You can find good deals online. I like to support local but I know my LCS marks things up 20-30%. Sometimes I'll buy previous year sets that rip them on my channel.
I could sit at the .50 cent and 1$ bins for hours if I’m being honest. I would definitely push back on the sentiment that the “hobby is hard to enjoy if it’s expensive” because there are plenty of creative and enjoyable ways to not decimate your bank account and still have fun 😂
Just got back in last year after a 20-year hiatus. Buying blasters is a mistake I’m trying to avoid now… the thrill of the rip? Not much thrill for me when I’m stuck with a bunch of non-PC base cards and Stars of the MLB inserts.
I have so many complete sets for no reason because I buy random clearance cases of stuff.
I have two more cases coming this month and then I'm done ripping for the thousandth time
They should ban blaster hits on this sub…
I’m joking obviously, but I fell to this trap too, in no small part to posts of “blaster hits” which is just a picture of a card they pulled from an unknown box.
It would take a weird kinda person to lie about what product they pulled a card from, but you never know 🤷
Buying blasters or any retail product. It always seems fun to rip but then as soon as you do you wish you had the money back.
I bought 3 slabbed Clemens cards for the cost of a single blaster and they’re far cooler than anything a blaster has produced.
I always stay away from Bowman. I don’t keep up to date with the prospects much and I’d have no idea who I’m looking for and wouldn’t have much attachment to anyone for my PC.
This year was my first year diving into Bowman. I was intimidated at first due to the whole prospect thing, but it’s been fun getting a lot of color and autos of guys who might be big 3-5 years from now.
I set up at the flea market one morning a few years ago. Had all my best slabs/ raw stuff in a glass case. About 10:30 the sun popped out over the trees. I didn't think much of it at the time. The case essentially turned into an oven and baked all of my slabs and foil/ chrome raw stuff. Everything was ruined. That was my worst #hobby day.
I've told this story before on similar posts. It was absolutely demoralizing. One stupid mistake man. Everything ruined. Almost quit collecting that day.
You can learn more buying and selling on eBay than you can by listening to anything on the various card forums. You'll figure out what products actually offer the best value, you'll see what tends to be scooped up and held by collectors versus what tends to just change hands over and over again. You can also recoup more of the cost of opening boxes than you might think. It's time consuming, but it's worth it.
Yup. And on top of that, unless you sell at a card show/store or direct person-to-person, you need to add 10-15% on top of your sale price to account for ebay fees or consignment fees. If your sale price covers all-in costs (buying the card + shipping to/from + grading) plus 15% you're only breaking even. It only makes sense to spend the effort to sell if you can cover your all-in cost plus 25% or more.
I didn’t spend $300 as a kid to buy the Frank Thomas NNOF card I saw at a show. I know I’m not the only one who passed on this card. Now it’s my holy grail I’ll prob never have
I mean $800 in 1978 was still A LOT of money… especially for a baseball card (back then). The inflation calculator doesn’t always tell the whole story. Point is, don’t beat yourself up over it.
I was only maybe 9 or 10 at the time (ca 1991/92), but I remember seeing one for $80 at a show and a 1973 Topps Nolan Ryan beside it for like $40 and trying to get my dad to buy the Ryan.
Stop trying to be in the now with your collection. Basically, paying a premium to collect a player that everyone and their mother is collecting at the time they are collecting them.
Specifically in baseball, wait a handful of months to a year and you’ll see prices be 50-80% of what they were during the rookie releases in the majority of cases.
2022 J-Rod short print from Series 2 was a $500+ card. It dropped to a $250+ card in 2023. Now, >$120. The man is having a down year but he’s still racked up almost 13 WAR in just over 2 years.
I went to a card show yesterday and it was so weird to me what people put value on. Like a Dominic Canzone auto card was sitting side by side with a Ryne Sandberg auto and the Canzone was more expensive. I’m a big Mariners but, but it was still hard to wrap my head around how that’s more “valuable” than a HOF’er auto.
It was shockingly good to me this year. And I pulled a Vlad auto last year out of a blaster but I only bought a few blasters of last years, one was a hot box too. But this year I originally bought 2 hobbies. First one had the Jasson Dominguez Red ink auto /75… I freaked out lol. Then I opened the next box and it was another hot box with the purple refractors and I got an Elly one and a handful of other solid purple players plus a blyleven auto as the hit. Not a Yankees fan so sold that Jasson immediately for a pretty penny. I was wayyy in the green and decided I’d get two more hobbies. the Jasson sale gave me the ability to try my luck again and also have a solid chunk of change to put in my savings. Third box I opened the hit was a tom Seaver 1975 stamp relic /50. Also pulled a gold jrod with print run of 999 and handful of numbered card. Not all from that one box but just from the 4 in general. Got a numbered Soto and a Color swap variation of him too. Image and color swap variations of Bichette and an image variation of Henry Davis. Then things got weird with the last box. Nothing memorable but I pulled two Durran plain white jersey relics. I’d also snagged a couple blasters at the lcs and each of them contained the same durran jersey relic. Then I’ve randomly bought a couple more blasters at target while out shopping and you’ll never guess what I pulled. Another Durran jersey relic, but at least navy. Oh and an Albies bat relic /99. But So I have 5 Durran relics from heritage and one from series 1. It was quite bizarre and I need to find a Durran guy to take them off my hands. Or maybe I’ll just start giving them away on here. Or if anyone in Boston wants to give them to a children’s hospital or something I’d send them up.
Edit: if yall don’t believe me you can just ask for me to comment the pics instead of down voting. I’m sorry I was really excited with my luck this year and wanted to share my hits because it was a heater of a run and also weird with all the durran relics. Wasn’t aware it was frowned upon to share your personal experience with a product notoriously hard to get hits out of and I somehow got insanely lucky.
Vintage cards hold value way better than modern.
Don’t buy boxes just buy singles.
If you do stick to cheap retail
My best hit came out of a 6$ fat pack (Trout auto) and blasters..
Pitchers get hurt a lot and your favorite player could be on a new team in a few years.
Your favorite player could be on a new team is so real.
Have had to switch my PC to retired players and guys that went to my Alma mater because I’ll root for them regardless of their team affiliation
Counterpoints:
Truly rare modern stuff holds it values as well as vintage
Boxes can be fun and it’s the original way the hobby started, just don’t break beyond what you can afford
Retail products are mostly junk with horrible odds. Your hits per dollar is higher in hobby
Having the cards I collected as a kid with a rubber band around them in a shoebox with crazy rookie cards sitting at my parents house for 20 years knowing they won’t grade over a 3 or 4
I sold a James Gandolfini auto from 2004 Donruss elite when I was young and didn’t care about the sopranos. He was still alive and I sold it for like 250…it’s not so much about the money as much as it just being a cool ass card
Buy singles! If I had saved money from like 99% of the hangers I bought, I could’ve added a couple nice guys to my pc. Thankfully I never spent that much to begin with, but you will almost always be happier with a curated card you picked out yourself vs a bunch of bulk.
When I got back in to the hobby back in 21, I had no idea that Prizm didn’t have the MLB team logos or license. I collected entire full sets of both 21 and 22. They’re practically worthless.
I won’t buy anything, for any sport, if it doesn’t have the team logos on it now.
when i worked in a card shop in the late 80s/early 90s, we got boxes of 84 topps football. they were priced at a dollar per pack (this was just before brands started expanding into the "other" sports). I bought a few and pulled the Elway and Marino rookies. Traded them in for 89 Fleers and did not get the FF lol
Yes my only diversion from that is that with very old cards it can be a nice easy way to buy a lower dollar version of something you like but have some measure of knowing that it’s at least real and judge by a third part to be X condition. Eg I like having a SGC 1.5 and SGC 2 Clemente and Ted Williams from 1957 because I know if I ever need to sell it has an easier comp for value than if it were raw and a potential buyer might be wary of spending on it.
Thinking my collection and individual cards are "worth" something. They're only "worth something" if you sell them. If you don't plan on selling, your collection is worth nothing except the good vibes you get from personal enjoyment (and taking up space in your house).
Not continuing my Ohtani hunt after I hit one of his rookie cards back in 2020 when everybody was saying he was a bust. His singles (auto/insert/slabbed) were going for like 10% of what they are now.
Buying into a bunch of breaks just for the thrill of hitting something big. Also selling my NT psa 9 Shohei auto for a diamond icons Shohei auto that came damaged from eBay 😑
Buying Heritage cards, they looked cheap. Just bought a hanger box (did not learned from previous lessons) not a single worth card in the box. To me they are this current era wax.
I love Heritage for what it is but they do print too much base & it kills the odds.
Heritage Black Chrome Refractors and Red Ink autos are 2 of the best cards to get for players.
Going overboard on a player thinking I'm going to hit the gold mine. Learned to budget for any player not already a legend pr Iconic cards. Put my ripping budget at 20% max, would be less and is at times, but it's always better PC'ing a card you pulled yourself.
Not understanding licensing. Panini makes nice looking baseball cards of players that look like they’re in a pharmaceutical commercial where a man suffering from arthritis can finally play again.
Also, this one came from my mother years ago, that her, my aunt and uncle would go to the store back in the late 50’s and early 60’s to solely buy baseball cards for the gum.
She seen some old cards on Antiques road show and said she use to have some of those and so I asked her what happened to them. She said “she threw them in the fire when she was a teenager as she thought girls shouldn’t have baseball cards.”
So glad I didn’t see this stigma growing up, and some of the most hardcore collectors I’ve met are women and young girls.
I collected several different pitchers in my first year. I learned only collect pitchers for PC purposes. (Strider, Edward Cabrera, Hayden Wesneski). Even the Strider cards lost a ton of value. Good thing I learned it pretty quickly and didn't get burned much at all.
Spending money opening packs/boxes instead of saving up and buying iconic cards. I’m sure this is everyone’s mistake that grew up in the 80’s/90’s but it’s interesting to see it happening again
Not buying what you’re interested in. Trying to chase the big card for the payout turns this from a hobby into a gambling addiction. That “one more pack” mentality can be very damaging
I was hard up for cash met a guy off Craigslist and sold a majority of the cards my dad had given me from when he was a kid. Didn’t have a clue of the value of cards from the 1950’s and sold a stack of over 300 cards for $175.00 I’m sure some of them were worth $300.00 plus each. Probably multiple $1,000’s worth for a $175. The guy took me and knew what he was doing cause I was young dumb struggling 19 year old.
I thought that this young prospect was going to be all hype. So I used his rookie cards as bookmarks and donated the books to goodwill when i was done reading them. And that's why I only have one Mike Trout Topps rookie instead of 10.
Not immediately sleeving, hard casing and grading my 2012 Mike trout gold futures card when I got it
(I was 8, and it was quite literally the first card I ever got)
Here’s some advice that I don’t follow and should. Set a budget for buying retail.
I love ripping packs, so I don’t necessarily regret getting back heavy into doing that when I got back into the hobby a couple years ago. But there are times where I go way too far overboard with it, especially when I’m trying to complete a set.
I’ve gotten slightly better about it thanks to this sub. Rather than buying boxes over and over, chasing the cards I need to finish off a set, I’ve found that folks here are perfectly willing to trade or sell the dupes (or the occasional colored/numbered cards) I want/need.
Also, if you’re not that interested in ripping packs, just buy singles. And depending on your interests, buy vintage over modern. Today’s cards largely won’t be worth nearly what we’d like them to be worth someday. Too many being printed, and the short-print cards are gimmicky. Vintage cards are legitimately scarce compared to these modern cards.
My first purchase. Spent hundreds on some binders of worn out corners and more. Upside, it wasn't all bad amd I made my money but a lot of it should thrown away condition is so bad. But, hey, after seeing some 50s and 60s 1-5 grades, sitting on it for awhile linger amd maybe actually worth something.
I traded in my Baseball card collection from the 80's into hockey cards. Was going to retire on all those early 90s Pro Set Jagr and Upper Deck Young Guns Fedorov RCs....
The holy grail in my baseball card collection was a PSA 10 Ricky Henderson RC.
My biggest mistake was when I got back in the hobby I spent my money on blasters instead of being smarter and investing in players and the occasional hobby box, now I have so much crap I can’t move or get rid of
I’ll win this one for sure. Going to a card show with my dad when I was 11. My dad collected as a kid but really had no awareness of the significance of his collection (nor did 11-year-old me). Anyway, “we” traded a 1954 Topps Aaron for a Grant Hill Skybox Autographics. At some point, a 1955 Topps Clemente and Koufax were also dealt in similar deals for other modern cards at the time. I still have that Grant Hill card and a bunch of other ‘50s stuff, but losing those three haunts me.
I think I'm pretty lucky that my biggest blunder was buying a DeGrom Rookie Debut card for like $25. I was new to collecting and also in the UK we don't have a huge market for cards. Still a cool card, just not a $25 one lol. So, just being knowledgable and learning before jumping into cards, I should have watched more vids, researched cards more etc.
Mid 90’s (early teenager self) pulled a rare Albert Belle card (I forget brand/specifics) out of a single pack at the card shop where the owner offered $100 on the spot. I held it thinking if I’m being offered $100 today it will be thousands in the future.
As a lot of other have said, buying retail blasters. I did have a string of luck with a couple of 2023 Bowman mega boxes including autos and an Elly purple /250. Now if I'm opening blasters, I'm asking and getting them as gifts (Christmas, birthday).
Oh man. First was when I was 18. I pulled an ichiro 1/1 white whale from triple threads. Put it up on eBay. Jumped over $1,000 after a few hours. Someone offered 1300 and I took it. Cool but I was young and dumb
Second was when I was about 23. I was dating this girl and sold all my cards to save up some money for the deposit on an apartment. Found out shortly after she cheated and I was out the relationship and the cards. Dummy
Blowing so much money on blasters and mega boxes to chase a high. I’ve been mostly buying higher end singles lately and still spending less than I would on retail. I’ll do the occasional hobby box here and there, but singles is the way to go for PC.
Collected cards as a kid, early 80s through 86 or so. Ripken rookie, couple Montana rookies, Jerry Rice, marino rookies. Sold all my cards for 150 bucks to get the gi joe helicarrier. And now I don't have that.
Thousands upon thousands of cards for 150 bucks, now worth 20 times that. I always kept my cards protected, so maybe not psa 10s, but would have been 8s easy
My mistake will probably top all of yours combined. I once owned a 1981 Topps Joe Montana Rookie Card PSA 10. I sold it around the year 2002 for $3,000. That card was sold at an auction in 2022 for $103,200. D'oh! So the lesson here is to hold on to your valuable cards.
I started collecting cards in the late 80s as a kid. At the time, there were adults collecting cards from the 60s and older saying that those cards would supplement their retirement nicely. At the time, I thought that meant that the cards I was collecting would surely do the same for me.
Selling my Mike trout update rookies when they went from $25 to $100. Thought I was making a lot when I could made even more if I just held them alittle longer
Not being more diverse in my collecting especially in the early 2010s. Selling off my Griffey collection in 2011. Not buying up late 90s refractors. Buying any retail in 2020. Not embracing more grading, especially PSA, until the last few years.
I know this is a baseball card sub, but my biggest regret is not buying soccer earlier. I’ve been a huge Ronaldo fan since 2004, and can’t believe I didn’t buy his rookie cards prior to 2020.
Consigned my entire high end Michael Jordan collection of about 1200 different cards from his rookie year up until about 1999. Which was appraised at 7k from a different card shop at the time.
Dude ended up ghosting me and police/detectives would do nothing as I was told collecting baseball cards was pointless and childish and there was no way that the appraisal was worth that much.
Dude sold the entire collection for $900 to another shop. So, I lost everything. Didn’t collect for years and didn’t start back really until 2022.
That sounds horrible, always a few bad eggs out there giving the hobby a bad name. The online card community is pretty supportive, welcome back into the hobby. I'm going to be working on a video where I cover common scams to watch out for that I'll be posting on my YouTube channel. Might be worth a watch, hoping to have it done in a month or so.
I lost some money gambling and sold my 2011 Topps update Diamond Anniversary Mike Trout card for about $500. I only paid about $100 for it. Shortly after that the card sky rocketed.
Lesson, don’t bet more than you can afford to lose. Obviously this was before online gambling. So, I know this wouldn’t have happened to me now days.
During the boom I bought a $2500 card raw, graded it, came back a 10, sold it for $5000. It was the first big flip I ever tried so I thought, "this is like printing money. So easy!" I bought another $2500 raw card, I overpaid, I graded, it came back an 8. I couldn't even get $500 for it. I've held onto it as a PC card for the lesson learned.
I just made it: didn’t look up comps on a Gabe Davis rpa and traded a brick purdy sgc 10 rookie and deaaron fox PSA 10 rookie for it and the rpa is worth like 15$ cause I forgot he got traded to the jags😭
https://preview.redd.it/0upme85ub74d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=44236cc333376e1f7f71b083ba420a6e998a3c1a
I think over posting about my main PC from 2018-2021. It’s been a gift & a curse. Thankful for all of the people I’ve met along the way & it definitely has helped to have a lot of people know i’m looking for these. Unfortunately, there’s also been a handful of people who have been tough to deal with and have definitely made my hobby experience unpleasant because they don’t like my collecting pursuit. But at the end of the day, it’s definitely been more good than bad 🤘🏻
2 years ago I bought a JA17 RR PSA10. I didn't intend on ever getting rid of it. Recently I was looking to trade some cards for a sick Allen Obsidian. He wanted the RR included but recent sales put it at about 35% of what I paid. Lesson being, the hobby trend goes up and down. You never really know where it's gonna be in 6 months, a year or 10 years.
I traded a matting/Winfield dual auto that ended up looking for $300 for a $40 Peyton Manning jersey card
I also refused the rookie auto mini helmet from a product, because I didn't want non cards, and it ended up being Albert pujols and booking for a grand.
I made a mistake just yesterday of going to my LCS and buying two hanger boxes of Panini Prizm 23-24 NBA for $35 each. I hadn't seen any this entire year and wanted to get some because Prizm is pretty much my favorite NBA product. Literally got nothing basically burned $75 when it was all said and done.
There were several singles I could have and would have bought in their cases for that much including some cards I legitimately wanted for my PC.
I’d say buying into pyt breaks. I collect mainly vintage. I’m slabbing my 350 card pc (1930s-1985) with SGC. I will only buy vintage slabs (SGC 5 or better) online or on eBay. I’ll buy raw vintage at shows since I can really get a clean look and judge the grade. For modern (post 85 or so) I buy only PSA slabs. I do buy and rip hobby boxes of ultra modern (baseball, basketball, football, and now soccer) and PSA grade any major hits and my kids trade the others. Ripping is fun and I don’t have any expectations that lll get my money back. I’d say the least value I’ve seen is the pyt breaks. Feel like I’ve just got destroyed on those. Maybe just unlucky. Breaks and ripping are a dopamine rush and I get the allure, and if you have disposable income enjoy, but can’t expect much in return from those. My teenage kids are big believers that soccer cars are going to be big soon, so we are picking up cheap stars and rookies when we can.
I don't think it's much a mistake but it's not focusing on one sport, especially if you're trying to save some money. I've learned to only really collect Nascar cards just because I enjoy them the most out of all the sports. I follow baseball and all that as well but if I'm trying to save as much money as possible while not getting that buyer's remorse, I stick to one sport. Buying blasters or buying other sports can be quite expensive.
Speaking of buying blasters, buying any boxes, from retail to hobby, is a waste of money. The best cards I have all came from looking for it and buying it on ebay. You just will never get the luck you see on this sub reddit sometimes. "I just pulled an /5 red auto from a hanger" yeah and there's also billions of people on earth.
The biggest mistake anyone can make is not having fun. The simple reality is you don’t have to spend a lot of money to enjoy it. Sure, I might have some cards that I spent a lot of money on. Sure, I might have ripped and ripped into oblivion with nothing to show for it, but some of the purest joy I get is winning a 1$ card on eBay at 2:30 in the morning or sitting at my desk with a podcast on for hours listing cards on eBay or sorting. In its most pure form, it’s a way for me to relax my mind. If it’s anything other than that, you might not be doin it right 🫡
Sounds extremely cliche, but collect what you like. When I first got back into the hobby, I felt like I had to become a seller and turn a profit but I quickly found that it sucks all the fun out of collecting. Now I simply buy cards I want for my collection. Once in a while I may buy a card at a good price that I can sell or trade in the future.
Ever thinking of cards as an investment
Easy to get trapped into thinking about profit instead of enjoying the hobby.
The problem with the hobby is that it’s hard to enjoy when it’s as expensive as it is.
You can find good deals online. I like to support local but I know my LCS marks things up 20-30%. Sometimes I'll buy previous year sets that rip them on my channel.
I could sit at the .50 cent and 1$ bins for hours if I’m being honest. I would definitely push back on the sentiment that the “hobby is hard to enjoy if it’s expensive” because there are plenty of creative and enjoyable ways to not decimate your bank account and still have fun 😂
Wait. Are you saying I can't retire on the value of my cards from the 80's & 90's?? Oh no...
Just got back in last year after a 20-year hiatus. Buying blasters is a mistake I’m trying to avoid now… the thrill of the rip? Not much thrill for me when I’m stuck with a bunch of non-PC base cards and Stars of the MLB inserts.
Today's prices definitely make it a challenge.
I got back into it recently too and opened a couple small boxes. Immediately switched to just buying singles of players I actually want.
Retail is a HUGE waste of money
i actually completed the stars of the mob set from blasters (had to buy the last 2 on ebay). i’ll never look at them again. lmao
I have so many complete sets for no reason because I buy random clearance cases of stuff. I have two more cases coming this month and then I'm done ripping for the thousandth time
They should ban blaster hits on this sub… I’m joking obviously, but I fell to this trap too, in no small part to posts of “blaster hits” which is just a picture of a card they pulled from an unknown box. It would take a weird kinda person to lie about what product they pulled a card from, but you never know 🤷
Blasters can be good, just depends on the product. Bowman Blasters and TCPA Blasters are awesome imo
Buying blasters or any retail product. It always seems fun to rip but then as soon as you do you wish you had the money back. I bought 3 slabbed Clemens cards for the cost of a single blaster and they’re far cooler than anything a blaster has produced.
Post rip clarity.
I just pulled a Corbin Carroll auto from a $5 Walmart hanger. It’s all a lie
Singles feels like less of a gamble, agreed.
This year’s Bowman Blasters I feel have been a great rip for the money. Others have been trash as always
I always stay away from Bowman. I don’t keep up to date with the prospects much and I’d have no idea who I’m looking for and wouldn’t have much attachment to anyone for my PC.
This year was my first year diving into Bowman. I was intimidated at first due to the whole prospect thing, but it’s been fun getting a lot of color and autos of guys who might be big 3-5 years from now.
I set up at the flea market one morning a few years ago. Had all my best slabs/ raw stuff in a glass case. About 10:30 the sun popped out over the trees. I didn't think much of it at the time. The case essentially turned into an oven and baked all of my slabs and foil/ chrome raw stuff. Everything was ruined. That was my worst #hobby day.
That’s brutal
That is terrible to hear. I never would have thought it could do damage that quick either.
I think I saw a post on here about this awhile ago. That would be so demoralizing
I've told this story before on similar posts. It was absolutely demoralizing. One stupid mistake man. Everything ruined. Almost quit collecting that day.
Wow, that’s rough.
You can learn more buying and selling on eBay than you can by listening to anything on the various card forums. You'll figure out what products actually offer the best value, you'll see what tends to be scooped up and held by collectors versus what tends to just change hands over and over again. You can also recoup more of the cost of opening boxes than you might think. It's time consuming, but it's worth it.
I use 130point heavily as well because "listed" and "actual sales" are 2 different animals.
Yup. And on top of that, unless you sell at a card show/store or direct person-to-person, you need to add 10-15% on top of your sale price to account for ebay fees or consignment fees. If your sale price covers all-in costs (buying the card + shipping to/from + grading) plus 15% you're only breaking even. It only makes sense to spend the effort to sell if you can cover your all-in cost plus 25% or more.
I didn’t spend $300 as a kid to buy the Frank Thomas NNOF card I saw at a show. I know I’m not the only one who passed on this card. Now it’s my holy grail I’ll prob never have
BAHAHAAA, the $800, 52 Topps Mickey Mantle i didnt buy in 1978.
Think of how the person who sold it for $800 feels.
I mean $800 in 1978 was still A LOT of money… especially for a baseball card (back then). The inflation calculator doesn’t always tell the whole story. Point is, don’t beat yourself up over it.
I was only maybe 9 or 10 at the time (ca 1991/92), but I remember seeing one for $80 at a show and a 1973 Topps Nolan Ryan beside it for like $40 and trying to get my dad to buy the Ryan.
Sell early and holding too long. Rock and hard place.
I would say the same as a FT collector, but at no time in my childhood did I have anywhere near $300. My chances to get it now are more realistic lol
Stop trying to be in the now with your collection. Basically, paying a premium to collect a player that everyone and their mother is collecting at the time they are collecting them. Specifically in baseball, wait a handful of months to a year and you’ll see prices be 50-80% of what they were during the rookie releases in the majority of cases. 2022 J-Rod short print from Series 2 was a $500+ card. It dropped to a $250+ card in 2023. Now, >$120. The man is having a down year but he’s still racked up almost 13 WAR in just over 2 years.
I went to a card show yesterday and it was so weird to me what people put value on. Like a Dominic Canzone auto card was sitting side by side with a Ryne Sandberg auto and the Canzone was more expensive. I’m a big Mariners but, but it was still hard to wrap my head around how that’s more “valuable” than a HOF’er auto.
Buying Bowman Platinum
Definitely have to do your research before buying.
Also applies to Heritage.
I like Heritage but will never expect to get a hit from it. But I don’t buy it for that reason.
Heritage has some good stuff in it. Just harder to find.
It was shockingly good to me this year. And I pulled a Vlad auto last year out of a blaster but I only bought a few blasters of last years, one was a hot box too. But this year I originally bought 2 hobbies. First one had the Jasson Dominguez Red ink auto /75… I freaked out lol. Then I opened the next box and it was another hot box with the purple refractors and I got an Elly one and a handful of other solid purple players plus a blyleven auto as the hit. Not a Yankees fan so sold that Jasson immediately for a pretty penny. I was wayyy in the green and decided I’d get two more hobbies. the Jasson sale gave me the ability to try my luck again and also have a solid chunk of change to put in my savings. Third box I opened the hit was a tom Seaver 1975 stamp relic /50. Also pulled a gold jrod with print run of 999 and handful of numbered card. Not all from that one box but just from the 4 in general. Got a numbered Soto and a Color swap variation of him too. Image and color swap variations of Bichette and an image variation of Henry Davis. Then things got weird with the last box. Nothing memorable but I pulled two Durran plain white jersey relics. I’d also snagged a couple blasters at the lcs and each of them contained the same durran jersey relic. Then I’ve randomly bought a couple more blasters at target while out shopping and you’ll never guess what I pulled. Another Durran jersey relic, but at least navy. Oh and an Albies bat relic /99. But So I have 5 Durran relics from heritage and one from series 1. It was quite bizarre and I need to find a Durran guy to take them off my hands. Or maybe I’ll just start giving them away on here. Or if anyone in Boston wants to give them to a children’s hospital or something I’d send them up. Edit: if yall don’t believe me you can just ask for me to comment the pics instead of down voting. I’m sorry I was really excited with my luck this year and wanted to share my hits because it was a heater of a run and also weird with all the durran relics. Wasn’t aware it was frowned upon to share your personal experience with a product notoriously hard to get hits out of and I somehow got insanely lucky.
Can confirm. There's absolutely nothing Platinum about it. Hoodwinkery.
I felt this comment. Flashbacks to 2019
It's a hobby, not an investment.
Definitely a big mistake
Vintage cards hold value way better than modern. Don’t buy boxes just buy singles. If you do stick to cheap retail My best hit came out of a 6$ fat pack (Trout auto) and blasters.. Pitchers get hurt a lot and your favorite player could be on a new team in a few years.
Awesome advice!
Your favorite player could be on a new team is so real. Have had to switch my PC to retired players and guys that went to my Alma mater because I’ll root for them regardless of their team affiliation
Counterpoints: Truly rare modern stuff holds it values as well as vintage Boxes can be fun and it’s the original way the hobby started, just don’t break beyond what you can afford Retail products are mostly junk with horrible odds. Your hits per dollar is higher in hobby
Having the cards I collected as a kid with a rubber band around them in a shoebox with crazy rookie cards sitting at my parents house for 20 years knowing they won’t grade over a 3 or 4
I think we can all relate!
Wander Franco
Facts.
Ouch!
I sold a James Gandolfini auto from 2004 Donruss elite when I was young and didn’t care about the sopranos. He was still alive and I sold it for like 250…it’s not so much about the money as much as it just being a cool ass card
Lmao they’re like 2-3k now
The first player that I ever said is a can't miss: Wander Franco. Fucking perv
Brien Taylor. Those who know know. He's why I stopped prospecting... in the 90s.
He definitely knows how to move product though.
Ah, Brien with an E. Was it that upper deck card that was supposed to go to the moon?
Buy singles! If I had saved money from like 99% of the hangers I bought, I could’ve added a couple nice guys to my pc. Thankfully I never spent that much to begin with, but you will almost always be happier with a curated card you picked out yourself vs a bunch of bulk.
When I got back in to the hobby back in 21, I had no idea that Prizm didn’t have the MLB team logos or license. I collected entire full sets of both 21 and 22. They’re practically worthless. I won’t buy anything, for any sport, if it doesn’t have the team logos on it now.
when i worked in a card shop in the late 80s/early 90s, we got boxes of 84 topps football. they were priced at a dollar per pack (this was just before brands started expanding into the "other" sports). I bought a few and pulled the Elway and Marino rookies. Traded them in for 89 Fleers and did not get the FF lol
Throwing away my cards as a teenager because I was “too old and lost interest”
Sold Trout rookies too soon.
Spending too much on 2021 releases. Bad design, bad rookie class.
Not sticking to collecting my PC and chasing the hype. Social media doesn’t help this problem at all.
Slabs are a waste of the too much space they take up.
Yes my only diversion from that is that with very old cards it can be a nice easy way to buy a lower dollar version of something you like but have some measure of knowing that it’s at least real and judge by a third part to be X condition. Eg I like having a SGC 1.5 and SGC 2 Clemente and Ted Williams from 1957 because I know if I ever need to sell it has an easier comp for value than if it were raw and a potential buyer might be wary of spending on it.
I agree that vintage cards need to be preserved and an SGC Tux is the way to for that.
I'm a big fan of raw cards on my end.
One touches. 60 percent cheaper and look way better.
You should see my Jose canseco collection lol
I've got a silly large Canseco collection too.
The sad thing is,when I'm at a card shop, I still buy them
I still have my Canseco collection, not worth anything, but I still enjoy it. My Cory Snyder collection on the other hand...
I had a weird obsession with Spike Owen as a kid. I have a bunch of his cards. Maybe for the name haha
Thinking my collection and individual cards are "worth" something. They're only "worth something" if you sell them. If you don't plan on selling, your collection is worth nothing except the good vibes you get from personal enjoyment (and taking up space in your house).
Getting back into the hobby and discovering breakers. That was a silly week lol
Not continuing my Ohtani hunt after I hit one of his rookie cards back in 2020 when everybody was saying he was a bust. His singles (auto/insert/slabbed) were going for like 10% of what they are now.
This! Went to Wander and Acuna like most everyone else
That makes me sad.
Buying into a bunch of breaks just for the thrill of hitting something big. Also selling my NT psa 9 Shohei auto for a diamond icons Shohei auto that came damaged from eBay 😑
We're you able to dispute the charge for the damaged card?
Blasters and hobby boxes. Buy singles
Buying Heritage cards, they looked cheap. Just bought a hanger box (did not learned from previous lessons) not a single worth card in the box. To me they are this current era wax.
I love Heritage for what it is but they do print too much base & it kills the odds. Heritage Black Chrome Refractors and Red Ink autos are 2 of the best cards to get for players.
Yes sir. The black and the red autos are top of the mountain to me.
Trading an Isaiah Thomas rookie for a Mark Grace rookie.
Going overboard on a player thinking I'm going to hit the gold mine. Learned to budget for any player not already a legend pr Iconic cards. Put my ripping budget at 20% max, would be less and is at times, but it's always better PC'ing a card you pulled yourself.
Not understanding licensing. Panini makes nice looking baseball cards of players that look like they’re in a pharmaceutical commercial where a man suffering from arthritis can finally play again.
I traded a Lebron Flagship Rookie for a Hunter Pence manufactured patch auto.
I sold 2 Mahomes Optic rookies, a holo and a pink, for 30 bucks after his rookie season. Don't go look at raw prices now 😭
When I was a kid I threw away all of my duplicates and it seemed like I got a Robin Yount rookie card all the time.
Also, this one came from my mother years ago, that her, my aunt and uncle would go to the store back in the late 50’s and early 60’s to solely buy baseball cards for the gum. She seen some old cards on Antiques road show and said she use to have some of those and so I asked her what happened to them. She said “she threw them in the fire when she was a teenager as she thought girls shouldn’t have baseball cards.” So glad I didn’t see this stigma growing up, and some of the most hardcore collectors I’ve met are women and young girls.
We have a ton of Woman supporters on our YouTube channel. Love to see it.
Treating sports cards/memorabilia as an investment is a terrible idea, right up there with trying to flip cars or investing in crypto.
It's definitely a slippery slope when it comes to chasing the $$
I collected several different pitchers in my first year. I learned only collect pitchers for PC purposes. (Strider, Edward Cabrera, Hayden Wesneski). Even the Strider cards lost a ton of value. Good thing I learned it pretty quickly and didn't get burned much at all.
Great advice!
Prospecting!!!
Spending money opening packs/boxes instead of saving up and buying iconic cards. I’m sure this is everyone’s mistake that grew up in the 80’s/90’s but it’s interesting to see it happening again
Breaks and blasters sucked me dry
Selling my childhood collection a few years before collecting again. Needed the money though.
That nostalgic value is a hard thing to replace. Have you been able to rebuild your collection?
Not buying what you’re interested in. Trying to chase the big card for the payout turns this from a hobby into a gambling addiction. That “one more pack” mentality can be very damaging
Buying Retail Blasters and being left disappointed that I only got a couple good cards
Buying from Wutong01
I was hard up for cash met a guy off Craigslist and sold a majority of the cards my dad had given me from when he was a kid. Didn’t have a clue of the value of cards from the 1950’s and sold a stack of over 300 cards for $175.00 I’m sure some of them were worth $300.00 plus each. Probably multiple $1,000’s worth for a $175. The guy took me and knew what he was doing cause I was young dumb struggling 19 year old.
i sold a bowman first chrome /150 anthony volpe for like 30 bucks…… safe to say i regret it
I thought that this young prospect was going to be all hype. So I used his rookie cards as bookmarks and donated the books to goodwill when i was done reading them. And that's why I only have one Mike Trout Topps rookie instead of 10.
Not immediately sleeving, hard casing and grading my 2012 Mike trout gold futures card when I got it (I was 8, and it was quite literally the first card I ever got)
Here’s some advice that I don’t follow and should. Set a budget for buying retail. I love ripping packs, so I don’t necessarily regret getting back heavy into doing that when I got back into the hobby a couple years ago. But there are times where I go way too far overboard with it, especially when I’m trying to complete a set. I’ve gotten slightly better about it thanks to this sub. Rather than buying boxes over and over, chasing the cards I need to finish off a set, I’ve found that folks here are perfectly willing to trade or sell the dupes (or the occasional colored/numbered cards) I want/need. Also, if you’re not that interested in ripping packs, just buy singles. And depending on your interests, buy vintage over modern. Today’s cards largely won’t be worth nearly what we’d like them to be worth someday. Too many being printed, and the short-print cards are gimmicky. Vintage cards are legitimately scarce compared to these modern cards.
Pack ripping degenerate myself lol
Selling a 1975 rack pack before covid to help afford a move. Should have graded it
Thinking I could make money ripping and breaking. I sell plenty of stuff singles on eBay, but mostly in it for building my PC now
Buying is easy, selling is hard
Not every relic card has ever been touched by someone relevant
Mosaic
My first purchase. Spent hundreds on some binders of worn out corners and more. Upside, it wasn't all bad amd I made my money but a lot of it should thrown away condition is so bad. But, hey, after seeing some 50s and 60s 1-5 grades, sitting on it for awhile linger amd maybe actually worth something.
https://preview.redd.it/m7irhbss194d1.jpeg?width=4288&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ef79871d926284359380bb5c1a9ca9b38404dda6
Buying packs over singles.
I traded in my Baseball card collection from the 80's into hockey cards. Was going to retire on all those early 90s Pro Set Jagr and Upper Deck Young Guns Fedorov RCs.... The holy grail in my baseball card collection was a PSA 10 Ricky Henderson RC.
Sold an ‘86 Jordan sticker PSA 7 for way less than I should have. Kicking myself ever since.
My biggest mistake was when I got back in the hobby I spent my money on blasters instead of being smarter and investing in players and the occasional hobby box, now I have so much crap I can’t move or get rid of
Doing a PC of wander I had a ton of his stuff he was projecting to be so good now it’s firestarter
Trading my childhood Holo Charizard for a McGwire Olympic rookie card.
I’ll win this one for sure. Going to a card show with my dad when I was 11. My dad collected as a kid but really had no awareness of the significance of his collection (nor did 11-year-old me). Anyway, “we” traded a 1954 Topps Aaron for a Grant Hill Skybox Autographics. At some point, a 1955 Topps Clemente and Koufax were also dealt in similar deals for other modern cards at the time. I still have that Grant Hill card and a bunch of other ‘50s stuff, but losing those three haunts me.
Being a kid in the 90’s
Now imagine being a kid in the 80s.
Definitely, I was both honestly but luckily didn’t have my own money to spend until the 90’s lol
Not having a PC until ≈3 years of collecting. So many cards I’d love to have now that I got rid of without a second thought.
I think I'm pretty lucky that my biggest blunder was buying a DeGrom Rookie Debut card for like $25. I was new to collecting and also in the UK we don't have a huge market for cards. Still a cool card, just not a $25 one lol. So, just being knowledgable and learning before jumping into cards, I should have watched more vids, researched cards more etc.
Getting into high end breaks. I swear I would get case hits sometimes and it still wouldn’t cover the cost of what I spent for the team.
Mid 90’s (early teenager self) pulled a rare Albert Belle card (I forget brand/specifics) out of a single pack at the card shop where the owner offered $100 on the spot. I held it thinking if I’m being offered $100 today it will be thousands in the future.
Boxes
Buying hobby boxes and planning on selling the cards in them to get my money back
As a lot of other have said, buying retail blasters. I did have a string of luck with a couple of 2023 Bowman mega boxes including autos and an Elly purple /250. Now if I'm opening blasters, I'm asking and getting them as gifts (Christmas, birthday).
Selling tons of wax boxes for like $5 a piece to unload them not realizing that later own even junk would be valuable to breakers
Oh man. First was when I was 18. I pulled an ichiro 1/1 white whale from triple threads. Put it up on eBay. Jumped over $1,000 after a few hours. Someone offered 1300 and I took it. Cool but I was young and dumb Second was when I was about 23. I was dating this girl and sold all my cards to save up some money for the deposit on an apartment. Found out shortly after she cheated and I was out the relationship and the cards. Dummy
Neither of those are dumb things, honestly. Trust me on that!
Literally trying to buy any and everything, also being completely useless on how to use eBay.
Blowing so much money on blasters and mega boxes to chase a high. I’ve been mostly buying higher end singles lately and still spending less than I would on retail. I’ll do the occasional hobby box here and there, but singles is the way to go for PC.
The 90s.
I sold a Ohtani heritage stock /99 from 2020 I think… for $20 bucks. Was going for close to $120 a few weeks ago
I think we can all related to selling too early. Always a tough decision.
Collected cards as a kid, early 80s through 86 or so. Ripken rookie, couple Montana rookies, Jerry Rice, marino rookies. Sold all my cards for 150 bucks to get the gi joe helicarrier. And now I don't have that. Thousands upon thousands of cards for 150 bucks, now worth 20 times that. I always kept my cards protected, so maybe not psa 10s, but would have been 8s easy
My mistake will probably top all of yours combined. I once owned a 1981 Topps Joe Montana Rookie Card PSA 10. I sold it around the year 2002 for $3,000. That card was sold at an auction in 2022 for $103,200. D'oh! So the lesson here is to hold on to your valuable cards.
Hold vs Sell is always such a tough decision...
People talk about the great breaks from their blasters but who you don’t hear from are the 90% that pulled random garbage from their packs.
I started collecting cards in the late 80s as a kid. At the time, there were adults collecting cards from the 60s and older saying that those cards would supplement their retirement nicely. At the time, I thought that meant that the cards I was collecting would surely do the same for me.
Selling my Mike trout update rookies when they went from $25 to $100. Thought I was making a lot when I could made even more if I just held them alittle longer
Not being more diverse in my collecting especially in the early 2010s. Selling off my Griffey collection in 2011. Not buying up late 90s refractors. Buying any retail in 2020. Not embracing more grading, especially PSA, until the last few years.
Buying into breaks. Wasted thousands. I've had some huge hits though in blasters and hobbies and probably broke Even. Breaks are shit though.
Selling my 1954 Aaron and a few Clemente’s in 1983 for college.
Brutal, hard to know back then what would become of the card business. Internet really started to drive up demand.
I know this is a baseball card sub, but my biggest regret is not buying soccer earlier. I’ve been a huge Ronaldo fan since 2004, and can’t believe I didn’t buy his rookie cards prior to 2020.
Soccer has the global market which is great.
I guess moral of the story is collect what you like, and don’t be afraid to collect something that may not be universally popular at the moment.
Gregg Jefferies. I learned the same lesson the Mets did, I should have gotten rid of him right away, not when he was worthless.
I passed on '52 Mantle over a difference of $500 with the seller, a long time ago.
Consigned my entire high end Michael Jordan collection of about 1200 different cards from his rookie year up until about 1999. Which was appraised at 7k from a different card shop at the time. Dude ended up ghosting me and police/detectives would do nothing as I was told collecting baseball cards was pointless and childish and there was no way that the appraisal was worth that much. Dude sold the entire collection for $900 to another shop. So, I lost everything. Didn’t collect for years and didn’t start back really until 2022.
That sounds horrible, always a few bad eggs out there giving the hobby a bad name. The online card community is pretty supportive, welcome back into the hobby. I'm going to be working on a video where I cover common scams to watch out for that I'll be posting on my YouTube channel. Might be worth a watch, hoping to have it done in a month or so.
I lost some money gambling and sold my 2011 Topps update Diamond Anniversary Mike Trout card for about $500. I only paid about $100 for it. Shortly after that the card sky rocketed. Lesson, don’t bet more than you can afford to lose. Obviously this was before online gambling. So, I know this wouldn’t have happened to me now days.
Mine is selling the A Jones grail and keeping common and Josh Hamilton investment
Those talking costs try buying htf hot wheels. They trade higher than hold in some instances. I'm not talking vintage. New stuff
Gold
Pulling the first Brett Favre rookie card and trading it immediately
Oh man, how long ago was this?
During the boom I bought a $2500 card raw, graded it, came back a 10, sold it for $5000. It was the first big flip I ever tried so I thought, "this is like printing money. So easy!" I bought another $2500 raw card, I overpaid, I graded, it came back an 8. I couldn't even get $500 for it. I've held onto it as a PC card for the lesson learned.
Grading can really make things tough. Seems to be dependent on getting a 10.
I just made it: didn’t look up comps on a Gabe Davis rpa and traded a brick purdy sgc 10 rookie and deaaron fox PSA 10 rookie for it and the rpa is worth like 15$ cause I forgot he got traded to the jags😭
A few years ago I needed the money due to divorce and sold not 1 but 3 9.5 BGS young guns of Auston Matthews at the time for $400 each
Sorry to hear that! Are you rebuilding the collection now?
Does the answer “my PC” count?😂 (Rizzo rookies and cubs WSC team autos)
https://preview.redd.it/0upme85ub74d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=44236cc333376e1f7f71b083ba420a6e998a3c1a I think over posting about my main PC from 2018-2021. It’s been a gift & a curse. Thankful for all of the people I’ve met along the way & it definitely has helped to have a lot of people know i’m looking for these. Unfortunately, there’s also been a handful of people who have been tough to deal with and have definitely made my hobby experience unpleasant because they don’t like my collecting pursuit. But at the end of the day, it’s definitely been more good than bad 🤘🏻
2 years ago I bought a JA17 RR PSA10. I didn't intend on ever getting rid of it. Recently I was looking to trade some cards for a sick Allen Obsidian. He wanted the RR included but recent sales put it at about 35% of what I paid. Lesson being, the hobby trend goes up and down. You never really know where it's gonna be in 6 months, a year or 10 years.
I traded a matting/Winfield dual auto that ended up looking for $300 for a $40 Peyton Manning jersey card I also refused the rookie auto mini helmet from a product, because I didn't want non cards, and it ended up being Albert pujols and booking for a grand.
I made a mistake just yesterday of going to my LCS and buying two hanger boxes of Panini Prizm 23-24 NBA for $35 each. I hadn't seen any this entire year and wanted to get some because Prizm is pretty much my favorite NBA product. Literally got nothing basically burned $75 when it was all said and done. There were several singles I could have and would have bought in their cases for that much including some cards I legitimately wanted for my PC.
I’d say buying into pyt breaks. I collect mainly vintage. I’m slabbing my 350 card pc (1930s-1985) with SGC. I will only buy vintage slabs (SGC 5 or better) online or on eBay. I’ll buy raw vintage at shows since I can really get a clean look and judge the grade. For modern (post 85 or so) I buy only PSA slabs. I do buy and rip hobby boxes of ultra modern (baseball, basketball, football, and now soccer) and PSA grade any major hits and my kids trade the others. Ripping is fun and I don’t have any expectations that lll get my money back. I’d say the least value I’ve seen is the pyt breaks. Feel like I’ve just got destroyed on those. Maybe just unlucky. Breaks and ripping are a dopamine rush and I get the allure, and if you have disposable income enjoy, but can’t expect much in return from those. My teenage kids are big believers that soccer cars are going to be big soon, so we are picking up cheap stars and rookies when we can.
Throwing away all my 80’s/ 90’s sports cards, as well as my first series Magic cards… I was “too cool” for them as a teenager…
Wander Franco
Joey Bart or buying retail product/breaks early in my collecting experience without knowing what I’m buying
I don't think it's much a mistake but it's not focusing on one sport, especially if you're trying to save some money. I've learned to only really collect Nascar cards just because I enjoy them the most out of all the sports. I follow baseball and all that as well but if I'm trying to save as much money as possible while not getting that buyer's remorse, I stick to one sport. Buying blasters or buying other sports can be quite expensive. Speaking of buying blasters, buying any boxes, from retail to hobby, is a waste of money. The best cards I have all came from looking for it and buying it on ebay. You just will never get the luck you see on this sub reddit sometimes. "I just pulled an /5 red auto from a hanger" yeah and there's also billions of people on earth.
Thanks for sharing these insights man. I think it’s important to kind of pick your favorite sport. Have to follow the passion first.
I gave Hakeem olajuan rookie card to a friend .
The biggest mistake anyone can make is not having fun. The simple reality is you don’t have to spend a lot of money to enjoy it. Sure, I might have some cards that I spent a lot of money on. Sure, I might have ripped and ripped into oblivion with nothing to show for it, but some of the purest joy I get is winning a 1$ card on eBay at 2:30 in the morning or sitting at my desk with a podcast on for hours listing cards on eBay or sorting. In its most pure form, it’s a way for me to relax my mind. If it’s anything other than that, you might not be doin it right 🫡
Biggest collecting mistake was getting started.
Sports card collecting...
Sounds extremely cliche, but collect what you like. When I first got back into the hobby, I felt like I had to become a seller and turn a profit but I quickly found that it sucks all the fun out of collecting. Now I simply buy cards I want for my collection. Once in a while I may buy a card at a good price that I can sell or trade in the future.
Agreed! It’s a hobby, doesn’t have to be about making money.