How do you decide what to collect?

[Exhibitman]

It is all about enjoying what you are doing. If they money is an issue, don't do it.

Look at the other forums here. It doesn't have to be prewar baseball HOFers. If you like other sports, lots of great stuff is out there. Ditto for nonsports. While a few marquee cards can get expensive in any field, most cards are a fraction of the cost of equivalent baseball cards.

One alternative for prewar HOFers are the sets issued in the 1950s-1970s. Callahan HOF, Golden Press, Fleer, even 1976 Topps All Time All Stars. Beautiful issues that can represent HOFers in your collection for a very modest price.

If you follow the current game, they still make cards. I had a great time with Topps Now in 2016 and ended up with every Clayton Kershaw card they made last year.

I regularly pick up the cards formerly known as 'shiny crap' when they catch my eye. Hell, I spent a really enjoyable afternoon at the National last year going through large dollar boxes of 1970s cards looking for chase cards that I recall seeing 20 years ago for a lot more.

I like cards from when I was a kid. One of the things I actively search out are 1970s issues. Especially at a show, there is great stuff available in slightly lower condition for a pittance. One dealer at the show last year basically gave me a free stack of 1960s-1970s HOFers when I bought a single graded card from him. Postwar Topps and Bowman, for example, are very reasonably priced if you don't have to have high end slabbed cards.