Shhh... 9 Secrets to Becoming a Low-Budget Happy Hobbyist!
Collecting sports cards with a limited budget can be trying at times, but it can also be incredibly satisfying and cathartic when done right.
Each Happy Hobby Sports Card Newsletter For Collectors has a handful of great sports card subjects, helping sports card collectors working with limited budgets!
As an Amazon Associate and a member of the eBay Partner Network, I earn commissions from qualifying purchases. Here’s a link to my Amazon storefront where I link to all my favorite card-collecting supplies. Thank you for supporting our affiliations by making purchases through us! Also, all sports card images come courtesy of BuySportsCards.com.
⚾🏈🏀 9 SECRETS TO BECOMING A LOW-BUDGET HAPPY HOBBYIST
Happy Hobbyist: /hapē häbē/ – noun
Definition: A sports card collector who continually works to improve their collection, despite working with a limited budget.
Collecting sports cards has become a multi-billion-dollar industry, built on the backs of collectors ranging from 6 years old to 96 years old.
There are plenty of things that can steal our happiness along the way, including scammers, rising prices on limited products, and horrible quality control. But a genuine Happy Hobbyist stays positive as they open retail products, buy junk wax from their childhood, and get excited over base rookie cards!
1. Keep Your Family Happy
The worst thing for your hobby is to have your family hate it. Spend time with your family and don’t make them jealous of the money and time you spend with your hobby. Try to find ways to support their “happy hobby,” no matter if it’s cooking, collecting dolls, or watching old movies!
2. Don’t Collect What Others Tell You to Collect
This is also known as, “Collect what you like.” Don’t listen to the marketing. You might need to buy a few blasters of things before you really figure out what you like to collect, but once you do, stop buying the other stuff. Don’t let breakers convince you to get into this next break because the product is amazing. They have to buy a lot of product they’d otherwise not want, just so they can buy products they do want.
3. Make 13-Year-Old YOU Happy!
Buy cards from your childhood that you could never afford. For me, growing up in the ‘80s, I didn’t have the ability to buy the greatest quarterbacks in the game. But as an adult, I slowly built up my collection of graded cards of the best quarterbacks from the ‘80s, putting together the greatest QB room ever in my card display!
Over the course of a year, I tracked down great cards of Joe Montana, Dan Marino, John Elway, Steve Young, Randall Cunningham, Boomer Esiason, Bernie Kosar and Jim Kelly. Once people found out about my pursuit, they sent me cards, like Doug Flutie and Vinny Testaverde!
4. Be Happy with Mint Condition Cards! (AKA PSA 9s)
While it’s true that PSA 10s are best, and there are no cards in better condition than PSA 10s. However, a PSA 9, by definition, is still a “Mint Condition” card, which means “as if new.” PSA 9s might be plentiful, but even so, you’re talking about collecting a card that is in like-new condition. That’s a win.
5. Buy Into Breaks Just Once in a While
Breaks can be expensive, as you buy one team for what a blaster would cost, then you only end up with a handful of cards. The idea is – you get a better chance of hitting a big card with a breaker, which is true. They get hobby boxes and jumbo boxes of which you might not otherwise get access, but you will spend a chunk of cash, hoping to win one of the good teams. Even then, if you get the best team possible, they still might not pull the cards you want.
By curbing your spending on breaks, you can spend more on singles of cards you wish you got on breaks!
6. Work Toward Finishing a Set or Subset You’ve Always Loved
The brain of a collector likes to try to finish things, then they move on to something else to collect and try to finish.
Don’t try to collect everything all at once. Pick something and make it your mini-goal, while your wider goal is improving your collection and enjoying it while doing so.
For instance, I was always obsessed with the 1976 Topps All-Time All-Stars subset, which celebrated MLB’s 100th anniversary by choosing the best player ever at each position. From Babe Ruth to Walter Johnson, from Teddy Ballgame to Ty Cobb, I made it a mini-mission to finally gather all these cards I loved as a youngster.
7. Sell the Cards You Don’t Care About
In your collecting adventure, you’re going to come across a ton of cards you just don’t care about, as you try to collect cards you do care about. Sell them on eBay as fast as you can, and use that money to fund the purchase of a card you care about!
Patrick Imhoff wants a 2005 Upper Deck Sidney Crosby Young Guns rookie card, so he’s working to sell off other cards until he can afford it! Think of how happy he’ll be when he finally gets “Sid The Kid” in his collection!
8. Help Someone Else Enjoy Their Collection!
If you don’t want to spend time selling your commons or your base cards, you can usually find someone who would be happy to take them. Maybe it’s a kid or just a new collector, but your commons could be the beginning of his/her collection. Toss in some duplicate superstars and rookie cards, and you’ll dial up your happiness as much as theirs.
9. Subscribe to This Newsletter & Listen to This Podcast!
Once a week, you’ll get a newsletter delivered to your inbox full of Happy Hobby help! We also post on e podcast a week, usually an audio version of the newsletter. But sometimes, we’ll do interviews on my YouTube channel that turn into podcasts, too.
We mix up what’s in each issue, including a main feature meant to help your collection, tweak your nostalgia bone, or improve your card-spending habits. Some other features include:
Cards That Make Us Happy: A deeper dive into one card from the past that turns our frowns upside down.
Patrick’s Prospect Picks: Patrick Imhoff shares some baseball prospects whose 1st Bowman cards he believes in.
Sports Card Trivia: We share a new question every week, and give a cool card away to one person who answers correctly.
Happy Hobby History: Looking back at why certain things came to be in the hobby.
Happy Hobbyist Collector Spotlight: We share the story of one of the collectors who shared their story with me.
Guest Features: Other Substackers with newsletters join us to share some of their favorite collecting tips.
A Closer Look at a Topps Design: Alan Camuto, a former graphic designer who has worked with Topps, breaks down the details and designs of different Topps sets.
Giveaways: We’re giving away a 1962 Topps Yogi Berra PSA 5 card to one of our first 500 subscribers, but you can still get in on a giveaway for our first 1,000 subscribers!
Set Reviews and Previews: When new series are being released, we discuss what’s new, what’s lame and what’s great about them!
⚾ PATRICK’S PROSPECT PICKS
Our Happy Hobby Vice-President Patrick Imhoff shares one of his favorite baseball prospects for the coming seasons.
Bowman 1st prospect cards are always a hot ticket. With that comes high prices for the so-called top prospects. In this corner, the goal is to highlight a prospect with tons of potential that doesn’t come with the high price.
Today, we’re highlighting Seattle Mariners No. 3 prospect: Shortstop Cole Young. He was a long-shot at the beginning of Spring Training to make the big-league roster at the start of this season. As a 21-year-old, he struggled a little against better competition and now will most likely begin the season in Triple-A until his potential call-up late in the season.
Across three seasons in the minors, Young is a .279 hitter with 9 HRs and 56 RBI, and he rates as a plus defender who has all the tools and range to play either SS or 3B, helping his value tremendously. Triple-A ball will give him more looks against better players and still put him on pace for regular playing time in the majors as a 22/23-year-old.
Starting the season in Triple-A is also great for budget collectors, as it will keep the price of his 2022 Bowman Draft Cole Young Bowman 1st #BDC-112 at a reasonable price. Chrome refractors and Black and White Ray Wave refractors can be found on eBay for around $7 and the Sapphire refractor (if you search enough) can be found for around $12. If you want a numbered card, check out his paper Bowman 1st #BD-112 and you can find the sky blue /499 for under $10, or if you want a lower numbered card, the purple /250 and blue /150 in the vicinity of $20.
Grab your Cole Young card before he gets called up and his prices jump.
⚾🏒 10 MOST POPULAR NEWSLETTERS (So Far)!🏈🏀
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Have a #HappyHobby!
Podcast Music: "I dunno" by grapes - 2008 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0)
What a great list. We should all read this every three months.
Great stuff as always David! Must read for collectors re-joining the hobby after many years off to navigate these new roads. Thanks for the Crosby YG mention, you have officially made it a reality and a quest. I am going to stop by the LCS and see if they are interested in buying some stuff, if not, eBay here we come.