How to start collecting

In today’s card collecting world, it is important to develop a plan of action before jumping in with both feet. With the litany of products produced, you can spend a lot of money chasing cards. So I would suggest that you outline what your interests are and do some research before you start buying or trading. From personal experience homework is key! 

The first thing I didn't do was set a firm starting budget, i found myself on Ebay.com buying $1 cards and paying $15-$18 shipping per item. My collection was poorly set out, it had no structure and no soul. 

Today my personal collection has a Budget, a goal, structure and a story

Thanks to the internet, and our friends on USSCA this is something that is fairly easy to do, although it does take some time.

The structured system works for me, as I have found my primary interest (Connor McDavid Rookie Cards) as well as secondary interests (McDavid cards in general) and third interest 2015 Upper Deck Champ's series. So, my primary interest is a collection of one player. I am working on a particular set in my third interest, mainly because I love this series and set collecting is fun, and throws up challenges that I can devote some time to. It also allows me more freedom when it comes to trading cards online. I knew that by being a player collector alone it would limit my ability to trade, so I added a set and other projects so I could have more things to trade for.

It’s important to set goals, and to have a plan in place. I will admit, I used buy everything and anything, and I would drop money on box after box looking for nothing more than the hits in the product and not caring about anything else. On the occasion where I pulled the big hit, I merely sold it to buy more boxes. It became a never ending cycle that left me with nothing but boxes upon boxes of unsorted cards. Having no rhyme or reason to what I was doing, I stopped and reassessed myself and situation.

This hobby isn’t what it used to be (Looking back to when I was a child). Products costing upwards of five hundred dollars for a pack? Those products personally to me are for breaking with friends or community members to reduce the hurt on the bank account. But each of us has a different disposable income. What I am trying to get across is to use that disposable income in a way that you can maximise your enjoyment, instead of going in blind and wasting money on things you will never look at again. There are many positives to the hobby today versus yesterday.

So in a breakdown;

1) Find a player, team or series of cards you enjoy;

nailing this from the start is a must, it will save you headaches in the future of where did all these cards come from.

2) Budget;

Be patient on what you want to do with your disposable income. Research the player, team or even the series. Are these cards available? what is the price and can i afford them? Are new boxes still available to buy?

3) Structure;

set out your plan on what is a priority to you. Is it the player? is it the team or the series. Continue to research these items at least monthly ( I know I do, I am forever checking Comc.com, Ebay.com, Collectors.com (Collectors.com is something I stumbled upon and it picks up cards sometimes an eBay search will not))

4) Keep it Fun;

Personally I go into box breaks for the thrill and the chase of getting lucky.

USSCA offers 5 different sports to pay for the fun of a break, NHL, NFL, MLB, NBA and Wrestling. 

but nothing is more satisfying then buying your own box and sitting down with a cold drink and tearing into it, pack by pack.