Hey, New Guy Here

[TheWolf42]

Hey everyone hows it going? As you could probably tell I am new to the forums and to collecting basketball cards. A little about me my favorite player is Kevin Love and team is the Timberwolves since I am from Minnesota.

I collected basketball cards when I was a young boy, so its been some time. I'd like to get into collecting again and this time be involved with trades and buying and selling.

So I thought I would post this and see if anyone here is able to maybe, teach a noobie like me the basics and give some tips. I would really appreciate it since I don't know much about the hobby yet. Thanks!

[WilyWestbrook0]

Would be glad to help - been through this hobby's ups and downs since the '90s. Anything specific you'd like to know?

[TheWolf42]

How to get started, the basicsI should know, what to do with all these scrub cards and few good ones I accumulated from my childhood collection. I'd like to start fresh on my collection

[pwaldo]

My advice would be to find something you want to collect. If collecting a player or team is your thing go with that. If opening up your boxes then go for that. But if one or the other isn't then you aren't going to be happy doing it. Too many people collect what others want but you have to find something that makes you happy and that you have fun with.

Once you pick a collecting route then we could probably give you better advice but general advice I'd give you now would be to check what you have on eBay to sell the value for it. If you don't want to do that because it is too time consuming just post scans or pictures here and people can help you out on it.

For trading and selling on here I'd advise you to find an image hosting website to upload your scans/pictures of your cards for sale/trade like the photobucket one in my signature. You don't have to use that website and I probably wouldn't recommend it since there are better ones out there now. But it is basically needed to trade and sell. People do trade and sell without scans of their cards but there are some collectors who won't deal with them.

I'd also recommend dealing with experienced traders on this site first. Ones who have high feedback and have been on here for awhile. Not saying it is risky or dangerous to trade or buy but scammers do target the new people the most unfortunately.

[TheWolf42]

Ok thanks for the advice I really appreciate it! What is a scan exactly tho?

[pwaldo]

Ok thanks for the advice I really appreciate it! What is a scan exactly tho?

Just something like this:



A card I scanned on my scanner to get the image onto the computer. Basically the equivalent to a digital picture but scanners usually are better at capturing the image of a flat item than cameras.

[TheWolf42]

Ok I gotchu what if I don't have a scanner? Would it be ok to just find a pic of it online?

[pwaldo]

Ok I gotchu what if I don't have a scanner? Would it be ok to just find a pic of it online?

Do you have a cell phone that can take pictures? Digital camera? You can find a picture of the card online but you'd have to let everyone know that beforehand and it wouldn't work for stuff like autographs and patches because they are unique (vintage cards too because of the condition).

[TheWolf42]

Do you have a cell phone that can take pictures? Digital camera? You can find a picture of the card online but you'd have to let everyone know that beforehand and it wouldn't work for stuff like autographs and patches because they are unique (vintage cards too because of the condition).

Yeah so far I've just been taking pictures with my phone

[pwaldo]

Yeah so far I've just been taking pictures with my phone

That's good enough. Most stuff doesn't even need pictures of it unless is higher end. I don't have pictures for non autographs, game used, or rookies and I haven't had problems selling/trading.