12 Tips for Collecting Baseball Cards: How to Get Started

In recent years, there has been a gigantic baseball card boom that has taken place all throughout the country. Baseball cards have actually become so popular that it's been difficult for some people to get their hands on them.

This boom has died down just a little over the last few months, and baseball card values have come down as a result. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing for those who are just trying to get a baseball card collection off the ground. It may make it much easier to start a collection right now.

If you're interested in doing this, there are some tips for collecting baseball cards that you should keep in mind. It'll put you in a position to build the best baseball card collection possible. It might even lead to you adding some very valuable baseball cards to your collection.

Here are 12 tips on collecting baseball cards in this day and age.

1. Decide Which Kind of Baseball Cards You Want to Collect

First things first: What kind of baseball cards do you want to collect? It'll be important for you to answer this question before doing anything else.

Would you like to try to put together a collection of very old baseball cards that feature icons of the game? Or do you want to collect newer baseball cards featuring players that are still working on building their legacies?

Whatever the case, you should try to focus on collecting a specific type of baseball cards. Otherwise, your collection is going to end up being a lot more all over the place than you might like.

2. Look For a Good Baseball Card Shop

Once you know which kind of baseball cards you want to collect, you'll need to find a place to buy them. There used to be at least one baseball card shop in almost every city and town throughout the country. But nowadays, it can be difficult to track one down.

You can, however, find great baseball card shops online in a lot of cases. They'll have all the sports cards that you're looking for, and they'll make it very easy to browse through their inventory.

Visiting a website to buy baseball cards won't offer the same nostalgic feeling that walking into a baseball card shop will. But you'll grow to love it after you see how many opportunities it'll give you to buy cards that you might not see while shopping around in a brick-and-mortar store.

3. Come Up With a Budget for Buying Baseball Cards

Building a baseball card collection is obviously going to require you to make an investment on your part. But just how big of an investment are you going to be willing to make?

When you're first trying to create a baseball card collection, you might want to stick to spending just a few hundred dollars on it. That will be more than enough to get your feet wet in the baseball card industry.

If, however, you want to start to assemble a baseball card collection that will be worth some real money one day, you might want to increase your budget as time goes on. It'll give you more money to play with when it comes to buying the baseball cards that you want.

4. Decide Which Approach You'll Take to Purchasing Baseball Cards

There are some baseball card collectors who will buy up boxes and boxes (and boxes!) worth of unopened baseball cards and rip them open to see what they can find. There are others who will buy individual baseball cards one at a time.

You are welcome to take either approach to buying baseball cards. You can even take both of these approaches at different times depending on which kind of cards you're chasing after.

But generally speaking, there should be some kind of strategy that you use to create your baseball card collection. It'll help you work towards an end goal and keep you feeling passionate about collecting baseball cards in the first place.

5. Be Patient When Putting Together a Baseball Card Collection

You aren't going to be able to create a baseball card collection overnight. It's going to take months and sometimes even years for you to do it. So you shouldn't be in any huge hurry when you're first buying baseball cards to add to your collection.

If there is a particular card or several specific cards that you would like to obtain, you shouldn't just jump on eBay or visit an online baseball card shop and pay whatever someone is asking for them. Instead, you should conduct a complete search to see if you can find the cards you want for a price you can afford.

This is a big part of the reason why collecting baseball cards is so much fun. You'll enjoy the journey that you will go on when you're chasing after cards that you want to incorporate into your baseball card collection.

6. Find a Great Way to Store Your Baseball Cards

When little kids collect baseball cards, they usually throw them all into a big box without putting much thought into how they're storing them. This works fine for them, but it's not the way that you should go about storing your baseball cards.

If you store your baseball cards like this, you're going to find that many of them will get ruined when you're rifling through your collection. You'll be so much better off investing in cases for baseball cards that will provide them with all the protection they need.

You should be especially diligent about storing valuable baseball cards in the right way. These cards will lose their value and they might even end up being worthless if you aren't as careful as you can be with them.

7. Try to Keep Tabs on How Much Your Baseball Cards Are Worth

Speaking of valuable baseball cards, your collection is likely going to feature at least a few of them. But the exact value of them is going to change all the time based on everything from how a particular player is performing to how rare cards end up being.

For this reason, you should search for a baseball card price guide that you trust to provide you with accurate baseball card values. You should also monitor any cards that go up in value dramatically and consider being even more proactive about storing them in the right storage products.

8. Consider Getting Some of Your Baseball Cards Graded

The baseball card value of a card is going to depend heavily on what kind of condition it's in. It's why you should attempt to get some of your more valuable baseball cards graded if you can.

Getting your baseball cards graded will involve sending them to a grading service like PSA. They'll carefully inspect your valuable baseball cards for you and tell you what they're worth.

There will be a small fee associated with having baseball cards graded. But that fee will be well worth it since it'll enable you to find out how good of condition your cards are in.

9. Connect With Other Baseball Card Enthusiasts

If you start collecting baseball cards and keep your collection to yourself, you're going to be passing up on an opportunity to share your passion with others. There is absolutely no reason for you to keep to yourself when it comes to creating a baseball card collection.

You should try to get into the habit of connecting with other people who enjoy collecting baseball cards. You can do this at trading card conventions and other events held for those who love collecting these cards.

Or if nothing else, you should join some baseball card message boards so that you can share your expertise and pick up tips from others. You'll come to appreciate the baseball card community once you begin to get to know some of the people who are active in it.

You might even be able to get involved with trading baseball cards when you take this approach to connecting with others.

10. Sell Valuable Baseball Cards From Time to Time to Buy More Baseball Cards

In a perfect world, you're going to be able to add some very valuable baseball cards to your collection in the coming years. But you might not want to hang onto these cards forever.

There will be some risks associated with selling baseball cards that are worth a lot of money. These cards could always become even more valuable later on and make you wish that you had held onto them.

But you might still want to think about selling some of your more valuable baseball cards every so often so that you can reinvest in more baseball cards. You may be able to work with a much bigger budget after selling off even just a few cards that have some real value.

11. Keep Your Baseball Card Collection as Organized as You Can

At first, it isn't going to be too challenging to keep your baseball card collection organized. You might only have a couple hundred cards that you have to look after.

But it won't be too long before you've got baseball cards spread out all over your house. It'll make it almost impossible for you to find certain cards that you're looking for when you need them.

To get around this problem, you should purchase a scanner and use it to organize your baseball card collection. Every time you buy a new set of cards or even just a single card, you can scan it and enter it into your system.

From there, you can put your baseball cards away and leave them in storage until you need them. Any time you want to look at a card, you'll have access to it on your computer so that you don't have to go rummaging around for it.

You might even want to go as far as to note where your different baseball cards are being stored. This way, you'll be able to go and get them quickly without having to search through hundreds or even thousands of cards at a time.

12. Make Sure Collecting Baseball Cards Remains Fun

Of all the tips on this entire list, this one is arguably the most important. So listen up if you're getting ready to create the ultimate baseball card collection!

It's great to open up a pack of baseball cards and find a card that might be worth a lot of money. But if you're only collecting cards so that you can potentially sell them all later for a profit, you're going to find that assembling a collection won't be very much fun.

Rather than focusing squarely on how much different baseball cards are worth, you should try to collect cards that you genuinely like. It'll make you more excited about collecting cards, and it'll prevent you from obsessing over baseball card values all the time.

Create an Incredible Baseball Card Collection by Using These Tips

Do you want to start buying baseball cards and create a collection that you're proud to show off? We can help you get your hands on so many different types of baseball cards.

We also carry a wide range of other sports cards, including basketball cards, football cards, and more. It won't take you very long at all to see why there is such a big market for collecting these cards. It's so much fun to do it, and it'll make you feel like a kid again once you get going.

Contact us to learn about the baseball cards that we have in our inventory.