Mission Statement

           Welcome to the Card Collectors Corner. I created this Blog to chronicle my Card Collecting strategies and scores throughout the years. I have only been collecting sports and trading cards since April 2013, so I am still a bit of a rookie. But since then I have uncovered a wealth of knowledge and great information about this amazing hobby and wanted to share it with the other collectors that want to BEEF UP their collections.
          As a kid I always mistreated my baseball cards and took them for granted. I was more concerned with the stick of gum in the pack then the actual cards. Yes, I was a chubby lil' bastard. Most of the cards ended up in the spokes of my bicycle and the rest probably got trashed by my myself somewhere down the line. If I had only knew what I know now!
         As a adult I take my card collecting very seriously and treat my cards with tremendous care. I initially started collecting cards again with the intent of getting them signed. I read an online article about (TTM) Through The Mail Autograph Signing and thought I would give it a try. I had bad experiences when I was younger trying to get a professional athletes autograph while in public. I don't want to bash the athletes or put their names on blast, but to say the least they were pretty rude to a porky 12 year old. So TTM seemed great to me. I could get some cards signed by my favorite players and not feel like I am bothering them. 
          After a month of buying cards from retail stores, I noticed from checking the Set Checklists that I was missing out on some really cool cards. So I started to buy in bigger volume to try and hit some of these better cards. After a lot of spending I finally came across a Topps 2013 Series 1 Chasing History Hanley Ramirez Bat Relic Card and felt like I had hit the lotto! 
         I went to the (LCS) Local Card Shop to get some information and to ask a bunch of questions. The LCS owner clued me in on the fact that people search the packs of cards at retail stores when they are first released. That is why I was not finding the better cards. He then proceeded to tell me about Hobby Boxes and HTA's. They are boxes you can buy that are guaranteed to have some better card in them. I also noticed other LCS exclusive card sets that are really nifty as well. (Topps Baseball Museum for example)
        Overwhelmed with information and a hunger for the best cards available, I hit the internet to research how to search for the good cards. I have put in many hours since then card searching and used numerous techniques to find some amazing cards that I would have otherwise overlooked. 
       During my card searching and reading of the backs of packs for odds, I noticed that card companies also offer cards through a No Purchase Necessary mail in drawings. I have sent in a lot of entries, but to date I have yet to receive a winner. I won't hold my breath. 
      So in the course of a year I have learned to find some really great cards through

1. Card Searching Retail Products
2. Buying Hobby Boxes and HTA's
3. Sending Cards to be autographed through the mail
4. No Purchase Necessary Contest
5. Buying Hot Packs on eBay

I want to help anyone interested in collecting cards become a better collector and have a lot of fun doing it!