[uvaspina]

I must make one more comment, then I am done. I recently got back into the hobby because of the interest shown by my daughter. We can't afford to get the high end stuff and there are no card shops within 50 miles of us but our Ryan Braun and Jonathan Lucroy collection is growing. How? Mostly due to the excellent people on this site in the form of trades. The ability to trade my older MJ inserts and other random cards we recently pulled from packs for cards of players my daughter and I see play every summer has increased the enjoyment factor tremendously for both her and myself. So, while the high end stuff might be a negative for the majority of collectors working on a shoestring budget, the ability to get our favorite players cards by giving someone cards of their favorite player has been a huge positive and also something that would have been nearly impossible to do in the days before Triple Threads and 5 Star.

I think this is a great point for the OP to keep in mind. With the internet (and this site in particular), we have access to more cards than we ever did before. 20 years ago, the only cards you'd ever be able to find were: 1. the ones you picked up at the store/LCS; 2. ones your buddy had; 3. the ones you could find at the monthly card show. Good luck trying to complete your rainbow back then! This site is a great place for camaraderie, knowledge, and most importantly, trading! (I've done well over 100 in the year since I joined). It's a great way to build up your collection at minimal cost. There's a lot of good guys on here too who will keep you in mind when they come across stuff you need. Hard to beat that.