Born in 1994, I don't have the "Glory Days" memories that y'all do (very jealous, by the way). However, in the late 90s/early 00s, my mom would take me to the local card shop just up the road about once a week or a couple times a month. Given ~$1 each time, I was tasked with thumbing through the $.25-$1 boxes, looking for the best Jim Thome and Cleveland Indians cards I could find. This developed into packs being put into Christmas stockings and Easter baskets.
This continued throughout elementary school, and was fueled by two things: reading Dan Gutman's "_____ & Me" books, and my dad passing down his 1977 & 1980 Topps sets. Fast-forward to today, and my heavily-vintage/pre-war collection stems from the dreams created from those books, and the fascination with the cards my dad gave me. I love history, especially baseball history, and told myself in elementary & middle school that one day I'll own some of these vintage cards.
My mom still gives me money every birthday or Christmas to go towards a card for my collection, and my dad has even gone to National with me to see what the hobby is like now. Some people give me crap for holding onto my Colgan's Chips Wagner instead of keeping my E98 Wagner, but I got the Colgan's Chips Wagner at National with my dad (first card show we went to together). I still give him crap for not forking over some cash to buy a T206 Wagner back in the day, or for building a very nice 1979 Topps Hockey set, MINUS the Gretzky.
