[stevecarlton1972]

I grew up collecting Baseball Cards as a kid in the 80's, and was part of that generation that saw the ups and downs of the market. I eventually sold my whole collection in the 90's after going to College.

I've just recently got the itch to collect again and learning about the PSA Graded cards (something that didn't exist when I collected). Obviously everyone wants the perfect collection of PSA 10 cards, but the prices are just way out of my range for most cards.

My focus will be on 1980's Rookie Cards and do you guys think it is smart to build my collection on PSA 8 and PSA 9? I want to say that I'm not collecting to resell in a few years as I want to build a collection to hand down someday to my kids and my nephews. Do most of the average collectors like me have a collection filled with PSA 8 and 9's? Do they hold their value well, because I assume the rich are buying the PSA 10's and everyone else is buying PSA 8 and 9's, so there will always be a market for them?

Interested in everyone's thoughts and please correct me if you feel my opinions/assertions are way off base as I'm just getting back into collecting, so I'm learning all about the industry after 20 years.