Some of my earliest memories as a kid were about baseball and baseball cards. I'm sure I'm not alone. So it makes sense to me that adults regress into childlike states of insufferable petulance when discussing baseball cards over semi-anonymous online forums.
I belong to a stamp forum and a Civil War forum. People there seem to be more genuinely interested in the history of those subjects and items and learning more about them. I notice that (more than other places) people in card forums care more about showing off and making a quick buck at the expense of others than they do about the cards themselves.
Thinking back to when I was a kid, I remember that I only wanted to have the best cards, and the most expensive collection to impress my friends who were also collectors, because that was the world to me before adult responsibilities took over. It was the only thing to care or worry about.
Now, we as adults, (lawyers, engineers, financial advisers, doctors, etc), live stressful and productive lives, taking part in various hobbies along the way, but yet some of those among us also seem to enjoy that regression back to childhood, except with all of the malice and the manipulative behavior of a full grown adult.
That's why there is so much drama in sports memorabilia, IMO.
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