The Monster - 1 year in

[Oscar_Stanage]

it has been about 1 year since I embarked on the 520. Not the best time to try to do this as the prices have obviously gotten out of control over this period.
I managed to pick up 58 so far, and 14 different backs. These include a number of the key cards, many lesser HoFers and a bunch of commons...

here are the key cards I have so far. I probably overpaid for some, but got great deals on others. Looking at my collection as a whole, I am thrilled. I spend zero time kicking myself over overpaying $500 here and there. I am super happy with these cards and I am never selling them.

[hockeyhockey]

very cool. that's a hell of a collection, bud

[Oscar_Stanage]

Originally Posted by hockeyhockey

very cool. that's a hell of a collection, bud

appreciate it. A long way to go still. I will likely slow my pace from here, unless a deal comes along on a Green cobb or young portrait. but I wanted to secure copies of some of the key cards in case things keep going crazy.

[fkm_bky]

Impressive start! That Johnson portrait is sweet! Keep it up!

Bill

[rjackson44]

Pretty cards

[mrreality68]

Very Long Journey but what a great start and I like your strategy on the cards you selected so far

[brianclat11]

You’ve got some heavy hitters there already. I am in the same boat. I have about 30 Hall of Famer’s at this point but I am limited in budget going forward. Best of luck!

[Casey2296]

Great start, and wise to concentrate on the keys. Good luck on slaying the Monster.

[Oscar_Stanage]

Originally Posted by mrreality68

Very Long Journey but what a great start and I like your strategy on the cards you selected so far

thank you Jeffrey. Some more experienced collectors advised getting the big cards first... this makes complete sense because if I ran out steam now, I would be easily able to sell what I have, as opposed to trying to find buyers for boat load of commons. but the good news is that i am not out of steam and I plan to keep going.

my goal is to get to the 520, and also have 1 of each back (not ty cobb back). Most of the off-backs will be commons, but if I can afford one with a hall of famer, that I will do it. The WaJo sovereign is one my favorites because it checks both boxes.

One thing I have learned from my experience... the only way to really learn the 'true market' is to buy a lot of cards and make mistakes. I have a much better handle on all of the nuances of the market like the date of grade, old slab, etc. than I did coming in. The number grade is basically valueless to me at this point. all that matters is the price relative to similar quality sales. the lower end of the grading scale has really changed. recently graded 2s are in-line with a lot of older 4s. it makes a lot of cards unbuyable at auction because they sell at as much as 50% higher than they should - and I am not exaggerating. And such a high percentage of the market does not seem to care.