[the 'stache]

Thank you Lou and David both.

Lou, I take that as a compliment. Thank you. I feel I've gained a good amount of knowledge since first coming here, but taking that knowledge and actually applying it is something I have yet to do with vintage cards, as I have not really begun to buy them. I've carved my little niche in modern cards for the last two years, focusing on Bowman Chrome prospect autos. Most of them I've bought raw (a few Beckett graded when finding them raw in the condition I wanted was proving an exercise in frustration. The 2010 Bowman Chrome cards especially are notorious for surface scratching as they had a real quality control problem that year). I've assembled a really nice collection, and those cards have helped me enjoy baseball even more. But I'm conflicted, as I am wanting to buy the older cards of the players I've spent my entire life reading about. I've watched Ken Burns' Baseball so many times I've lost track..and I'm watching the entire series again now. I see Willie Mays flying back robbing Vic Wertz, I see Joe DiMaggio hitting in 56 straight, and Teddy Ballgame hitting .406 that same '41 season, and I get so excited. I think to myself "one day I'm going to own cards from both players". Now that I'm collecting again, this is something I can do until the day I kick the bucket, hopefully many years from now

David, I understand the graded card frenzy all too well. It's unbelievable to me how the slightest of differences between two cards can lead to such a drastic change in pricing. I got caught up in it, too for a time. I figured if I was going to buy a card that was just made, why settle for something that isn't perfectly centered when I don't have to. Thankfully that passed. I still look at a card closely before buying it, but if it's not perfect, I don't stress about it. But the experience really helped me develop my eye.