[waynetalger]

Welcome back
To answer one of your questions. Any Rookie book value of 4.00 goes into a top sleeve and penny sleeve. And that goes for any base or insert for any card that books over 10.00. Any Vintage pre 1979 gets the same thing done.
I display about 10-15 cards on my entertainment center and rotate them out every month or 2. When my autos are not on display they go into a cedar hope chest that my mom gave me years ago.
Remember to keep the autos out of direct light. In time the light will fade the auto especially if it is a sticker auto.
Wish you luck in collecting with your son.

[jerodc10]

Very cool box breaks! I pretty much buy singles through out the year, but when Bowman products come out I can't help myself but go a little crazy. That's about the only product I open, besides base topps.

[jtraven42]

I do have a couple questions:
1) How do you store your cards? Do you put refractors in top loaders, but not base? I assume relics and autos deserve at least a top loader. What are your thoughts here?

2) What suggestions do you have for me as a secondary collection? Team collection? Handful of favorite players? Favorite rookies? Position Players?

Welcome back! I, too, collect with my son. He's 11 and loves it! he just bought his first "big boy" football card box of Gridiron Legends. He enjoyed busting it.
As for storage, I'd consider a 2400ct box, and put all your favorites in toploaders in there. Those boxes are pretty easily accessible and allow you to flip through your cards while they're protected. You may also want to get one of those frames which display 20 cards at a time to hang in your office. I have 2 in my basement: autographed Ravens and autographed Orioles. One warning, make sure the frames do not get direct sunlight. It'll fade the cards and the autos.
Collect what makes you happy. I like vintage, so I'm working on Topps sets from 57, 58, 67, and 69. For new stuff, I like to get each new base Topps set and a box of Heritage since it's got that retro feel. And recently, I've decided that I'm going to buy just one "big" box per year. This year, I've decided to try Tier One, since the price tag is relatively affordable.
My advice is be prepared to spend a little money to figure out what you like. Go to a hobby shop. Buy 10 individual packs of cards, low to high end. Eventually, you'll just know what you want because it'll be the set that makes you happiest and reminds you of the days when you had to decide between trading them for gum or putting them in your spokes. Enjoy, and let us know how it works out.

[ryancholden]

Ha! Was at Walmart to grab a few things today, and grabbed a blaster box of 2010 Bowman Chrome. Scored A Strasburg base RC!

[uvaspina]

good for you. Always a good feeling pulling a nice rookie. For me, it's hard to walk past the blasters at Target, Kmart, anymore. My wife hustles me through like a child hoping I forget.

[ryancholden]

OK Folks. Having a hard time making a decision here. I know I'd like to collect a player of the past, and a current player on one of a handful of teams. My problem is that I don't really have an emotional connection to any of the teams, although I enjoy all of the players. Here are my ideas:

Royals: George Brett, Moustakas/Hosmer
Twins: Kilebrew/Mauer/Morneau
Cubs: Sandberg/Castro/Barney
White Sox: Big Hurt/ Ventura/ not sure

Thoughts? Weigh in on your vote...and no "just pick your favorite player no matter what team they're on!"

[capncush]

It's gonna be rough just collecting what we tell you to. The only collection that has sustained since I started is Dave justice. I went through the bowman chrome set phase and ended up selling all them, Dan uggla, wade leblanc, Clayton kershaw and jake arrieta. These are all gone now but I still have my justice collection going strong because he was my favorite player growin up and I guess that made me stick with him. I also have a small Calvin Johnson collection. His high school was about 10 min from mine, same college, same age and he's just a super cool and nice guy. If we pick something for you, you're probable gonna see some cool cards of some other people on the list and wanna pick them up as well. Maybe you could just collect cards of all these players but only keep ones you think look nice or interesting.

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Also, if you're looking to make money on prospecting, 10 years is far too long a time to be holding onto them.

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I also ha a brad emaus collection cuz I played with him until high school but got made an offer for it I couldn't refuse so I need to start rebuilding that now.

[jtraven42]

OK Folks. Having a hard time making a decision here. I know I'd like to collect a player of the past, and a current player on one of a handful of teams. My problem is that I don't really have an emotional connection to any of the teams, although I enjoy all of the players. Here are my ideas:

Royals: George Brett, Moustakas/Hosmer
Twins: Kilebrew/Mauer/Morneau
Cubs: Sandberg/Castro/Barney
White Sox: Big Hurt/ Ventura/ not sure

Thoughts? Weigh in on your vote...and no "just pick your favorite player no matter what team they're on!"

Here's the only answer that will matter: Wait until your son finds a favorite player, and then collect his cards together.

[stevecurren]

I'll second what jtraven42 suggested. If this is something you are doing with your son and you don't have an affinity towards any of the four groups you listed, go with whichever team/player your son gravitates to. It will keep both of your interests and have a nice bond/hobby for the two of you to share hopefully for many, many years...

As regards to storage, I put all of my Topps sets (1970 and newer) in pages and binders. Anything 1969 and older (have my 69 set complete), I put into penny sleeves/top loaders. My PC of Reds (espcially Larkin), I put all of the base cards and lower end inserts in pages and binders. The GU/Autos/high-end inserts I put into sleeves/toploaders. I have a 50 card wall display in my basement (family room - wanna be man-cave) which I rotate the autos regularly.

All my trade cards (except GU/Autos/#d) are sorted by year/brand/card # in 5,000 count boxes. I use dividers between each of the brands - like others for easy sorting and finding cards when trading. The GU/Autos/#d go into penny sleeves/toploaders and then I put those in the wider shoeboxes and sort them alphabetically - again using dividers for each letter of the alphabet.

The beauty of collecting is there is no right or wrong way regarding what you collect. Just find something that appeals/interests you and go for it!!!

[rascrush]

if you are trading check me for the rizzo