Why we love the hobby

[Al C.risafulli]

I bought this card in about 1980, when I was 10 years old or so. It came from a place called Dollars & Sense, a card store in Ridgewood, NJ. I didn't have much money as a kid, and the owner took pity on me and created a shoebox filled with T206s and 1951 and 52 Bowmans, all off-grade, just for me. He'd charge me fifty cents a Bowman, and $1 a T206. I'd go there once a week with my allowance, buy a couple of packs of new cards, and spend the rest of my $5 on cards from that shoebox.

Then I'd go home and show them to my grandfather, who would tell me stories about the players.

It was the stories that got me, and still do - I love this stuff, the older the better, because I love imagining what it must have been like when baseball was just taking hold in this country. Most of it was just legend - there was no TV, very little radio, so it was all imagination. If you were a kid, baseball cards were the only way you could find out what players looked like, especially if you lived in a place where there was no pro baseball.

What's amazing about that is that today, since there's very little video from those times, we're in the same boat - we have to depend on legends, photos, cards, etc. to try and imagine what players looked like, what their voices sounded like, how they played. And there are so many mysteries to solve - how did the cards get issued, why were certain players included or excluded, how were they distributed, why certain cards are more rare than others. It's part poetry and part archaeology, all wrapped around the greatest game ever invented. I can't imagine any more relaxing or gratifying hobby.

-Al

[sterlingfox]

Baseball cards were a big part of my adolescent youth. I recall getting a factory sealed set of 1987 Topps cards at the age of 11, and then again a set of 1988 at 12. I'd mark up the checklist as I rummaged through the box.

Baseball was my favorite sport, and I was hooked! I'd drag my older friend (who could drive) to as many local card shows as possible and I'd buy a cheap box of junk packs (well, they weren't junk back then lol) and have fun breaking it open at home.

I remember walking a few miles down to a local card shop, buying a pack of 1990 Leaf, pulling a Ken Griffey Jr, and thinking that I'd just struck gold!

My favorite cards at the time were of Will Clark, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Ben McDonald, Mike Mussina, Bo Jackson, Mark Grace, David Justice, Cecil Fielder, Kevin Mitchell, Gary Sheffield and many others.

One day, while at work with my mom (I was maybe 13), a colleague of hers struck up a conversation with me and said she owned cards from the 30s and 40s. She brought them in the next day and my jaw dropped. I saw Goudeys and Play Balls that I vowed to some day own.

Around the age of 16 or 17, I stopped collecting for a number of reasons.

Fast forward more than 20 years and when my wife said that I should "get a hobby", I remembered how much fun I had as a kid, so it was a no brainer

[MartyFromCANADA]

shaynecorsonrc.jpg

I collected cards before I 'picked up' the Shayne Corson rookie card in 1989, but I must say, this is the card that started my obsession with card collecting.
Shayne played junior hockey in my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario and was then drafted to my favorite hockey team, the Montreal Canadiens in 1984. For a seven year old kid, it felt like someone I knew made it to the NHL. Almost 30 years later, I still pick up his cards when they come up. (Variations and such)

This is most likely the reason I collect George Gibson. Gibson was born and lived just a few cities over from Hamilton, and I'm sure subconsciously, when I realized the proximity of where Gibby was from, I wanted to collect his cards to get to know him. Now I do...Ha!

Thank you Shayne Corson.

[drcy]

The items. The people who get caught up in the grading, half grades, VCP, PSA registry, investment potential, CU stock options, are those who get caught up in that stuff. If one wants, one can simply focus on the stuff.

[btcarfagno]

My favorite card as a five year old.



Tom C

[KingFisk]

Originally Posted by btcarfagno

My favorite card as a five year old.



Tom C

Nice, I loved that one too.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[Prince Hal]

I started collecting sometime in 1968 when my father bought the Sunday newspapers and brought me home a pack of baseball cards. I was hooked. I suppose that simple weekly pack reminds me of my father and how baseball and baseball cards were an early and continuing bond. Don Mattingly brought me back and at some point I ventured into pre-war. I made sure to open packs with my son when he was young and even though he's in his twenties now every Christmas has a box of Topps for us to crack open. I suppose the father-son connection is a big influence on why I still collect today.