The difficulties of getting kids to collect

[AGuinness]

Originally Posted by savedfrommyspokes

My two boys have the same lack of interest in cards...my older son's interest peaked in 2014 when he got a Jeter auto, but since then, his interest has greatly declined. My younger son, loves baseball but could care less about cards....he would rather be playing baseball outside, or if that is not possible watching or gaming baseball inside. Two springs ago, I used the Topps website to generate cards for them....they could have cared less. They both went through a Pokeman phase, but that passed a year back.

Nice cards and a good idea on getting them interested, but certainly not every kid is going to catch the bug.

I've got two boys, 5 and 8, and we have a few traditions already with cards. We always open a box of Topps on Opening Day and I always give a blaster box of current year Topps and a handful of old cards from my collection to each on his birthday. Also do the birthday tradition with my nephews and my niece. My youngest son is into the cards - just last night instead of reading a bedtime book, we each broke out some of our cards and showed them to each other (my youngest is very into sports, too, in general).

My oldest is very into Pokemon, and I can see how that makes sense. The kids at his school trade them, even if few have played the game, basing their value on HP and attack damage. Even not playing the game, they get that the card can "do" something. And some kids, including a nephew who is also into Pokemon, are aware of the monetary value of the cards, which seems to pique their interest.

Cards are an opportunity to connect with kids (I bought a deck of Pokemon cards so I could play against my older son), but from my experience it is definitely a hit and miss proposition, baseball cards aren't for every kid.