[Exhibitman]

Nice write-ups guys.

I find it interesting--and very heartening--that the stories here are all about emotional connections we've made through our collections to our families or our childhoods or to the game, and not about the value of the cards themselves. I have cards worth thousands of times what my beater 1952 Dropo is worth but that card means something to me. You can always tell a collector, too. The first thing I am asked by a collector is "What's your favorite card?" while the first thing a non-collector asks me is "what's your most valuable card?" Non-collectors don't understand that this thing of ours isn't about value, it is about emotions. That's why I shlep to places like Cleveland in August to hang out with a bunch of fellow idiots in an old tank factory. In cards, as long as it means something to you, no one can be a "better" collector; the blue collar guy with the well-loved collection of beaters is just as respected as a collector as the titan of industry with the well-loved minty fresh collection of 19th century HOFers.