General Forum

Are you a bulk buyer or a single card buyer

I also suppose it just depends on the situation (if you find something you love)

My usual style is buying in the people's junk boxes from .05 to ..25 You never know what you will find in these. 

However I also shop the showcase and the usual .50 cents to $1.00 bins. (these must have shields on them for me to bother as so many hands might have touched them already.)

Bought Retail/Hobby boxes when I first began ('95 or so)...

Then traded to fill base sets at LCS....

Purchase individual cards to fill sets (base/chase)....

Did get a major deal on e-bay one year for around 7k cards

Binders and 9 card sheets were worth more than the bid and shipping, so got over on that one...

Now back to buying individual cards to fill the gaps....

I prefer to buy boxes and build sets. I really dislike buying single cards, until I'm close to completing a set and then the hunt is on to fill in the gaps. Also to pick up short prints like SN rookies at the end of the sets or Young Guns in hockey. 

I love repacks. I hate that they aren't available locally anymore. 

At a card show or on COMC I'm a collector of opportunity. Since I collect everything for three sports and some non-sports there's always something I need everywhere I turn, so I try to get as much as I can before I run out of money. 

I do target things on COMC that I won't likely find elsewhere. Regional promos and epack stuff is probably half of my impending shipment, with the rest being vintage stuff towards sets I'm working on and random cheap sn, au and mem cards. I like to sort by lowest price and get as many as I can before the money is gone...I can turn $5 into 20-25 cards on a regular basis. 

My wife loves to rip packs. So I have to tell her to slow down on buying blasters now and then. At shows I tend to look through as many boxes as time will allow looking for vibtage singles I need. As someone else said start with the smaller priced ones, I once found a Steve Garvey rookie in a 50 cent box.

There are a lot of things that effect ones buying style.   We are all different.   So I'm at this point of time.  Due to my focus of collecting now.

95% is from COMC   The cheapest cards or the better buys   Why pay $1.25 for a common when you can buy a Autograph for $2.00

I'm in the twilight of my collecting life.  So the more cards the better.  Buying bulk and pack/box (which I did for years) is now a waste of money.  I get very few I need, plus it is hard to get rid of the extras.  But have looked at a few offers of bulk cards.

Almost have given up on card shows as I have to drive a long ways and find very few cards.  The prices are good but is it worth it.

Bulk when I'm building sets, singles when I'm finishing a set.  

Prefer to buy Braves team sets but will resort to singles if I have to

Cheap. I'm very cheap. I went to a show last weekend and bought 29 cards for $5 (they were labeled 50 cents / 4 for $1) from one dealer and 14 cards for $1 (dime box / 15 for $1) from another dealer (yes, I legit couldn't find a card worth grabbing for free / didn't care to spend the time looking). That was 43 cards for $6. Of those, 36 were players I collect (Phillies/HOFers/Current players) and 7 were for a couple other guys who do the same for me. Even at $6 for the 36 cards I got, I was very happy. 

I mmostly buy singles for my team collections.  I but boxes for the sets I want to complete.