Suggestions for a Dad and his young son.

[M's_Fan]

I've often thought about how I could get my son into collecting one day (he's 3 and a half now).

The problem with starting the Monster is that it would be very frustrating for a kid, he could obviously never complete it until much older (and much much wealthier).

So you have to think subsets, and you could build from there. I would pick the major league team that your kid likes, and get him started on a low grade team set from the city of your son's favorite team. This is low cost, achievable in the short term, and gives a connection to modern baseball, all of which are kid friendly approaches.

Unfortunately there is no Seattle team in the T206 set, so I'll have to do T212's for my son, but I already started a 1911 T212 Seattle team set years ago and it hasn't made much progress, those cards being hard to come by (PM me if any of you have any!).

If your son is also a Braves fan, you have a similar problem as me, because the Atlanta cards are few and expensive as they are southern leaguers. So you might have to pick a different subset he might be interested in. I think the key is to pick a goal that is challenging but not too hard so they lose interest.

You might do some research to see if there is another set out there with Atlanta players that isn't as expensive. What was the first year of the Braves?

Good luck!

[irishdenny]

What an idea and more so... inspiration!

i have a 7 year old who absolutly Loves Baseball. i'm gonna start him on a history adventure of the Players, teams, leagues, etc...

Beaters, Low Grade slabs, and any good deal out there to get him started.

i think i'll even throw in a T200 every now and then just for real life pictorials of the Teams with players.

Very cool... 2-3 beaters a month, a T200 when feasible/possible kind of thing! Throw in 1-2 for B~days & Christmas, Man this is such a Grand Idea!!!

Noah(Thats my Son) will love this idea!!! Plus his 6 year old brother Gabriel Loves to be involved and can be a great asset as fir drive. Gabe just has to be involved.

shhhh ~ and if falls of the Monster Wagon, i'll be there to pic'em uP

[srs1a]

I've got 3 little ones (now 4, 5, and 8) and a couple of years ago, I got them a box of Topps Allen and Ginter's. They absolutely loved them and I continue to get a box for a family rip every year. It accomplished what I wanted (interest) and I don't get uptight when they abuse the cards like kids should!

[Bill Stone]

Dan Gutman has written a series of baseball card adventure books with titles suh as Mickey and Me, Babe and Me , Shoeless Joe and Me with a basic theme of the kid finding a baseball card and being transported back in time. These are very simple books but they convey a basic knowledge of baseball cards and a history of the sport and some of the famous players. Combining a love of books and the thrill of baseball card collecting could be the ideal combination. You could read these books to the kids until they are old enough to read them themselves and I would use some cheap cards depicting the players who are the subject of the book as bookmarkers so they can hold the cards as the adventure unfolds.

[cfc1909]

My son is 12 and we do everything together-from baseball cards to fishing to going to the store. We are going to Harrisburg PA smallmouth fishing Friday.

It was me that started the cards but he is into them now-he even spent the weekend with me and Ted at the last Philly show.

Keep him interested Tim, even if it is only a card a week or a card a month. Get a check list that he can use and write on and check off the cards as they arrive at the house. Show him how to handel them so they do not get damaged and talk about the players and the history of the player in the game. Great project that will last a lifetime. With the checklist he will realize the progress and it will teach him how to reach a goal. Better explain about the Wags and the Doyle and maybe the Magie & Plank but the rest are doable.

When I get a package and I am at work my son can't wait for me to get home-he needs to open it and tell me all about it-it is priceless. He knows a great deal about cards and the history of baseball for being just 12.

[tedzan]

At a young age (early 1970's), I introduced my daughters, Zoe and Debbie, to baseball. Every Summer we would go to
see the Yankees Old Timers Day game. Our favorite was 1973, when Whitey Ford grooved a pitch to Mickey Mantle, he
hit a HR deep into the left-centerfield stands over the 412-ft marker in the old stadium.

I taught Zoe and Debbie baseball and tennis at a young age. In HS they were top players on their Softball and Tennis
teams. I will never forget my daughters' joy when Reggie Jackson hit 3 consecutive HR's (each on the 1st pitch to him)
in that famous World Series game in 1977.

1977 was the year my daughters were collecting BB cards and encouraged me to dig up my original BB cards that were
in the attic of my folks home in Hillside, NJ......the rest is history.

So, my point is....get your daughters also involved in BB (and BB cards) at an early age. You will find it very rewarding.


TED Z

[Rob D.]

My daugher can pronounce "Lajoie." My guess is she's the only one in her third-grade class who can make that claim.

Oh yeah, and she knows Ty Cobb was a mean SOB. Must have picked it up on the street.

[ChrisStufflestreet]

(A little self-serving here, but indulge me...)

I am the father of an 11-year old girl. She was by my side as I walked the floor at last year's National. I realized long ago that if I forced collecting on her, it might backfire if she ever lost interest later on, so I limited my hobby stuff to showing her the basics and letting her decide from there. And of course, this lifelong Yankee fan is chagrined to report that his sweet little Pumpkin collects Red Sox cards. But she's enjoying it and that's all I can ask for.

You indicate your son likes to read. Below, my signature line has a link to what I call a "hobby bookshelf." The link has a nice selection of hobby-related books available at Amazon and perhaps something there will be of interest to him. Another posted mentioned Dan Gutman's "& Me" series, and they are all found at the bottom of the page. I'd also recommend "The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubblegum Book" by Boyd & Harris because it has a fun cadence set to baseball cards they collected in the 1950s and '60s. It's a good place to start...since I myself began becoming serious about the hobby myself as a result of a couple of books I read around the age of 10, one about cards and another about Hall of Fame players that began my interest in the game's rich history.

[dstudeba]

I would have them cut out the cards from the catalogs. That way they have lots of them and they get new ones every month. Plus they can play with them.

[bbcard1]

I ran into a father and son team that collected baseball cards of players with beards...this was in the late 80s...so there were less beards. It was a cool thing to see them going through and being delighted to come up with a few more beards...and they had it nicely displayed in an album with sheets...pretty cool really.