Why do you collect what you collect?

[jchcollins]

I was introduced to cards as collectibles in 3rd grade at age 8 with the Topps Garbage Pail Kids, which were all the rage at the time. The packs cost a quarter down at the local 7-11, and we all took them to school in the pockets of our jean jackets, stacks with rubber bands around the cards. You had to be careful though, because the cards were gross and some teachers were banning them. I even remember there being an article in our "Weekly Reader" newsletters about them.

I had a GPK collecting buddy who once boasted to me that he had the entire 1985 Topps set of baseball cards, which I thought was impossible. 700 some cards? This led to me getting curious and buying some packs of '86 Topps baseball when they came out. I remember getting a Dwight Gooden record breaker in that first pack.

So, from 1986 on I bought packs of new cards, but at some point - maybe a year or so later - two things happened which I really consider as having ignited my passion about cards in general. One - somewhere I came across a price guide (this was not Beckett, so I'm guessing it was CCP or something like that) and discovered what old cards were. I was immediately smitten without ever having even held an old card. I don't know how to describe why, but I immediately knew even as a kid that this was going to be a great "interest" of mine. I immediately began scheming on ways to acquire "old" baseball cards. This included writing a letter to Topps, which they politely responded to and attempted to explain that they did not stock old inventory to resell. I believe they sent me a list of popular dealers, but as an 11 year-old or so, I didn't know what to do with that. The second big thing around that time that happened was that I discovered a stash of "old" cards for sale at a local antique mall. The cards turned out to be from the collection of former major league catcher Paul Burris (Milwaukee Braves backup to Del Crandall...) who was from and still lived in the area near my hometown. The collection was random, but the prices were good and I remember being allowed to take home a few treasures, including a 1955 Bowman Andy Pafko, and a 1962 Topps Gil Hodges.

These two events set the hook, and while I continued to collect "modern" cards from packs at the time, nothing about them ever really compared to my love for what we today call "vintage" (then simply called old...) cards. As it was the late 1980's / early 90's - I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by card shops for much of my coming of age. My mother was my partner in crime and would take me to the card shops and even one pawn shop that doubled as a card shop - to buy the old stuff. I'm sure she got in trouble with my father upon occasion, but she understood my passion and rarely said no. The result was by the time I was about 15 years old - I had amassed a pretty decent collection of old cards for a kid - including examples of Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Duke Snider, and other Hall of Famers. Nolan Ryan became a big thing in terms of collecting nationally in about 1990. We all wanted the rookie card, but the best I could do at the time was an off-centered '73 Topps. But man how I cherished that card - it was from his greatest single season, after all.

The rest is pretty typical, I suppose. I quit collecting most new cards in high school around 1994 as I gradually began to become more concerned about girls and cars and more worldly things. The cards remained mothballed in college, but as a senior I was lucky enough to find out about online auctions and "list servs" - which was a new thing even before eBay - that held my interest briefly as a young adult. I remember getting a beat up '53 Yogi Berra from an auction on one of those and thinking "Wow, this is so much cheaper than this same card would have gone for in a shop back in the day." I again put any hobby ambitions away before going back to grad school part time in the early 2000's - there simply wasn't enough time for it. After that, still considered a newlywed, I had plenty of other things to do including first houses, first children, etc etc.

I would say I got back into cards for good as an adult about 5 years ago - after realizing upon several random occasions that I missed the hobby and had not done anything about it - and that repetitive thought was sad to me. So after Christmas in 2015, I think - I took some some cash that had been a gift and blew it all on cards on eBay. Today, my main focus is still postwar Hall of Famers, because that was what always captivated me as a kid. While I like the idea of prewar, I also made the decision recently not to focus on it simply because of the expense. To me quantity can be a sort of quality, and I'd rather have 5 nicer midgrade cards of 50's and 60's HOF'ers than one lower grade prewar star card. I've always for some reason related better to postwar players too - I suppose because part of the thrill of it all for me is collecting things my Dad might once have had growing up. I have tried for some time now to say that I'm a set collector - but this is not really true. Sets and large groups of commons in general have never really been able to hold my interest the way the nicer cards of stars and HOF'ers have. I am currently trying to put together a midrange set of 1972 Topps, simply for the experience - I do want to complete at least one vintage set in my time here on this earth.

All in all I would guess pretty typical. I've put the cards down from time to time, but they have always come back around. The hobby is my escape from the rest of the world, and has come back to help me in times of trouble recently like a few years ago during the time of my mother's illness and subsequent passing. My motivation now is really that original feeling of nostalgia associated with something from another era, and knowing that you possess something "real" from it. I like to imagine now how simple certain times gone by were, and how the cards relate to that. As a kid it seemed to be much more about the game and the players only - but now I kind of have broadened out and am interested in aspects of the historical hobby as well. Since joining Net54 maybe 5 years ago - I've learned that talking about the hobby and cards can be a hobby in itself!