Back with a vengeance

[NoleinJax]

Hi guys. After about a 20 year hiatus I somehow got hooked back into collecting. I decided to start by buying way too much retail packs and blaster boxes of random stuff from walmart and target. I then read about Bowman 2012 baseball and since it hit retail early I bought a ton of packs and blaster boxes. I then learned through places like this that I should be spending my money on hobby boxes and I started buying the jumbo hobby boxes from a local lcs as well as hobby boxes of 2012 upper deck football. Well in the past week I have bought 4 jumbo hobby boxes and a regular hobby box of bowman 2012 baseball and 9 hobby boxes of 2012 ud football. I ended up getting 18 auto's for bb in all the retail packs and 16 autos from the bb hobby boxes. I also got tons of harper's, darvish's and every other regular card. I also got some auto's from prior years bb from blaster packs that had been put on sale at walmart. In the ud fb stuff I got a lot of auto's and some nice patches but I did not get a single RG3 card. Not base or anything. I actually got one of the rookie exclusive cards of him in a blaster box. I would say the best auto cards I got were a Josh Bell chrome refractor auto #196/500 and a LaMichael James auto patch card #23/25 letter K. I am new here and have been reading a lot and have barely touched the surface of what this site has to offer. I can't wait to get set up to buy, sell, and especially trade cards here.

[TheGinterGodfather]

Welcome back to the hobby! I know how easy it is to go overboard with this stuff when you're first starting out! Now my wife has me on a strict $20 a month budget. Though I've worked out a few ways to raise some extra cash for some purchases on the side.

Congrats on the sick letter patches and some of those autos! Very nice!

This site is a GREAT resource and everyone here is simply awesome.

Best part is the baseball card season is just starting to heat up! Bowman 2012 is just the beginning!

[jmintz]

Nice work - I'm in the same spot - back after a decade plus away (minus some random binges), and I also went nuts on retail because it's more accessible.

[coronado2010]

i can trade FB GU's for your bowman baseball...

[CincinnatiKelly]

I lost my mind when I got back in also. Bought tons of retail and not getting what I wanted out of it. Shopping at the Lcs, ebaying, and trading here I've learned how to come out ahead of retail. I'm lucky and the wife doesn't put me on a budget but I try to keep it around 100 or less a month.

[FlyersFan]

Welcome to the addiction.....LOL

I actually had my wife in to busting wax at one time and then the reality hit her of how much we were spending....LOL. Now as long as I dont go crazy shes cool.

[NoleinJax]

Thanks for all the replies. Now after opening all that stuff comes the hard part of sorting it all because right now my dining room table and desk are covered in stacks of cards. Today will be my first day of not buying something in a couple of weeks and I'm already jonesing. lol. I bought 1 box of UD football yesterday and had the clerk hold one for me until today but I finally pulled a RG3 card(not auto) and got a sweet Justin Blackmon patch with a B #13/25. I live in Jacksonville so that was nice. He is a stud. I just wish we had a decent qb to get him the ball.

[the1runt]

Haha, it seems there are a lot of us that are getting back into collecting after being away for so long. I did the exact same thing. Was shopping at Target one day and walking by the card setup I got curious as to what kind of products they had these days. Noticed a blaster of 2011 Allen and Ginter and thought what's $20 to slay my curiosity. Ended up pulling an auto of local Bakersfield boy Brent Morel, and from that point on I've been hooked. Dropped hundreds of dollars on retail, mostly Ginter, over the next few weeks then decided to try my luck with hobby. Now I'm primarily buying hobby and my spending has slowed down a bit, but I'm planning on getting a case of either Topps Chrome or Ginter when they are released this year. I was still just a kid, 16 years old, when I got burned out on collecting and buying hobby boxes was something I never had the luxury to do. Now, as an adult with my own money, (and no wife to limit my spending to a budget) I can splurge a little and hope for more big hits like the Darvish blue refractor auto I recently pulled! Ultimately I would like to get to where my hobby is paying for itself. I think the Darvish might be step in the right direction.

[camh44]

Awesome man, if you pulled any cool Astros cards, message me and we can work out a deal!