[jh691626]

Hi all--

I have been lurking and posting (and buying and selling) a little bit here for the past couple of years but thought I would introduce myself!

I am a collector of various sportscards. Grew up in the late 70s and early 80s, really into baseball card collecting until I was about 15, went to shows, traded with friends, saved my money to buy a Rod Carew rookie.

Was out of the hobby until I had a son who loved sports and really took to cards, and all of a sudden, we were both all the way back in.

He (now 13 y/o) and I now collect three things, mainly:

1. Working on a run of Aaron/Mays/Clemente/J. Robinson PSA graded, mid-to-high grade (me)
2. Working on a mid-to-high grade PSA graded 1957 Topps Football set (him)
3. Working on a collection of PSA graded Pele cards (both of us)

During the pandemic we somehow started an eBay business that we use to try to fund the purchases for #1-#3 and have become a little full-on business, buying and selling a variety of cards to earn a little money and fuel our addiction.

Some observations (that seem different than some folks' experience on here!):

1. We have had a great time running the eBay business. 99% of people we've come into contact with have been totally great. There are some bad apples but it's been very good to us so far. eBay does take a good chunk of our profits but I do have to say that they make it very easy to sell and they have been helpful whenever we get in a weird situation. And actually buying and "flipping" cards has been fun--usually we buy stuff we like, hold onto it for a year or so, enjoy the heck out of it, and then sell it on. It's sort of the best of both worlds.

2. I am actually a really big fan of third-party grading, only because I don't trust myself giving a card a grade and it just makes things so much easier to have an agreed-upon grade, even if they don't always get it right. It's better for buying too--I still remember getting those Sports Collectors Digests (making my hands black with newsprint, does anyone else remember that?) in the mail and buying cards and hoping the grade given was right.

3. Though our main focus for collecting--Pele--is very different than what most of you collect, it's the same in some ways. The cards are so old and interesting, there are still new ones coming out of the woodwork from Brazil and Italy and Portugal and elsewhere, and the very simple look of them is just so cool. And each issue has its own story.

4. I LOVE printed auction catalogs, love flipping through them to see the cards, to read the descriptions. I can't afford 95% of them, but it's just neat to see them all laid out and all of the great cards that we will never own. I know, I'm a dinosaur.

Anyway, that's a little bit about me. Thanks for listening! Jeff