I love collecting anything historical. I get a kick out of having items laying around that were used in games, held by players or even had some other historical significance that wasn't sports-related (Civil War letters, etc).
Like you, I started with cards, but at some point I had handled to excess examples of almost every type, and the allure wore off. Unless signed, they were never touched or seen by players, so they didn't have the same historical magic for me as other items. The really old ones are still interesting as they have had long lives of their own and I'm sure some interesting adventures - can you imagine what the world was like for an Old Judge card, and how it changed over the years (stored in different drawers, handled by different people) until it ended up in its final plastic PSA case?
I am not into amassing items. I much prefer to have a few (or less) fantastic examples of each area I am interested in;e.g - one great Conlon photo, one great Burke, one great Bain, etc. The closest I might come to collecting within a specific area would be to have handwritten letters of the initial HOF class. When I lose interest in something, I sell and sometimes regret it. But the days of having doubts about collecting and getting rid of almost everything, are over.
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