[homerun]

Does anyone collect baseball cards? My son has a few but he wants to start collecting. Should he just start with a pack from WalMart, or is there a "best" starter kit?

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by homerun

Does anyone collect baseball cards? My son has a few but he wants to start collecting. Should he just start with a pack from WalMart, or is there a "best" starter kit?

Homerun, I got a few hundred thousands...What would you like to know?...Walmart has a few bargins if you know what you are looking for..but more than anything, you are paying full retail price on most things...

[homerun]

Does he start out with 2006 cards or should he look for older ones? He plans on buying 2006 Yankee cards, sending them to all the players with a return envelope and ask them to autograph them. (Wouldnt he be surprised if one actually came back?) I dont even know if you can buy whole teams in one set. We havent really looked at them much. He has a few Yankee cards that his friends have given him.

[MVB]

Walmart does sell a set of .... 20-40 baseball cards.... for like $10. The individual packets seem to be more expensive.

Nice (yet inexpensive) baseball card brands are: "Upper Deck", "Season Highlights", "Bowman", "Pinnacle", and "Eleer"....

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by homerun

Does he start out with 2006 cards or should he look for older ones? He plans on buying 2006 Yankee cards, sending them to all the players with a return envelope and ask them to autograph them. (Wouldnt he be surprised if one actually came back?) I dont even know if you can buy whole teams in one set. We havent really looked at them much. He has a few Yankee cards that his friends have given him.

your best bet is to go to E-Bay...type in "Yankee team set 2006" and you will get a smattering of them...Topps and Topps Total will offer you the greatest range of players...and are usually the most inexpensive...Topps is probably better for getting them signed.

Tell him to first aim at the lessor known players...they have less mail and normally sign faster...some of the bigger names get flooded with mail or don't sign at all...

Have him put in a Self Address Envelop to have them returned in...It really maximizes the chances of a return....

As he matures in the collection...Baseball Wise...Bowman offers the most rookies (about $2.99 a pack for about 7 or 8 cards)...Bowman Chrome holds its value the best ($2.99 for a pack of 4 high end cards...they have a shinny chrome coating)...Upper Deck is a very stable mainstream choice...($2.99 for 10 cards)...

(Side note: To MVB: The "repacked" Walmart cards aren't that good baseball wise...hockey is good...sometimes basketball....never baseball...you get a lot of junkie late 80's stuff...also I think you meant "Fleer"...not Eleer"

[MVB]

I started out with the Wamart packs and got some really nice cards... Barry Bonds, Guerrero, Jeter, M. Ramirez, etc...

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by MVB

I started out with the Wamart packs and got some really nice cards... Barry Bonds, Guerrero, Jeter, M. Ramirez, etc...

Cool MVB...but thier repackage stuff is not good baseball wise...thy do have a box where they put stuff that didn't sell last year at $1.49 a pack...these are usually good bargins...though most people have already taken the packs with the jersey cards (some people can feel the packs and figure out which ones they are)...

Also Target is better than Walmart if you know what you are doing...the material used to package the cards on a lot of the issues are "see through"...you can actually see what you are getting of you are patient enough...

Then there is the rack packs...which have a string of three packs together wrapped in a see through plastic (18 cards a pack...$2.99)....you can literally see all the cards if you are patient...most packs (ratio 1:2) also will include an insert of Barry Bonds and one of Mickey Mantle within the packs...

...sad to say, that I spend many a lunch time doing this....on the other hand, On the repackaged Walmart basketball stuff, I have pulled some nice $60 Kobe Rookies, and an $80 Yzerman from the repackaged hockey...it varies...you got to know what you are looking at...

[homerun]

When my son suggested sending the cards to the players to have signed, I really didnt think he would get any back. (Last year he invited Gary Sheffield and Derek Jeter to his end of school pool party and never received a RSVP from either one - LOL). Do some major leaguers actually send them back? I know many years ago, the players wives would handle such things.

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by homerun

When my son suggested sending the cards to the players to have signed, I really didnt think he would get any back. (Last year he invited Gary Sheffield and Derek Jeter to his end of school pool party and never received a RSVP from either one - LOL). Do some major leaguers actually send them back? I know many years ago, the players wives would handle such things.

Yes, a lot send them back...but the big, big stars get way too many requests and more often than not, do not send them back...lower level players and new rookies do...You could also find the autograph cards of most lower tier players (certified by the card company) on e-bay relatively cheap...(High end players will cost you a bit more)....a lot of them can be had for $5 or less sometimes....The SASE is a key though...most won't send them back unless you include one... ...also...its not always a speedy process might take a while...

[NYY]

anyone KNOW the Yankees addresses or at least 1 or 2

[homerun]

send to the individual players at yankee stadium

[MJHMarc]

You can always find that kind of contact information (for the stadium) at their official website, NewYorkYankees.Com