Baseball cards have been manufactured since the 1800’s and have touched the hearts of millions of collecting enthusiasts young and old. We'll let you in on a little secret, the key to this hobby is for you to collect what YOU like! There are as many different types of baseball collectors as there are types of baseball cards…which type are you? Some collectors take the hobby very seriously and invest a lot of money and time on their prized baseball card collections. Other collectors enjoy the hobby equally as much and invest much less money and time.

Still others love the hobby so much that they pursue a career in baseball cards! Whichever type of collector you are we are sure that if you haven’t already, you will soon discover that baseball card collecting is a hobby you can enjoy for life. We happen to think that once you discover how fun it is to  trade baseball cards with other collectors, you'll really be hooked on the hobby! Baseball card trading has been around as long as the cards and is a great way to get rid of cards that you don’t want for cards that you do.

Check out a valuable 2006 baseball card. What do you think?  Was it a mistake or a ploy to sell more cards?

We've put together a list of sports card shops that recommend our site.

Are you looking for information about football card collecting? We've got that too, although, once you understand the basics of collecting one sport you'll pretty much have it for the others.

Where do you get the baseball cards?
Aside from trading baseball cards there are several other ways to get the baseball cards that you want including:

Hobby Card Shops
These shops specialize in selling sports cards. There are many advantages to hobby shops. Usually you will find an excellent selection of cards and a knowledgeable shop owner to learn from. It’s also nice to see the cards up close to get ideas about what you want to collect. Card shops get “hobby” boxes and packs that often contain more and better baseball cards. Another advantage of buying your cards from a hobby shop is that they will often trade with you or buy cards back from you that you don’t want.

As of 2010 there will be only one company that makes baseball cards of current MLB players:  Topps

Retail stores
Stores like Kmart, Target and Walmart. These places can also have a pretty good selection of cards. Keep in mind they may have packs with fewer cards and less rare cards. However, sometimes there are some very rare baseball cards that are primarily found in retail stores! Take for example this years 2006 Topps set. The packs purchased at Wal Mart had a very valuable card in it, card number 297 Alex Gordon currently sells for between $2000-$4000. These packs were specifically made for Wal-Mart and are called Wal-Mart exclusives. One down side to the retail stores is that they will not be interested in buying or trading any cards with you.

Baseball Card Shows
Card shows can be a lot of fun. Groups of shop owners and baseball card collectors get together to buy, sell, and trade cards. You can go just as a customer or when you have a big enough collection you can get a table and sell some of your cards. Check with your local hobby shop for the shows nearest you. You can also locate baseball card shows in most good sports card magazines. Beckett magazine lists all of the card shows by State in the back of each monthly issue. You can search our list of Baseball Card Shows.

The Internet
Ebay and many other auction sites can be a good place to purchase cards, just make sure you are familiar with how the auction process works. There are also sites such as thepit.com where you can participate in a stock market type of format, only the commodity is sports cards. Etopps.com is another online card buying/selling tool that sells both digital and real cards. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of online sports card shops. Naxcom.com is another popular site to purchase sports cards. As with anything you buy via the Internet it’s good to at least know the reputation of who you are buying from. You’ll also want to keep in mind the shipping charges when buying your cards online.

Although the Internet has provided baseball card collectors with seemingly unlimited access to buy just about every baseball card imaginable, it's also provided an amazingly effective tool for baseball card trading enthusiasts.

Home page