How did you get started in the hobby

[KMayUSA6060]

I was born in 1994, so I missed the "Glory Days" of collecting. However, I was fortunate enough to grow up with the Cleveland Indians of the 1990s. I remember a surprising amount for being as young as I was. My favorite athlete of all time is Jim Thome, and growing up, my mom would take me to the LCS every once in a while and allow me to buy quarters worth of Jim Thome or Indians stuff. I'd come home with 1-8 cards at a time, and slowly but surely built a collection.

When middle school came around, I lost interest in collecting (my mom still bought me packs as gifts and such) when most of my time was consumed by sports. After high school, I went to play collegiate tennis at a small university in Ohio. I ended up quitting the tennis team after a match early in the fall season, but remained at the university into the spring. I ended up leaving early in the spring semester after realizing that college wasn't for me, and had an opportunity to join the Air Force (I ended up getting disqualified after I left school due to food allergies, but that's a stupid discussion for another forum). About a month before leaving, I developed a great friendship with a kid on the baseball team who collected cards. He got me back into collecting, and I got the bug. This was about 2 years ago. Since then, my collection has gone through several transformations, but I have yet to lose the itch to collect. It has become a huge part of who I am, and I am proud to be a collector of historic cardboard. I love this hobby.



P.S. Sorry for the irrelevant information regarding my life story.