What sparked your game used interest?

[70to66]

Walt Weiss game me a bat at braves spring training and I was hooked!

[Preston]

Several things sparked it for me...

1. Buying cards and getting "game used" cards was THE thing for card collectors, because it gives the collector a chance to own a piece of it...then the prices started going through the roof, and there's been times I've paid more for a game used CARD than an actual game used ITEM, and that was when it hit me that something didn't add up.

2. Over time, throughout training camps and games etc, I'd ask players for their gloves, hats, etc in a tactful way...and sometimes it worked! Then instead of "sneaking" down to the tunnel after Titans games, I got lucky and was able to purchase two PSLs right by the tunnel, and the rest is history. Getting gloves after every game and knowing who they belong to is pretty awesome (to me)

3. The main thing I collect is jerseys....and I got lucky and got a GREAT contact w/ the Titans (used to have one w/ the Brewers AAA team but they were let go when ownership changed and I've been trying to pull teeth for two years now to no avail), so I figure why buy a jersey card when I can buy the jersey? Instead of thinking the jersey cards are cool, they actually anger me because a piece of memorabilia was cut up (allegedly, who REALLY knows the origin of the jersey) to be put into cards, thus destroying a game used item someone could collect. Granted I still buy jersey cards of certain players (Memphis Tigers, Titans, certain other players and MMA fighters - well the MMA memorabilia cards aren't "jerseys" but you know what I mean...), but mostly I just buy the jersey cards to re-sell at card shows, because I don't want to get pissed everytime I look at them (LOL)

There's my answer in a VERY roundabout way

[beaglegypsy003]

I started collecting cards and making some complete sets (mostly basketball). In 1992, there was an article in Tuff Stuff magazine, Confessions of a Non-Card Collecting Collector. It mentioned that the writer had made complete baseball card sets from the 50s to present. After all of that effort, he surveyed his collection and saw he had binders full of cardboard and plastic sheets but not much of real baseball items. Most other people who don't collect cards wouldn't understand this but would appreciate in some ways game jerseys and other memorabilia. After thinking about it, I saw the same thing and began slowly collecting game-used jerseys. First basketball but now only football of former University of Hawaii alumni. It is cool to have a jersey of a player you watched play in person. Plus, hundreds of people can have the same card but how many people own a jersey of a particular player, even if it is a common player. By the way, I still collect cards but only of former Hawaii players.

[solarlottry]

In 1990, while living in SF, I was collecting Montana cards and going to quite a few card shows. I was also following the Grateful Dead. While driving to Sacramento to see them I stopped by a card shop and saw 2 Montana gamers, both framed and with team letters. One was 2K and the other 5K as it was a playoff shirt. I remember thinking how cool they looked and thought one day i am going to have one. After that, instead of buying cards at shows, I started to buy jerseys. One of the first dealers I met was Dick Dobbins and bought a # of 49er gamers from his booth. It has been a non stop battle with my bank account ever since!

Always buying 49er gamers and ANY 1994 49er gamer. Paying a finders fee.
Paul
garciajones@yahoo.com

[coxfan]

I've been a fan of general history and pre-history since I was a boy, and as a result I like artifacts (old documents, fossils, museums, etc.) though I've bought only a handful of such things.

As a result I was fascinated by MLB artifacts (i.e. g-u items) but since I never lived near a MLB city I didn't know how these things could be reliably obtained. I'd read enough about fraud to fear buying from secondary sources. It didn't help that local dealers here never seemed to know much about the provenance of their g-u stuff. ( Typically, "I'm sure I bought it from somebody reliable, but I've forgotten details").

Only when my daughter moved to Arlington in 2006 and I found I could buy directly from the Rangers, did I start a collection of MLB g-u items.

[frikativ54]

I've been a big Houston fan ever since I bought an Astros team set at Target when I was in grade school. Always a lover of baseball, I collected cards sporadically but never could afford the most rare pieces. It wasn't until high school that the card companies added swatches of game used items to their products, so I didn't get hooked on patch cards until I was much older.

By the time I had reached high school, I was several years into my love for having the same shoes the athletes were wearing. I remember that my Mom would take me to a department store and later Niketown every year to buy basketball sneakers, baseball cross training shoes, or whatever else the athletes were wearing.

My Mom bought me Frank Thomas model shoes, Griffey, Jr., etc., but there never were any Astros' shoes for sale. A big fan of Jeff Bagwell, I had my Mom call Houston to see if they had any shoes of current Houston baseball players, Bagwell especially. They didn't, so I pretty much gave up and forgot about my desire to have Bagwell cleats.

During the time I went to college, I started getting back into sports memorabilia after a brief hiatus. I bought all the swatches and high end game used cards of Jeff Bagwell and Lance Berkman. However, I never knew that I could have whole pieces of equipment. That was until I went to Houston for Jeff Bagwell's jersey retirement.

I saw a pair of Jeff Bagwell game used spikes on display at Minute Maid. At that point, I desired to collect shoes that weren't just the same model as Bagwell wore on the field, but that were actually used by him in games. So I began doing research and ultimately found Game Used Universe. I now have a collection of Bagwell cleats and haven't looked back.

[NEFAN]

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