Mention baseball cards to the random person and perhaps a sly smile will flash across their face. The names Mickey Mantle and Honus Wagner will undoubtedly come up, as will the assertion that a mother, grandmother or other hardline parental figure played a part in throwing away a priceless collection. Expensive cards and lost riches are part of the baseball card folklore, but so too is a frustrating phenomenon: saving cards only to have them turn out to be worth not very much at all. You start to feel helpless, like you were duped. What can you do? One thing would be to learn your lesson from the past and start again, building a collection of blue chippers, or cards that have already established an iconic place within the hobby. There are plenty of such cards, fitting every price range.
Here’s a short list of cards that can be had for less than ten dollars apiece on eBay:
Recently I decided to focus my collection and trade away the rest. It's a daunting proposition for an incurable pack rat like myself. But it's got me thinking that I should've done this a long, long time ago. For... Read More Topics:
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One of the best things about collecting sports cards is trading with a friend. Well, we're all friends here, right? So I say, trade with me. If you've got a few cards you don't want laying around, send them my way and I'll send you... Read More Topics:
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There's been lively debate recently amongst baseball card bloggers regarding the future of the hobby. Much of it is speculation and opinion, but a few common themes keep popping up. • Ebay: Many believe that eBay is the future... Read More Topics:
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Who was the greatest center fielder in New York in the Fifties? What is the best baseball card set ever—before the war and after? Who had the funniest name? The largest head? And how about the ugliest mug only a mother could... Read More Topics:
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I’ve been thinking a lot about how I should display my collection: boxes in my closet, in random stacks around my apartment, or in pages in a binder? Displaying and caring for cards is one of the biggest topics in the hobby, with Ultra Pro just... Read More Topics:
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I am a man of many favorites. That’s why it’s easy for me to appreciate the manager cards from 1981 Donruss: the stark simplicity of what is, in essence, a headshot or a blurry medium shot of an old man is rendered both wonderful and painfully... Read More Topics:
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Poor Rusty. Who’s idea was it to take his photo in front of a chainlink fence by the parking lot? Or did he have a bus to catch back to the minors? By the way, why does it look like he was cut in half by a magician and then poorly reconnected?... Read More Topics:
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I get this question a lot, and in all fairness it’s probably the most-asked question in collecting. It’s a good question to ask, especially since a card’s worth is one of the easiest ways to determine if the... Read More Topics:
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