Dean Hanley: Hi! I am Dean Hanley, owner of deanscards.

com. Today, we are talking about collecting sports cards. Now, we are going to talk about collecting modern cards. Once you decide the sport you are going to collect, the next challenge is to decide what set you'd like to collect.

There is literally thousands to choose from. The manufacturers have included Fleer, Topps, Upper Deck, Boman and many more. There is different type of sets to collect whether they'd be Chrome or Heritage or Allen & Ginter or any of the other specialty sets. Probably a great way to get started is to buy a few packs and open them up and find the cards that you would like to collect. From there, you can get a good idea of how to proceed. Once you decide what set you are going to collect, then the next decision is, am I going to buy the set already completed in a factory set? These are available and if you don't have a lot of time to put into the hobby, maybe a good way to go. What I recommend and what's a lot more fun is to buy the actual cards in a hobby box. Most collectors will buy a box or even a case of cards as soon as they come to market. Rip them open, chew the gum, you never know what you are going to get. Each pack contains regular cards, subsets, chase cards and parallel sets. Once you'll open all the packs in your box, you'll still probably be missing a few cards. At that point, it probably makes sense to buy the cards from a dealer. You can go online and buy the remaining cards or even go to a sports card show or a hobby shop. So, that's everything you need to know about collecting modern cards. Next, we are going to talk about collecting vintage sports cards.