Kamil’s Baseball Card Collection
Kamil has had a passion for baseball cards ever since he was 5 years old and received his first pack as a gift from his grandfather. That initial pack sparked a love of collecting that has now spanned over a decade. At 17 years old, Kamil has amassed an impressive collection of 72 baseball cards that he is constantly adding to and organizing.
Like many collectors, Kamil started small by buying the cheap packs from the drugstore, focusing more on collecting various players rather than their value. In those early years, it was all about the thrill of the hunt and seeing what new players he could add to his growing collection. As time went on and his hobby grew more serious, Kamil began attending local card shows and shopping online to seek out specific cards he wanted.
The backbone of Kamil’s collection consists of stars from the early 2000s, which is when he first started collecting in earnest. Players like Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones, Nomar Garciaparra, and Sammy Sosa dominate his binders from that era. These were the players Kamil watched on TV as a young fan just getting into America’s pastime. Many of these cards hold sentimental value for reminding him of watching games with his family.
Though Kamil collected various players in those early years, he gravitated towards focusing on Chicago Cubs players as he grew older because of his family’s roots in Chicago. Roughly 15% of his collection consists of great Cubs from history like Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson, Rick Sutcliffe and Mark Grace. One of the prized possessions in Kamil’s collection is a 1985 Fleer Mark Grace rookie card that is in pristine condition. Grace was always one of Kamil’s favorite players growing up and finding his rookie at a card show a few years back was an exciting moment.
In addition to stars from his childhood and favorite team, Kamil has also branched out into collecting rookies and prospects to follow their career progression. He follows the MLB Draft closely each year and tries to get the rookie cards of any highly touted draft picks. Some of his best recent pickups include Cards of 2019 first overall pick Adley Rutschman, 2020 number one selection Spencer Torkelson and 2019 breakout star Pete Alonso’s rookie. By following rookie classes, Kamil hopes some of these players develop into future hall of famers and the value of their early cards increases substantially.
Along with collecting modern players, Kamil has also started to build sets of the vintage greats from the early 20th century. He owns full sets of cards from the iconic 1909-1911 T206 set as well as 1956 and 1957 Topps sets. Putting together full vintage sets in high grades is a real challenge but also provides a true sense of accomplishment. Some of his prized vintage singles include a 1909 T206 Honus Wagner, 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle and a 1957 Topps Willie Mays. While expensive, these provided a connection to the earliest eras of the game which Kamil found especially interesting.
A key part of any serious collection is properly storing and displaying cards to preserve their condition. Kamil uses toploaders and penny sleeves for his valuable rookie cards, refractor parallels and autograph cards. He then organizes players alphabetically in seven-pocket pages that fit neatly inside six binders. To show off his collection, Kamil has also started creating custom baseball card displays. Using supplies like foam core boards and plastic sleeves, he will arrange cards in a certain theme like “Rookie Classes” or “Cubs Greats” to highlight subsets of his collection on his walls.
As he finishes up his high school career this spring, Kamil plans to study sports management at a nearby university in the fall. His lifelong passion for the business of baseball combined with collectable card knowledge aims to help him potentially work for a baseball club one day. Moving forward, Kamil will continue to grow as a collector, pursue collecting milestones like completing more vintage sets, and focus on value appreciation of his current holdings. At just 72 cards now, Kamil’s baseball card collection has grown exponentially from those initial packs as a child. There is no sign of slowing down for this avid collector anytime soon.
