Question for Newcomers / Recent Hobby Come-Backers

[BCauley]

I'd say I'm venturing into my fourth "era" of collecting, though this will be my second starting from scratch.

Era 1: Started at age 8 in 1986 and ran through until about 1994. Pretty much picking up packs of Topps my father would snag for me at, well, damn near any store we went into. No real goal, just get as many cards and Red Sox players as I could in those years. Started dating at 16 and stopped for a few years.

Era 2: Started up again at about age 20 in 1998 when a coworker of mine introduced me to ebay and I couldn't believe the number of cards I suddenly had access to. Started a decent Nomar Garciaparra collection as well as busting boxes every couple of weeks. No real focus on what I collected, just liked collecting and busting boxes, though this is where I began my voyage into vintage. Ebay had chat forums back then that had some good people in there. Met one guy who sold me almost half of a '55 Topps set that consisted of commons in about VG-EX/MT range and the slow journey to completing that set began. Stopped in 2004 after putting together the 2004 Topps Cracker Jack set and entering active duty Army.

Era 3: Started up again in 2009. Got back from Iraq in Dec 2008 and was hanging out at Ft. Bragg winding down until I got out in August 2009. Found the Beckett website and almost immediately began trading/swapping cards with people on there. Found this forum as well and lurked a lot, mesmerized by all the stuff I had no idea existed. Moved to current home in Alexandria, VA in 2009 and had a LCS in walking distance that had tons of boxes of singles to leaf through. Snagged boxes here and there as well. Again, no real collecting focus aside from the '55 Topps set which I finished in about 2011/2012. In 2012, started to get bored. Had started on T206 HOF portraits and some other random pre-war but the modern stuff sapped my desire to be in the hobby at all anymore. Starting in 2013, I started to sell off what I had due to being tired of the hobby, going through a divorce, and taking care of my then 6 year old son whose mother essentially disappeared from his life for a few years. Got bored of selling off stuff and shoved it all into a closet and stopped cards for good in 2014.

Era 4 (now): Re-married in 2017 and bought a house. Need space in the workroom so pulled out the 5000 count boxes I had left to see what I can list and sell starting January 2020. Got rid of the rest of the stuff that would sell decently and packed up a couple of medium flat rate boxes and shipped the rest of the cards off to my two nephews who are just somewhat getting into collecting. Small stack of random stuff to get rid of next to my computer. Going through the cards re-kindled the fire a little to get back into collecting though to do it differently and actually have a focus. As a kid and until now, the '33 Goudey set was always just such a good looking set and that's where I started up again in about June/July of this year.

No interest in new stuff as, in my opinion, that whole market is a disaster. Keeping it simple, going slow, not in a "I have to get these cards ASAP" mindset, and staying focused. Just going to truck along on a '33 Goudey HOFer low grade collection. Will do the same with another set from the 50s, either '53 Bowman Color or '53/'56/'57/'58 Topps. And eventually I'll also get back to the T206 HOF portraits. My next addition though will be the new addition to our family of a baby girl within the next couple of weeks.

Out of all the cards I got rid of, the only two I wish I held onto were the T206 Walter Johnson portrait and the '53 Bowman Color Pee Wee Reese. In due time, they'll be back home.

Sorry for the long read. I started out meaning for it to be short and got carried away apparently.