General Forum

Thanks everyone for the feedback; very insightful!

I’m probably the millionth collector to lament about this but I love the simplicity of when I collected as a kid; there was usually only one rookie card per player to chase...

If I were choosing I would go with which one has the most eye appeal to me. Brand doesn't really matter to me.

I've come to accept that most of my collection is worthless (verified when I tried to sell large lots of cards last Fall)...Unless you have some super rare cards, most people aren't willing to pay anything for cards..It pains me to type that but it's true..

While I do not have any grandkids yet, I hope that they have some interest in my collection because my family does not!

Collect cards that you enjoy!

Like most of the other replies, I'd say just collect the ones that you are most interested in. I've started a HOF collection, attempting to get the first and last Topps cards of each player. I do Topps because that's were my interest lies. There certainly are exceptions; can't afford many of the first releases in the vintage cards, while many players never appeared on a Topps card during their career. In those cases, I'll just try to pick up one card (preferably something put out by Topps).

I think it’s an interesting question. It depends. If you’re talking about people who lived through the years when fleer, score and other now no longer in business card companies I say very by year. Now fast forward 500 years. Probably only topps will hold any value as a collection. No one will really know the other companies and not be looking for them. Of course if topps goes under then none of the cards we all love will be worth anything because there will not be any collectors at all for these cardboard stuff 500 years from now. I wonder what the odds are of any of these cards surviving 500 years?

Yea  who living today ever smoked those cigarettes on the back of those T-206 cards

I wanted to be redundant with both the “it depends” statement of rookie cards and set appeal, as well as the “collect for the love of collecting” credo. Look what happened to the Topps ‘82 Ripken Jr. rookie and 85’ Team USA McGuire cards - they were catching well over $100 each in the late 80s, and then the market collapsed. They’re still valuable today, especially for cards of that era, but for 80-90% less than their peak. My point is, who knows what the value of these cards will be in the future? Don’t collect thinking that this is an investment for retirement, putting the kids through college, or paying back Vinnie “The Pipe” Umanita the 10 Gs you lost on the Rams. It’s a fun hobby, and beauty is in the eyes of the card holder.