I collected as a kid from 1986-93 or so. Shortly before the pandemic, I happened upon YouTube videos of junk era (or older) boxes being opened, and the nostalgia bug started to nibble.
I saw an opening of a product called Repacked Wax, and I ordered 5 packs just to dip my toe in. Pulled an 85 Donruss Clemens and a Rickey Henderson rookie - this was in the glorious first run of Repacked Wax before they figured out that they could just load them with junk wax and a few older commons and people would still buy them
. I was hooked. I bought a few more boxes of RW (usually with a significant wait as they were sold out a lot) and pulled various vintage stars including a beat-up T205 Frank Chance.
At that point it was right in the thick of Covid, when so many were getting back in, and I decided to put together the vintage HOF collection I always wanted as a kid but couldn't afford. 11-year-old me is quite pleased.
(But I stopped buying Repacked Wax a long time ago.)