The journey for those new to the hobby/recently returned?

Auscon

OzCardTrader
Messages
98
Location
Perth
Real Name
Adam
Are there any others here that are fairly new to the hobby, or only recently returned? What has your experience been, are you in deep and drowning in prizms, sticking to the old stuff, already started to cool on collecting again etc?

Like many I hadn't even thought about cards in a very long time until earlier this year when I caught wind of how the hobby had exploded in covid times, and that sparked a subsequent deep dive back into the collecting world.

I was mad for cards in the early/mid 90's up until 95/96. Only had a meagre collection and not much of note, but always kept my folder of 'good' cards stored away. About 10 years ago I must've been ebay rabbit holing, saw how cheap old 90's boxes were and bought a handful or so just for the fun of living a childhood dream and ripping them open. At the time I did also grab a very cheap box of newer cards (Fleer 07/08) just to see how they compared to the old. Well, I thought they absolutely sucked, no nice shiny subsets etc. So while the 90s cards all went straight into sleeves, those newer Fleer cards got stacked/rubber banded. I think I paid $25 for that box and it now sells for thousands. Insane.

Here's my journey since re-entering the world of basketball cards in March this year;
  • Started out with a very thorough inspection of all my old cards
    • Cards I had as a kid? No bueno.
    • The 6x boxes of 90's cards I opened 10yrs back and immediately sleeved? Amazed to see how many flaws there were. Almost nothing good enough to grade.
    • Ironically, the highest value + best conditioned card I found was in the rubber banded stack of discarded 07/08 Fleer. 3x Durant rookies, 2 of which had big depressions to one corner, but the retro rookie appeared flawless so that was an exciting one to un-earth.
  • Sent that Durant off to PSA for grading & received back (lucky enough to catch a grader who was having a good day and got a 10. I have no connection to the card so the smart thing would probably be to sell it off now, but I'm not that smart).
  • Sent a few more cards to SGC for grading (just 2 fav childhood Jordans and a marvel card, nothing special but I like the tux look to preserve them).
  • Broke a Prizm Mega box - $250 box, got maybe $5 of cards. No connection to the players, everything looks the same. Modern cards probably not for me.
  • Broke a 93/94 Hoops box - half the cost of the above, 10x the fun. I was more excited to see Rony Seikaly's mug than anything in that prizm box. Still just gambling but I might do one of these a year now.
  • Coaxed a mate to get into the hobby too and took part in a US break - really enjoyed it, but a one off I think. Got absolutely nothing but we spent very little (Jazz, Rockets).
  • Purchased a 93/94 Fleer Ultra S2 box, to test my mental fortitude and see if I can avoid the temptation to unearth that almost certain unbricked Jordan Power in the Key awaiting within.

Where I'm at now - I'm not a gambler and fairly risk averse, so I think I'll be staying away from all the modern cards, and just invest a small amount into a very modest PC collection of legend rookies to stash away for my toddler, as well as some Jordans I've always wanted. Probably the absolute worst time to be doing that and if I just wait another few years they could all be much cheaper.....Other than that, maybe an annual junk wax break for some nostalgic fun.

All in all, I've loved learning and discovering how the hobby has evolved. Spent more than I should and still a bit more to come. But I can't help but be concerned about where the hobby goes from here - covid and the new masses just looking to make a quick buck aside, I figure the explosion also doesn't happen without the nostalgia from generations of kids like me who grew up on bball cards, but where will those generations come from in future when kids can't even get their hands on a pack these days?
 
Great recap and Pretty much sums up what a lot of us that have been around for a good while are feeling now. I returned in Derick Rose RC year - product was great, reasonably priced and breakers were just starting to do box breaks online - I did a few with Cherry. Fast forward to 2020 and with the intersection of a few major world Events we have millions more people coming back to or into sports cards (for one reason or another…..) and a lot has changed.

id be interested to hear from someone collecting before the 90’s Boom. Seems similar to this last few years? The build up to around 1990 when it took off into the “junk wax era”.? Same feelings about changes that came about?id imagine it was.
 
Great thread!

I started as a kid with footy cards around 87 then switched to basketball in 93 and bought Upper Deck, Fleer and Skybox packs with pocket money. I kept collecting up to around 98 and left the hobby. As it happens with alot of us, I returned to rediscover simpler times in 2009 with my handful of folders containing unfinished sets. 2009 was a transition time for basketball cards and a good year for rookies. I bought some boxes and completed alot of Upper deck, Fleer and Skybox 90s sets with ebay and comc purchases over the next year or so and then took another break. Fast forward to 2019 and here I am again collecting older sets and now putting together latest sets of Hoops and Court Kings. My love is still 90s cards and I'm still chasing alot from that era. Still think Topps sucks.

Not a fan of all the parallels trend in todays cards but i like that base cards are more valued now. Some of the insert sets are not great and don't really relate back to the actual game so much and we are up to our neck in non worn jerseys and sticker sigs. But there are some great cards out there being made and I still see plenty i like. I don't get cards graded and this trend of slabbing everything is also something i don't like.

The prices for boxes is crazy and i dislike the breakers trend as they push up prices. As a hobby collector, i don't sell cards and only trade for what i need so the casual investor collector is not something i like either. On the other hand, some of my 90s cards are worth alot more now although card value has never been the important thing to me. There is no way I could buy a box or packs and just sit on them unopened, they would be ripped open as soon as I get them.

Still chasing my holy grail 1993-94 Ultra Jordan Scoring Kings at a reasonable price....I have come close a few times lol
 
Like so many others, I was a kid when the Upper Deck 92/93 boom kicked things off. I remember instantly falling in love with the Jordan #23 card (still one of the best-looking cards ever, IMO) and the little hologram on the back of Upper Deck cards.

Probably kept up the enthusiasm until the 1995-96 season, when cards just didn't really appeal anymore. From there, everything went into storage. Years later I remember throwing a shoebox worth of cards into the recycling bin, but kept what I thought were the good ones, just because.

Came back to the hobby in 2009 with adult money, after having a laugh with a mate about how much we used to dream of the Chris Webber 1993-94 Die Cut All-Star card as kids. So I went onto eBay and bought one for what felt like peanuts, which then snowballed into buying singles from all the sets I used to dream of owning as a kid.

After spending a couple of years gathering a bunch of foil and hologram-heavy sets from the early 90s, I moved overseas and all cards went back into storage. I did take a look at them each time I was back in Australia, but paid zero attention to new products, "the market" etc until I moved back to Australia in 2018, unemployed and started selling all my old stuff that had been in storage on eBay. I remember selling a Jordan 93/94 Scoring Kings for $200 in early 2018 and being blown away at how it was worth so much when I'd bought it for $40 :lol:

Kept selling all these cards I'd accumulated in 2009/10 but one day after I was working again, I was on eBay and saw a LeBron Fleer Retro Scoring Kings auction that was ending soon. I remember thinking how awesome it was to see LeBron in a set similar to one of my all-time faves, and thought "fuck it, I've got money" and ended up bidding and winning the card for $78 USD. That was the first set that I started collecting again - the Fleer Retro Scoring Kings (pic below). Still need the Jordan though. I recently screenshotted the LeBron transaction after seeing how much this card sells for now and being curious how much I'd paid back then. (pic below) :cool:

That auction win was the moment that I started collecting again, and not just selling my old stuff. Even picked up another couple of 93/94 Jordan Scoring Kings in 2019 for $120 and $185 AUD since I regretted selling the one I originally had (pic below). Have been putting together some sets for the last few years, buying them, selling them, being in the hobby consistently moving cards. Still haven't opened a single box or even pack since I was a kid though.

For the last year or so I've been reducing the amount of cards I have - down to about 200 now - and been focusing on long-term holds and stuff I plan on getting graded once it's moving again. My primary pickups for holding have been Fleer Retro LeBron inserts (probably now got 20+ of these waiting for grading), and #d and SP Rui Hachimura cards since I find his story intriguing.

My current hobby goal is to eventually consolidate a lot of the cards I own that I'm not absolutely attached to as long-term holds, into a Giannis Retro PMG Red at some stage in the future, and just hold onto it.


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Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. Pity you didn't get back into it pre-covid( because that's when things really exploded). You could've still busted a fair selection of hobby boxes then without having to take out a personal loan.

I collected VFL footy cards as an 11/12 year old while still at primary school but stopped as soon as I went to high school. In 1994 I collected Rugby League cards as well as surfing cards. From memory I bought both of those products at a local newsagent and can't remember any NBA cards being available. Over the years I would occasionally buy a teamcoach album from a newsagent and a handful of packs( much to the dismay of my other half) but quickly passed them on to a family member's kid or a friend's kid.I didn't walk into a card shop until 2018.

In late 2017 I started watching footy breaks online and I think that's what got me back into it. Up until then I thought you could only buy loose packs and not the entire box. Late 2017 I bought 4 or 5 boxes of Teamcoach and partly built a master set. That Christmas I bought a 2017 Topps baseball complete set. In early 2018 I started buying baseball hobby boxes from the US through ebay as well as hockey and NFL. I also bought NBA products at my LCS's because that is mostly what they stocked - other than aussie rules and non-sports trading cards. I've pretty much been hooked on it ever since. I set build, buy singles, grade cards, flip cards, and still bust wax here and there but probably 1/4 the amount I did in 2018 and 2019.

My main regret is that I didn't get into it earlier. And my main concern as of right now is overprinting/dilution of products, high prices, and the somewhat unclear future of the hobby as it relates to Fanatics.

Cheers!
 
I joined here back in 2011 or so after collecting as a kid in the early 90's. At the time, this place was constantly a hive of activity. It seemed from memory you would hardly go a few days without a box break. The Wanted and Selling boards were always active. Got to know some great members and had a really good time here for over a year or so. The great thing at the time is that product was much more affordable and the AUD$ exchange rate was at parity or better with the US.
I came back here again and started having a look around last year after the market explosion had taken place and honestly could not believe what i was seeing! All of a sudden, virtually everything was out of reach, boxes were selling for 7 - 10 times the amount i remember they used to.
Since i've been back, i've had some fun buying some of the older, nostalgic type stuff but even some of that has completely gone through the roof. I've been buying up a rather large collection of old packs through to current day which i plan to bust on here.
I miss the amount of activity that was happening on here back when i first joined more than anything but understand how the nature of collecting has changed for most of us. I can soon see myself heading down the path of mainly buying singles like most on here but part of my collecting will always be the fun of busting packs. Unfortunately it will be pretty much just retail as hobby boxes don't represent any value these days.
I'm also hanging out for the next big thing... the next Kobe/ LeBron and hopefully capitalise on that for the future since i missed out on collecting their rookie years.
 
It's funny how different we are but all pissed about the same things. Mostly the $$$. I collected in the 90s but everything I had wasn't looked after well and ended up in the bin. Got back into it in the 2010's after a couple of trips to the US where I watched a few games and bought some hobby boxes while I was there. I have no interest in set collecting or collecting large numbers of cards for that matter. I just want autos of the players I like to watch without paying through the nose. When I bust a box I sell or give away the ones that aren't auto or mem because I just don't want to have to worry about storing them.
 
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