[jchcollins]

My active years for "kid" collecting were 1986-94. Here is what comes to mind:

* Dealers who literally believed Beckett was the gospel. Yes kid, I know that card has been sitting in my showcase collecting dust for nearly a year, but I can't let you have it for $5 less because "that's not what Beckett says..." For the record I'm talking about cards like maybe an '87 Fleer Bo Jackson or an '86 Topps Traded Jose Canseco. Really dealer dude? For the record this was several years before I went on to major in economics in undergrad, but even as a kid I understood the principle. And as we all later learned, the canon according to Dr. Jim B. wasn't nearly infallible.

* I often traded cards for vintage (back in the 80's simply called "old cards") with dealers that were willing to humor kids. I made some great acquisitions this way, including some Mantle cards and various other HOF'ers. What I hated is the times when I would visit these stores (with my mother, I had no other means of transportation at age 12...) after elaborate planning and begging in some cases to be driven 30+ minutes away - only to realize that the owner or "decision maker" of the card shop wasn't there that day. In those cases I was more than welcome to buy whatever my eye fancied in the case that day - but trading was out of the question. I was usually told "oh sorry kid, Mr. Harold isn't here today, he's the one who makes those kind of decisions." :-( Dang it, guess I'll have to wait until next time.

* Jerk dealers at card shows who didn't want to deal with me just because I was a kid. Most kids were there to get an auto or try to score boxes of Upper Deck cards, but I was interested in the vintage stuff. It didn't happen often, but the times it did I remember. Dealers who gave me a hard time wanting to see a '50s card in the case that they had a $100 sticker on, or worse were the ones who would just sit on the other side of their display and ignore me. Just because I'm small doesn't necessarily mean I don't have a wad of cash in my pocket, mister. I was always glad to move on to someone else who was more eager to help me. :-)

That's basically it. I remember a few unpleasant experiences as a kid, but the positive always far outweighed the negative. I was an only child who if I didn't have the money saved myself from my allowance or whatever, could usually persuade my mom into covering a loan for the difference on whatever it is I wanted at the moment. I realized later in life that not nearly so many of my contemporaries were that lucky.