[jchcollins]

In terms of what I personally think is important - the cards of course change with my seasons of life as a collector:

When I finally made the jump from Garbage Pail Kids to baseball cards in 1986, I was 9 years old. The card I wanted most out of the 35 cent 1986 Topps wax packs was Pete Rose - his player card, #1, which was for some reason impossible for me to pull from a pack that year. I had at least two dupes of his manager card. Never did pull one. I eventually got one during my first stint back into the hobby as an adult in my early 20's - I believe. I guess I latched onto Pete that year because he was probably still in the news a lot for having just broken Cobb's record the year before. At any rate, it was before his betting troubles coming to light really began.

When I moved on from current packs to "vintage" (then simply called old cards) when I was probably about 11 years old, the apple of my eye was the '56 Topps Mickey Mantle as soon as I laid eyes on it. I thought, and still largely do - that it's just one of the coolest looking vintage cards ever made. The portrait, the leaping action shot into the crowd, the use of color, the cartoons. Landed this at about age 14 by basically trading my entire vintage collection at the time to a mall shop. Worth it.

Fast forward to present day, I'm 47 - and have been back into the hobby this go-round for right at 10 years now - and I really am not sure what to say is the single most important card for me. As a long time Cubs fan, I had never really zeroed in on Cubs collecting - probably because my childhood collecting predated my real baseball fandom - I just always saw fit to collect everything. I made a large step in correcting the team collecting oversight at this year's National in Cleveland (my first) - by finally acquiring every Cub fan's grail - the '54 Topps Ernie Banks RC. Now I want to go back and complete Topps and Bowman team runs - yes even the super exciting guys like Bob Rush, Hobie Landreth, and George Altman. :-)

Beyond that, I'm feeling a pull into some prewar stuff for the first time really ever. I'd like to get some T210 Old Mill's of local minor league players in NC. And not sure what it would be yet - but I'd like to own an an attractive 19th century card just kind of as a type piece sometime fairly soon. Oh well, for right now the main thing I need to do is save money.

I would agree that "most important" card is hard to define, and likely to many collectors very personal. That's why I told my own story. Thanks!