Baseball Card Question

[Pinktermite]

I have a son that's 11 years old and would like to spark his interest in card collecting. I haven't collected cards for years, could anyone point me in the direction of two or three brands of cards to collect not only for fun, but for value? It seems the cards are rather expensive these days, so I'd like to focus on one or two types. Thanks.

[Springfield_CUBBY]

OK - as the father of 10, 8, 6, and 2 year old sons - I'm going to be watching this topic to see what gets posted!

[illiniguy]

Depends on what they want them for. The Allen and Ginter Cards are really sharp if you are looking for a great looking card. The Heritage series of both Topps and Bowman are also neat cards. I like to do through the mail autographs and as such I usually get the guys when they are really young, so I like the Bowman set and the especially the Bowman draft pick set.

[Chris]

It's a matter of what you are specifically interested in collecting. Due to the cost of packs and the difficulty of set completion, I would encourage you to take the approach of picking a player or players and focus on buying cards of that player. Buying packs has become a lottery in the sense that the majority of pack buyers are searching for a short printed rookie card or a game used or autographed card.

 

If you're looking for immediate return and/or to make money, buying packs is the way to go. If you're a fan of a specific player and want to build a colelction of that player, buying individual cards or lots of cards of that player on ebay is the way to go.

 

Personally I am a fan of the Upper Deck Legendary Cuts or Upper Deck Sweet Spot series when it comes to baseball.

[bhogg]

My son likes cards and he's only 3. The tough part is that packs cost 2 or 3 bucks and you only get 8 cards.

 

Jeez, make 'em worthless and let me get 10-15 for 50 cents.

 

To me, it's not about getting something of monetary value.

[BigbadB]

Buying the whole set of Topps each year is the direction I've gone. While it costs quite a bit for a whole set, each year there are rookies that come up who will more than cover the cost of the original set.

 

Buying the whole set assures you that you get one of everyone. Buying them by the pack like I did when I was a kid only assures you to get multiple duplicates of the scrub players whose card will never have value.

 

As a kid, I did enjoy the surprise element of individual packs, but walked away disappointed more often than not.

[rocket]

i always thought the only fun in baseball cards was opening packs

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Card Baseball, the board game

 

I wish I could find a picture.

[bhogg]

i always thought the only fun in baseball cards was opening packs

 

 

opening packs and looking for the cubs was the fun part.

 

I recall my grandmother buying me a wax box of 85 fleer. . . she and I went through all the packs, sorting out the cubs from the rest of the cards. . . . to hell with the Clemens, Eric Davis, K Puckett, etc rookie cards; I wanted the likes of Jody Davis, Rich Hebner, and Ron Hassey!

 

 

You guys will like this site. . . dang near every card imaginable

 

http://www.baseballcardproject.com

[Chris]

Cool site. I was hoping to find information on Ripken's 4 minor league issues but the page only listed regular issues starting in 1982.

[Cubzfan64]

This is obviously my personal opinion, but I started collecting cards around age 8 or 9. The excitement I got out of collecting cards was in opening the packs and looking for my favorite players, trying to get all the players of my favorite team etc... I rubber banded them, sorted them, sorted them again, looked at them continuously etc....

 

It wasn't until I got into my late teens that I started "getting into" the hobby - as in trying to collect cards, go to shows, trade etc... to try to get valuable cards.

 

I'm sure I ruined many a card with rubber bands around them, but if I had to go back and do it all over again, I would do it the same way - get him started collecting cards strictly for the fun of it - if you want, pick up a card or two here and there that has some value (speculate on some rookies or something).

 

I have to say that from a personal standpoint, it breaks my heart to see kids buy $3-$5 packs at card shows, rip through them for the insert cards and "worthwhile" ones and then toss the rest in the garbage - imho that's not the best way for a kid to get started on this great hobby.

[bhogg]

Ryne and I have a routine with cards. He sits in my lap and we go through the whole pack . . . I tell him who the player is, what I know about him, who he plays for, what position, etc.

 

I bought a box of 88 topps and we occasionally go through a pack or two. I have an unopened box of rack packs from '84 and we go through them every once in a while. . . it's fun to tell him about the players that I watched when I was a kid.

 

Ryne immediately picks out the Cubs :) He has a strong attachment to Matt Murton.

[macuser2]

It's the hair. The kids are nuts about that color hair. :P

[Pinktermite]

This is awesome. Thanks for all the feedback. I remember in the late 70s buying packs and I'm sure MORE than one Mike Schmidt and Paul Molitor card was abused with scotch tape on my wall.

 

Buying these cards in packs is ridiculous. I agree with wondering why they can't have a pack that's like 79 cents or something, that gives you 15 or so cards...like some of us had when we were kids. I think that would do a lot to spark interest in baseball from the kids perspective.

[CuseCubFan69]

i always thought the only fun in baseball cards was opening packs

 

 

opening packs and looking for the cubs was the fun part.

 

I recall my grandmother buying me a wax box of 85 fleer. . . she and I went through all the packs, sorting out the cubs from the rest of the cards. . . . to hell with the Clemens, Eric Davis, K Puckett, etc rookie cards; I wanted the likes of Jody Davis, Rich Hebner, and Ron Hassey!

 

 

You guys will like this site. . . dang near every card imaginable

 

http://www.baseballcardproject.com

 

That's when living in Syracuse and being a Cub fan was a very nice thing. I could trade a Yank or a Met for a Cub with no problems.

 

There are few things in my life as a kid that were as exciting as getting Cubs in a pack of cards, especially a Jenkins or Madlock.

[CuseCubFan69]

I have a 87 Ryne Sandberg in an uncut sheet of baseball cards, is that worth anything?

[Butterscup1679666578]

I remember always buying Upper Deck Collector's Choice as a kid. They were cheap, maybe 1.25 a pack, but they came with 12 cards and had some cool looking inserts. I almost finished the 1997 set, with the rookie card likes of Dmitri Young, Bobby Abreu, and of course, Neifi Perez.

[Soz]

If you're just starting out, and want to limit yourself to one brand, you can't go wrong with Topps, which is the only brand produced continuously since 1952.

 

You also can focus on just Cubs cards, which is what I do. It took me 20 years to rebuild my collection -- I don't have any from my childhood -- but I now have every Topps Cubs card from 1952 to the present and the other major brands from when they were introduced to the present. Pick up a copy of Sports Collectors Digest and you can find dealers who sell cards that way. I've used the same dealer since the 1980s; I send him a check a couple of times a year, and he sends me all the Cubs whenever they come out.

 

I wouldn't worry about value that much. A kid needs to be able to play with his cards to enjoy them. And, if you're collecting Cubs cards, most of them don't appreciate much in value anyway (unfortunately)!

[biittner77]

I remember once seeing a This Week in Baseball where they did a story about the guy that wrote the Baseball Encyclopedia. I have no idea what his name is but he had a ritual when attending games. On the way to the park he'd buy a pack of baseball cards to see which team had more cards in the pack. Whoever had more won the game. He claimed that it always worked for the Royals (This story was done during the late '80s

[questionmarkgrace]

go with topps or topps chrome. The classic mix of studs duds and rookies. I perfer bowman for myself through because of all the rookies and the autographed hype players. Bowman and topps both traditionally hold their value too.