Shanice’s Baseball Card Collection

Shanice has always loved baseball ever since she was a little girl. Growing up, she would watch every Houston Astros game with her dad and cheer them on from the couch. Her favorite player was home run king Jose Altuve. Seeing him hit clutch homers year after year inspired Shanice to start following the sport more closely.

When she turned 8 years old, Shanice asked her parents if she could start collecting baseball trading cards. She had seen other kids at school trading and showing off their collections at recess. It seemed like so much fun to her. Her parents agreed and got her her first pack of cards for her birthday. That initial pack contained 23 different cards, igniting a passion that would last for years.

Shanice organized her new cards carefully in a binder by team so she could easily find players. Some of the notable pulls from that first pack included George Springer of the Astros, Aaron Judge of the Yankees, and Juan Soto of the Nationals. While none were super rare or valuable cards, Shanice thought they were the coolest things ever since they featured her favorite players. She spent hours that week just looking at the photos and stats on the back, dreaming of someday meeting them in person.

From there, Shanice begged her parents to get her more packs of cards any chance she got. For Christmas that year, she received two fat packs which totaled over 50 new cards for her growing collection. Luck was on her side again as one of the packs included a prized autographed card of her idol Jose Altuve. Shanice was over the moon with excitement and carefully placed the autographed card in a special top loader to protect it.

Over the following summers, Shanice’s family would take regular trips to the local card shop. There she would spend afternoons looking through boxes of loose cards, hoping to find players she didn’t already have. With her allowance money, she would buy a couple packs or boxes each visit to further expand her stash. Within a year, 23 cards had blossomed into a collection of over 500 different baseball players spanning many years.

As she got older, Shanice began to trade duplicates with friends and other kids at the card shop. This allowed her roster to grow even more while cutting down on excess copies. Sometimes she would even get lucky with favorable trades, coming out ahead with desirable rare inserts or parallels. By the time she entered middle school, Shanice’s baseball card collection had grown to over 1,000 different trading cards taking up multiple binders.

Along the way, she learned plenty about the business of cards too. Shanice studied release schedules and kept up with the hottest prospect rookies to try and pull. She monitored the fluctuating values of stars like Mike Trout and investments like rare 1/1 relic autographs. Although her initial motivation was simply fun and collecting her favorite players, Shanice started to gain an expertise in the hobby.

Now at age 14, Shanice’s passion is still going strong with over 2,300 total baseball cards in her collection spanning multiple eras. She continues hunting for missing pieces at card shows, online group breaks, and the occasional retail purchase. Her prized 1987 Topps Jose Canseco rookies and rare 1/1 autographs of legends are especially coveted. More than anything though, Shanice enjoys sharing her knowledge of the game and passion for cards with others in the baseball community. Who knows, with some luck her collection may help fund her dream of one day becoming a Major League scout. Either way, the journey started with just 23 cards all those years ago.

From beginning as a casual fan collecting her initial pack of 23 cards, Shanice has grown her baseball card stash into a sizable and impressive overall collection. Along the way, she learned responsibility through caring for the cards, developed a keen eye for the market, and gained expertise through hands-on experience in the hobby. Most importantly, Shanice’s collection represents so many happy memories created with family and friends over the years. While the values and players come and go, the love of the game cultivated through collecting will surely last Shanice a lifetime.