New here and new back to the hobby…looking for advice, please!

[Kosmo886]

I am newly getting back into the hobby after 20+ years away. My first observation is that a lot has changed! I haven’t exactly defined my goals, but generally would look to do some combination of a few things: 1) have fun with my kids, 2) consider finding investment pieces and 3) build and trade a collection for fun. I have money to put into the hobby, but the question is how much and where to deploy it. Ie. Is it all about buying specific cards or memorabilia or gamble on packs and hope for good pulls? I do like the fun/gamble of packs to an extent. I may have gotten a little carried away and have about $500 of 2024 NFL Panini Prizm boxes coming in different varieties. These seemed like the highest end NFL card and they do look great. They are all retail products…couldn’t justify the $1300 the hobby boxes sell for.

• What is the best way to buy packs? Is it hobby boxes, retail products (blasters, megas etc.) or both in different ways? Are there any brands/types of cards that are particularly worthwhile if buying boxes? I’d be willing to spend hundreds, but not thousands on the ridiculous pull opportunities. At least not now.
• Is it all about the tip top condition cards and nothing else matters long term if they are newer cards?
• What are views on grading? I get the idea, but seems like such a scam given pricing and uncertainty of outcome as well.
• If finding some cards to truly invest in, how would one even approach that? What type of stuff tends to hold value best? Feels like super high quality, rare and rookies are plays here?
• What’s the best place to buy and sell cards? Is it eBay? Or somewhere else?
• I am mostly and NFL fan, but what would consider other sports too. I used to love baseball, but don’t watch anymore.
• What mistakes has everyone learned from?
• What are the best resources out there today to stay up to date?
• What else should I be considering?

[manthis]

WELCOME
@Kosmo886

ill pm you
with afew answers..

[pwaldo]

Yes I consider grading basically a scam. People collect graded stuff so it isn't a scam to them but the companies that grade are basically a scam because they are taking a cut from you no matter what. If you grade a rookie and then that guy never pans out they make money off of you. If you grade a card and it comes back a low grade making it virtually worthless they make money off of you. If you pull a rare hit and get it graded before you sell they make money off ot you. So basically they win at every outcome.

I know you said you like opening up packs but I think a good thing to do with your kids and do something that will hold value would be to try and see how many different NFL Hall of Fame autograph cards you can obtain with you kids. Most players are really cheap and you can track down tons of them on here or on eBay. Every year they elect more players to the Hall of Fame and you and your kids can learn about the older players together and have fun tracking down the ones that really don't show up too often. A fun project that whenever you decide to sell will either make you money or recoup most of what you spent. You aren't going to get that opening boxes.

[bakemeister52]

Welcome to SCF!

Bake

[doniceage]

I am newly getting back into the hobby after 20+ years away. My first observation is that a lot has changed! I haven’t exactly defined my goals, but generally would look to do some combination of a few things: 1) have fun with my kids, 2) consider finding investment pieces and 3) build and trade a collection for fun. I have money to put into the hobby, but the question is how much and where to deploy it. Ie. Is it all about buying specific cards or memorabilia or gamble on packs and hope for good pulls? I do like the fun/gamble of packs to an extent. I may have gotten a little carried away and have about $500 of 2024 NFL Panini Prizm boxes coming in different varieties. These seemed like the highest end NFL card and they do look great. They are all retail products…couldn’t justify the $1300 the hobby boxes sell for.

• What is the best way to buy packs? Is it hobby boxes, retail products (blasters, megas etc.) or both in different ways? Are there any brands/types of cards that are particularly worthwhile if buying boxes? I’d be willing to spend hundreds, but not thousands on the ridiculous pull opportunities. At least not now.
• Is it all about the tip top condition cards and nothing else matters long term if they are newer cards?
• What are views on grading? I get the idea, but seems like such a scam given pricing and uncertainty of outcome as well.
• If finding some cards to truly invest in, how would one even approach that? What type of stuff tends to hold value best? Feels like super high quality, rare and rookies are plays here?
• What’s the best place to buy and sell cards? Is it eBay? Or somewhere else?
• I am mostly and NFL fan, but what would consider other sports too. I used to love baseball, but don’t watch anymore.
• What mistakes has everyone learned from?
• What are the best resources out there today to stay up to date?
• What else should I be considering?

Well just remember the hobby boxes are going to give you guarantee hits while the retail product will mostly like not. Just saying if you have a dollar limit retail is fine but if you want bang for your buck you truly need to research it. I think many buy the cards they want versus doing the box route.

1)best way to buy packs is hard as you're in the worst situation as your buying a small group. I mean if you buy a box or even more a case you get a better price making the better return on your investment. Of course if you buy the pack when they come out it is very bad as many products prices have gone down from initially coming up. When covid started there was no problem as everything was worth more than it was selling.

2) top condition is very important but another factor is to have cards that are desirable. I mean you do not want UD victory or low end product as it will take many moons for the cards to have any value. Just look at Patrick Mahomes rookies from low end products versus high end products. Of course your going to pay big time for the high end product so it based on the dollars you have.

3) Grading is great if your looking for a fix. It not a scam but to me if your not sure of what your doing you need to get up on telling how a card will grade. Sending many cards that get under a 9 will only lose you money in the long run.

4)There are great products that hold value no matter what. In hockey Upper Deck Young Gun rookies hold value compared to almost everything else. You can look at a price of the box and then the value of the cards compared to even auto'ed or numbered rookies from other products and the young guns sell for more even though there probably 10,000 to 25,000 of them out there. Kind of crazy but it the demand and the household name of folks wanted those cards over the other.

5)It all depends what you're selling. If you want top dollar ebay is a great place do you have slabs there is a place for that. If you have a holy grail a commission house or auction place. There are also many ebay sellers on ebay who do commission. Just remember there many places to sell cards like here Facebook marketplace and other groups, have options of other trade forums, and even other sites that have com about to sell cards. Just have to find what works for you.

6) Collect the sport you love and understand. It easier to truly understand one sport than trying to break out into all the other sports when you truly do not know the players. The more you branch out the more time you break out the more time you need to spend knowing who is hot and who is not. Of course in baseball it so much more specialized as it who is going up from triple a to the pro's that will cause a big surge in price. As many just focus on those cards to make a quick buck and move on (bowman chrome rookies in bulk).

7) Do not spend money you cannot afford to lose. Do not buy on impulse as you will regret it more often than not. I think there are hundreds of answers you could get but just get your feet wet and you will learn.

8) One reference is here and if you answer questions folks will help you and point you out to how they do it. There so many Beckett, ebay, 130 point, wholesalers, etc. as you not only have to know about the product but the protection for the cards, but the grading options available, and if your into card shows checking those out, etc. Your questions are so open ended there are a hundred directions you could go as their is reference websites and place to go for each niche in the hobby.

9) Do it for the love and make sure your children enjoy the time spent doing it. That will make it worth it more than the dollars you spend. Of course doing it right might help you make a few dollars on the hobby but many do not make any money so do not count on the latter. The memories and time spent with your kids is priceless while the dollars will be forgotten unless you bring home millions to let them retire before they need to work LOL.
@Kosmo886

Dig around and learn and answer questions. folks will help you out.

DON

[Davz13]

Welcome aboard!

9) Do it for the love and make sure your children enjoy the time spent doing it. That will make it worth it more than the dollars you spend. Of course doing it right might help you make a few dollars on the hobby but many do not make any money so do not count on the latter. The memories and time spent with your kids is priceless while the dollars will be forgotten unless you bring home millions to let them retire before they need to work LOL.

Yes to this!
Collect for fun. For trading cards, my best memories are collecting with my family - going to card shops and shows with them. Getting cards from my Dad and Bro of the players I like, and giving cards to them of the players they collect.

I usually buy singles of the players I like.
In my opinion it is a lot better to spend $100 on a card of a player I collect, compared to spending $100 on a box and getting junk.

But, if you want to buy for investment, buying boxes and praying to get a good card are probably the way to go...but you have to know when to hold and know when to flip, which is the challenge.
Sold many cards that I assumed were at their max price, and then the values kept going up and up.
Held on to cards, and their value went down and down.
It's all a gamble.

Thats why I usually only buy singles for my collection nowadays.
I'm in it for the love of collecting; not to make a profit.

Good luck!

[Rybowski]

Welcome to SCF Brett, hope you are enjoying yourself here! The hobby in the last 20 years has changed many times over. 20 years ago, we were using Beckett books, which basically was a price guide created by opinions of people who were in put in charge of giving set card a numerical value. With eBay being a place where cards are sold daily, it can be used as a current value indicator of basically any card out there. Buying packs, if you have the $$$, are still fun, but pack prices on low entry products have at least 5x in the last 20 years, maybe more.

As for grading, companies were making a killing back in the Covid days. People had extra money and cards were overinflated price wise, so a ton of people got in and if they sold, made a fortune. Grading modern cards today is such a gamble and cards rarely come out of packs in Gem Mint condition.

If I had a son/daughter who just got into collecting, I'd take them to some shows, just for the wow factor. Let them root through the $1/$2 bins and find maybe a player on their favorite team and possibly get them into Pokemon, which can be a cheaper alternative, if they like Pokemon.

[etmill01]

Welcome to SCF Brett...Ed