Nick’s baseball card collection all began when he was five years old. His Uncle Charlie gave him a pack of Topps baseball cards for his birthday one year and he was instantly hooked. Inside the pack were cards of players he had never heard of like Rusty Kuntz and Bob Boone. Even though he didn’t know who they were at the time, he still thought the pictures of the players on the small rectangular pieces of cardboard were super cool. From that moment on, baseball cards became Nick’s obsession.
He would save up his allowance every week and spend it all at the local convenience store buying more packs of cards, hoping each time that the next pack might contain a star player. Some of his favorite early card pulls included a Robin Yount rookie card, a Nolan Ryan card where he was kicking dirt on the mound, and a Rod Carew card from 1977 where he was hitting .388. Nick started to learn all about the different brands that made cards like Topps, Fleer, and Donruss. He kept every single card he got in penny sleeves and cardboard storage boxes sorted alphabetically by player name.
Each year on his birthday and for holidays, all Nick asked for were gift cards to use at the local sports memorabilia and card shop in town. This shop had rows and rows of boxes filled with loose baseball cards for sale and it was Nick’s favorite place to spend an afternoon digging through them all. Some of his best card finds from this shop were a Mike Schmidt rookie card, a complete set of the very first Topps cards from 1956 including a Mickey Mantle, and a Nolan Ryan no-hitter card from 1973. As his collection grew, Nick started keeping his most prized pulls in top loaders and magnetic holders to protect them.
In middle school, Nick started going to card shows around the area with his dad every few months. Here, tables upon tables were lined with vendors selling thousands of individual cards as well as complete sets. Nick would spend hours meticulously going through everything, occasionally finding a real gem. Some great pickups from card shows included a Pete Rose rookie card, a Derek Jeter rookie card, a rare Ozzie Smith error card, and a complete 1984 Topps set including a Roger Clemens rookie and Dwight Gooden’s dominant rookie season card. Through going to these shows, Nick started to develop relationships with some of the long-time card dealers.
As Nick got older, the rise of the internet made obtaining cards much easier. In high school he started using websites like eBay and COMC (Cardboard Connection) to fill in holes in his collection and find cards that were impossible to track down locally. This helped him obtain awesome cards like a Nolan Ryan no-hitter lot that included all of his no-hitters, a Mickey Mantle rookie PSA 8, a complete set of the 1952 Topps included numerous all-time great rookie cards, and a game-worn jersey card of Mariano Rivera. He began to specialize more and focus his collection on Hall of Famers and all-time franchise greats.
During his undergraduate years at college, with less time to dedicate to the hobby, Nick shifted to mainly higher end singles, lots and complete vintage sets. He scored collections from retiring collectors looking to thin out their duplicate cards. This allowed Nick to bolster his collection with items such as a complete 1957 Topps set including a Willie Mays rookie, a near-complete run of 1970s Topps and Donruss that reinforced his childhood PC players, and an immaculate 1996 SP Authentic Quadrelmensch insert of the “Core Four” Yankees that remained in his PC to this day.
Now in his late 20s with a good job, Nick is able to indulge his love of the hobby at a higher level. While maintaining his childhood collection and focus on stars from his formative years, he’s expanded to embrace vintage players as well. Recent additions include a T206 Wagner PSA 1, a complete 1933 Goudey set, and a rare collection of 1950s Topps stars including multiple Mickey Mantle rookies. He continues to patronize both local shops and national dealers, and has come to appreciate cards as an art form and historical investment in addition to childhood nostalgia. Nick’s lifelong journey with baseball cards has turned into a true passion that provides endless enjoyment and memories from his past.
While the rise of digital cards and blockchain presents new frontiers, nothing can replace the tactile joy and stories within Nick’s box upon box of cardboard legends. His hope is to one day pass this collection along for the next generation to spark their own love of the game. Whether appreciated for pop culture, athletics, or finance, baseball cards will always be a bridge between the present and past for Nick. His is a journey showing that some hobbies are truly for a lifetime, bringing smiles since that first pack so long ago from Uncle Charlie.
