76 Reasons to Love Collecting Sports Cards
For a hobby that has a lot of its roots in fun and nostalgia, there are a lot of things in sports card collecting that can make a collector cynical. If you're having a rough day of collecting, there are dozens of things to get excited about. Even focusing on the small bits of joy can make your collecting so much more fun.
Here's a list of 76 things to love about collecting sports cards.
- Flipping through pages and admiring card designs.
- Learning about sports history.
- Rookie cards.
- Going to the hobby shop and chatting with other collectors.
- Getting an autograph of a childhood hero or someone from your favorite team.
- Game-used jersey cards.
- The allure of the last pack in a box.
- Trading nights at the card shop.
- Sorting through a box of cards for the first time.
- Getting the last card for a set. Double if it's one that you've been working on for years.
- Team sets that have more than a handful of the top stars.
- Old cards with dinged corners.
- Cool inserts that use interesting technologies.
- Reliving the past.
- The anticipation of opening a box.
- Stickers.
- The first 30 seconds of chewing a piece of fresh pink gum.
- Making money off an investment.
- Gives an excuse to browse eBay.
- Going to card shows.
- Different photos on the back of the card.
- Laughing at pack searchers.
- Busting packs.
- On-card signatures.
- Unique multicolored patches.
- Busting packs with your kids.
- Reading collector blogs.
- Connecting with other collectors.
- Laughing at old hair styles.
- Getting a super hit.
- Laughing at forum flame wars but not getting involved.
- Prospecting, especially when your player reaches the bigs for the first time.
- Parallel rainbows, particularly the shiny ones.
- Clickety-clack of cards in bicycle spokes.
- Calculating "value" in your head.
- Bartering with dealers.
- Group breaks.
- Talking sports at the hobby shop.
- Digging and sifting through monster boxes.
- Finding treasures in the attic.
- Studying stats.
- Great photography.
- Premium giveaways from cereal boxes, grocery stores and fast food restaurants.
- Busting junk wax.
- Sifting through packs in the car.
- Finding a hit among the commons.
- Getting a good price on something you were looking for.
- Sniping a last-second eBay victory.
- 3D holograms that turn their heads. Bonus points if they wink.
- Seeing a long-desired card surface.
- Seeing the new Topps baseball design for the first time.
- Getting your first autograph of a player.
- Getting a high-five from the stranger next to you in the shop when he gets something nice.
- Spending an hour going through a common box.
- Filling the final spot in a nine-pocket page.
- Having your auction end higher than you anticipated.
- Getting a hot rookie card out of a pack during the player's first year.
- The sound of the doorbell when a postal worker or UPS driver leaves a package of cards on your doorstep.
- Finding someone in your commons box who has become a star.
- Getting a good grade from a grading submission.
- Finding cards at garage sales.
- Wax pack designs.
- The powder left on your fingers from gum.
- Wrapper redemptions that add value to an already good box.
- Going back through older rookie cards to find a hit.
- Attainable short prints.
- Educating new collectors or letting them know what they have.
- Through-the-mail autographs.
- Sorting by teams.
- Goalie cards.
- Funny pictures on card fronts.
- Learning about players from before your time.
- Video box breaks.
- Error cards.
- Trading with other collectors over the Internet.
- Finding cards in strange places.
This list is a pretty good start. What do you love about collecting?
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Jason
78. The smell of the cards in a freshly opened pack.