Jackson has loved baseball for as long as he can remember. From a young age, he would spend hours watching games on television with his dad and playing wiffle ball in the backyard. Naturally, he began amassing a collection of baseball cards around the age of 10. It started with just a few packs from the drugstore, but before long the collection was growing rapidly.
By the time he was in middle school, Jackson’s collection had swelled to over 2000 cards. He took great care in organizing them by player, team, year, and position. All the cards were stored safely in numerous plastic sleeves within leather bound binders. Jackson’s favorite player was Chipper Jones, so he made sure to track down every single card featuring the Braves third baseman throughout his career.
Aside from Chipper Jones cards, Jackson sought out notable rookie cards, records cards featuring milestone achievements, and cards of his favorite players from past eras. He enjoyed learning the history and statistical accomplishments of the all-time greats like Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron. Jackson also appreciated the modern superstars in the game during his youth like Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds, and Alex Rodriguez.
As his collection grew, Jackson delved deeper into card valuations, conditions grades, and the trading market. He kept detailed records on Beckett Price Guides and consulted recent eBay sales to estimate the worth of each card in his collection. The rarest and most valuable cards included a mint condition Chipper Jones rookie from 1991 worth around $500 in today’s market. He also possessed a near perfect 1973 Hank Aaron record breaker card valued at over $1,000.
Aside from appraising individual cards, Jackson took pride in building complete rainbow sets featuring parallel and autographed variations. Some of his most prized sets included a complete 2000 Bowman Chrome Chipper Jones rainbow collection and a 1998 Topps T205 Billy Wagner autograph variation set missing just one parallel. Staying on top of the ever-changing hobby, he explored new insert sets, patch cards, refractors and tracking down elusive serial numbered parallels and 1/1 editions.
As high school approached, Jackson started to refine his collection by focusing on his absolute favorite players and teams, while selectively selling duplicates and lower valued cards on sports card forums and show booths. The extra funding allowed him to upgrade premium cards like game used jersey cards and autographed memorabilia. By his senior year, Jackson’s collection had slimmed slightly but grown tremendously in overall value estimated at over $15,000.
Now in his freshman year of college studying sports management, Jackson’s collection remains important to him but serves more as a hobby than an investment. He plans to hold onto the prized pieces indefinitely but may part with some duplicates to help pay for continued education. In the future, Jackson hopes to stay involved in the sports and memorabilia industry by perhaps working for a card company, memorabilia retailer or sports franchise. For now, he will continue to enjoy reliving baseball memories and passing down the hobby to his kids someday using his vast collection as a teaching tool. Jackson’s appreciation for the history of baseball will surely pass down through future generations in his family thanks to the collection he began so many years ago with just a few packs of cards.
