I don’t live close to a hobby shop. If I did, I would buy my cards there, if the prices were reasonable and I liked the owner or manager of the shop. I would also probably have a lot less money if I lived close to a hobby shop.
So where do I buy my cards? The internet, obviously. But I generally find myself going to one of three sites to buy my baseball card hobby boxes.
1) Dave and Adam’s Card World – When I started buying hobby boxes online, I found that Dave and Adam’s had very reasonable prices and a couple of cool promotions. For one, they offered free standard ground shipping on Thursdays if you spent more than $50. That’s easy to do when buying hobbby boxes. Secondly, in each copy of Beckett Sports Card Monthly I looked through, I saw a $5 off coupon code. And when I did order through them, shipping time was also reasonable.
2) Blowout Cards – You’ve seen their ads if you are a serious collector. You can’t miss them. I find that Blowout Cards has either the lowest or near the lowest prices of all major online card sellers. They also offer free shipping, any day, if you spend more than $100, and their shipping times are excellent. Their website is packed with good information and an online card forum too.
3) eBay – The nice thing about eBay is that you can bid in auctions for hobby boxes and possibly get a lower price than you would find at any of the major online retailers. If you don’t win the hobby box you’re bidding on, you can also always use the buy-it-now option to get the hobby box you want. You’ll find some of the major online retailers selling via eBay too. If you do use this method, make sure you check the feedback rating of the seller. It’ll give you a good indication of ther reliability of the seller based on other buyers’ past experience with that seller. eBay is also my choice when buying individual baseball cards. There’s just such a good selection of cards on there, it’s tough to beat it for single cards.
