What is Your Hobby Strategy for the Next 12 Months?

[gmoney328]

If there is a strike/lockout, it seems like vintage would weather the storm a good bit better than modern?

[PKIPP]

Miguel Cabrera

[ALBASKETBALL]

Originally Posted by Tom Oates

Buy very little, sell as much as I can. I've gone down market and I'm buying Griffey Jr. cards for pennies and filling holes in my Griffey PC. I'm going to look for a Griffey checklist for 1989 to 1999 so I can focus on Mariners uniform cards. Nothing high end. Just the cheapies.

I started doing the same. Rekindled my childhood Griffey PC passion. Buying a nice $5-$10 insert makes plenty happy.

[cloakroom]

Buying Betts and Machado.

[CharlieHustle]

Originally Posted by gmoney328

If there is a strike/lockout, it seems like vintage would weather the storm a good bit better than modern?

I guess the next logical question would be: What years are being classified as vintage? I feel like we're reaching the point where we can comfortably say that anything pre-85 is vintage now.

Also, in regard to "weathering the storm", Mike Trout will be ok.
Too many savvy collectors around to let his prices dip too far.

[Clause37]

Buy what I can at or near suggested retail price and realize that rookies don't hit "maturity" until those cards are unavailable at SRP. It looks to increase past the two year maturity to one and a half or sooner. I will buy what I can at decent prices and sell off what I feel is peaking. I wish I'd gotten back into the hobby in 2018, but my 2019 pulls are doing quite well.

[rwperu34]

Originally Posted by pskell02

I plan on selling the hot stuff (Soto, Tatis, Acuna, etc.) and investing back into '20-'21 rookies/prospects. Sell high, buy low and hopefully repeat the process.

Originally Posted by LVDan

In the future I’d recommend focusing on buying starting around July through December. As soon as it is impossible to put up monster MVP type numbers things start to sag and shift towards football. The majority of big price increases over the last couple years seem to happen on the basis of what is possible, not nearly as much on mid season performance trends. Hence Soto, Tatis, Acuna are all selling like like MVPs right now because they all have a good shot to take it. When we get to August, if it becomes clear that a couple of them won’t finish with a video game season stat line that is the time to start nosing around if you believe in them long term IMO.
They only give out one MVP award per league.
Just one bottom feeder’s opinion
The world needs ditch diggers too


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I didn't get any farther than these two posts because they are both spot on.

[cloakroom]

Originally Posted by pskell02

I plan on selling the hot stuff (Soto, Tatis, Acuna, etc.) and investing back into '20-'21 rookies/prospects. Sell high, buy low and hopefully repeat the process.

Selling Soto, Tatis, and Acuna for anyone outside of Wander at this point seems like a disaster waiting to happen. Even if all of them turn into Chris Davis overnight you still have at least one more hype cycle to make plenty of money off of.

[JoeAdam]

I've always been of the mindset that buying the PSA 10 high-end card was the way to go. I would tell myself that I wanted less cards, but higher quality items. I've recently come to the realization that it's much more fun to own 10 $250 raw cards than 1 $2,500 PSA 10 card.

[jduds]

Originally Posted by JoeAdam

I've always been of the mindset that buying the PSA 10 high-end card was the way to go. I would tell myself that I wanted less cards, but higher quality items. I've recently come to the realization that it's much more fun to own 10 $250 raw cards than 1 $2,500 PSA 10 card.

I do this with prospects, but the opposite with veterans. I find a lot of the raw prospect cards are in good to great shape, but if I am buying raw from 10 years ago of a decent player it is harder to find good raw copies online. There is also much less risk involved with vets than young players or prospects do I don’t mind the premium.


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[Gridiron Bob]

Pre-war beaters that have "character".

[Cards and 401K]

I own over 1,250 Graded cards worth in a range from $375 to $550+ at current prices. It is a lot to juggle but I enjoy the Hobby. I Usually sell 1st Bowmans and parallels for top prospects who are MLB ready. Then if they do well in the 1st MLB season I buy RC's and hold. I tend to own several of the same cards for each player and sell a couple when I want to buy something else. Buy players you have researched and do not try and buck a trend!
Being on the BO forum is the single smartest thing you are doing! Good luck!

[soey10]

Put together a collection for your son that has meaning. Such as buying cards of players you followed growing up, players you idolized Crome years past, historically important players or cards and some players that you enjoy watching now. If you “collect” rather than “invest” then the money aspect is an after thought. You will be buying cards to tuck away an not constantly scouring eBay to find out if today is the right time to sell to make a few bucks. Also OP if you are buying $1800-$2000 cards to sell for a $100 profit then that is to high of a risk with low return, you need to buy low and sell high if you bought in high then you need to wait to sell higher. The name of the game is be a collector and don’t look at the cards as investments, sort of like your 401k vs day trader.


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[SleepyWill]

I've been moving a good amount of my modern collection into vintage. This past week I ended up trading a few Mookie's and a few Sapphires for an 54' Aaron PSA3 and a couple of raw 68 Ryan's that are on their way to PSA.

Have also gotten into Topps Star Wars because well, huge nerd . . . As well as collecting vintage Movie posters, with my most recent being an original Jaws.

[base set]

Looks like I will be grocery shopping at a designated time once a week for a while.

[salas1991]

Get back to shows and auctions so I can look at raw singles and lots in-person and not rely on people's overvalued grading of their stuff on the Bay. Shot #1 is down, so maybe later next month?

[jduds]

There’s a decent amount of sell more buy less going on, but I’m betting that’ll go out the window like so many New Year’s resolutions. Knowing collectors, I’d bet on lots of buying despite the best of intentions.


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[FT35]

Originally Posted by JoeAdam

EVERYTHING is at PSA. Don't want to extend myself any further. Once it comes back, it's all profit.

In my opinion, this is the reason for the seemingly deflating market. Many of us have so many of our cards at PSA right now—all on pre-paid submissions...meaning we’re on the hook for substantial expenses once those orders pop. So the next several months—while we wait—will be spent building up the $ to pay for the pending grading fees—RATHER than spending as much on new cards.

The same “Hobby dollars” are being spent as always...just at the moment it’s being spent on grading and freaking card saver 1 purchases!!!

[pewe]

Originally Posted by JoeAdam

I've always been of the mindset that buying the PSA 10 high-end card was the way to go. I would tell myself that I wanted less cards, but higher quality items. I've recently come to the realization that it's much more fun to own 10 $250 raw cards than 1 $2,500 PSA 10 card.

BTW if you play this correct, at some points the base cards see more appreciation than high end, and vice versa... so if you are ratcheting up on cards, it’s a nice see saw


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[CKIM]

Just got back to collecting/investing myself late late 2020 after decades of hiatus. First card I purchased- '89 Griffey PSA9. Soon grabbed couple of BBCE '89 UD hobby box for $400each- opened one box right away (nabbed 2 Griffeys inside) and kept the other box in closet and then sold @$1000 ebay couple months later. Grabbed '80 RC's mostly PSA9- Ripken, Boggs, Mattingly, Clemens, Bonds Maddux etc..several Jeters/Martinez/Ichiros along the way. My strategy was to focused on players and cards I knew and grewup collecting. My biggest single purchase to date is '82 PSA9 Cal Ripken Traded @$999. My mindset is to stay conservative being mindful we're in selling season now and these card markets/prices has its own boom/bust cycle. I plan on hold/own these cards so I am fine either way. Also I made sure I steered clear of ultra-modern cards- Acuna,Soto,Tatis etc including Trout with their high flying prices since I knew almost nothing about these players and their cards and parallels. Been hyper focus on 1987 Tiffany sets recently which I believe still offers good value. HW I am trying to spread out my purchases over time.

[Mandy1320]

MSRP and singles only. Other than that, nothing different. Hoard any and all RCs and put them in the back of the closet.

[jharri71]

Going to put together my 2021 Cubs set S1, S2, and S3 (update). That's about it for me. Maybe a handful of Chrome color Rizzo.

[rwperu34]

Originally Posted by JoeAdam

I've always been of the mindset that buying the PSA 10 high-end card was the way to go. I would tell myself that I wanted less cards, but higher quality items. I've recently come to the realization that it's much more fun to own 10 $250 raw cards than 1 $2,500 PSA 10 card.

Originally Posted by pewe

BTW if you play this correct, at some points the base cards see more appreciation than high end, and vice versa... so if you are ratcheting up on cards, it’s a nice see saw


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Actually it's typical for the lower $ cards and/or players to see a higher ROI...depending on how you factor in the work. This is true for prospects, rc, grading, or just the good ol' fashioned grind.

My biggest "score" in terms of ROI was a 10,000 all HOF lot (plus some Steve Avery for some reason) from the junk wax era. I'm probably up 5x on that with 6,000 cards left...at about $4 an hour.

[kkart]

Flip some new stuff in order to finance my vintage collection.

[CoEnt85]

I'm selling pretty much everything except my vintage cards, Soto's, and a handful of other cards that are special to me. Singles only if I decide to buy anything since wax prices are out of control. I love ripping wax and single boxes have always been a big gamble but the risk far outweighs the reward now. I can't justify $150 for a box of series 1.