Some help for a new collector?

[Jetbruin]

Hey guys. Brand new collector here and I don't know what I'm doing. Hoping for some insight. I've been a collector of various items for years (mostly toys and comics) but have never delved into the world of hockey cards until now. I'm a lifelong hockey fan though so this seemed like a natural hobby to take up. I'm mainly interested in the thrill of getting great hits and autographs and such so after a bit of internet research I decided to start with 2012-13 Certified (The Cup and UD Trilogy is out of my price range). I bought 5 packs and think I did fairly well, but I would love your input. I can't find either of these cards on Ebay so I have no idea what their value is. I hit a Jaden Schwartz autographed rookie with a jersey swatch set behind a diecut "ROOKIE". The odds of getting one of these is 1 in every 4 cases I believe. I also hit a red mirror Martin Brodeur numbered /100. That seems really low to me so I would think it is a great card. Am I deluding myself. I'm thinking about picking up a box next week. Thanks for your thoughts!

[miscs75]

That's not a bad start. Schwartz is one of the top rookies from 12-13 actually. How about testing 13-14 Score Hobby. One box should get you close to building a set.

[Jetbruin]

I thought about Score but the high number of base cards kind of pushed me away. Even though they are much more expensive I like the thrill of getting a great card in every pack.

[JVW]

Certified is my favourite product because it is in my price range and you get some really nice cards. I know how you feel about getting a great card in every pack. That Schwartz pull was definitely a great one! You should also look on ebay for some cards from that set because many of the limited number cards/mirror parallel cards you can pick up at a cheaper cost than from buying a pack.

[13stepper]

Great hits! If your wanting a chance at the BIG hits without forking the cash for The Cup or Trilogy i would recommend any years of SP Authentic. Be careful of buying older product though as they could have expired redemptions and expired redemptions are no fun at all!

Hope this helps, looking forward to seeing what you decide to rip.

[kylemclaren7]

Hey guys. Brand new collector here and I don't know what I'm doing. Hoping for some insight. I've been a collector of various items for years (mostly toys and comics) but have never delved into the world of hockey cards until now. I'm a lifelong hockey fan though so this seemed like a natural hobby to take up. I'm mainly interested in the thrill of getting great hits and autographs and such so after a bit of internet research I decided to start with 2012-13 Certified (The Cup and UD Trilogy is out of my price range). I bought 5 packs and think I did fairly well, but I would love your input. I can't find either of these cards on Ebay so I have no idea what their value is. I hit a Jaden Schwartz autographed rookie with a jersey swatch set behind a diecut "ROOKIE". The odds of getting one of these is 1 in every 4 cases I believe. I also hit a red mirror Martin Brodeur numbered /100. That seems really low to me so I would think it is a great card. Am I deluding myself. I'm thinking about picking up a box next week. Thanks for your thoughts!

I might get in crap for this from the board, but pick up a Beckett Hockey Card Price Guide (<$15)... Yes most cards sell for less than book value, I understand that, but for higher end stuff the low book value column usually has some close indication for what you can expect out of that card. And honestly, if you're new to the hobby, it doesn't hurt to flip through the pages and see what's out there both new and old!

[CoolHandLuke]

First, welcome to the hobby. With 5 pack, you did good. Now in the hobby, there is low end, mid and high end product. For most collector, base card are not want they want since the hobby change a lot. Even insert are less desirable. Mainly people tend to chase more the Rookie, autograph, jersey and other memorabilia along with serial card. While 100 seem low, it's actually pretty common since most give them visibility to trade them or sell them. So they are not that hard to chase. 25 or less is much harder to find and those get better premium price wise. Now in the hobby, there is Beckett, a price guide that many still use for trade purpose but other just don't want to hear about price guide book value and use eBay as a guide for price. The problem with eBay is that it's hard to get a good idea. For instance card for sale are not sold item and can't really give you a good idea of the value of a card. Sold item are much better if you get enough sample. Note the auction can at time sell really low, more so lately, as many US seller do not sell in Canada due to high postage cost, a trend we see more and more. The result is low sale for Canadian based player since Canadian can't bid on them. So something to check when looking at eBay. The Beckett price guide can be good in the sense that if a card book high price range at 20$ you can expect a card to sell between 25 and 50 % of the BV. In case of prime player it can also be up to 100% and even higher.

So hard to understand at first but a price guide really help. I know I use it and since I do not sell cards and trade for them, 95% of the time I can land a trade for equal book value of the high price on both side of the trade. If you are active enough trading, the online price guide is a good solution. Also to identify cards or maintain a inventory, SCF has a free Inventory and list all the cards on the hockey market from North America. A good way also to identify a card and be certain of the set name and attributes. At time cards have no serial but a know print run is known and the inventory can help on that end. One company that does this a lot is In The Game (ITG). Often they use Silver version or Gold version and these have know print run but there is no serial on the card.

As for your rookie. I did not see any for sale on eBay but one sold lately for 5$ if your card is the 499 print run version and is a true rookie. Note that in the market, many rookie have parallel version with lower print run and often will have a patch instead of a jersey.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_saca...H_Sold=1&rt=nc

But if you look at it, he ask $14.99 for international shipping. So that explain why it sold so low if Canadian would have bid on it. This is why eBay is tricky. First you have only one auction sale that if a Canadian bought it, he actually paid 20$. Now often member will tell you the card sold for 5$ and will want to pay only this. They tend to discard the shipping cost, so be aware. For us Canadian it's still cheap to mail to USA, $2.20 but with no tracking. Cost much more if you need tracking. For USA seller it's a minimum of 7$ and why many stopped to sell in Canada.

But if you would look at Beckett you would see the card book for much more then 5$. We can really disclose the BV since this would infringe the copyright Beckett have on the book value and our site as a rule that cover this aspect. I can say I have this card and Beckett list it at... since I own it but can't tell you a price for a card I do not own or that I own but not trying to trade or sell it. So this is where the limit lie in BV for copyright issue and SCF rules.

For Brodeur, here is one sale:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from...H_Sold=1&rt=nc

Again you will get better value trading for these then selling them. I used to own this rookie and traded it for a 2010-11 Artifacts #106 P.K. Subban Att: RC, S# / 999 back then.

[Jetbruin]

Thanks so much for all the info! I'm going to re-read that last post a few times.

[CoolHandLuke]

Benn collecting for 45 years and the reason change in those years. At first when I was a young kid, all kids were buying cards but not really collecting them. But my father was classifying them and storing them in a box. Then I stop around the end of the 70's but my sister that is handicap kept buying some every year. I got back into collection in 89 for about four years. I used to rent a table and do shows and then hot out of it. But my sister was still buying some. Because of her handicap she buy them and forget about them. In 2007 My father was taking care of my sister and my mother that has Alzheimer and he got a cancer and died in 2008. so mid 2007 I had to stop working to take care of them. I moved back in February 2008 in the family house as my father only had a few month left to live and needed to be there full time to take care of all three. While my sister is handicap mentally, she has been working for 30 years at the same company (jean Coutu) So she has money to spend and why she kept buying cards and still do. SO I really got back in early 2008. I saw the collection in my old bed room, took it out and figured it would be a good way to spend my time and got back big time in it. Also being a programmer, I figured I could build a inventory application and share it with fellow collector. That is how I got to know SCF and since became the programmer and coded the free inventory application. In all these years, I accumulated many cards, over 75,000 and been always collecting habs.

So for the reason today, I would say, past time, giving back to other since I can afford to program for free and have the time, because of the fun of it and I like to organize things. All my cards are in 3,000 or 5,000 count boxes and ordered by year, set name and card number. Since then I have added over 35,000 cards in my SCF Inventory and make it easy to show what I have and find them since they are well organized. I have a room dedicated to the collection. Value is not really a incentive to me as I do not see it as a investment. I do it because I have the time and like it. Since I can't go out much because I take care of my old mother full time I can use my money to buy cards. Actually my father granted me a salary before he died and still am paying myself this salary from my mother money that my father left. $200 a week but all expanse paid and because this is family I do not pay income tax. So this is why I have money to buy cards even if I do not have a standard job. But this was my father wish that I keep my mother home and she definitely has a better life then if she was in a elder home care. Also my sister still need to be cared for but money wise she is really doing well with half a million dollars in placement. My father never charge her anything and he placed all the money she was earning at her job. This is why she can afford to buy cards too. I manage the collection for both of us and the collection always was both our. Now I put a lot more money then she does but again it's not about a investment but to enjoy a hobby we both like.

So for me it resume to fun of opening boxes, chasing Habs cards. organizing things. Helping fellow collector with my programming skills with the SCF Inventory, storefront, Trough the Mail Manager and the trade manager I recoded last summer. Of course my implication in SCF both in trading or administering this site as a senior administrator and programmer is also now a big part of it. I needed to occupy myself as it's a good way to occupy yourself in between changing dipper, helping my mom and sister or taking care of the big house we live in. I also enjoy more and more flowers and keep adding some every years since I have a big terrain.

[Jetbruin]

It sounds like your mother and sister are blessed to have you in their lives. I'm just sorry you collect Habs cards lol. I can't stand the Habs lol.