New Member - Card Collecting for Years, New to Vintage

[Rangers09]

Hi All,

Just wanted to quickly introduce myself, apologies in advance if this isn't the appropriate forum. I collected modern baseball cards when I was younger, primarily from 2008-2014. I focused on newer cards of older players (pre-1990's), as I found the prices to be a bit less volatile than the newer guys. I took an extended hiatus from the hobby, but am now in my mid-20's, and am interested in jumping back in with a focus on vintage. I've selected a few cards that I'm researching and watching on eBay, and heard this forum was a good place to learn more. A couple of questions:

1. What additional resources are available to learn more? I've been diving into a couple of blogs and historical sales data at PWCC.

2. My strategy is to allocate a % of my overall investing budget (5%-10%) to vintage cards. I'm thinking I'll start by investing in players that I like (Speaker, Hornsby, Cobb, Ruth, Aaron, Robinson, Koufax, Ichiro), but not sure if there are common strategies beyond that. I'd rather not focus on 1 specific era, player, or brand, but also not sure if that's a sustainable strategy.

3. Random question, but in my research I'm showing significant price spikes across all players in 2016. What drove this?

4. I'm seeing prices are relatively high, especially on Post-WWII cards (I'm assuming due to COVID). I would expect that prices start to decline as people begin to leave their homes, but not sure what the common sentiment is.

Thanks for any help, and I'm excited to get started!

Dusty