Hi Paul,
Welcome to our board. I see where you had said, in your first post, that you might have waited a week to get approved for membership. It should never take a week and I would hope it would rarely take more than 1-2 days, but sometimes my emails get a little backed up.
I think what everyone has been saying so far is good advice. My very first big card was a T205 Johnson as I thought it was so great looking I had to have it. I have since sold it and moved on but it's a great set. As a closely held secret I am a type-collector, meaning I like one (or more
) from each set. Along the way there are certain cards I have seen and liked so much I picked one up.
I think the main thing I could add to this discussion is "be patient." This is a long marathon not a sprint. Folks on this board have been collecting up to about 50 yrs, or a little more. I think from our last poll about time-in, in the hobby, the most common spot was in the 12-18yrs range. I fall into that one too. I hope its multiples of that before I am done. (and I mean literally done
) ......Here is a card I knew I always wanted, it turned up with a cool back, so I went for it. It's an absolute classic card of the winningest pitcher of all time. How can you go wrong with one of these? I am quite sure you will find cards like this that you really want too, as your collecting matures. If you collect what you enjoy you will rarely have regrets.