New collector. Questions, Collection, and more!

[YodaFox]

Hello everyone!

I've been looking to get into this hobby for awhile but haven't had the time or money until now. I've really enjoyed getting to know the trade first hand and finding out answers first-hand. It's been a roller coaster so far, a fun one, and I'm sure it'll continue to be that way throughout the journey. I got started through gifting, actually. Every year for holidays, we try to surprise my dad with a gift only to have him guess what it is before he opens it. This father's day finally pushed me to become creative with gifts after he guessed it yet again. I thought, what would be cooler than an autograph of his favorite athlete to a man who loves sports? After I sent off my TTMs for him, I began looking into cards for myself. Autographs are the coolest, to me. I'm also from Houston, so naturally, I love anything Houston related. I've mainly focused on football because it's my favorite sport and because there are so many different types of baseball cards that it's a bit intimidating. I have most of the Texans offense's signed rookies, minus Nuk and the O-line. I also have a few def players, but I couldn't afford some. I also started collecting signed rookie QB cards starting with this year because, being a former QB, that position fascinates me. I'm just missing Trubisky and Webb.

Now for a few questions:

Football- There are a bunch out there but I've mainly focused on the QBs from this year's draft. So far, the autos released are Score and Donruss. I noticed that the Score cards have the RC on the card signifying that it's a rookie card. The Donruss Elite Turn of the Century cards don't, though. I thought they were cool because they were the first to have rookies in their new uniforms. Are they still considered rookie cards, even if they don't have the RC on front? I know there are still more sets to be released in the next month or so. Would those be considered the 'official' rookies?

Baseball- A more broad question: where in the world do I start? I'd like to focus on Astros rookie cards. Which sets are considered better? I'm really in over my head here...

General- What do you do with cards you don't want but won't sell for much, if anything?

Thanks for getting this far! I look forward to chatting and learning!

[pwaldo]

Welcome to the site!

To answer a few of your questions for football they will release a bunch of sets throughout the whole NFL season so if you can wait for a rookie card I'd wait because they usually don't release the best sets first. For baseball it really depends on if you want a rookie autograph or just a non autograph rookie card. Because for some players they only have 1 rookie autograph to choose from (rare times they have none too). For your general question you can always group the cards that won't sell for much together (like all Cowboys cards) to move them that way. A team collector will want them and you'll get like $10 for everything but it is better than nothing.

[bakemeister52]

Welcome to SCF and good luck in whatever you decide to do.

[JFried1029]

YodaFox- Welcome to SCF! Generally Insert and Parallel cards are not considered true RC's- only the base rookie card is the true RC.

Baseball has become a bit more complicated since MLB got involved about 12 years ago. They determined that a player must be on the 40 man roster to be part of a base set and receive the "RC" designation. However, non-roster players can be in insert sets. As a result, in baseball a player's first card can appear years before his RC.

Maybe the best (worst?) example is Josh Hamilton. His first cards were released in 1999 before MLB came out with their ruling. His 2007 cards eight years later have the RC logo.

MLB did this to supposed eliminate confusion. They tried to fix something that didn't need fixing and messed it up in my opinion.

[bcool022]

Welcome to the hobby and SCF! If you have any questions please send me a message and I can try to help you get started. I really only know football cards but if you have general questions or football questions feel free to let me know. Enjoy!

[creasecollector]

Welcome to SCF!

As for your General question, I just hang onto them in case I can find another collector who could use them more than me. So they go in my traders :)