When did sports card collecting get so complicated?

^ i feel the same way man..  i recently got back into collecting cause i wanted certain Autographs and "Game Worn" cards and i wanted something me and my 7yr old can do together but its so different from when i was younger, packs and boxes are 20x's more today plus there's multiple series and different color'd auto's that are better then regular auto's.. 

i look for #'d cards under 25 and mostly collect UFC cards now.. i grab some football and baseball but not as many..  its an expensive hobby though..   GL with your idea to open a shop..

and your right, things were so simpler n easier back in the day, Im 35 and im talking 20 years ago, roughly 1990-1994     i dont remember an autographs being in packs, it was just "Rookie" cards and "Lottery Picks" u looked for 

I collected during the 80's when you could get a pack of 15 cards for $.50 cents. (Upper Deck were more when they first came out)

The other day I saw a pack, it was $1.99 for 6 cards...How the hell is a young kid suppose to put together a decent collection with those prices?

EBay totally dictates the market now for sportscards.

Try finding a  local cardshop, close to impossible.  There are boxes of cards now that are $1500 and you only get 5 cards.. WTF

I've always enjoyed collecting cards, now I just concentrate on the less expensive sets - Score for football and victory for hockey. I just try to collect the entire master set. It's cheapper and I enjoy the chase of the inserts.

I recently got into UFC and that's getting saturated fast, its always the same guys, set after set for autographs and relic cards. There isn't the rookies and traded players like other sports. I just limit my UFC collecting to 2 boxes a year and make the set and move on.

I'm actually thinking of selling a large portion of my collection. Moving from a house to condo and no longer will have the space.  Will probably use EBay becuase I don't know any other way. But you seem to get maybe 1 cent per $1 value on that site, but it's a great way to unload I guess.

Back in the day ( for me ) abou 1985 to 1992 or 1993 I was buying baseball cards.  Again, as mentioned before it was bascially Topps, Donruss,Fleer and Score ( remeber Score ? )

I was bascially collecting sets and also team sets of the Philadelphia Phillies and lots of various Mike Schmidt cards from over the years.

In 1989 - Upper Deck came out  - and that changed the landscape of card collecting.

I rem. buing an un-opened sealed factory set of 1989 Upper Deck cards.  I held on to that set until 1994/1995 when I traded the set for some Magic The Gathering Trading Card Game cards.  :)

I totally rem. in the early 90's - 92/93 Frank Thomas rookie cards were worth a ton of money..  The whole card scene collapsed on itself in 92/93 when cards just became over-saturated.

I finally traded all my baseball cards and some autographed balls / photos to a music collector from Philly.  I traded for an ultra -rare U2 ( the band ) 7" white vinyl record.  I've been a huge U2 collector for many years - I'm really glad I made that trade.