Tell us a little bit about yourself and what your collecting passions are

[SyrNy1960]

There are Veterans (Old Timers) and Rookies (Newbies) on NET54, so I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread where everyone can tell a little bit about themselves, tell how you got started, and share what your past and present passion in collecting is. Also, adding a picture of yourself would help put a face to the name, if you desire.

My name is Tony Baldwin, I’m 60 years old, and I’m from Syracuse, NY. I served 30 years in the military (Navy), followed by 11 years of civil service with the Navy, and I will be retiring at the end of next year at the young age of 62 for the rest of my life!

I started collecting baseball cards at the age of 14 (well, I actually wanted the gum), then started collecting oddball stuff, then got into autograph collecting, then was a big rookie card collector, and now my primary passion is game used player memorabilia, but I still collect some of the other stuff. Owning something a player used or wore in games is awesome to me. I’m a huge diehard Yankee fan. Yes, I hate the Red Sox!!!!

This is a picture of me and Harmon Killebrew from 2003. He came to our squadron, with a few other players, for a meet and greet with the military. It was truly a pleasure to meet him. He signed the card for me that I'm holding. He was very friendly and his stories were awesome.