Returning collector and new member -- Where to buy reasonable vintage??

[ASF123]

Hi all,

So, I'm one of "those guys" - I collected as a kid during peak Junk Wax ('86-'93 or so) and got interested again by watching vintage box breaks during the pandemic.

It turns out the bug never really left, and now I would like to start building a quality vintage collection. I have no interest in the new stuff and the "hits" mentality - even when I was a kid, I got into vintage and have some lower-grade '50s-'70s HOF cards from then.

I'm not looking to invest per se, but I do want to collect cards that will likely hold their value and ideally have some potential appreciation. I spent enough time accumulating a bunch of worthless crap the first time around .

Which brings me to the problem: Is there anywhere to find reasonably priced, decent quality vintage cards these days?? I know it's because of "those guys" like me (sorry about that...), but it's frustrating as hell to be excited about cards again with nothing reasonable to buy. For graded cards, everyone seems to want at least 50% more than the same PSA card sold for two months ago. I'm not opposed to buying raw for inexpensive cards, if the source seems trustworthy, but people seem to be asking graded prices for raw cards. COMC is dominated by some guy named Dean who will gladly sell you any card for 4x the going price - and apparently they won't ship your cards for 5 months unless you pay an extra fee that gets big if you want more than a few cards.

So, what to do? Any suggestions other than just to hope the current spike subsides as the pandemic (hopefully, eventually) recedes? Are there any areas of vintage where prices haven't spiked?

I've looked at the B/S/T forum here, but obviously that can have only a limited selection at any given time. I'm also using this time to do my homework and research about the current market, which has been fun, but at some point I want to, you know, actually buy some cards!

Any advice for a returning collector would be much appreciated, thanks!