I have a bit of a newfound interest in the hobby. Drove down to South Austin last weekend since I saw there was a newer collectible shop open in Austin, finally, and bought a blaster box of basketball and a hanger box of baseball for about $70 total. The hobby is enjoying a resurgence, but seems like a shit time to be getting back into it for the consumer. Panini runs basketball and football, and shit is severely overpriced. I remembered that old feeling of wasting money after opening the boxes. $70 worth of shit singles and inserts. The one that excited me was a Josh Primo (Spurs) rookie parallel that looks great, but might fetch $4 on Ebay. To top it off I paid $40 for a Donruss basketball blaster that sells for $25 on Target's website. The local guys were really cool and helpful and outgoing, but fuck man. 60% markup? And you're telling me how much you love your wholesaler and how much they hook you up while I'm there. And how you visit walmart weekly to make sure you're staying price competitive..... That's on me though, I should've comp'd the prices before going in.
Most notable card thing to happen in the past month was finding my old Upper Deck Victory Tom Brady rookie card, that I'm pretty sure I bought at a Tri-Star show in Houston as a teenager (no way I had the guts to spend more than $10-15 to spend on a single card).... going for $300+ on ebay raw. Going to get that one graded though, it's selling for $500+ at a Mint 9. Mine seems to be in really good condition.