Question for Newcomers / Recent Hobby Come-Backers

[Kutcher55]

I got kind of lucky. For many years I was thinking I wanted to own a Yaz rookie again. Finally, in June of 2019 I took the plunge and bought a mid-grade copy off eBay. It was the first time I bought a card since around 1991. Just like the stereotype - a child of the junk wax era returning to the hobby in his 40s.

Why did I go back? I have a little more disposable income, plus a lot of vintage wasn't any more expensive than it was back then, especially raw cards. But I also had a theory that once some of these Hall of Famers in the 50s thru 70s pass away their card value will go up. So I figured it wasn't a bad investment all things considered, and I remain optimistic about the vintage baseball card market for the next few years, although I do fear there's an expiration date there somewhere.

So after I bought that Yaz, I went kind of nuts. I bought every freaking Yaz of every year at PSA 7 or better. Interestingly Yaz cards haven't appreciated that much, although there have been signs of growth in certain years in the past six months, particularly the rookie card, the '67 and the '71. Then I bought a bunch of other Boston star rookies, Larry Bird, McHale Havlicek, Cam Neely, Steve Grogan (he was cheap), Bledsoe (also cheap). Dang I wish I bought more Basketball, but it's all good.

Then I decided I had to have every nostalgic baseball card from my youth and bought pretty much every rookie card there was to buy, raw from 1973 to 1987. Not just rookie cards either. I like stuff like Mattingly/Winfield "Two for the Title" Donruss '85. I remember how hot that card was. Then I started going deeper, buying every RC from the 60s and the ones from the 50s I could afford. Then I built the '57 set. Then I started buying older and trying to get a good graded representative from every set going back to the beginning of the 20th century. Still working on that. Then I went long on Hank Aarons because I think he's undervalued, bought some Mays and Jackie R's, and 50s Brooklyn Dodgers. Then I got a '71 topps fetish.

Running out of things to collect! But then I realize my collection, while more awesome than it ever was, is nothing compared to the collections of some of the people on this site. So, sometimes I ask what the point is, and I guess it's something to do.