Miguel has enjoyed collecting sports cards ever since he was young. At age 10, Miguel has amassed a sizable collection of 334 baseball cards and 278 football cards through trades with friends, purchases at the local card shop, and openings of booster packs. Let’s take a closer look at Miguel’s impressive collections.
For his baseball card collection, Miguel favors players from the late 1990s and early 2000s era. Some of his most prized possessions include a graded mint condition Ken Griffey Jr upper deck card from 1999, a near-mint rookie card of Nomar Garciaparra from 1997 fleer update series, and a 1998 topps tradable token Derek Jeter card that is in excellent condition. While Miguel loves collecting stars from that vintage of baseball, he also makes sure to add rookie and prospect cards to stay on top of the newest talent emerging in the majors. Just last month, Miguel was excited to add rookie cards of MLB rookies of the year Julio Rodriguez and Jeremy Peña to keep up with the next generation of ballplayers.
In total, Miguel’s baseball card collection spans dozens of sets from the late 20th century onwards. Some of the most represented sets in his collection include sports illustrated for kids, donruss, bowman, topps, fleer, upper deck, and score. While Miguel mostly collects base cards, he does have a few special parallel and refractors mixed in, like a rare pink parallel of San Diego Padres superstar Fernando Tatis Jr. from 2020 topps chrome update. Miguel tries to organize his collection thematically, with sections dedicated to rookie cards, Hall of Famers, current stars, and personal favorites regardless of ability. He keeps all his cards stored safely in magnetic holders within neatly organized baseball card binders.
When it comes to his football card collection, Miguel focuses more on current NFL players and stars rather than vintage cards. Given that football has much higher player movement between teams compared to baseball, Miguel finds it more exciting to collect cards featuring today’s top quarterbacks, wide receivers, and defensive players. Naturally, being from Philadelphia, Miguel’s collection heavily features stars from the Eagles, like graded rookies of Devonta Smith and Jalen Hurts. But he also makes sure to seek out rookie cards and hits of the biggest names universally like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Ja’Marr Chase, and Aaron Donald.
Similarly to his baseball collection, Miguel’s 278 football cards span various modern sets from brands like panini, leaf, topps, and donruss. He’s particularly proud of scoring serial numbered parallels of stars like Cooper Kupp, Justin Jefferson, and Jamar Chase from recent seasons. Miguel has also started to dabble in memorabilia cards mixed in, with a few rookie autographs and patch cards to complement his growing collection. For organization purposes, Miguel separates his football cards by position, with compartments for quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, defensive backs, linebackers, and more.
As Miguel approaches his teenage years, he looks forward to continue growing both of his sports card collections. With allowances and the occasional funds from birthdays or holidays, Miguel plans to focus on adding big stars from the upcoming NFL and MLB rookie classes. He’s also started to take a keener interest in the business side of the hobby, keeping notes on players he expects to rise in value as their careers progress. Overall, Miguel finds collecting cards to be a fun and engaging way to follow his favorite sports while building a meaningful collection. With nearly 600 cards and counting across baseball and football, Miguel’s passion shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
