s a hobby so do what you can afford and what makes you happy. If it becomes a business it changes everything for you.

Best of luck!

-Kevin

[RGM81]

Bienvenue! It's always nice to see yet another Carey Price fan on the forums. :)

You've got some pretty nice cards there to move out if you want to build whatever collections you decide to take up on a regular basis.

The best advice I can give you is to collect the players and sets that have the most appeal to you. With all the variety out there it is very easy to get sidetracked and find yourself collecting cards that won't mean as much to you as some others. For every card you trade away to get a Joffrey Lupul card you need to complete a set, that's one less card you can trade to get a Carey Price card that you really want, if you know what I mean.

If you're looking to get some decent Price cards to get your collection off the ground, send me a PM. I have some extras that I could send your way. :)

[CoolHandLuke]

Salut et bienvenue sur SCF, ce site contient plein de ressource et excellent pour faire des échanges.

Now, like the other say, collect what you like and can afford. FOr instence I collect five players and habs in general.Sometime, if you collect to little then it's hard to trade. this is why I collect habs in general and it help to close deals. I don't collect sets but many have fun doing certain very specific sets. All a question of what you like.

For instence, Price is tough to collect because he cost a lot but ask the fun richard (RGM81) has collecting Josh George. Don't try to aim for things you can't afford, deception is never fun. Give yourself goal you can reach.

[Pheebs888]

Salut et bienvenue sur SCF,

J'espere que tu aimeras le site et si tu as des questions et que tu preferes t'exprimer en francais, n'hésite pas a me contacter. Je m'appelle Karine et bien que je demeure en Angleterre je suis d'origine Québecoise.

Pour ce qui est de ce que tu devrais collectionner, personne ne peut repondre a ca a part toi! Personellement, je collectionne Patrick Roy et Martin Brodeur puisque je suis une fanatique des gardiens de but et que Roy était mon idole de jeunesse.

Comme d'autres ont dit, assure toi de collectionner quelque chose dont tu as les moyens car les gros noms sont souvent dispendieux.

A plus!
Karine

[pacadie]

Salut et bienvenu!

When I got back into the hobby in 2005, I try to collect almost everything (RC, stars bases, inserts and parallels, prospects, etc.). After some time, I realized it was impossible to achieve.

I think the toughest part when you come into this hobby is to decide what to collect. Even tougher is to find something that will fit into your budget, but will also give you the opportunity to trade. And the last thing you want is to collect something that don't give you the opportunity to chase or don't keep you active enough.

For example, you might want to collect every Ken Dryden cards, but you might find the hobby very boring when you will realized that there are very few of Dryden cards on the market. You can also go for Gretzky Autographs, but if your budget is less than 100 $ a week, you might only buy one or two cards/week.

Personnaly, I have five main collections, but I have priority on what I am willing to spend money on. Here is my plan:

1) Quebec Nordiques. I spend money on this stuff. I try to get everything that I can (except for very rare stuff; I am not too much into very high-end). The chase for Nords stuff keeps me active for a good three years. But now, I pick the few cards that are issues each year and that is pretty much it. What I still need for early years don't surface very often.

2) Rookies. I spend money on this stuff. My main goal is too get YG of every semi-stars and stars in the game. I have around 300 of those. Again, the chase last for a few years. After that, I pick the newer stuff and that is pretty much it. But last year, to give another dimension to my collection, I decide to pick SPx stuff for semi-stars and stars. It is tougher and cost much more. So, I have to spend wisely.

3) Montreal Canadiens. At first I didn't spend on Habs cards (I was just trading for those), but now, with my Nords collection hitting a wall, I spend a little more. I collect almost everything except bases, but I tend to emphasized on parallels and cards numbered out of 100.

4) Former Moncton Wildcats and Acadie-Bathurst Titan players. I spend money on numbered parallels and RC. I trade for the rest.

5) Hall of Famers and Superstars. I only trade for those. When someone want one of my traders and he don't have anyting I need, I accept HofF cards in exchange.

Those five collections, with their respective level of cash spending priorities, keeps me enough occupied vs the time I have to spend on the hobby. It also fit nicely into my budget (wich is around 50-75 $ a week). But best of all, looking at those cards and receiving it in the mail makes me smile and keeps me happy.

Good luck with your decision!

[stop__dreaming]

Salut et bienvenu!

When I got back into the hobby in 2005, I try to collect almost everything (RC, stars bases, inserts and parallels, prospects, etc.). After some time, I realized it was impossible to achieve.

I think the toughest part when you come into this hobby is to decide what to collect. Even tougher is to find something that will fit into your budget, but will also give you the opportunity to trade. And the last thing you want is to collect something that don't give you the opportunity to chase or don't keep you active enough.

For example, you might want to collect every Ken Dryden cards, but you might find the hobby very boring when you will realized that there are very few of Dryden cards on the market. You can also go for Gretzky Autographs, but if your budget is less than 100 $ a week, you might only buy one or two cards/week.

Personnaly, I have five main collections, but I have priority on what I am willing to spend money on. Here is my plan:

1) Quebec Nordiques. I spend money on this stuff. I try to get everything that I can (except for very rare stuff; I am not too much into very high-end). The chase for Nords stuff keeps me active for a good three years. But now, I pick the few cards that are issues each year and that is pretty much it. What I still need for early years don't surface very often.

2) Rookies. I spend money on this stuff. My main goal is too get YG of every semi-stars and stars in the game. I have around 300 of those. Again, the chase last for a few years. After that, I pick the newer stuff and that is pretty much it. But last year, to give another dimension to my collection, I decide to pick SPx stuff for semi-stars and stars. It is tougher and cost much more. So, I have to spend wisely.

3) Montreal Canadiens. At first I didn't spend on Habs cards (I was just trading for those), but now, with my Nords collection hitting a wall, I spend a little more. I collect almost everything except bases, but I tend to emphasized on parallels and cards numbered out of 100.

4) Former Moncton Wildcats and Acadie-Bathurst Titan players. I spend money on numbered parallels and RC. I trade for the rest.

5) Hall of Famers and Superstars. I only trade for those. When someone want one of my traders and he don't have anyting I need, I accept HofF cards in exchange.

Those five collections, with their respective level of cash spending priorities, keeps me enough occupied vs the time I have to spend on the hobby. It also fit nicely into my budget (wich is around 50-75 $ a week). But best of all, looking at those cards and receiving it in the mail makes me smile and keeps me happy.

Good luck with your decision!

That is a smart way of collecting!

Are you a Nordiques fan?

[Carey_Price_Fan]

Merci à tous ! Thanks to all comments !

Here is my some first steps to do next weeks :

1) Read some articles on this site, post some questions.
2) I'm now on Ebay, very useful to see real value of cards.
3) Complete and evaluate my startup collection.
4) I firstly want to complete one full set of base cards of UD Series 1&2 and UD Ice for each year, to be able to show to my 4 years old little boy the NHL players who play in early years. This step will be very easy to do !
5) The toughest part : have a reflexion to make a plan for my collection, choose what to collect and evaluate my budget for this hobby.
6) Begin trading ... BE VERY CAREFUL IN MY FIRST TRADES !

Based on your comments, I think I'ts the best way to go ...

I'm very fanatic of Carey Price, but I'ts not a priority for me to collect his cards. But if I found a good one in a box, be sure that I'll keep it !

[Drifter2000]

First of all, welcome to the hobby. Nice to see some new people dipping their toes into the waters...so to speak.

I can't add much that hasn't already been said; but my advice is to just collect what you like. Find your passion, and just go from there. You're smart to be taking the time to familiarize yourself with the hobby, and what you want to collect before jumping in and getting to things.

Good luck, and have fun!