Ryan’s Baseball Card Collection
Ryan has had a love of baseball ever since he was a young boy. Growing up, he would watch baseball games with his father whenever they were on TV and dream of one day becoming a major leaguer himself. While Ryan never made it to the big leagues as a player, his passion for the game never faded. Now at age 14, Ryan has amassed an impressive collection of 220 baseball cards that he has been collecting and adding to over the past 5 years.
Ryan first got the baseball card collecting bug when he was 9 years old. His grandparents gifted him a pack of cards for his birthday one year, containing several stars from the current season like Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw, and Bryce Harper. Ryan was instantly hooked on trying to collect as many different players as possible. He began watching carefully for any opportunities to buy more packs of cards at local stores, and would ask relatives for packs or individual cards as gifts for his birthday and holidays.
In the beginning, Ryan’s collection grew slowly as he mainly relied on pack openings and gifts to obtain new cards. After the first year, his collection had grown to only around 30 cards total. Ryan realized if he wanted to really build up his collection in a meaningful way, he would need to dedicate more time and resources into seeking out cards. Over the next couple years, Ryan began frequenting local card shows, card shops, and using online sites like eBay to aggressively add to his collection through individual card purchases.
By focusing his efforts on acquiring specific players and teams, Ryan was able to quickly amass a nice variety of current stars and legends from across different eras of baseball history. Some of the highlights of his early collection included rookie cards of superstars like Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez, and Chipper Jones. He also made it a priority to collect cards representing some of his favorite hometown teams like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Atlanta Braves. By constantly trading duplicate cards with friends and through group bulk purchases, Ryan managed to grow his collection to over 100 cards by his 12th birthday.
Entering middle school, Ryan joined the school’s baseball club team and also began volunteering as a batboy for his local Little League organization. His growing passion and knowledge of the game through these activities only strengthened his dedication to his card collection. In 7th grade, Ryan started a part time job mowing lawns in his neighborhood to fund expanding his collection. He was now able to dedicate $20-30 per week towards seeking out key cards to add. This allowed Ryan to really start zeroing in on collecting entire baseball teams and players sets.
Some major milestones Ryan achieved in building up his collection included completing fullbaseball card sets like Topps Flagship collections from the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. He also put a strong focus on obtaining rookie cards and relic autograph cards featuring some of the biggest stars currently in the major leagues. Notable hits during this time span included a signed Mike Trout rookie card, game worn jersey cards of Clayton Kershaw and Buster Posey, and a 1st Bowman Chrome card of super prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Always seeking to broaden the eras represented, Ryan also started acquiring vintage 1960s Topps cards showing legends like Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, and Roberto Clemente in their early careers.
By his first year of high school, Ryan’s dedication and savviness had grown his collection to over 150 baseball cards, covering players from the deadball era all the way up to current superstars. He was now seeing noticeable increases in the value of some of his higher end cards as well. To better organize and protect his prized possessions, Ryan enlisted the help of his grandfather to build a custom baseball card binder and display case for the mantle. This allowed him to showcase hits, sets, and players in an attractive organized format for all to see. Ryan also kept very thorough records in a spreadsheet of each card, its description, year, value and where it fit into sets to easily track his progress.
Now entering his sophomore year of high school at age 15, Ryan’s baseball card collection stands proudly at 220 total cards and growing. He continues dedicating several hours each week researching the market, monitoring auction sites, and attending regional card shows looking to expand representation of his favorite teams and eras. With nearly five years deeply invested in building this collection through both monetary resources and personal passion, Ryan has amassed a memorable and historically significant assortment of the game’s greatest players. He hopes to one day pass this collection down to his own children and share his love of the game and its history through these cardboard pieces of art. Ryan’s baseball card collection serves as a true testament to one fan’s dedication to preserving and celebrating America’s pastime.
