Tips collecting on a budget and how to collect to the full extent Part one: Internet Shopping

The Joy of Card Collecting Part 1

The hobby of collecting cards has changed drastically since I first started collecting 18 years ago. Card companies with multiple brands, low numbered cards that can be so rare that only one of them is made, a lot more autographs being inserted, celebrity and historical cards being inserted into sports and pieces of everything an athlete has touched or worn, except a jock strap or mouth piece (yet anyways. I suppose there still is that rare chance), have been included into cards. Most importantly however are the prices.

The price of a pack of cards when I started probably ranged between $1 to $6 for the high-end products. There were very few products to choose from and getting an insert actually meant something. Now-a-days, prices range from $1.99 to even $500 a pack, and inserts mean nothing to most. And without getting that jersey or autograph card in your box(s) or pack(s) you have nothing. Then those cards get tossed aside like they have no value. At least in the old, old days they would end up in the spikes of your tires and have a use.

I still collect what I call the old fashioned way. Where you slowly open the package, take out your cards; know that somewhere in there could be your favorite player or team. There could also be a rookie or two you have been looking for and not to mention that possibility (though it’s easier now) of getting that insert. Don’t get me wrong, I am all into the jersey and autographed cards, but I still treasure every card out of a pack. Then I bring them home, I sort out the commons and put them by number and then categorize them in an 800 ct box by brand and by year. I take rookies and put them into binders by team and the star players into another binder by who they are. Then the inserts have their own binder as well. If I am lucky enough to have scored a jersey or autograph card, they get put into a special case then into a safety box no matter the value. All are simple concepts, but it is all a part of the way I like to collect.

The point I am about to make is, I want to show everyone how to have more fun with the hobby and feel like they get everything they can out of a box of cards or even a pack or cards. I will also tell my secrets and tips of collecting on a budget. To start my three part series, I will begin with talking about the internet. Don’t worry those of you who don’t have the internet, because part two is for you.

Some of my purchasing I do online. eBay, which is well known by all, can give you some awesome deals if you have the patience for it. I have ended up with a lot of good rookie cards and cards of my favorite players for only 99 cents and whatever small shipping fee they have. And I have also got some really great card lots with jerseys and autographs, rookies and inserts between the ranges of ten to twenty dollars. You can also purchase boxes and packs on there from a variety of years depending on what you are looking for. The key to eBay is to have patience. If you bid on an item instead of buy-it now it may feel like an eternity before the bidding ends, but in the end you could end up with something for a couple of dollars and not for the ten they were charging for buy-it now. This would give you extra cash for more cards or for bills and gas. And it makes you a winner either way.

You also need patience in finding the exact item you are looking for. You can type in so and so rookie card and have over a thousand hits for it and sometimes notice at the bottom that if you had typed it in another way, you could also find even more or different ones of the chosen item. It takes time to search through all of it, but it’s well worth it when you stumble upon a deal you cannot turn down.

I also purchase cards from Dave and Adam’s Card world (dacardworld.com). They seem to have the best prices online for hobby boxes and packs that you can purchase on any budget. Depending on what you collect and what your budget is, you may be able to get the new packs and boxes or you may have to settle for the previous years and get what would have been new stuff next year when the prices drop. Either way, cards are cards and if you have a deep love for the hobby you will appreciate anything within your budget. Especially when it comes to hobby purchases. I will talk more about retail buying in part two, though Dave and Adam’s also sells retail. But, I only purchase hobby there and my retail purchases are made elsewhere. It’s not that they don’t have good deals on retail, I just prefer to get them the way I do.

There are also on and off deals throughout the year so you have to watch for those as well on the site. There are also many other places online to buys cards, like blowoutcards.com, Amazon, olympiasports.net, and Overstock.com to name a few. I was just giving my opinion where to find the cheapest and the most for your budget. It doesn’t mean that you can’t search those sites to see what they have and maybe stumble upon something at a good price.

And if you didn’t know that there were two different things like hobby and retail, the easiest way I can explain it is, retail is something that you buy at a retail store such as Wal-Mart or Target. Hobby is something that is purchased at a card shop or at a big distributor like Dave and Adams. The only other difference is retail you get more cards and less “hits” (however when you get a retail hit it will feel like a million dollars since it’s so challenging to get a good hit in retail) and hobby you get less cards and more “hits”. That’s just the simplest way I can explain that. Other people might have better ways to explain the difference. I was just using my own words.

When I shop online whether it’s eBay or Dave and Adam’s I always make one thing consistent when purchasing a box of cards. I make sure if I spend, let’s say fifty dollars, that I will most likely get it back in return. So I search for boxes or packs that have guaranteed pulls (whether this means memorabilia, autographs, inserts, rookie cards, or a combo of the four) and the one that has the most is the one I choose if it’s in my price range. This is a formula I have been using for a few years and it has worked very well. I once went away from my formula and chose the hottest brand out there to feel like the rest of the collectors and the results were very devastating. I lost out big time. I may have gotten a couple of nice looking cards that I may not have gotten from what I was going with originally, but the value of what I got to what I paid wasn’t close at all. I will never break from my formula again.

All-in-all there is a lot of positives to buying online and just as many buying in person. In part two, I will tell you how to buy in places where there are no card shops or if you don't have the internet (and if you do have a local card shop it’s good to support them because they need jobs just like the rest of us, even though prices for cards may be a little more than the places I listed above online but it’s always nice to help those who try to make a living off from the hobby) while also helping you save money. I fully understand what it is like to live in an area without a local card shop and what it is like to have a hobby on a budget having a family. So, I find other ways, besides just the internet, where I do a lot of my purchasing to build my collection while not breaking the bank.

Til next time, keep busting wax.