Last week I received an email from a reader asking me about
my collecting history. Things like “How long?”, “What do I look for?”, “Do I
have a center piece?’ and “What does collecting mean to me?” I did answer his
questions but I decided that maybe I would get something on my blog to kind of
open up a bit.
This got me thinking because I have been collecting for
decades and why I collect now is very different from why I started buying cards
when I was 7 years old
Over the next few years I would pick up packs here and there. Around this time I started liking the Phoenix Suns and the Seattle Mariners and Seattle Seahawks so I would trade for those teams.
In 1987 the NY Giants won the Super Bowl and they were my
dad’s favorite football team so I started picking up 1987 Topps Football rack packs
to put together a Giants team set for my dad. I ended up building the entire
1987 Topps football set, my first completed set, and when I presented my dad
with the Giants team set he threw the cards in the trash and told me I wasted
my money and time and he forbid me from buying sports cards ever again.
Needless to say I stopped collecting that day.
In late 1992 when I was 20 years old and living in Seattle a
couple of friends got caught up in Shaq mania after he was drafted by the Orlando
Magic. They found out that his 1992-93 Stadium Club rookie was the card to get
so I went with them to a card shop and ended up purchasing a few packs
where I pulled an Alonzo Mourning rookie card. We went back in and I bought a
couple of boxes and finally pulled some Shaq rookies which is why I selected that card as my Wallet card.
When the 1993 baseball season rolled around I started working on my Griffey collection when I pulled his card from the 1993 Stadium Club Series 2 before long I made my first major Griffey purchase when I bought a 1989 Upper Deck #1 from my LCS for $40. I lost the 1993 Stadium Club Griffey in "The Purge" (See the next paragraph) and still have not replaced it.
The next couple of years I went on a major buying spree,
running up my credit cards, but by 1997 my marriage was failing and my (now ex)
wife took a large portion of my collection and threw it in the trash while I
was at work, I call this "The Purge". Afterwards I had no interest in collecting, not to mention my
collection was drastically reduced (I figured that she tossed roughly 75% of my
Griffey collection away) and I didn’t want to re-purchase cards that I had previously
owned, thus was born my collection of Ghost cards. When the 1993 baseball season rolled around I started working on my Griffey collection when I pulled his card from the 1993 Stadium Club Series 2 before long I made my first major Griffey purchase when I bought a 1989 Upper Deck #1 from my LCS for $40. I lost the 1993 Stadium Club Griffey in "The Purge" (See the next paragraph) and still have not replaced it.
Between 1997 and 2000 I picked up the occasional pack here
or there, at the time my collection was so small that I could easily fit it in
to a 5,000-ct box with room to spare. After my son was born in 2000 I began collecting
again, this was a fun time because relics and autographs were coming along and
with so many different companies the designs were always so unique.
Now I focus mainly on my player collections of Ken Griffey
Jr., Steve Kerr, Steve Largent and Ryan Bader. I have a secondary player/team
collection consisting of Jay Buhner, Randy Couture, Seattle and Phoenix teams
plus vintage cards and sketch cards.
What do I look for?
I look for cards and memorabilia that will fit within my
collection, I do not buy anything simply to have it. There were times where I
did purchase anything and everything related to Griffey or a favorite team but
I like to keep my collection reasonable now so I have to fight the urge to add
every action figure of a favorite player or a magazine with Steve Kerr on the
cover.Do I have a center piece?
I have added a number of items to my collection that
could easily be considered a centerpiece but the one that has sentimental value
to me is my autographed Ken Griffey Jr. bat that my wife gave me for Christmas
about 12 years ago. It is a beautiful black Louisville Slugger C271 bat with a
strong Griffey signature in silver pen ink.
What does collecting mean to me?
The reason I collect is because I love sports, growing up I played soccer,
football, basketball and ran track. I felt that sports cards and memorabilia
was a natural transition for me, I see the athletes on the television and I can
hold their cards in my hand while watching. Now that I am a parent I have
taught my kids to love sports too, even coaching their soccer teams, so when my
son found a fondness for collecting it has bonded us together over something that
goes back to my childhood.
Nice read, Corky. Always good to hear the stories of the other collectors. And much sadness over the purge.....
ReplyDeleteI can help you with that Buhner PC.
ReplyDeleteNow let's never mention the Purge again.
I recently got a similar email from an online auction company might be the same source. She had the same questions. I was a bit skeptical at first thinking it was a phishing email to get me to join something or buy or sell something. So I asked if I had to sign something, sell, buy, join something yadda yadda yadda. Nope just have to write up a story, blog it, and twit tweet to them about the post. Apparently I don't even have to tweet if I don't wanna. I'm in the drafting process for my story.
ReplyDeleteUgh Purge. Once when I was a kid I did a "purge". Most of the cards I got rid of I think were dupes, some hand cut type hostess cards and some cards I had marked up/defaced.