[RichardSimon]

My son took a huge interest in baseball from a very early age. I thought baseball cards would be a neat way for us to enjoy a hobby together and to expand his knowledge of baseball.
I subscribed to Baseball Hobby News and they had a list in every issue of addresses of old time baseball players. Seemed that writing to them and asking for their autograph would be a fun thing to do also.
We got to the point where we were keeping charts to see who was the fastest and who was the slowest signer. Most everyone we wrote to would sign for us, even Joe D. and Ted Williams.
Well, one thing led to another, we gave up the cards (though I had spent a hundred bucks for a Nr Mint 1975 Topps set ) and started to concentrate on autographs.
Now my son has made his love of baseball (and all major sports) into a career and he collects autographs of sports writers and broadcasters as well as Mets stuff. He was thrilled when he bought a Mets jersey of Doug Simons on ebay.
I think if you can collect anything with your children it makes the whole venture that much more fun. We loved running to the mailbox to see who would write back to us. There is just something about an autograph that a baseball card cannot match.