Thursday, November 20, 2008

What type of collector are you?

Its a very interesting question. There are those who collect for fun. There are those who collect for money. People who collect single teams, whole sets, autographs, people with 6 sylable last names. It goes on and on. Alright so I made that last one up. I'm sure if it were true it would make Jarrod Saltalamacchia really happy. But its a very good question. What type of collector are you?

I love buying blasters and boxes of cards. Just going through the packs, organizing them, writing out checklists, it's just so much fun. Don't get me wrong I have more partial sets than I can count but thats all part of the fun, completing them. Sure some of them i've had for 20 years and I haven't completed but I'm working on them. I can't resist buying a box from the late 80's where I pay more for the box than the entire set is worth. To sit down and break em open just gets me going.

Now this does not mean thats all I collect. I am constantly mailing my doubles off to both former and current players for autographs. I just started doing this a couple months ago but I have a pretty good collection going at this point. After I get those blasters and boxes we all love so very much we are constantly left with more doubles and triples than we can imagine. What do we do with them? I send mine off and if I'm lucky i get em back with a nice sharpie signature on them. If I don't oh well I didn't really need that extra Keith Atherton anyway. Though Keith was nice enough to sign for me, You da man Keith.

I'm a die hard New York Mets fan. Have been since birth. Thats no lie. I have pictures of me in a high chair with a "lil Mets Fan" bib on. I've been to Shea Stadium more times than I can count. I hate to see it go but I guess it is time for a new one. And like my mother, who took me to Shea a million times hopefully I will be lucky enough to take my kids to Citi-Field someday. Or whatever they happen to be calling it by then. Because of this I am always trying to get as many Mets cards as I can, past and present. Just recently I pulled a Pedro Martinez game used from a 2008 Goudey blaster and I had to change my shorts.

So, what type of a collector am I? It's really a hard question to answer. Personally I can't decide. I just started collecting again after a long absence from the hobby. And right now I have my sets I collect, my autographs I cherish and my team and I know I wouldn't "trade" any of them for the world!