>>56347532>I’ve been looking and it seems there’s still an assload of original 90s packs unopened in circulation because they mass produced so many, but those packs go for hundreds of dollars.You're not going to be opening 90s packs. It's an even greater waste of money than opening modern packs. It's never going to be worth it.
>But outside of that idk what the point is if it means to complete a collection I would more or less have to fish out hundreds if not thousands just to MAYBE get everythingIt's an expensive hobby. Start slow and with discrete goals (i.e. completing Base-Fossil or something). Learn the value of cards and keep your eyes peeled for deals. You don't have to drop thousands of dollars all at once -- you can complete a collection steadily over years.
>thrift storesAfter the insane explosion of interest during the pandemic, all the fun places to go searching for deals (thrift stores, flea markets, FB marketplace, garage sales, etc.) were picked over. Almost everything was scooped up by Invoooooosters and flippers, and even normies today seem to have a vague sense that their shit is "valuable" (even if they're only selling unlimited commons). Vintage has become more and more rationalized, and great deals are much harder to come by than they were even in 2019. Your best bet, as far as deals are concerned, is bidding low on places like eBay and hoping no one outbids you (sometimes successful, you can get a lot of solid deals with patience).
>unopened base set 90s packs.Get this right out of your head. You're not going to be buying sealed vintage with any regularity, and you're not going to be just stumbling upon booster boxes in some nice grandma's attic.
If you really want, buy a couple old packs to display and leave it at that. But if you're balking at the price of complete collections, you absolutely don't have the resources to complete a collection by ripping vintage packs.
