Why Do You Collect What You Collect?

[thomecollector]

Re: Why Do You Collect What You Collect?

I collect Jim Thome stuff. As you can tell by my name. I first started to collect him in the early 90's . Not too much interest in him back then. I cleaned up on his game used, etc. He's a very underrated player. His stuff is still relatively cheap. Considering that the guy is probably a HOF'er. Just joined the 500 HR club. In an era clouded with steroids. It's good to see a stand up guy in baseball. He will always be in my collection.

[harpt]

Re: Why Do You Collect What You Collect?

I was nine years old when the "hometown" Brewers were in the World Series (1982). Guys like Gorman Thomas and Ben Oglivie seemed like gods to me then.

Looking back now, I realize that Gorman Thomas has a lifetime batting average of .225, and Ben Oglivie has MANY more career stikeouts than walks. Still, those guys remain a major part of my childhood, and they are every bit as huge to me as guys like Ripken, Reggie, or Rose are to kids in other areas of the country.

GO BREWERS!!

[geoff]

Re: Why Do You Collect What You Collect?

I collect my favorite team the Orioles because they are my hometown team and I love them no matter what.I also collect a few of my favorite players because I love the way they play the greatest game ever played.
The game of Baseball and my Father taught me how to play the game and I grew up loving the game.So why not start collecting Game used of the Game I love.

[kylehess10]

Re: Why Do You Collect What You Collect?

I love to collect anything that will make a person go "WOW!" when they see my room. This means something with a perfect photomatch and even things that some would consider "nasty." A few weeks ago, I had some friends come over and they looked at some of my stuff, and when one of them looked in my case and saw my Carlos Guillen locker-room worn shower sandle, he just had the most confused look on his face and asks me "Where the hell did you get this?" I love reactions like that.

[nomarmauerfan]

Re: Why Do You Collect What You Collect?

Don Mattingly was my boyhood hero. I remember watching him on WPIX Channel 11 in NY in 1984 and thinking, "this guy is the best hitter I've ever seeen". He has been my favorite player ever since that day. My grandmother (who got me into this whole hobby) took me to a few games and tried to get me one of his bats, but was unsuccessful. I fell out of the card collecting/autograph collecting in the mid-90's. My son, who is now 7, loves baseball as much as I do. He started getting into autographs after meeting Joe Mauer in August 2006. Well, all of the excitement of seeing him collect autographs has taken me back to my childhood. I started collecting Mattingly stuff again in the late-Summer of this year. I purchased my first Mattingly bat last month and I, too, was overtaken with emotion. It just takes me back to when my grandmother and I would go to baseball card shows. I remember how good I felt when she met Joe Dimaggio and Mickey Mantle because they were her heroes. I hope my son sees that same look on my face when I meet mine.

Mike

[bigtruck260]

Re: Why Do You Collect What You Collect?

I have this thing with the mid-90's Cardinals...pre Big Mac or Pujols. The teams were OK, but we had a few guys that were quietly putting up MVP numbers...and really nice guys to boot.

My buddies and I stood in the third base stands at the old Busch for an entire season. About the middle of April 1996, I struck up a conversation with Ray Lankford - at the time, he was peaking, and was a very good, underrated player. Next thing you know, he stops by before nearly every game - over the next two summers, I made nice with Brian Jordan and Ron Gant, and this chunky rookie named Dimitri Young .

As a high school ballplayer, there was nothing better. I think those few guys are the cornerstones of my collection - not that they were the biggest stars, but they gave me some awesome memories. Mac came in the next season and really buried Ray Ray in his shadow - even though Lankford had an outstanding season that would have put him in the MVP running. Jordan had his successful career and D'Meathook is still productive as a National, and Ray ended up with a Cardinals NLCS ring in '04 before calling it a day.

Dave

[toddhead]

I was reading some of the collector ads in SCD and I came across one that was... well, odd to me. This particular collector collected cards of players with names starting with Z... first, last or middle name. I started wondering what made him decide to collect Z players and that got me to thinking what made collectors collect certain items.

Personally, I started collecting 49ers stuff from the 80' and early 90's because it brings back a lot of good memories of times shared with my dad watching games. When I hung my John Taylor jersey I was actually overcome with emotion because it just took me back to when I was a kid.

I know most reasons are pretty simple, but is there something specific you collect and why do you collect that particular thing?