The Following was written by a Bags Customer for all the baseball card collectors out there.
You’ve just come back from the store. You sit in your spot, the same spot you always sit. You take the packs out and put them on the table. You look at them and make your choice. The first pack always causes your heart to swell, your breathing to become a little heavier. You open it and see that first card. It’s a common, which is good. You don’t want the best one to be on top, that kills the excitement.
Your thumb dutifully slides the common to slowly reveal the next card. It needs to be slow as you don’t want to spoil this feeling, as a matter of fact, you never want this feeling to end. The next card is a common too.
So are the next few, and the initial excitement starts to fade slightly. You want the hit, you need it. You want to be socked in the stomach. It’s the reason why you’re a grown man still buying baseball cards. In your mitts is living history, and with relics added in, its even more than that, it’s museum grade living history.
It’s what makes America, America. It’s the year after year documentation of our national pastime. A chronicle of ups and down, losses and victories, and you’re a part of it. You may not play on the field, but you catalog the game. You watch the players probably more closely than the scouts who find them and the sports journalists who write about them. Baseball is important, and your private collection of baseball cards is a testament to that.
So, you slowly thumb those cards until you see gold. Until you hold coveted history in your hands. Something rare and precious, something special, because you know that not many people on Earth will get to hold this card. You’re one of the lucky few. In some cases, you’re actually the only one.
That auto is a special player to collector connection, that specific patch of game worn jersey was created just for you. In the future, your grand kids and great grand kids will marvel at a collection you put together spanning a career of a future legendary, record breaking, hall of famer and they’ll smile. Because, you’ve given them something special, you’ve given them their very own piece of baseball history.
That is why you’ll stalk the card sections of big box stores, awkwardly standing next to kids ogling Pokemon. That’s why you’ll become best friends with the owner of the hobby shop, and why you’ll pay what feels like his salary. The excitement of discovery, the chance to own a piece of history and pass it on. This is why it matters.
Why does collecting matter to you? Send us an email and let us know! If your story gets picked, it’ll be published right here on BU Blog as well as on Facebook, not only that, but you’ll get a special gift from Bags Unlimited to you.
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