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People are great here. Everyone seems to to genuinely root for each other wins. You defiantly came to the right place.

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If you’re just getting into football cards and you specifically like autos, numbered cards, and patches, I’d actually avoid trying to collect everybody. Pick a few players you genuinely like and then chase the best cards you can afford. For current guys, I’d start with:
Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye
Then for the 2026 rookie class, Fernando Mendoza is obviously the big chase right now, with Jeremiyah Love, Carnell Tate, Caleb Downs, Ty Simpson and Jordyn Tyson among the other names I’d watch. Mendoza’s Flagship First Signature already had early sales around $1,300-$1,700, so the market is definitely paying attention. For the type of cards you like, I’d prioritize them roughly like this:
-On-card rookie autos<div>

Low-numbered rookie autos

Rookie patch autos, especially with a nice patch

Low-numbered parallels /25, /10, /5, 1/1</div>Cool veteran autos and patches of established stars

One thing I’d REALLY recommend as a new collector: don’t automatically assume the most expensive rookie is the best buy. Football is incredibly QB-heavy in the hobby, so a great WR/RB/defensive player can sometimes give you a much cooler card for a fraction of the price. And if you’re buying for your PC rather than purely investing, that’s where you can have a lot more fun.Also, since Topps Flagship Football just returned as a fully licensed product, there are a ton of rookie autos, numbered cards and memorabilia cards to chase rn

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The Andrews ain’t too bad. That probably got part of your money back

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Yeah, I’m with you on that. The One Ring had the crazy one-of-one factor and the Post Malone story, but Black Lotus feels like the card that was always destined to be the holy grail of Magic.

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Lol I think that’s the right mindset going into a submission that big. If you come out with mostly 8s and 9s, a handful of 10s, and avoid getting absolutely murdered by 5s, 6s and minimum-size rejections, I’d call that a win.

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Yeah, that’s the part I’m really curious about. Black Lotus is obviously a hobby icon, but why is THIS copy getting so much attention right now?

I think a lot of it comes down to the combination of PSA 10 + Alpha + Black Lotus + only three PSA 10s on the census + Goldin putting it in a major auction. That’s basically a perfect storm for serious collectors.

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Absolutely. There’s a ton of luck involved when you start treating cards like investments. You can do all the research in the world and still have a guy explode into superstardom… or have injuries completely derail what looked like a sure thing.

That’s why I’ve really come around to the idea of collecting players and teams you genuinely enjoy. If their market takes off, awesome. If it doesn’t, you still have a collection you actually want.

For me, the monetary upside is the bonus. The enjoyment of owning the card has to come first. Otherwise you’re basically betting on a 22-year-old’s career and hoping your crystal ball works.

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I’m feeling confident just because our grading guy just sent one of those in and got it back a 10. He said he’d be surprised if it wasn’t

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Yeah, that’s pretty much what I was seeing too. The corners looked really clean to me, and I didn’t notice anything obvious on the surface. The centering is the one thing that made me hesitate a little, especially toward the bottom.

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Lol exactly. 😂 Having a guy on your favorite team whose cards are exploding is the best because you get to enjoy the player AND potentially benefit from the hobby hype.

But being a Dodgers collector feels like playing on expert mode. 😂 You’ve got Ohtani, Betts, Yamamoto, Freeman, Glasnow, and now you’re constantly wondering which guy is going to become the next monster in the hobby.

At least with a smaller-market team, you can sometimes get in early before the hobby catches up. The Dodgers just seem to have a cheat code for producing guys people want to collect.

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So it was you that clogged up PSA lol jk Yean dude I like the move because honestly even if a quarter of those come back as 10s you will rake it in

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My shop has been trying to make break configs that make them more affordable. It got out of control last season with Dart. I think right now we have a 2 Hobby 2 Jumbo and the Raiders are $140

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Lol it’s just the sauce, mustard, onions and a of pile of cheese lol

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If it 10s it’s getting flipped and going towards my Star Wars Celebration trip. So fingers crossed lol

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They make it so difficult lol Like some people at work are like “I don’t get the Pokemon thing” but if you just look at the art these are mini works of art.