Lessons From Over a Decade In

 Despite my best efforts to manipulate the algorithms that are tailored to me on various websites, every now and then I am exposed to something in the world of sports cards. There are worse things to see on Twitter or YouTube I suppose but I still don't appreciate it that much.

As of now my interest in sports cards (not sports in general but sports cards) is at the lowest it's been since I first got into the hobby. I don't mind the occasional quick chats with longtime friends and I do still read a few blogs on my feed just because I trust the authors to write more compelling things than just about the cards themselves.

But outside of that the only time cards are really on my mind is when I feel like doing more downsizing. Which reminds me, a few of you have envelopes on the way.

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Anyway one slip through the cracks came from the world of Japanese sports card collecting where someone was wondering out loud what advice one would have for newcomers to the hobby.

I didn't want to dwell on this topic too much but I couldn't resist the bait. I didn't engage with the tweet (I promptly muted the original poster) but I wasted a good chunk of time mulling over that topic. Enough time that this blogpost you're reading now came to be. Spoilers before we go further, I will not actually give any pieces of advice.

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First things first, I am in NO position of any authority to tell people what/how/why/when/where/who they should collect. Nobody really should be. All of these things are solely up to the individuals themselves to decide.

I'm a collector who finds myself getting bored and eventually moving on from stuff I went crazy over just a year earlier. Do you think someone like that can give people worthwhile advice on how to make this hobby feel super fulfilling?

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Second, I assume the key here is supposed to be advice on "how" to collect. Tips to steer new collectors in the right direction and feel like they're getting the most enjoyment out of the hobby in a short amount of time.

Fortunately that part is simple. Regardless of what you want to collect there is only one way to go about it and that's to spend money. Lots of money. If you want a hobby that's more wallet friendly and more bang for your buck, well your first mistake was thinking a hobby centered on collecting/hoarding was a good idea.

But the thing is that it ultimately goes back to "what" folks want to collect. That's how people justify spending thousands on small rectangles, because they felt a powerful urge to want it. Which again is something only the individual can determine themselves. And the only real way they can determine that is through trial and error.

That process is a huge component of this hobby. For good and mostly for bad you live with the decisions you make. You pick up a few lessons as time goes on and you slowly adjust as your interests, tastes and the general environment around you (both in real life and in whatever collecting/sports community you've entrenched yourself in) shift.

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Plus as far as I'm concerned a good 90+% of folks entering the hobby now probably have dollar signs in their eyes as their main motivator. Because let's be real here, it's 2025. There's a gambling element in everything because regulators are asleep at the wheel and that's just how the world is now.

To be clear this was the case even when I was fully in this hobby, but now I feel like the post-COVID bubble that caused values to increase (and brains to rot) has more or less made it even more clear that the key is chasing the stuff worth oodles of dollars and pretty much only those cards.

While I'm sure that not every new collector is a degenerate gambler, I'm also sure the collectors who would spend their time thumbing through discount bins to find cards of Kent Tekulve looking funny are in the vast minority.

What would I even have to say that would give them any insight into what they want out of the hobby? Sounds like they already know what they want to do.

Meanwhile for the real hardcore card nerds who actually would want to find cards they find unique for various reasons, I really can't advise anything to them either as only they can carve out what they want to do through trial and error.

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Ultimately I have no sage words of wisdom to pass onto new collectors.

The only thing I'm somewhat confident in is that collectors who've been at it for a while should probably just step back, be quiet and let the new collectors go about things as they see fit. When they've got enough time and experience with the hobby under their belt and decide they want to continue, then both rookies and veterans alike can really come together by shit talking Fanatics and eBay sellers/buyers all day.

In this post I've largely exposed how I think collectors are degenerate gamblers or weird nerds (or more likely a mix of both). Even if I think that I don't really want to say it. The last thing I want to do is make someone feel bad for collecting a certain way or for the reasons they'd collect.

If the hobby brings someone joy in some way, then I'm happy for them. Life's tough and anything that can make it a little better is nice.

Luckily my readership here are largely folks who've been collecting for longer than I've been alive (in some cases longer than cards have been deemed as being valuable) so me saying all of this shouldn't really hinder anyone still in the early stages.

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See this is why I hate social media posts about sports cards. It has me wasting time thinking about shit like this that amounted to nothing in the end.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.