Well many of you may have clicked this link because you thought it would be a juicy story about someone consuming cardboard, nope, not here, just baseball cards. But if you’re into that stuff tune into TLC's My Strange Addiction-- I'm sure you'll get your fix there. Anyways, back to sports cards.
Like any kid growing up (Pre-Fortnight) I had a collection of cards, Yu-gi-oh, some Pokémon, but mainly sports cards. I loved sneaking them to school and trading them, reading stats and comparing which players had the most home runs with my brother, and even sticking a card in the spokes of a bike just to see what my parents were talking about. But like most kids, I grew out of them at some point, right? WRONG! I actually found out my uncle was a collector and had about every baseball set from the 80's, including gems like Ricky Henderson, Don Mattingly, Wade Boggs, Mark McGuire, Cal Ripken Jr, and Kirby Puckett just to name a few. So, I was kind of in awe when I heard about these and was even more shocked when I found out they have entire shops for them. After a bit of hounding I got my dad to take me to the baseball card shop that used to be on 90th Street in Scottsdale. I remember walking into the shop and seeing all the shiny cards in the crystal-clear display cases; the lighting just perfecting lighting all the collectibles. The walls of wax, and boxes of commons stretched around the entire store. I may have just been a mere 13-year-old, but it was at this point I felt the connection that so many people long to find on this wild journey of life--that is love. After scavenging for the best deal, I found a set for that had 825 cards, and I got my brother the one with 792. I got the better deal, right? Well, that’s how I went about deciding on the best box to get back then, whichever one had the most cards. So, I got the one with more cards, 1993 Topps Baseball Set, and my brother got the one with less, 1991 Topps Baseball. The card shop owner, Mike, said my set had the cellophane ripped open a bit so instead of $40 he would sell it for $20, on top of that I discovered that my set had the Derek Jeter rookie card which was worth $15 itself. Funny thing is my brother is the Yankees fan and I am a Mets fan. But nonetheless, everyone loves Jeter, and strictly for the value aspect of it I was stoked! I was just trying to get cards to look at stats with my bro and now I’m making money! I never would have expected that this one day at the card shop would completely change my life. But here I am years later and there hasn't been a single day where I didn’t look at a card. My collection has some cards in it I never thought I would own, and I am running my own sports card and collectibles show where I get to talk sports with some of the coolest people.
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AuthorCole McAuliff |