I always liked just opening packs.

When the market was nonexistent in the early 2010's I went through a stretch just buying boxes of packs for like $50 from the era where I was blowing through my allowance with a few packs a week.

Saved a handful of rookie and insert cards that I thought may appreciate some day. I was always a sucker for those brands that would include swaths of game used jerseys and autographs.

A bunch of those early Skybox 'Autographics' (inserts of signed cards) were signed at UIC Chicago, where my dad had a friend who was one of the observers and got me a copy of every guy who signed there: no one huge but did have Scottie Pippen, Tim Hardaway, Grant Hill, Hakeem Olajuwon, etc. Was the coolest kid in school for a day when I brought those in.