Are The Best Days of Sports Card Collecting Behind Us?

I really enjoy the Junk Wax Heroes account on Twitter. (We are, of course, unrelated.) He posts thought-provoking poll questions, as well as some awesome nostalgia from my childhood.

Here he asks an interesting question:

It’s not really possible to post a good answer to this on Twitter (I think you need to pay for access to post longer tweets), so I’m using this space for it. My answer isn’t very simple.

When I was a kid, I absolutely loved collecting cards. From the age of 7 to 14, there was really nothing better. I rode my bike the 2.2 miles to the baseball card shop (stopping at Michaud’s Market for penny candy on the way!) most weeks, having saved my lawnmowing and chore money to buy as many packs as I could. I wasn’t into singles at the time; I would look at them, but I always dreamed of pulling one myself.

It wasn’t terribly pragmatic. An $8 Ken Griffey Jr. card might’ve cost me $20 in packs before finding it in a pack. But I also had hundreds of others cards! And I built sets, and would trade with a friend who liked different players. By the time I was 12 or 13, I was setting up at a card show, selling cards to other collectors.

Was that the best time of my collecting life? Maybe! Will I ever get that back? No.

And that’s my point. I don’t want to be ripping packs anymore. My collecting style has changed, and now I think my best collecting days are ahead of me. There is a never-ending list of cards I want. I can literally never run out of targets.

Sure, I have my ACE 100 list, but that’s limited in scope. There are thousands of other cards I want. I was just looking at a Payton Pritchard rookie autograph the other night. I can assure you, Payton Pritchard did not make my ACE 100 list.

Once you really explore the hobby and how many different ways there are to enjoy it, you realize it’s impossible to ever get bored with it or to run out of things to collect. Even if you focus on one sport, or one team, or in many cases one player.

Then consider how we can build real friendships with people around the world based on this one connection, which we were not really able to do when I was a kid, and it becomes more clear.

My best days of collecting are ahead of me. I hope you’ll join me.

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