Is baseball card collecting a loss cause?

[OU Hitman]

I have just recently started collecting baseball cards. I thought It would be cool to hand them down to my son, if and when I have one.

I have seen some posts talking about how new cards are watered down and aren't worth very much money.

Do you guys think that this is a bad investment? It's mostly for fun but I would like to know that the money I'm spending on collecting isn't just being thrown away.

Any suggestions on what type of cards to collect that might retain value?

I have started collecting Bowman, and Topps Heritage and am trying to complete the sets.

Any suggestions would be great...

[markfnc]

I grew up in the 70's. Collected Cards from 1976 - 1980. TO me the downfall came with the other companies. We just had Topps. No special editions, just a set of baseball cards.

[flyingdutchdude]

If you collect modern cards (1970-now), collect them for the enjoyment, dont collect them for the investment. You may be disapointed in their actual worth, especially cards within the last 20 years.

Earlier Topps etc. (1950's-60's) might be an investment, if the cards are high grade.

Vintage cards (1880's-1940's) will definately be an investment, as they have always and will always go up in value (as long as you didnt overpay).

As usual, its all about supply and demand.

[Jose Reyes]

If you enjoy them then they will be worth the money. My father collected baseball cards from when he was a kid up until a little after I was born (and I have continued to add on to his collection with my own). As a son, I can tell you that I enjoy looking at my father's cards, so your future son will probably enjoy looking at yours too. His oldest cards are from the early 70s, so our collection ranges from around 1970-2006. We may not have the most valuable collection, but we don't plan to sell any cards anyway and we enjoy the collection. It's not really about the money, if you like them and you think your son will too, then you should start collecting :)

[DodgerBlue8188]

Go to card shows if you can. You can find a lot of good deals on older cards which could make your collection better and more admirable. If you're looking for players are certain teams try Ebay. I've bought packages for like 300 Dodger cards for 7 bucks on ebay before. Usually is worth it.

I really only collect Dodger and Dolphin cards now because there is just so much. I have so many cards I wish I could just sell because i have lack of space for them all. I have to keep most in the garage and the garage due to temperature summer/winter isn't the best place for them.

If I was you I would focus on rookie cards. Bowman produces a lot of rookie cards. I know you shouldn't think about money if you're trying to do it for fun but try and figure out what you want to collect so that you don't have a bunch of useless commons hanging around.

Maybe collect certain players or your favorite team. For me, having regular commons for my favorite team is not a bad thing because they were a part of the Dodgers or Dolphins.

Personally for me, cards are not as enjoyable because of the cost of them and there are so many insert sets now. I used to like it when you had the regular set and maybe 2-3 insert sets with it, maybe 1 parallel set like Topps Gold or Leaf Gold. But now its just so much. Lemme know what you're going to collect because I really do have a large inventory.