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MIGUEL HAS 334 BASEBALL CARDS AND 278 FOOTBALL CARDS

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Miguel has enjoyed collecting sports cards ever since he was young. At age 10, Miguel has amassed a sizable collection of 334 baseball cards and 278 football cards through trades with friends, purchases at the local card shop, and openings of booster packs. Let’s take a closer look at Miguel’s impressive collections.

For his baseball card collection, Miguel favors players from the late 1990s and early 2000s era. Some of his most prized possessions include a graded mint condition Ken Griffey Jr upper deck card from 1999, a near-mint rookie card of Nomar Garciaparra from 1997 fleer update series, and a 1998 topps tradable token Derek Jeter card that is in excellent condition. While Miguel loves collecting stars from that vintage of baseball, he also makes sure to add rookie and prospect cards to stay on top of the newest talent emerging in the majors. Just last month, Miguel was excited to add rookie cards of MLB rookies of the year Julio Rodriguez and Jeremy Peña to keep up with the next generation of ballplayers.

In total, Miguel’s baseball card collection spans dozens of sets from the late 20th century onwards. Some of the most represented sets in his collection include sports illustrated for kids, donruss, bowman, topps, fleer, upper deck, and score. While Miguel mostly collects base cards, he does have a few special parallel and refractors mixed in, like a rare pink parallel of San Diego Padres superstar Fernando Tatis Jr. from 2020 topps chrome update. Miguel tries to organize his collection thematically, with sections dedicated to rookie cards, Hall of Famers, current stars, and personal favorites regardless of ability. He keeps all his cards stored safely in magnetic holders within neatly organized baseball card binders.

When it comes to his football card collection, Miguel focuses more on current NFL players and stars rather than vintage cards. Given that football has much higher player movement between teams compared to baseball, Miguel finds it more exciting to collect cards featuring today’s top quarterbacks, wide receivers, and defensive players. Naturally, being from Philadelphia, Miguel’s collection heavily features stars from the Eagles, like graded rookies of Devonta Smith and Jalen Hurts. But he also makes sure to seek out rookie cards and hits of the biggest names universally like Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Ja’Marr Chase, and Aaron Donald.

Similarly to his baseball collection, Miguel’s 278 football cards span various modern sets from brands like panini, leaf, topps, and donruss. He’s particularly proud of scoring serial numbered parallels of stars like Cooper Kupp, Justin Jefferson, and Jamar Chase from recent seasons. Miguel has also started to dabble in memorabilia cards mixed in, with a few rookie autographs and patch cards to complement his growing collection. For organization purposes, Miguel separates his football cards by position, with compartments for quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, defensive backs, linebackers, and more.

As Miguel approaches his teenage years, he looks forward to continue growing both of his sports card collections. With allowances and the occasional funds from birthdays or holidays, Miguel plans to focus on adding big stars from the upcoming NFL and MLB rookie classes. He’s also started to take a keener interest in the business side of the hobby, keeping notes on players he expects to rise in value as their careers progress. Overall, Miguel finds collecting cards to be a fun and engaging way to follow his favorite sports while building a meaningful collection. With nearly 600 cards and counting across baseball and football, Miguel’s passion shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

MIGUEL HAS 334 BASEBALL CARDS

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Miguel has had a lifelong passion for baseball. From a young age, he would spend hours every day throwing and catching with his father in their backyard. His favorite player was Derek Jeter and he idolized the New York Yankees shortstop.

When Miguel turned 7, his parents surprised him with a gift to start collecting baseball cards. He was ecstatic and immediately began sorting through the packs of cards to see which players he got. That first pack contained a Miguel Cabrera card, kicking off his collection.

Over the following years, Miguel devoted much of his allowance and money from holidays and birthdays toward buying more packs of cards. He would meticulously sort each new addition based on team, position, and player name. Miguel stored the constantly growing collection in protective plastic sleeves within multiple binders.

By the time he entered middle school, Miguel’s collection had grown significantly. In addition to continuing to buy packs whenever possible, he also began frequenting card shows and shops to find singles of players or sets he was trying to complete. Miguel became very knowledgeable about the values and scarcity of different cards from various eras of baseball history.

One of Miguel’s proudest collections within his full assemblage was his Derek Jeter collection. He had Jeter rookie cards in pristine condition from 1993 Topps, Bowman, and Stadium Club releases. Miguel also possessed rare parallel and autographed versions of Jeter cards that he had meticulously searched for. The centerpiece of this section of his collection was a game-worn Jeter jersey card dual autographed by Jeter and Mariano Rivera, one of only 10 ever produced.

In addition to team and player sets, Miguel also focused on collecting subsets highlighting certain achievements or statistical milestones. He had pristine collections of Topps All-Star cards, Topps Leaders cards honoring batting and ERA title winners, and Topps Milestones cards for historic home run and hit totals. Miguel also treasured his collection of Topps Rookie Cup cards recognizing the top rookies from each season.

Throughout middle and high school, Miguel’s baseball card collection only continued expanding. At its height, it contained over 15 full binders sorted meticulously by team, year, set, and player. Miguel estimated he had assembled a total of 334 unique baseball cards after over a decade of dedicated collecting. The extraordinary collection represented not only Miguel’s passion for the game itself, but also taught him vital lifelong skills like monetary responsibility, research, cataloging, and perseverance.

As Miguel neared graduation and prepared for college, he made the difficult decision to begin carefully liquidating portions of his treasured collection. He sold subsets, duplications, and less valuable singles on online auction sites. With the proceeds, Miguel was able to afford some of his college textbooks and equipment for his dorm without dipping into his savings. He endowed a younger cousin just beginning to collect with some of the more common cards to help grow their interest as well.

Today, Miguel is proudly displaying a curated selection of approximately 100 of his favorite cards in a custom acrylic case. The center remains his prized Jeter jersey dual auto, surrounded by historic rookie cards, record-setting stars, and all-time greats. Though smaller than at its peak, Miguel takes great joy in looking back on over a decade of dedication to his baseball card collection. The skills and memories he gained will stay with him for life, just as his love for the game endures. Miguel hopes to one day pass on his appreciation by starting a collection with his own children.