How did you get started in collecting cards?

[perezj4ys]

This is a general question to see how you all got started in collecting. What was it that keeps you all thriving to continue to buy, sell, and trade small pieces of card board, jerseys, bats, balls, and ext....... I know what got me started. It was back when I was playing little league baseball and the inspiration to find a role model for me to follow got me staeted in colleting cards just to learn more about the players. That sopped in 1991 but here I am again over a decade later infatuated with the cards once again. WHAT ABOUT YOU? WHAT IS KEEPING YOU ATTCHED?

[perezj4ys]

As you can tell I am new to this sight and am curious to see what other people think of the common bond that brought us to this web page. So please share your knowledge and experiences for these things will be passed on to help inspire other people as well. I love cards and it is one thing I can say that continues to have an effect with me. I will be sharing this with other people who are in the military who have a common likeness to help get them through their hard times as they deploy. Thank you for your time and efforts
John

[SingleDaddyof2]

I'm not sure exactly what got me started. I know I attended my first MLB game when I was 9 years old (Cap Night at Dodger Stadium, Dodgers vs. Phillies). Discovered baseball cards on my own later that same year (1969). Have loved both ever since.

[spuds1961]

started as a kid in the late 60,s early 70,s just to have a hobby,mother threw away my whole collection one day when i was at school stopped collecting till the mid 90,s got married and i needed something to do other than go the bar and drink so i started collecting again as a sort of vice it,s an addiction like anything else you do too much of but at least at the end of the day i am sober have a beautiful wife and some decent pieces of cardboard ,take care spuds

[perezj4ys]

Thank you so much for your replys SingleDaddyof2 & spuds1961 for sharing this.
SingleDaddyof2==May you find several years of happiness in collecting for many years to come.

spuds1961===I am glad that collecting cards does not keeps you from drinking. I find this as one of the great things that this one,simple little hobbie can actually change one person's life for the better.

KEEP SHARING YOUR EXPERIENCES FOR YOU NEVER KNOW THAT ONE DAY YOUR STORY AND EXPERIENCE MIGHT JUST HELP AND CHANGE SOMEONES THOUGHT OR EVEN LIFE.
Thanks again
John

[joop]

well, one day my local hobby shop brought all his cards over and i bought a pack of Sweet spots for 10.00$. that started it all. :)

[DarthDooku]

As a youngster, about 12 years old, i used to watch every single Philadelphia Phillies game. Im from New Jersey. Eventually me and my brother started collecting baseball cards, just to get our favorite phillies players. Then we found out about rookie cards and became full time collectors.

Around the age of 15 I stopped collecting. I wasnt into baseball anymore.

Since then ive been a devoted Eagles fan. About a year ago, now 22 years of age, i decided to try out playing Fantasy Football. The weekly preparation of my team and the constant search for better players got me knowing a lot more of the cool players that i dont pay much attention to. So being into football even more so now, I decided to just go out and buy a box of some mid grade Topps football cards. Just thier mainstream set. While at the store, I told the lady that i havetn collected in many years. She told me all about how cards have changed over the years and showed me gameused and auto cards. I thought the cards were really cool and i wanted some. So i started buying ohter boxes.

Now its a habit i cannot break. I love the challenge of completing a whole set, and the thrill of getting those high end insert cards. Back in the day, the best you could hope for was a five dollar David Justice rookie. Imagine the thrill when i pulled a $120 Ben Roethlisberger auto out of 4 single packs of Topps DP&P.

I guess thats my story. The scouting of players in a Fantasy Football league made me buy a box of cards and it just caught on from there.

[kr580]

At my mom's old work they had a bingo thing going. There's 5 business days so every Monday every employee got a bingo card and 1 number. Then every day they got another one so on Friday if anyone had bingo they could pick from a few prizes. Nothing major... just usless stuff. :D Well the Fall of 1999 my mom won and a prize was two boxes of 1990 Pro Set (Series 1 & Series 2). That started my obsession.

Well actually she brought them home and I just put them in the closet because I was always out playing with friends. Then one day a few weeks later I was bored and opened a box and left the other in the closet. I went back to the other box to open it and I couldn't find it so I basically forgot about it. Well, one day about 5 months later I was cleaning my closet and I found the box and it hooked me this time.

[atrain3868]

I collected baseball cards as a little atrain in the 80's and early 90's. When I quit collecting in 7th grade to focus on playing sports and school I put away the cards into storage. In college I had a friend who collected big time and kinda flirted with it. Went to card shows with him, looked at his cards, but didn't really get involved in it. After I moved down to NC in 2001 I found all my old baseball and racing cards along with the Starting Lineups and die-casts that I use to collect and went online to see how and for how much to sell all this "crap" for. I came across a site that talked all about the "new things" (GU, autos, numbered cards, ect) that weren't around when I was a kid. The bug bit me again from there, but no longer giving a hoot about the sport of baseball I decided to refocus my collecting on football and it's history from there ;)