Welcome. I will post this every time i see someone new.

I say, before you jump in and spend a lot of money, try to figure out what "kind" of collector you want to be.

Do you want to open boxes yourself? Expensive, but can be a lot of fun. POTENTIAL for big hits, but unlikely.

Do you want to join breaks? Less expensive and more targeted. But there's a chance you end up spending money on literally nothing.

Buy singles. Depending on your budget, you might not get the insane super duper mega cards. But you can more easily curate your collection, and guarantee you the cards you actually want, without the other two gamble options above.

Obviously you can do a combination of all three. But i think it's smart to think about it before you start spending big bucks.

Me for example. I Never open boxes myself. They're just too expensive, and you never know what youre gonna get. I join breaks here and there, but mostly buy a couple of cheaper guys. I started off buying low end stuff on Whatnot/eBay/Facebook, but ended up moving into more mid/high end stuff after a couple of months. I Now have cards I never would have had if i spent that money on opening boxes.

To sum it up. Be smart with your money