Does anyone here actively collect trading cards of any sort? Sports, Pokemon, whatever?

I received an Arnie Risen a while back and think I would like to make a hobby of it. Any thoughts on the best ways to go about it? 

Buying boxes? Singles? 

Safe sites to purchase? 

Best pull from a pack?

I know this used to be extremely popular and after fading, has made a huge resurgence, just curious if anyone here is involved.

I am not currently still involved, still still have all my cards from my younger days.  Always wanted to keep them for a future child, if they'd have interest.

I have many cards from the late 50 and 60s, have some old Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, it’s all about condition, condition, they really ding you on price if not in mint condition.

I still have all of my baseball cards from the early 70's.  I got back in with cards in the mid 80's with being around the Wholesaler business.  I have unopened wax packs cases of Donruss cards from 85, and 86 along with hundreds of uncut sheets of baseballs cards.  I sold some of the wax pack boxes that Herky Rupp ended up with at a hefty investment.   

When my boys were born, their uncle bought them a large box of tops baseball cards from the year of their birth, 88 and 90.  Don’t know if they are worth anything but the boxes are still unopened.

 

On 11/27/2020 at 4:07 PM, Beechwoodfan said:

When my boys were born, their uncle bought them a large box of tops baseball cards from the year of their birth, 88 and 90.  Don’t know if they are worth anything but the boxes are still unopened.

 

That 88 box is a good vintage! I have the Roberto Alomar rookie in a protector in a shoebox somewhere. 

On 11/25/2020 at 12:54 PM, allsport71 said:

I have many cards from the late 50 and 60s, have some old Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, it’s all about condition, condition, they really ding you on price if not in mint condition.

Would you say yours are in decent-good condition? Because that sounds like a hefty sum you're sitting on.

On 11/26/2020 at 7:56 AM, Rebel said:

I still have all of my baseball cards from the early 70's.  I got back in with cards in the mid 80's with being around the Wholesaler business.  I have unopened wax packs cases of Donruss cards from 85, and 86 along with hundreds of uncut sheets of baseballs cards.  I sold some of the wax pack boxes that Herky Rupp ended up with at a hefty investment.   

The uncut sheets interest me. Just an 8x11.5in sheet with multiple cards all connected?

1 hour ago, SnottieDrippen said:

The uncut sheets interest me. Just an 8x11.5in sheet with multiple cards all connected?

The uncut sheets are like money just printed and ready to be cut down to size to place in the packs.  If I had to guess there are like 100 cards on each uncut sheet.  Just like money they are very hard to get, but in my business around retailers and wholesalers, I got my hands on quite a few of them.  Next time in the attic I'll take a pic.   

1 hour ago, SnottieDrippen said:

The uncut sheets interest me. Just an 8x11.5in sheet with multiple cards all connected?

Here’s a pic that I googled. This is them! Mine are all mid 80’s  

Ebay has a set of 3 of 1989 upper deck's going for $1,500.00  currently.  I'm thinking maybe I should get them down and secure them a little better.  

 

I have a pretty large collection with cards dating back to the 50's. Growing up in the 1970's, my mother would get me a three pack of Topps Baseball Cards everyweek when she went grocery shopping. I have mostly complete sets from 73, 74, 75, 78, 79. Don't know what happened to 76 and 77. In the late 70's My Uncle then gave me his entire collection from when he was a kid, which had some really cool stuff. None of it in perfect condition, but I still have it and it includes most of the big names from the 50's and 60's. I've got a few Mantles, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams etc. I've never had them appraised, but again, condition is at best, just good.  In the 80's, my mother started buying me complete hobby sets, and I have every complete Topps set from 1980-1998. I got into it pretty heavy, from 1993-1994, which was the beginning of the rare, chase card, and special editions sets. Smartest thing I ever did, was immediately trading my big pulls for older cards. I secured a mint Jackie Robinson rookie card,  a couple less valuable, later Mantles, as well as a bunch of other older stuff. Most of those chase cards are completely worthless now. 

I pretty much exited the hobby in the early 2000's, and have bought very little over the last 20 or so years. I've got a big shelving unit in basement that is full, that I really need to do something with. I had plans to pass them along to my kids, but they just aren't as interested. Unfortunately, much of this stuff from the 80s and 90s has really gone down in value over the last decade or so...I should have looked into doing something a few years ago.

In addition to cards, I've got a bunch of other memorabilia...newspapers, programs, some autographed stuff, and Starting Lineup figures.

On 12/3/2020 at 1:41 PM, SnottieDrippen said:

Would you say yours are in decent-good condition? Because that sounds like a hefty sum you're sitting on.

Well I thought some were, I recently took them to a local place that deals in sports things of all kinds, even though most in plastic, the ends of the cards are worn, best offer was on the Hank Aaron card, it was around 150 , I think it’s a 1958 or 59, would have to check, that’s the reason I say condition, condition. He said old nba cards are hot right now, I have none.

I do know any card is hard to come by in any store right now.  My son asked for some football and baseball cards for Christmas.  My mom was going to get him some and went to 5 stores, all empty shelves.  At the one place, the worker said they just filled up the shelves that morning.  At another store, she talked to 2 guys that were waiting for the sales rep to show up.  They told her unless you're there when the rep shows up, you'll never get any.  I don't know the reason for this as I haven't looked into it.

 

I have a collection of baseball cards in storage in the basement from when I was a kid.  I don't even recall what I have.  My son has been asking me to dig it out, and I may do so next week when I'm off.

I just saw this thread.  I recently sold my entire collection of 10,000 cards, all collected when I was a kid in the 70's.  I had baseball, football, and basketball.  My oldest Baseball cards were 1933 Goudey, I had quite a few from the 50's, including Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente.  Stars and Hall of Famers from the 60's including Mantle and the aforementioned guys, plus Gibson, Koufax, Rose, Bench, etc. plus all the stars in the 1970's.  My last cards were complete sets in 1978, 1979, 1982.  Football cards starting with 1948 Leaf.  I had many in the 50's, more in the 1960's, and most in the 1970's.  The one card I didn't have from the 70's was the Walter Payton Rookie.  I did have several Jim Brown.  Butkus and Sayers rookie, OJ rookie, etc., etc.  I did have the Namath Rookie that is the most valuable football card of all.  My basketball cards were not as numerous with my best card being a 1970 Topps of Lew Alcindor.  I loved collecting sports cards when i was a kid... probably too much because i handled them a lot.  

Here's what I learned from my recent sale...

1.  condition is where the value lies.  PSA 10 Namath rookie is worth $250,000.  Price drops drastically as condition goes down.  This is true with every card.  The one I had was probably worth between 1-2 thousand dollars retail.  

2.  The cards worth anything must be mid1970's and older.  Most collectors only interested in 1960's and older but will buy later ones.  After the late 1970's the only way they are worth anything is if they are rookie cards of stars and then they must be in mint condition.  

3.  If you are selling them you must know how you want to sell them?  How fast do you need money?  How involved do you want to be?  You can set up an ebay store and sell them that way.  But you have the hassle of dealing with every question on every card and trying not to get ripped off.  If you want to get rid of them fast, you can contact a big dealer and let them take a look at your collection and they will make an offer.  This way is the quickest and involves you the least.  But be prepared, they won't give you anything close to what they are worth because they have to make a buck and they know they will be holding on to some cards for a loooong time before they find a buyer.  They will give you less than you think, even when making allowances for their need to make a profit.  It is hard for someone not in the business to be able to fairly evaluate condition.  You basically have to take their word for it.  There are some other ways to sell them.  Do an internet search for how to sell card collection and you will find a lot of advice.  

For me, I finally decided to sell the collection that I've held on to for 40 years because I figured I would get more enjoyment out of the thing selling them would afford me than keeping them on a shelf in my closet and occasionally looking at them.  I was right about that.  Take a look at my new-to-me-motorcycle in the Great Outdoors forum