[Eric72]

When I was a child, the card backs were as interesting to me as the fronts. In many ways, they still are.

I read (and re-read...repeatedly) the stats, bios, cartoons, etc. I sorted my cards periodically; sometimes by year and number, sometimes by team, sometimes by player.

When the Phillies traded for someone, I went through my collection, looking for cards of the "new guy." When the Phillies were in the playoffs, I would "check out the competition" by looking at the other team's players' cards.

All that handling - in the days before toploaders, Beckett price guides, and professional grading - was done with little regard for condition. The inevitable result was a pile of cards with soft corners and paper wrinkles.

It wasn't until I was around 10 that I started taking some amount of care with my cards. I had those early side-load 9-pocket pages and put together a binder. I hadn't yet lost my fascination with constantly re-sorting, though. So, the cards likely still took damage - from being moved around, page to page.

Around two years later, something caused me to abruptly stop beating the hell out of cardboard. It was an old newsprint periodical that many of you probably remember - Current Card Prices. A "baseball card shop" had opened up near my dad's house. Naturally, I got him to take me there one day. When I first stepped inside, the seemingly endless array of merchandise left me speechless. To my eyes, the place had an absolute grandeur to it.

Among many, many other things, they sold CCP. They even had one on the counter for people to reference, presumably to spur impulse purchases. At one point during my visit that day, I picked up the store copy and checked it out. Hey, look! I've got some of these cards. WOW, check out these prices!! Holy smokes, I have this one, and it's worth more than my whole allowance!!! While flipping through the book, I suddenly felt informed...enlightened...wiser somehow. It was a religious experience.

Of course, the shop owner (a saint of man named Mike...I've still got his business card from all those years ago) made it a point to explain the importance of condition on values. He also introduced me to penny sleeves, top loaders, and a few other things one could use to store their cards.

Since that day, I have always treated my cards with the greatest of care. Obsessively. This approach helped me as a teenager who went to card shows; buying, selling, and trading. It helped me in my 20s when I set up as a dealer at these same shows. It helped me in my 30s and 40s as I pieced together a modest collection of cardboard keepsakes. As I near my 50th birthday, I trust it will continue to help me every step of the way along my collecting journey.


Postscript: I realize the shop was probably not much different than countless others that sprang up in the mid 1980s. It just happened to be the one at which I had an epiphany regarding baseball cards and their values.