Who had a positive impact on your collection ?

[Baseballcrazy62]

Thought I would try to breathe some life back into this thread after reading the “whatever happened to these dealers” thread. Really enjoy hearing and learning about these folks.

[Mungo Hungo]

I'll add something.

For me, it was the kids in the neighborhood, because they collected and traded (this was the shoebox era), so I started doing that too.

Currently, the influence is my younger son, who's 6. He's not really interested (yet) in baseball, but just asked me to bring home some of my old baseball cards, which I keep at work.

It's a different world now, because in many areas the electronic has replaced the physical. We probably don't have kids in the neighborhood trading cards from shoeboxes. Just talking about it makes me sound ancient (sorry, ancient board members). But I'd be thrilled to pass on the interest in collecting. We'll see.

[Dewey]

My mother took my older brother to meet Steve Sax and left me at home. Thus leading me to chase cardboard encounters instead of real ones! It has left the older me with a bunch of junk wax, but my kid self enjoyed it so much.

I don't know how I found Net54 a decade ago, but I remember a post by TheCatsPajamas about press photos and that led me down a new road and it has been so fun and rewarding.

When I came across a 1920 Branch Rickey photo of him down in Texas for Spring Training, a trip that led to his development of the modern farm system, it captivated me to learn more about Rickey and his many innovations and developments from the farm system, to the integration of baseball, to the required use of helmets in 1953, to the development of analytics. The history and discoveries are what drew me to photography and Net54 has been the biggest influence by far. Such a wealth of information and cool people.

[Touch'EmAll]

You all right here on Net54 had a positive impact on my collection. Without Net54 I may not have continued down the path of pre-war. Now 58, my biggest accumulation years was when I was in my late 30's and 40's. I slowed down my purchases in my 50's as general life and family expenses took priority. But I always kept and treasured what I had - thank goodness. I was so fortunate to have most of my stuff when the pandemic hit and prices went to the moon. I still have everything and am saving it all for retirement.

[Epps]

David McDonald (Kawika)
One of the coolest and most interesting collections I’ve ever seen. Dave has an eye for the rare, obscure, and cool poses within some cool sets. Some of the favorite cards in my collection I first saw scrolling David’s collection as a kid. Plus he had some stellar Buck Weaver items.

Ted Golden
Ted was the first focused black Sox collection that I ever saw and he built a behemoth. Many years later, I am still chasing the overall size and quality of his black Sox collection.