Collecting Cards

I often wonder what it is about trading cards that excite and inspire young people. No matter if it is baseball cards, basketball cards, football cards, Pokemon cards, Yu-Gi-Oh cards, Magic the Gathering  cards, or any other card you could think of, young people have always been enamored by them. Since a lot of cards have games that can be played with them, you’d think that might be the obvious reason why kids love them so much, because they can play a game with them. But I don’t believe that is the case.

Cards are one of the first things kids get to collect. They have a sense of ownership of them and a responsibility to them. To take care of them, to protect them, to not let the card get damaged by all that comes with handling them. Another thing that I believe gets young people so enamored with trading cards is the fact that they get to open something. They get to open a pack. And that excitement of not knowing what is inside might be the main source of what keeps you coming back for more and more. All kids love getting to open presents.

There’s just something about unwrapping shipping supplies off of boxes that hold within them something you have no idea about. It’s a thrill, an excitement, a rush that gets all the juices flowing. And for a lot of people that collected cards in their youth, they never lost that sense of joy and wonder when it came to opening a pack of cards. Therefore, they continue to collect and get to keep reaping the benefits of what it feels like to open up a fresh pack of cards. Sadly, I have lost that excitement that I once had in my youth when it comes to collecting baseball cards. I do believe I would still enjoy collecting and opening packs, but now it’s my money that is having to pay for them, not my parents money.

So, I steward those dollars elsewhere in places I have given more value to than a pack of cards. My card collection remains stocked up loads of shipping supplies, like boxes made of cardboard, back at my parents’ house. One day, I will dig them up and look back at all the cards that meant so much to me at one point in my life. Hopefully those are the same cards that will be worth what cards are worth now from the early and mid 1900’s.