Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Bataround 5

What is my best baseball card experience? This has proven a difficult question to answer. Card collecting when I was a kid was a pretty simple matter of going to the stationery store once a week or so and picking up some cards. While that was certainly enjoyable, I can't think of one specific memory from that time.

I stopped actively collecting cards when I was in high school, and didn't start again until after college. My favorite place to get cards is the perpetual card show at the Tri County Flea Market in Levittown, Long Island. I've been going there pretty regularly for the past several years and can spend hours going through box after box of ten cent cards. There is not one particular stand-out experience, but it is just about my favorite way to get baseball cards.

My other favorite way to get cards is trading cards on the internet. I discovered it when I came across this trading site, and was amazed that this was a possibility. I had long since outgrown having friends who were interested in trading, and thought I was stuck with all of my doubles. Now I knew that there was an opening after all. I traded with her and many others, including several in the blogging community. Each trade was great and I can't really pick a favorite.

Another internet site that used to be great for getting cheap cards was craigslist. I have gotten several great deals from people getting rid of their collections, although for some reason, not in the last two years. The best was this haul I got from a dentist on Long Island's North Shore: ten boxes of cards for ten bucks. This was the most excited I ever was getting cards - for just ten bucks, hundreds of cards, in both set boxes as well as assorted cards in a variety of dental product boxes. It took me weeks to assimilate it all in my collection!

This haul even finished, nineteen years after I started, my 1987 Topps set. Ron Roenicke ended up being the last one to finish the set for me. Completing my first major set (I have since been able to put to bed 1988 and 1989 Topps as well) just added to the thrill.

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