Advice for someone new to the hobby?

[TheNerd]

I used to collect and trade as a kid in the 80's and 90's. Things certainly have changed since then! I want to get back into the hobby to build a good collection of vintage sets and new cards for myself - any advice to a newbie on getting started in the hobby as a serious collector? What pitfalls have you hit when you first started?

Thanks!

[hofmichael]

Stick with vintage as it will hold value over time.

[JohnAndrew]

I was in the same position you are about two months ago! I went a little overboard with the wax busting initially and don't have too much to show for it.

Buy singles! eBay, CheckOutMyCards.com, the B/S/T section here...that's where your money is gonna go the furthest.

Finally...probably the best way to get involved with both new products AND the Blowout community is to join the group breaks here! There are many, many fantastic and reputable hosts here that make it a great experience for everyone involved.

Good luck! It's always great to see guys come back to the hobby

[220sports]

Most important rule: Don't be "That Guy" that complains every time he/she doesn't get 200% return on the box they just bought. Open boxes for fun and hope for the big hit. If you don't get it oh well, it's not the manufactures fault. Spend more money and try again! It's all about the fun of the chase.

[Astronix]

Originally Posted by hofmichael

Stick with vintage as it will hold value over time.

Vintage will hold value, but it won't go up much either from what I've seen.

A Nolan Ryan RC will be at the same value for 10 years + maybe going up a little with inflation, but you won't get to see a card rise over night seemingly like a Mike Trout 2009 Bowman Chrome Auto.

I only collect current players (mostly) because I like the risk/reward of potentially having a card go way up in a short period (like Trout did this years)!

[TheNerd]

Originally Posted by 220sports

Most important rule: Don't be "That Guy" that complains every time he/she doesn't get 200% return on the box they just bought. Open boxes for fun and hope for the big hit. If you don't get it oh well, it's not the manufactures fault. Spend more money and try again! It's all about the fun of the chase.

Man I am so behind on the lingo - when you say box... what does that mean?

Honestly as a kid, I LOVED the fact that when I bought a pack I never knew what I would get, a ton of commons, possibly something rare, maybe an insert - it was a blast. I was disappointed when someone told me that there was a formula you could use to figure out what pack had what in it without opening it. It really took the fun out of it. I always get excited - to me collecting is about all the cards, not just the value. I love the cards - the design, the workmanship. I'm one of those people that read the backs - that's why I love the vintage cards, because the way they wrote back in the day is totally different than the formal prose on the back now. Don't get me wrong, I do like owning valuable cards, but I also love commons

[TheNerd]

Originally Posted by JohnAndrew

I was in the same position you are about two months ago! I went a little overboard with the wax busting initially and don't have too much to show for it.

Buy singles! eBay, CheckOutMyCards.com, the B/S/T section here...that's where your money is gonna go the furthest.

Finally...probably the best way to get involved with both new products AND the Blowout community is to join the group breaks here! There are many, many fantastic and reputable hosts here that make it a great experience for everyone involved.

Good luck! It's always great to see guys come back to the hobby

Can you explain a little more about this - what is a group break? Thank you for the fantastic advice!!

[rudyjustinfarrell]

Box: A product that is sealed from the factory and is guaranteed X number of packs with certain other ratios expected in the packs.
Hobby
Retail (Blasters)
Rack Packs

Group Break: A group purchase of a certain sport or product, that may be year specific of cover a multitude of years AND products. There are a few general formats-
Hit Break
Team Break
Draft Break

This will probably lead to a lot more questions, but it will get the conversation rolling. You can also look in the GROUP BREAK section and start reading.

Welcome back to the Hobby, start drinking from the firehose as the Hobby has changed even in the 6 years since I've been a serious collector.

[roc21]

go on blogtv...watch guys doing box breaks...youll learn the products, lingo, etc...im same as you,, collected big as a kid(i have mid 70s-90s) then stopped, was only into memorabilia, but got back into cards the past year now that my sons(8/10) are interested, so i gave em my memorabilia to hang in their rooms, and buy cards...personally i dont do box breaks...alot of $- might get nothing(its a gamble).......i prefer to just buy what we are interested in....
feel free to pm me with any questions..

[55_marlins_sp]

Most important rule: Have FUN !

[JohnAndrew]

Originally Posted by TheNerd

Can you explain a little more about this - what is a group break? Thank you for the fantastic advice!!

Sure thing...in a nutshell, we get a group of people who all contribute the same amount of money towards a purchase of a large quantity of product (usually a case or more). The case is broken by the break host (a reputable member here who has generously offered their time to break/sort/ship/etc.) and streamed live online. Essentially, the cards are usually shared by one of three ways:

• By Team -- You get all the cards of players on a particular team
• By Player -- You get all the cards of a single player
• By Hit -- Each break slot gets an autograph, game-used card, or any other special inserts that product might offer

After the product is paid for, a moderator will randomize the list of participants. Here, one of two things will happen:

• In a random format, your break slot is randomly assigned a team/player against another moderator-randomized list
• In a draft format, the list will serve as the draft order, and each person will go one-by-one and select whichever team/player they might want

So as an example, 30 people might participate in a 5-case Team Draft Break of 2012 Topps Chrome. Each of the 30 slots will cost $XXX.XX, so when everyone has paid the group break host via PayPal, the host will ask a moderator to randomize the list of 30 participants.

Say that I show up first in the randomized list. That means that I get the first choice of whatever MLB team I want. I take the Yankees; the person who's second on the list takes the Nationals, and so on.

Does that make sense? Have a look at some of the breaks here to see what kind of stuff is going on. Let us know if you have any questions

[TheNerd]

Man this sounds like a blast! I am so glad I stumbled upon this forum - it makes the hobby not so much a lonely thing - my kids are still a bit young to appreciate it and my wife could care less about sports/cards.

So glad to be back in the hobby. Thanks again for all the advice - this is great!

[Coug46n2]

Good luck whatever you do, the best advice is to know and understand you're not going to get everything you want and not going to get it overnight. It takes time, you'll spend money on things you end up not wanting and you'll pass on things you should have picked up. It's all part of the fun. Start slow, find out what products or teams interest you, and then slowly build from there.

Blowout is a great place for ideas and to see all the various products being opened. Ask lots of questions along the way. But avoid "what two boxes should I get...." Instead ask "I really like veterans over prospects, what two boxes should I get..." Or "I'm looking for the best base cards to build a collection with the occasional auto or game used, what two boxes should I get....." If you ask questions based on your own research or interests you'll get much better advice from the boards.

Last piece of advice, spend a little on retail products to see if you like the products first. If you like the product spend the money on hobby boxes instead of more retail. Don't go all in on buying retail, it's like Vegas, it might be fun for the weekend once in a while but the house always wins in the end.