[GreenLantern]

I would be interested in these videos tvp, I also recently got back into collecting with my son. The statement you made about how different the landscape is now compared to the 80s and 90s is bang on, I was blown away how much more 'serious' it seems these days.

I mean, I was a kid just opening packs from a box when I did my chores, so understandably things would seem different now. But there are legit so many different options and it can be really confusing. Your brief explanation here has been more helpful than 90% of the links I've followed on YouTube lol.

For my boy we started with some retail store boxes this year. He is only 6 so he can't even fully read all the names yet. But he knows lots of the logos. He just likes the shiny cards or the 'dazzlers' and likes to organize them in his binder. I was also thinking of chasing Bedard as I am sure the whole population is, to give him a pillar to build his collection around.

Similar to how I had Lanny when he got traded to Calgary, and then back tracked to buy a lot of his older cards.

My question would be about the grading systems. So it seems like grading is all the rage. Cards, unless they are a 1/1 of course, seem to drop drastically in value from a 10 to a 9, 8 etc..

I also see you can buy a 10 for 1200 on a card on ebay, then a non graded card for 1.95. Are these non graded ones mostly knock offs? Is there a legit concern/problem with knock off or counterfeit cards these days?

My boy also bought some packs from the Dollar Store for kicks and giggles, and there were like 90's Score cards in there. I compared the look and feel to my actual 90's Score hockey cards and it was an obvious difference/reprint, not an original. I am assuming this style of card has over saturated the market which is why grading is necessary?