Introducing Kids to Sports Cards
It's hard being a sports card collector over the past ten years or so. Steroids in baseball, the increase in online fraud, card shows going the way of the dodo, and being priced out of the market are a few reasons why I became jaded. I seriously thought about selling my collection but I recently received one of the best gifts ever when I thought I was the one giving.
My son started his second year of Little League this year. The previous year, I got card binders for the kids on his team plus two packs of cards and a jersey card. This year I wanted to include the whole league. I decided to introduce these eight- to ten-year-old kids to this great hobby. I bought 10,000 baseball cards to give the players, 100 each along with a pack of sleeves. What really made me happy and proud was that the kids immediately took the cards out of the boxes and began to trade them. They weren't looking for a box hit, searching packs or worrying about centering. They were actually trading cards.
“Who likes the Giants? I want some Dodgers!"
“Look! Derek Jeter!"
Dozens of kids were getting along, not arguing. It felt like Christmas. I wanted to open my own card store just to have trading nights, to give cards away for good grades, to help these kids start their own collections to pass on to their kids. It made me realize that cards are meant to be traded, to be enjoyed. Collect what you like, like what you collect. God, to be nine again…
With the start of Pop Warner football approaching, I've decided to do the same thing for the local football teams. Hopefully, this will help more kids gain a little more interest in collecting.
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Jeff | Jun 14, 2011 | Reply
Great article and awesome way to get kids involved in the hobby. That love of trading is what got me hooked over 30 years ago and the reason that I’ve been reaching out to ebay contacts and sportscardradio.com to trade for Detroit cards for my personal collection. I now have to convince my wife that the cards I buy now are investments.
Now how did you pick your favorite teams? They just happen to be at the bottom of my list in their respective sports.
Scott | Jun 14, 2011 | Reply
That is really awesome. Hopefully the kids stick with it. More people need to do this. In fact, Topps themselves should be doing this with their Opening Day releases.
Mike Smeth | Jun 14, 2011 | Reply
Great article, and a good point by Scott. I think that 2011 Topps Opening Day Baseball was the best Opening Day set they’ve ever produced and the cost of it is just as low as its always been. I think kids would really respond to it if Topps were to launch an initiative to partner with some of the little league organizations to do what Jeff did but on a larger scale.