Best hobby advice you've received.

[jchcollins]

Random, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot - but here is what comes to the top of my head:

1. Don't have regrets. Most of us have sold some cards that we have at least some level of passive regret over at some point in time later. But at least in my case, the funds from those sales allowed me to buy other cards I had wanted that I didn't have before. It's all about the fun and the experience - and remember our one ride on this merry go-round is kind of short when you look at the big picture. Enjoy your cards and don't focus on mistakes with your collection. As the late Dr. Richard Carlson once said, "Remember, every hundred years? All new people!" Don't spend more time than you have to in that window regretting things you can no longer change.

2. If you are more of a collector than an investor or speculator in cards, know that third party grading services have extremely limited utility. Basically, they are useful if you are buying a card online, sight-unseen, and want peace of mind that the "EX" card you just bought doesn't have a glaring, hidden crease. But if you are mainly doing PC and don't sell a lot of cards, once that slab arrives in your mailbox, the look of the card isn't going to change no matter the grade on the flip. So, (unlike me in the past...) don't get caught up with why this card only got a 6 when you thought it was a strong 7, or why that card you were sure was a 5 only got a 3.5 from PSA. That is the head game that ALL TPG's want collectors to buy into to keep them submitting and re-submitting cards ad nauseum until the end of time. Are you pleased with how the card LOOKS, and how it fits in your collection? If not, then upgrade. If you are, then realize that for whims, days of the week, the weather, what grader you did or did not get - that you could likely resubmit the same card over and over again and rarely get the exact same grade every time. Grading that is at all related to eye appeal is subjective, and always will be. No matter how many computers or HGA grading companies enter the picture.

3. Don't get caught up in trying to "Keep up with the Joneses" in terms of your collection and how bad@ss you think it is or is not and how that in turn makes you come off in groups like this one as a collector. With extremely scarce exceptions, somebody somewhere has a better collection than you do. All of you. And in turn, your collection also blows somebody's (and likely a lot of somebody's...) away too. Collect what makes you happy, and don't make it a competition with everything you see on message boards, on YouTube, or anywhere else you discuss the hobby with other people.