Over the past two months I've added loads of new cards to my collection and thought of several blog post ideas. I've just lacked the time to write about any of them. And so I wanted to start the new year off with a relatively long post about my card collection, blog, and goals for 2026.
Like a lot of long-time collectors, I definitely feel like I've been priced out of the hobby. 2025 was a horrible year personally but it was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape my collection. If hobby box prices were reasonable (no monopolies, no breakers, etc.) I could see myself sauntering into my LCS and leaving with 5 or 6 boxes, single cards, supplies.. you name it. Instead, I bought one hobby box. I hadn't bought a hobby box in years - and I'll probably never do it again.
Retail has been my go-to for about a decade, though it's frustrating to have your options limited by whatever basic products you can find at Target. $20 blasters were always a cheap way to get your rip fix; if the box is a dud, at least it didn't damage your wallet. But those $20 blasters are now $35 for the same amount of hits. If card shows were a thing around here -- and dealers brought quarter and dollar boxes -- I'd only go to Target for home essentials and whatnot.
In fact I go to Target even less because Barnes & Noble has a better selection of blasters, they're closer, and I have more incentive to shop there because my daughters read books and I get rewards coupons. They even have hockey cards!
As any savvy collector will tell you, ripping boxes is a waste of money. It's better to just buy the singles you want. I did a mix of that in Q4 2025: some from the 'smart' side of the ledger and some from the 'foolish' side. Spending over $200 on Series One of Upper Deck hockey? Dumb! I could have bought the base set and the top rookies for roughly that amount. I still need about 40 of the 250 base cards and I didn't pull the Ivan Demidov RC out of hobby or retail (also - hobby doesn't have relics or autos anymore? what's the chase - low numbered parallels? )
Also on the 'foolish' ledger - I spent nearly $300 on a Jim Palmer second-year card that I could have bought for $
30 raw. It's hard to explain this to a traditional collector/slab skeptic, especially with reports of grading malfeasance from PSA (which is now a
monopoly!) popping up more frequently than ever. In general, it's a terrible time to invest in any type of graded cards - PSA, SGC, or especially BGS.
But that train left the station a looong time ago, and I've never had the extra room in my budget to shape my seemingly disparate slabs into an actual theme. With each passing year, my interest in new cards and current players dims, allowing me to focus on players I grew up watching and 'golden era' legends whose legacies are etched in stone.
It's exhausting trying to speculate on current players - which ones will succeed immediately? Which ones will fail spectacularly? Which ones will improve at a expected rate for their sport, but the hobby hypes them up soo much that by the time they reach the potential everyone knew they had, investors had already given up because they weren't immediately amazing?
I seriously considered picking up a Connor Bedard Young Guns RC last summer for about $200. Would have been a smart investment, but collecting current players just isn't a priority for me anymore. I buy new product for fun. I invest in vintage because I've made way too many mistakes selling too soon on recent stars. The Alex Ovechkin SP Authentic sale was amazing, but I still left money on the table.
And I'm okay with that. I've learned to let go of the mistakes and forgive myself for selling cards I shouldn't have. This. Is. A. Hobby. Collect what makes you happy, not what makes you money.
For me, that means one of three things: set building, team PCs, and vintage. There are some players(most of them retired) that still ping my antennae, but that's less of a priority at the moment.
Team PCs are the cheapest, and it's where I've spent the most time over the past year and a half. I'm running out of room for more Red Sox, Packers, Devils, and Whalers.. yet that doesn't stop me from hitting Sportlots or Beckett for new stuff. My final purchase of 2025 was from Rich N' Deals. I was lured in by a 30% off coupon, filled my cart with everything I wanted, and had about $70 worth of singles ready to order. But the coupon was only good for $100+ purchases. I needed to find a "free" card.
Dennis will be happy with my choice here:
I've got a couple low-end rookie cards of the holy pitching trinity of the 21st century: Kershaw, Scherzer, Verlander*. None of them were Topps until now. I also picked up a Joe Flacco relic to get me just over the $100 minimum. I wasn't foolish enough to spend $30 on a $10 card alone - even if it was technically free.
For a brief moment many months ago, I considered picking up a slabbed Bowman Chrome auto of Verlander - until I searched prices on eBay. Oof. This is why I can’t collect current players.
*Side note/mini-rant: why are the HOF vote totals for borderline pitchers exploding this year? We don't need to put Andy Pettitte or Felix Hernandez in the Hall to fill a quota - just wait for these guys (and Greinke).
I don't want to spend too much time discussing my vintage graded card collection here; you'll see many of the cards in my upcoming Top Ten By Position series anyhow. It has been a lot of fun selling certain slabs and streamlining the collection. My graded card carrying case fits exactly 144 slabs, so I've named my PSA project "The 144". 4 Sharp Coners consignment has helped me essentially trade in unneeded vintage for 'bucket list' rookie cards and high-grade copies of legends that were missing from my collection. The Position series will serve as a checklist for who I'm still missing. Should be fun!
On that note, I'm going to take a break from blogging for the majority of January. I'm currently undertaking a major cataloging project that will prepare me for the blog series (set to debut in February or March) and allow me to trade on TCDB so I can fill some sets. Box and binder space in my collection is very limited but I do have room for one more row of boxes on my shelf.
Looks like I'll be adding more Topps baseball and Upper Deck hockey sets to my collection this year.
Of course the real set building focus remains my 1956 Topps set. I plan to complete this in 2026, for several reasons:
-my mom got me started on this and I want to finish it while she is still alive (her health is declining faster than she wants to admit)
-my kids are going to start planning for college soon, and I will either need to sell the set to fund their higher education or, at the very least, stop spending money on myself
-it's the 70th anniversary of this fantastic set, the 75th anniversary of Topps baseball cards in general, and my 40th year of collecting!
🎵Memmm-ries 🎵
As the year progresses, I will plan some festivities for these occasions. For now, my focus will be on the Top Ten By Position series - and possibly a post on collecting(or not collecting) bad guys before that.
Thanks for reading!
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