Question for Newcomers / Recent Hobby Come-Backers

[Michael B]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Thank you both for posting that...

I would like to add flip to that. It is a label. Flip is a verb.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Michael B

I would like to add flip to that. It is a label. Flip is a verb.

It is also a proper noun.

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by Michael B

I would like to add flip to that. It is a label. Flip is a verb.

Yeah, that was confusing at first. "Slab" I get, but where the hell did "flip" come from?

[Schlesinj]

Same story as many of the previous posts, huge baseball fan, collected in 80's/90's. Stopped collecting while in late teens/early 20s, had kids but followed along but did not commit when eBay became a new method to distribute cards (mostly due to some really bad eBay experiences) and now have more time etc. I am in my low/mid 40's kids getting older. I do think nostalgia and COVID provided some type of mental kick start to bringing you back to your youth.

Not interested in modern, but players/cards/tickets/photos I always wanted.

IMO this is a huge business opportunity for this industry to continue to grow. What I find fascinating that only 1 of my kids has any interest and I think baseball has struggled with this generation, so grabbing this market is very important.

PS: Lurked here for a while and happy to learn for some incredible collectors and see some incredible collections.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by ASF123

Yeah, that was confusing at first. "Slab" I get, but where the hell did "flip" come from?

From the coin world.

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

From the coin world.

Ok...but it doesn’t make any more sense there either.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by ASF123

Ok...but it doesn’t make any more sense there either.

It originated from an early coin holder that was briefly popular.
Picture having two pockets from a page that fold over to the size of one. The coin ones were 2"x2" like other coin holders. The coin went on the front pocket, and the dealer or collector could write the info they wanted about the coin on a piece of paper to put in the other pocket as a label.

I vaguely remember a slightly larger one that had enough room for a folded grading certificate. Yes, a fairly simple certificate that said the coin was genuine and sometimes the grade. People started swapping coins that might pass for a higher grade... so they started including a photo tied to the certificate with a stamp like a notary seal. Which also did pretty much nothing to stop the switching.
Anyway......

You'd have to flip them open to view the information on the 2x2 piece of paper. Hence the name flips.

The holders themselves were vinyl, with all the usual problems of vinyl.
They fell out of favor very quickly when the authenticators/graders started using slabs.

How a coin holder term that was out of style by the early 80's translated to card grading so much later... I think may have to remain a mystery.

[ASF123]

Ohhh, I remember those! I collected coins for a little while as a kid too. Thanks for explaining.

[Casey2296]

As kids we played "flippers" & "leaners" with our cards all the time.

[Vegas Cards]

I collected in the late '70s and through the '80s too. Then got caught up in the early 1990s with the explosion of glossy cards, buying cases and complete sets.

At some point it got to be too much to keep up with and I set it aside.

My dad gave me his cards from when he was a kid and between my own collection and his, I already had too much. Plus my uncle and I had collected together too, attending card shows and sharing new additions and highlights over the years. He would give me late 1960s Mantles for Christmas gifts and at one point gave me a signed Mantle ball.

In 2017, about 10 years after he passed away, my aunt called and told me she wanted to sell his cards. She had talked to one of the old card shops they used to go to and the guy said he buy her Mickey Mantles but wasn't interested in the rest. I was like "Hey! I'll buy the Mantles". I ended up working out a price with her and picking up a sprawling collection almost no focus. I think he'd got to shows and shops and just pick up whatever caught his eye.

So since then, I've been slowly selling some things, getting cards graded, upgrading cards I liked but wanted in better condition. I was already working on this project when covid hit. Baseball cards have always been a hobby for me, but this year it's been a godsend, a most welcome distraction from all the craziness.

PS - he started buying his Mantles in the mid-1980s. Some of the prices he paid were scandalously low

He had almost a complete run, only missing the 1951 Bowman and 1952 Topps of course

[egri]

I've been a member here for about five years, so I don't know that I qualify as a newcomer, but I collected growing up. When I was about ten, I saw a piece at a silent auction that showed the 2004 Red Sox winning the World Series, framed and matted with their 2005 Topps cards, and that lit the fire. Later that week I got my mom to take me to the LCS, and collected for the next five years or so. I started out in modern, with some junk wax as well. Then at the LCS, I met an older collector who saw that I was buying a card with a piece of Bobby Doerr's jersey on it and started asking me questions about the Red Sox teams of that era. He had with him a 1949 Leaf Ted Williams that I spent several minutes ogling. That was my introduction to vintage. He gave me Doerr's address, and Doerr was kind enough to sign a lot of items for me. That got me in to collecting autographs. Around that time I picked up my first vintage cards, 1949 Bowmans of Doerr and Sam Mele, a 1952 Bowman Jimmy Piersall, and a handful of 1933 Goudeys. A neighbor also gave me several 1960s Topps from his childhood collection. I didn't get any of those signed at the time because back then it was near heresy to get old cards signed.

I stopped collecting around my freshman year of high school. Wasn't sure what the girls would think, and it was difficult collecting vintage on a 14 year old's budget.

Then in 2014, when I was a freshman in college, I got the bug again. I dug out the vintage cards, and sent them off to the players who were still alive. Some didn't come back, but a lot of them did. When I exhausted what I had on hand, I started buying more from the LCS and online. After picking up several from a few different years, I figured I should pick a set and commit to it. I had just gotten my 1953 Topps #225 Bobby Shantz back from him, and something about the artwork jumped out at me. I started focusing on the 1953 Topps set, and was able to write to 44 of the players. Every one of them responded, some of them enclosing other cards or pictures as well. While this was going on, I stumbled across this forum and joined up, and since then its been off to the races.

[cardsagain74]

The "comeback" happened randomly about a year ago (from bumping into youtube videos of people opening up wax from the '80s). Before long I decided to buy something for the first time since the junk wax era, i.e. since I was setting up at shows during high school. And naturally it snowballed from there.
Without seeing those videos, I never would've gotten back into the hobby.

From an investment perspective, I just got lucky with the timing so far. A lot of my renewed buying interest happened in the few months after I jumped back in, or right before the covid spike began. I would've been more than satisfied if the value of my new cards went up 50-100% or more in six years (much less six months), as it was mostly about collecting for me this time rather than dealing.

But I know if I'd watched those videos a month ago (instead of a year ago), I never would've been comfortable starting back at these current price levels. Hopefully there is still plenty of room to grow going forward too though!