[jek187]

Hi everyone,

First off apologies if this is covered in a FAQ somewhere, but I couldn't find anything.

As a kid in the late 80s/early 90s I used to avidly collect football cards. I lost interest because of the overproduction at the time, and "all" those subsets.

Lately though, I've been playing with the idea of getting back into the hobby, but good lord, I thought the subsets were bad 20 years ago, I have no idea what's going on now! Is there any place out there that gives a good synopsis of the products that were produced each year the past decade or so? It's just overwhelming looking at the Beckett I just picked up that I don't even know where to begin.

If there's not a product overview out there, perhaps someone here could turn me on to what I should be collecting? Here's what I'm looking for:

Now that I'm an adult as opposed to a kid in the 80s, I have what would've seemed like a fortune to me back then. Because of that, I'd really like to focus on collecting cards from higher-end sets.

However, at least while starting out, I'd like to collect from a set that has a pretty liquid market. From my perusal of the price guides, it looks like all the high dollar sets have very limited press runs. Like xx/100 or xx/25 or even 1/1. I'm obviously going to have a tough time valuing cards like that given that eBay is usually short of completed auctions for them, and I'm well familiar with the shortfalls of the Beckett price guide.

My guess is that my two desires are going to work at cross-purpose to each other. I imagine that most of the high-dollar sets that I want to collect feature cards of very limited press runs (that whole supply/demand thing at work). Maybe though, there's a sweet-spot out there? Something with high value cards that also is frequently traded?

Anyway, hopefully there's an overview out there somewhere I can use to do my own legwork on this. I definitely don't want to be "that" guy that comes in and expects a whole community to do the work for him. But on the other hand, I'm just not sure where to even begin, so any help would definitely be appreciated. Thanks a lot guys.

[onemanstanding]

Well I do not know of any complete overview but you really need to decide if you want to collect sets, teams, or players. If you want to collect base, inserts, GU [memorabilia], Regular auto's, or RC auto's. Most member here collect certain players and either sell or trade the players they dont collect from eBay or boxes they busted also known as trade bait. I collect RC auto's from all years and yes there are certain players that are in my PC [Personal Collection]

[jek187]

Specifically what I think would be fun to do, is to use FB cards as a way to speculate on player performance. I'm a huge fan of dynasty FFB, but in that format you can only buy a player you like to break out once (and even then, his owner may have a similar opinion to you). But with FB cards, I can buy (say) Rueben Randle 100 times if I want to. So, that's what I'd like to do, buy/sell/trade players based on my assessment of their future. The higher value the cards, the less shipping & selling fees eat me up. Of course, that's also why some liquidity is needed, especially at the beginning so I can get a feel for the market and not make any catastrophic choices. So for this season I may spend a bunch of time collecting Rueben Randle and then a couple years down the road after Randle's career plateaus he becomes my trade bait and I move onto my next mancrush.

From the choices you outline, my take is that either RC autographs or inserts would be the way to go. Typically, which are more valuable? Which have a more established value? What method would you suggest for narrowing down not only this choice, but also settling on a specific brand? Thanks a lot.

[jonathani]

Whatever you start collecting now, it will change an infinite number of times as you journey through the hobby. At first, people generally want the most cards they can get their hands on. After a time, they want the most expensive cards they can afford (and some they can't). Ultimately, the chase itself becomes the rush and we desire the cards that are the most difficult to find--the rarities that we hardly ever cross paths with wether it is a decades-old rookie or a current printing plate autograph.

However you go, jek187, have fun, and enjoy they trip.

[jek187]

Good assessment, as I can definitely see myself broadening/changing my horizons as I get acclimated again to the hobby. However, for the time being, I'm just looking to find a starting point. Do you happen to have any ideas on what type of product would match what I'm looking for?

[bojesphob]

It depends on how much you want to spend, but Topps Five Star is a phenomenal product with high end hits, though is REALLY expensive. Awesome product though... I've got a Bart Starr auto and 2 Randall Cobb auto booklets from Five Star and I really like it. I would say if you want to try something a little less expensive, I would say Momentum is a decent product, or Topps Finest might be a good start. It's not horribly expensive, but you have the potential for some really cool cards. Panini Playbook is another product that I'm looking forward to. I only have those 2 Cobb booklets, and I really like Playbook's booklets. This year looks to be pretty cool, as they have booklets where they have the player draw a play in the booklet instead of an auto. My bit of advice would be to look through the checklists from sites like cardboard connection and take a look at the inserts and such and see which ones you like the most and start there. There's bound to be a set that you find tickles your fancy, and you'll be able to expand from there once you find what you like.

[uwash97]

I guess I'm confused by what you mean by "liquid". It almost seems like you are thinking the high $$ limited stuff is harder to move but in fact the opposite is true. If you are looking to "bet" on guys like Randle (to use your example) then it would be far better to get 10 limited, higher end RC autos than it would to get 100 Topps RCs for example. It's all about demand. There is much more demand for the higher end stuff than there is for the lower end stuff. I would focus on RC autos and multi-colored patches. Better if they are low #'d.

[jek187]

I guess I'm confused by what you mean by "liquid". It almost seems like you are thinking the high $$ limited stuff is harder to move but in fact the opposite is true. If you are looking to "bet" on guys like Randle (to use your example) then it would be far better to get 10 limited, higher end RC autos than it would to get 100 Topps RCs for example. It's all about demand. There is much more demand for the higher end stuff than there is for the lower end stuff. I would focus on RC autos and multi-colored patches. Better if they are low #'d.

I suppose I'm misusing the term a bit. I'm not so much concerned about being able to easily buy/sell the cards (I'm patient + don't mind hunting around) but I do like there to be some action in the markets I'm interested in, so I can see a couple completed auctions on eBay to get an idea for what the cards sell for. That being said, it is good news to me that it's easier to move the higher end cards than the lower end, as that is what I'd like to focus on.

Appreciate the advice to focus on RC autos and multi-colored patches (patches = cards with pieces of the jersey I assume).

When you refer to cards being "low #'d" you're saying it's best to focus on cards that're XX/25 rather than XX/100, right? Or are there premiums applied to cards that're, say, 12/100 over cards that're 75/100?

Thanks for the help.

---

It depends on how much you want to spend, but Topps Five Star is a phenomenal product with high end hits, though is REALLY expensive. Awesome product though... I've got a Bart Starr auto and 2 Randall Cobb auto booklets from Five Star and I really like it. I would say if you want to try something a little less expensive, I would say Momentum is a decent product, or Topps Finest might be a good start. It's not horribly expensive, but you have the potential for some really cool cards. Panini Playbook is another product that I'm looking forward to. I only have those 2 Cobb booklets, and I really like Playbook's booklets. This year looks to be pretty cool, as they have booklets where they have the player draw a play in the booklet instead of an auto. My bit of advice would be to look through the checklists from sites like cardboard connection and take a look at the inserts and such and see which ones you like the most and start there. There's bound to be a set that you find tickles your fancy, and you'll be able to expand from there once you find what you like.

Awesome tips here, tyvm. Just being turned onto Card Connection's descriptions of each product is hugely helpful for me to see what cards come from where.

Topps Five Star is highly interesting to me, although those Panini Playbooks look pretty cool too.

I did some nosing around on eBay looking at Topps Five Star and saw something I thought odd though. Why are the majority of cards ungraded? It's my understanding that grading the cards is worthwhile when they start hitting the price point that those cards hang out in. Thanks again.

[joe callahan13]

Grading is a bit of a gamble. The thicker the card, the harder it is to get a good grade. Typically, anything under a 9 will hurt the value. (Over-generalizing, but you get the idea.) In addition, grading can be expensive for lots of cards. Most of the high end sets are also thicker, so many of the higher end cards will get tougher grades. Personally, I prefer cards that are not graded. I won't pay the premium for the grades because I just don't care if they're graded or not.

Like someone said above, Five Star is awesome. It is my favorite every year, and I always end up buying a few of those. National Treasures is my other favorite. Upper Deck's ultra high end is called Exquisite, but I don't buy those because Upper Deck is not licensed. As a result, it is all college uniforms. At the lower end of things, the most popular are probably Contenders, Topps Chrome, a few others.

I would recommend going to Youtube. There is a shop called "The Hobby Box" that does a TON of live breaks, probably a dozen or more a day. User ID is chri5784. I think that is the best way to get a sense for what you want to buy because you can see what a random box will yield.

Final piece of advice: with all this talk of selling and liquidity- if you have even the slightest inkling of turning this hobby into a money making venture.... you are kidding yourself. If you buy boxes, you WILL end up in the red. It's basically the same as scratch off lotto tickets. Do some people end up hitting big and making a profit on them? Yes. Will you? No. The odds are so low, that it's a virtual guarantee that it will not happen.

Also- low #'ed refers to the total print run. IE /25, /100, etc.

[rwatt]

If I am correct, I believe you are looking for a product with high value in selling and trading, but not too hard to come by because the print run isn't ridiculously low. Going forward assuming I am right, I can suggest a few products that fit this criteria. As mentioned above, Contenders and topps chrome are very popular because the box itself isn't too expensive (relative to higher-end stuff) but the rookie autographs are excellent. If you hit a star player (that's the trick though, isn't it) then autographs from these tend to be pretty valuable and retain their value well, but also are not too hard to find because they don't have really low print run. Another good one is SP authentic, because again, the box itself isn't too expensive but the rookie patch autographs are very nice. So it all depends on what you want to collect... if you want to collect strictly high end stuff (high end base, autos, memorabilia, inserts, everything being low numbered) then I would say go for the boxes of the big stuff like National Treasures, Five Star, etc. But if you want to collect singles that are easily found, go for the SP authentic patch auto's or topps chrome. Hope this made sense... and welcome back to collecting!

On a personal note, Topps Chrome is my favorite brand. Love the look of the base and the rookie autographs. But im one of those guys who likes getting a shoebox full of base when I bust a box