[corbin21]

Welcome and congratulations on your retirement. I have 5 more years in education God willing and I will be there with you. Beckett is a great site to help organize your cards and to make trades to help finish your sets. Enjoy the hobby, enjoy the site and don't be afraid to post a thread here and there. I have had all kinds of questions answered here with the help of other collectors like myself.

[beginesj]

Welcome to Beckett!!

[twhgracie]

Start small and stay organized as your collection grows. Try buying a couple of "hobby boxes" (basically 24-pack sealed boxes) to get yourself started and acquainted with the different types of cards and inserts and loading them into your Org etc (maybe even try to start off by building a set from scratch). Figure out what you like. Maybe it's a player, team, era, brand, insert, whatever. Start collecting what you like and take your time with it. This site is a great place for trading. I just started collecting in the fall of '11 and I've already done 50 trades. You'll find the guys here fair and helpful, especially to the newer collectors. Once you figure out what you like, start browsing the active and completed listings to see what cards are selling for. (Believe me, your interest should be driven by the joy of collecting, not profit. But still, you want to male the best use of your dollar). Don't be surprised to see that cards may regularly sell for 25-75% of the "book value" (BV). Some cards might regularly sell well above BV (Jeter, Griffey autos for example, and short print cards).

My collecting strategy from the beginning was to collect 3 players: A young top star from my local team (Verlander), an established star whose cards are numerous and relatively affordable (Miguel Cabrera), and a young, upcoming player who I see as (still) having a high upside (Maybin). I recently started collecting Mike Stanton too. It's a little bit easier starting with a player who debuted in the last year or two; otherwise, it can be overwhelming to start collecting a player who already has THOUSANDS of cards. Start at the ground floor, so to speak.

Try to make a goal and stick to it (as long as you enjoy pursuing it). I'd advise against spending the bulk of your collecting resources buying boxes/cases. That's the gambler's/profiteer's route. Not. Very efficient way of building a focused collection.

If you decide to start trading here, don't be surprised if people ask you to ship first. It's a leap of faith, but still a pretty safe bet when you deal with the regular traders here. I have t had a single bad trade yet. Start small -$20-25 trades. Always feel comfortable saying no. (and don't be offended if people turn you down). Also, don't expect to trade 25 $1 cards for a single $25 autographed card. (you never know, but it's very unlikely someone would be interested).

Welcome aboard and good luck. If I can help you out in any way, let me know.

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Hello Folks! I am a brand new collector, just retired from education. Don't know much about baseball except that I love to watch it. I just bought some things off Ebay and now I need to know what to do with it. I have lots of time on my hands and want to organize and store the correct way. If you can tell me what to read to get me started I would sure appreciate it. I have never been to a card show or anything. I just want to do this right. Please help by sending me in the right direction. Thanks in advance for all of your help!

[jd2k2003]

To add to what Uvaspina said;

I got back into this around October/November. I didn't think I'd be out buying boxes but it is fun to rip a box every once in awhile if you have the $$$. If you can pull some good hits you'll have lots ofr Trade Bait for what you want to collect from the other guys here.

For Example I splurged and grabbed a box of Topps 2011 Finest. Posted the hits and have had about 12 trade offers for 1 of the cards.

I personally realized the main way to trade with a lot of the people on here was to have the newer cards, even better if they are auto's or GU's so that is why I grab boxes. Most of the guys mean nothing to me but I also enjoy just ripping the packs and being able to trade. My enjoyment comes from working with everyone here and the mail days

[twhgracie]

Thanks so much for the info!

To add to what Uvaspina said;

I got back into this around October/November. I didn't think I'd be out buying boxes but it is fun to rip a box every once in awhile if you have the $$$. If you can pull some good hits you'll have lots ofr Trade Bait for what you want to collect from the other guys here.

For Example I splurged and grabbed a box of Topps 2011 Finest. Posted the hits and have had about 12 trade offers for 1 of the cards.

I personally realized the main way to trade with a lot of the people on here was to have the newer cards, even better if they are auto's or GU's so that is why I grab boxes. Most of the guys mean nothing to me but I also enjoy just ripping the packs and being able to trade. My enjoyment comes from working with everyone here and the mail days