simple question? why do you collect;?

[Julz24]

Originally Posted by Cardboard Junkie

In the summer, in Detroit, in the fifties, baseball was everything. Those were magical times for me.....sandlot baseball from dawn to dark......my Kaline model glove, a 6oz. Coke, and a pack of 58Topps or 59, or 57. That big thick chewy slab of pink heaven. The thrill of going to Briggs Stadium to watch our hero Tigers....to see The Mick swing the bat, (if the Yankees were in town) ...or Mr. Tiger make a game saving catch........Except for now...those were the best days of my life, but occasionally baseball cards can be a kind of time machine and transport me back to those magical times of the fifties, when baseball was everything.
My interest naturally expanded into prewar, (which I immensely enjoy) and up to date, but to be honest I don't even care for the modern game and don't follow it much except at World Series time.

My Dad grew up in Detroit in the fifties and says the same exact thing. Must of been a wonderful time! Last year at the World Series he got to meet his childhood hero Al Kaline for the first time. I've never seen him quite so giddy.

As for me, my Dad collected back in his day. Then when I was young he would bring a pack of cards home after work for me and Ive been hooked ever since.

[HOF Auto Rookies]

For the love of the game

[Zone91]

Why do I breath air and eat....same reason I collect makes me feel alive!!!

Post # 2

[yanksfan09]

I've been collecting since I was 7 or 8 and never stopped! The longest break I had was maybe a year or slightly less than a year. It's been a major part of my life as long as I can remember. Every penny I got when I worked as a kid all went to cards. Not much has changed now that I'm 30 but I have bills to pay first, but also still more money to buy cards! I love baseball. I love the artwork on the old cards. I love the smell of the old cards and the history you get when holding one.

As a kid I always dreamed of owning old cards and "A" Babe Ruth card. None of the card shops near me carried anything pre 1948 ever. I bought a few beater Goudey commons at a show as a kid and thought they were the best things ever. I was always under the impression as a kid that the real old 1930's and earlier cards were just far to rare and expensive to collect and never came up for sale. I wasn't until later on when I started using ebay more in the 2000's that pre-war really opened up for me. I'm still amazed and get a magical feeling like I did when I was a kid when I hold great old cards of hall of famers like Babe Ruth, Ty cobb, Walter Johnson etc... You just can't beat it!

[WillowGrove]

I grew up with parents who liked to spend weekends going to flea markets, auctions and antique shops. So unless I wanted to be bored out of my mind I needed to collect something. I chose baseball cards because when Topps came out with the MVP cards in 1975 I noticed Ernie Banks and realized I have a card of his. I found it and realized I own a card of a guy who hit 512 Homeruns!

Added to this was my dad getting me the book the 50 Greatest Players of All time - and I was hooked.

Always went for HOFers. I knew about the more common players but chose to put my folks' money into players I knew.

And now all these years later - after leaving the hobby because I didn't like when TPG companies came into it - and coming back to it in '09 when I had to clean out my dad's house of my collection - I collect now because it reminds me of all those weekends with my parents from age 9 to about 14.

To this day, my mother reminds me that when Seaver's rookie card went from $3.50 to 5 to $7.50, I was still holding out to find one for that $3.50 I had seen.

I guess I shouldn't have been so diligent to spend their money so wisely.

[Rickyy]

Since I completed my first Topps set in 1973...I've been seduced by wafting of those pink gum and the pictures of our summer time heroes... I guess now a days...collecting cards brings back joys of childhood combined with panacea from the daily stress of real life...

Ricky Y

[steve B]

When I started it was just a typical thing for someone my age. We all collected at least a bit, and traded, and played games with the cards.

I collect a number of things, I guess I'm just the collecting sort.

After the collecting as a kid, I went through a few phases, Wanting to complete every set, wanting at least one from every set, Collecting variations, Small time dealing/ investing. Took a few partial vacations from really going after cards to chase other stuff. Not quitting exactly, but backing off to maybe one or two older cards a year, and a few packs.

Now I see them as part of the overall collection that covers a lot of history both sports and other, with a lean towards the history of various technologies. Looking at cards from any era says a lot about that time. And now I can lay out 125 years of cards and see sort of a panorama of US history.

Steve B