Teen Card Collecting Struggles

**ferrari5515** · 10-01-2011, 07:31 PM

Card collecting is hard. Well for me. Because I feel it’s harder to be a card collector when you’re my age. By my age I mean I’m 15. I feel like I’m a small fish in a big pool of sharks. Whenever I feel like I know what I’m doing in card collecting, or if I think I’m starting to grow a bigger collection, someone proves me wrong by showing me up. I also notice that there aren’t a lot of kids out there like me. People that are my age and try to collect cards that are somewhat rare, I guess. I think this is because it’s very difficult for teens to collect cards. Let me explain. I sure don’t have the money to buy a box of Triple Threads or National Treasures. And my parents aren’t going to buy me a box of stuff that expensive, either. That’s because what they see in baseball cards isn’t what I see. I see the possibility of pulling a Tim Lincecum one of one or a Blake Griffin quad patch auto. All they see is a box of cardboard. I explain to them that this stuff can be worth a lot of money, but then they say we’re spending money for it, so doesn’t that cancel out? So buying boxes is out of the question. Now if I was an adult, I feel things would be different. I would buy a box every now and then, and see if I could get lucky. But, if I bought a box, then I could trade, and if I could trade, then I would be getting newer and cooler cards each time. And that’s exciting, to me at least. And then I could buy more packs and boxes and get more inventories, and then I’d be set. But I’m not an adult, so once again, I can’t do that. So, I turn to TTM. I have the utmost appreciation for TTM because of these situations. The fact that players and coaches take time out of their days to read a letter I wrote to them and send something back to me makes me feel good. Plus, it’s not like I have to pay really any money for it either. Which is also good! And what I also like is that almost all players do it. Some for free, some for a small donation. But they all sign. This option I feel is just as good as opening a box of whatever type of cards or trading anything, but it might even feel a little more special. Now let me take you back to what it would be like if I was an adult. I would be trading, buying packs and boxes, AND TTMing. Now that is something I would like to do. But once again, I can’t. They have the money to buy this stuff, and they have the ability to drive to a card store and get whatever they want. But I don’t have that ability. I don’t have a car, I don’t have the money, I don’t have any of the stuff that they have. All I have is some base cards, some index cards, some stamps, a couple of envelopes, and a pen. So what do you think I should do? At this point of the article, I must say I’m struggling to get to that 700 word minimum, but let me just try to squeeze one of those motivational teen to teen speeches in about card collecting. Some teens think that card collecting isn’t very cool or there is no point. I understand why they think that. Who wants to have a ton of rectangles with guys on them stacked in a pile in your room? But if you are a sports fan, then I truly do recommend the hobby. Being a new teen card collector myself, I do remember thinking the same thing. But the thing that changed my mind was the thought that you could own an autograph from your favorite player by just sending out a card and letter. You could own an autograph from your favorite player by buying a box of cards. Or you could own an autograph of your favorite player by making a trade by finding an owner on one of these forums. You just got to be lucky.

**RJ53** · 10-01-2011, 11:46 PM

i fell the same (15) they dont iunderstand great article

**ferrari5515** · 10-02-2011, 12:23 AM

Thanks man. I know it's not eligible for winning. But i just felt like writing it.

**spuds1961** · 10-02-2011, 09:12 AM

Nice read ferrari,and good luck with your collection.

**ferrari5515** · 10-02-2011, 10:43 AM

thanks man

**jdawg** · 10-02-2011, 11:25 AM

i actually found it easier to collect from 13-17 because i had part time jobs the whole time. And every dime i made went to sportscards lol. I didnt have to worry about shoes, gas, insurance, rent or any of the things my parents provided for me. Id work 15-20 hours a week should of been more but the law said i had to be off by 7 because of my age haha i made the minimum wage in my state at the time which was 5.15 an hour i made about 103 dollars a week after taxes around 75-80 bucks. Id always hit the lcs and if they had a high priced box i wanted id give him the cash and if it was more then i had he would take the money and set the box aside until the next friday that i got paid to pay it off and then id bust the box there and if i got any cool cards he would ALWAYS give me card cases to protect them. No matter what age you are there are always ways to make a few dollars and set it aside to save for what you want. Then i stopped collecting thru college and after i graduated college and went into the scrap business, which is where i made all my money i started with a 96 chevy truck and a torch and today i own a lucrative scrap yard..which pays for the card shop i own haha i honestly dont think the shop would be able to support itself if it wasnt a tax deduction for the scrap yard..but thats neither here nor there..now that i can afford to bust high end boxes i find it much more pleasurable to watch my customers break those boxes. Once a month i hold a drawing and every kid 17 and younger who makes any kind of purchase no matter how much gets a raffle ticket and at the end of the month i raffle off 3 boxes of cards and 1 super lucky raffle ticket gets a collectors choice ticket that can be used for one box of any product of their choice during a 6 month span..of course these rafflers are paying for the boxes for the winners but its still a fun way to get the youngsters in the shop on the last day of the month because you must be present to win..so its a great thing...good post by the way its always good to get the insight of americas youth on our hobby

**ferrari5515** · 10-02-2011, 06:22 PM

I just moved across the country this summer, so I guess you can call this an excuse by saying that I'm still getting into the grove of things. I am getting a very small intake of about 30 dollars a week with small jobs that I do, but I've never had an actual job yet. Another thing that is a negative is that the nearest card shop is 2 towns away, and since I don't have my license yet, it's somewhat difficult to get there. But still, I try to buy a cheap box every now and then. And I love your raffle thing, it would make me want to buy a box a whole lot more if they had that at my nearest card shop

**mrveggieman** · 10-03-2011, 10:17 AM

I remember a long time ago when I was 15. There wasn't that much high end stuff back then and GU, patches, and in pack autos were unheard of. Most packs of cards costed around $0.50 to $1.00 per pack and you could always get boxes and packs in clearance from kb toys. It's just sad that everyone is out for the latest high end flavor of the month (which is usually worthless when the next bigh thing comes out) and that the kids which are the future of our beloved hobby are being priced out. Most kids of they have $300 saved up would rather by the latest video game system, some other electrical device or some new clothes/shoes. The companies need to offer more affordable low end product to draw kids in to the hobby. I am in my late 30s and still enjoy low end product, heck that's about 80% of what I buy now.