Wow some really incredible items shown! If alot of these have already been shown previously I surely don't remember them.
This was a topic I've been curious about for awhile and glad I finally asked it. There's a psychology of collecting that's fascinating to me. Why do we collect what we collect? Why are some people collectors and others look at you weird when asked if they collect anything? Lol.
I agree with you Doug that most of us probably had an early exposure to cards and either branched out from that into memorabilia or kept with cards or later returned to cards. Memorabilia collectors "evolved"
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Personally to me memorabilia is simply more interesting. I would say in the mid to later 1990s when baseball inserts were becoming more numerous I had a hard time keeping up with just my favorite player Ken Griffey Jr. I loved the cards but felt like I simply couldn't keep up. I grabbed a few older Mantles at some card shows but that didn't really do it for me either.
My dad collected gas and oil memorabilia and I remember seeing some of his auction flyers in the mail for what he collected. They always seemed to be these fold out auction advertisements that expanded to about 15" x 20" and filled with small colorful pictures of signs, calendars, globes, pumps, banners, ads, posters, etc. Absolutely so colorful. I was rather amazed and intrigued. I scoured every flyer he got wondering and hoping to spot something that was baseball related. There must be some baseball related items out there right? That was my sport after all and cards weren't cutting it any more
I cannot remember how I discovered the Nationals. It was probably a card dealer from one of the local cards shows that mentioned it. I convinced my mom to drive me from southeast KS to St Louis for the National 1998 and talk about a kid in a candy shop!! Absolutely blown away with everything I saw. This wasn't my local card show with 75 tables filled with just cards lol. I was bombarded with memorabilia I hadn't even thought about at nearly every table.
I knew I wanted to go after memorabilia. I loved advertising and have focused on that mainly ever since. It's art, it's colorful(hopefully), it's displayable and it's baseball. I also enjoy anything baseball that displays well up to about 1950s branching out into trophies, figurals, decal bats, baseballs, and most recently Mantle pins. Sometimes I don't know what I like until I see it
Like others have said I enjoy the stories behind the things I buy but of course not always possible from auction style buys. Always looking for companion pieces to compliment existing pieces. I'm not sure I've ever found much in antique shops but good stuff is still out there waiting to be found so you never know.
From the replies it seems almost like memorabilia collectors have a deep connection with what they collect for whatever reason. Perhaps the card collectors would say the same thing about themselves. I will just keep collecting what I enjoy