General Forum

Caution on this too - as trades actually cost money in postage.

If you don't like spending money, this is probably not a great choice of a hobby for you.

Indeed, buying cards or postage definitely adds up.

I suppose if one truly wishes to completely avoid money, one could declare where one lives and hope that someone here lives nearby such that you could trade in person to avoid the postage costs. They'd have to have a lot of cards that you're looking for, but maybe there's a chance it works out.

If you don't like spending money, I'd just stick with doing base flagship (just "Topps", not "Topps Chrome" or anything) Pirates sets. That will be the lowest cost way for you to participate in the hobby that is consistent with what your current collection has.

I was mostly joking about not liking to spend money based on another comment above. I'm into spending some money, mostly what I make back from selling. I've been spending on trades here and some buying elsewhere. That said, I'm unlikely to spend $50 on some variant of a higher-level set. I like the ideas I've seen of focusing on Topps base and maybe Heritage because I like vintage too. 

I really appreciate the help. I'll be adding these to my wantlist at some point. Perhaps as I collect these I'll get a sense of what other sets I might be keen to collect. It's definitely much easier to trade now than it was in the late 80s. Those kids at recess were monsters. 

You should have experienced trading at school in the early 80's. I came from a small school (about 65 kids per grade). There weren't a lot of trading partners. I had to pay through the nose for a 1981 Danny White to help complete my football set.