Re-Newed collector here

[Skydmark1]

Hello everyone in hockey card land!! I'm getting back into collecting after about a 15 year hiatus. Haven't collected since I was about 14 and now I have a 5 year old who is excited to help me and also to make his own collection. I'm interested in collecting sets I think as that's what I used to do and it was alot of fun trying to get the entire set. I had almost the entire 1992 Topps baseball card set at one time.

Anyway, I'm noticing that it's hard to buy a couple of packs of hockey cards at a time, our local sports card shop deals only in used and old stock and Wal-mart only carries boxes of cards at $20 a whack. We are on a small hobby budget and can only afford to spend maybe $5 or $10 bucks a week. I'm an avid ebayer so I know where I can get cards.

What I'm wondering here is what's a good set to collect for somebody just getting back into things without oodles of money to spend. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. Also, if you know of any good resources send them my way. I'd love to have checklists for sets and so on.

Thanks, and I look forward to getting back into this hobby...this seems like a great forum!

~Jason

[steen101984]

Welcome Jason! Id go for opc rumor is an 800 card set lots of different players and not very expensive. As for checklists check beckett.com even though it is super slow and for purchasing especially low end stuff try sportlots

[mugmasher]

welcome and i hope you and your son enjoy collecting ..it's funny how things have changed a little more from 15 years ago huh?? now you have tons to choose from at almost any budget..good luck ..

[mr ozzie]

Welcome aboard. I feel that for base set collecting, this is where retail packs that you buy at WalMart, Target, etc. are beneficial. As for which to get based on your budget, may I suggest Upper Deck Collector's Choice or Upper Deck Victory. Those should be easy enough to complete, and not hurt the pocket book too much. Keep in mind though that Collector's Choice might be discontinued for the 2010-11 season. Good luck.

[flemingc04]

Welcome to SCF! When I got back into collecting a few years ago, I was also in a similar situation where I wanted to build a set while not forking out lots of money. In my opinion, O-Pee-Chee is a great set with 600 cards over the past few years in the set plus you can pull the odd jersey too which is always nice. Since I am quite patient, I would sometimes buy a box and then open one pack a day to drag out the fun over a long period of time rather than break the whole thing in 10 minutes and have it all sorted in the next hour.

[Skydmark1]

Ok I'm gonna look into some OPC sets...I was thinking of going that route anyway as I like those cards. Anyone know of any good websites to buy cards from...the town I live in doesn't have much to choose from and the next closest place to shop is almost 1 hour away.

[steen101984]

blowoutcards or dave and adams seem to be the best for american collectors because they are located down there. D&A has free shipping to depending on order size.

[habscards]

Welcome back and I hope that you and your son have a great collection one day.

[captainkirk]

welcome

Blowout and Dave and Adam have free shipping for orders over $100 and $150 respectively. Instead of thinking in terms of $5-$10 a week, you may want to think in terms of $20-$40 per month and that may increase your options for purchasing boxes and packs. Maybe you have a friend nearby that you could place orders with to get take advantage of free shipping.

Happy Collecting.

[Counterbalance]

Dave and Adam's sells those $20 OPC blaster packs (containing 14 retail packs) for $9.95 each. If you buy enough of them to spread out the cost of shipping, it's not too bad a deal at all.

I'm in a similar position as you...I think I'm going to try to put together some UD Series 1 and 2 sets, so I just ordered the $51.95 'combo pack' of three Series 1 blasters and three Series 2 blasters. Of course, ordering it on Free Shipping Thursday (where the minimum order to qualify for free shipping is $50 instead of $150) helped.