I was WAY off...post 1980 cards are sought after!
 

I'm saying this is not the "rightest" I've ever been.
I had no idea so many serious collectors were doing sets and enjoying the 80s & 90s stuff.
I'm looking for 2003 & 2004 Heritage for my 19 year-old son (he asked for help with them). So, I went on here and was pleasantly surprised to see these cards being collected and enjoyed. It was a fine era in the game with some pretty cool cards!...
Now...to find those Heritage...
I'm headed to the BST

There are many of us who grew up during the 80s and now actually have disposable income for the cards we couldn't afford when we were kids. It is a blast! I stopped trying to limit myself to one era of baseball. I own cards stretching from 1909-2019...LOL! Good luck in your quest.

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Spec-Freaking-Tacular!!! You can hit that 84D Mattingly like a beast now and display 'em and pass 'em down.
Love it!

I remember as a kid in about 1989 or so staring longingly at a 1983 Topps Wade Boggs rookie in the glass display case of my local card shop with a 35 dollar price tag on it and thinking I would never be able to own such a magnificent card.

Then 20 years or so later grown up me won one on Ebay for about 3 bucks on an impulse bid and I just thought “Oh man, collecting cards is way funner and easier than it used to be.”

Yeah, the 80’s cards didn’t make us rich like we thought back in the day, but they’re still desired. And with a few notable exceptions*, most of the key RC’s are now very much attainable, even graded.

* - Henderson RC, 84 Fleer Update, 84 Donruss Mattingly

I love the 80's rookies! I have a search on eBay just for 80's rookies and I try to pick them up in PSA 8s. They look great in an 8 and are much more affordable than the 9 or 10. The difference at that level is so little that I like my 8's just fine.

As an aside, I was never lucky enough to actually pull a key rookie from any packs growing up. I was always annoyed at that as a kid. No Mattingly, Strawberry, Gooden, Clemens, not even and Eric Davis for crying out loud. Now I've got them all and I love them.

Andy
Time to buy a couple of boxes and have at it!!
I couldn't believe how poor my luck seemed to be in the 70s and 80s when I opened packs. I remember wanting Joe Morgan and Bill Madlock in '77. Drove me NUTS!
In '78 it was Rice and Reggie...same deal.
I must've pulled 20 Paul Blairs for every Reggie that summer...

The modern stuff, with very few exceptions, is stuff you can just have fun with and not worry about 'investment'. I will be busting a couple of boxes of 1997 Topps Stadium Club shortly. Just a set I really liked the look of back in the day. Unless I hit a major insert it is just plain cheap amusement.

Cards from early to mid 2000s have a higher value due to the fact that there were so many product options at the time. This meant that a shop would be buying more variety. This resulted in perhaps only 1 box being available in any area, or some sets not ever showing up. There are still sets from the 2000s (and even late 90s where this problem began) that I've never seen cards of, or sets that I have seen or own cards of but have never seen boxes. This was also the time when retail exclusives had showed up on the scene, either whole releases or variant releases that would only be at department stores.

The result ended up that inserts for set from those years can be worth quite a bit. Some inserts or parallels are rare enough that they do not show up on ebay often.

Take this example. There is no listing on Ebay in active or sold for a box of 2003 Upper Deck 40 Man.

That's true. The thing that has been one of the biggest turn-offs for me as a collector has been the myriad store exclusives. Though I had fun last year running around Walgreens and grabbing boxes of 2019 Topps Update with the yellow bordered cards. That plus the SP and SSP variations. One thing it does to is make you look at every card carefully.

Specifically what draws you to the 97' set?
Holy Grails anywhere in that box?

I really like the look of the set, that's all. There are a few $10 or so hits among the inserts, and a few autographed hits, with the Jeter-Pettite dual signed card as a mega hit.

Strangely enough, I have delved back into modern lately. Specifically, i am enjoying piecing together the yellow Update set. All in all, it is relatively inexpensive fun. It also helps me stay better connected to the game.

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I seemed to have reasonable luck when I was buying packs as a little kid (from around '80 to '85). Had a Montana rookie and most of the key topps baseball guys from those years.

Then there's how you always hope you somehow had a 10 in something, and then realize you were lucky to have anything that'd even grade a 7 from your grubby little hands back then......

As far as the Reggie, too bad it wasn't '79. I think they put one in every pack that year :)

I have a case of 2020 Heritage on order but I am on the fence over whether to complete the deal or just forfeit my $50 deposit. I am not sure I want to sink another $950 into it in the hope that I pull a worthwhile hit to pay for it.

I also remember Morgan to be tough in 1977 - and I am a Red's fan, so that was hard on an 11 year old. Carew, however, seemed to be in every other pack.

And in football that fall, I could never pull the elusive 1977 Walter Payton. I think Topps only made 4-5 of them that year, in total. ;)

How about it!! 80's rookies are some of my favorite! Even second year cards like 84 Donruss Gwynn's are nice. I loved the '85 Topps layout and the rookies were killer!!

I see you're from Belle Mead - I grew up just down the road in Pennington, NJ. Collected until my early 20's and lost interest during the baseball strike in '94. I was really into collecting, trading and dealing. With Willow Grove/ Fort Washington shows in the 80's/90's (now the Philadelphia show at Valley Forge) - the RObbinsville show's in NJ and up in Edison. Fun times collecting and trading. I'm just now getting back into collecting - focused on e92's (interesting story how I traded for a Dockman Wagner hitting card at the '92 National in Atlanta as a dealer - for another day).

Anyway, some super 80's rookies and they seemed so out of reach 30 years ago. Fun times getting started again!

Speaking of 1980s, this has been one of my favorite cards consistently over the years:

http://photos.imageevent.com/exhibit...0Mattingly.jpg