My renewed interest in collecting and trading sports cards began when I woke up one morning with the thought that I must go look through my old cards. I messaged my mom asking if she could put them on the porch where I could grab them. She immediately called me saying, “I looked at the cards when I was going down the stairs this morning, but actually really looked at them, and remembered how much you enjoyed collecting them.”
As she said this, I looked down at my feet and saw a small sticker pineapple. This pineapple was given to me at my grandpa’s funeral for being a pallbearer. I had placed this pineapple on the back of my phone as a symbol of my grandpa. Through my work with construction and factory work, the pineapple fell off. I had not seen that pineapple for more than 6 months before it fell at my feet that morning!
I ended up getting the cards that day and began going through them. It was quite an experience handling the cards I bought when I was 9 years old. It was something my grandpa and I had done together. He showed me how to organize and categorize the cards to complete the set.
I reached out to my grandma, telling her about my experience and how I had nice memories going through the cards. She told me about his collection and invited me to come out and look through them with her. It was nice getting to talk with her and have the opportunity to see how much thought he put into collecting. She let me take the BOXES of cards home so I could go through them.
As I was bringing the cards into the house my neighbors and I crossed paths. I shared my story with them and asked if they knew anyone in the hobby. “My dad has been a collector for 50 years!” one of them said. I asked him to put me in touch with him.
Later that day as I went through the cards (some dating back to 1980!) I thought it was so cool they are almost double my age and that my grandpa was flipping through them that long ago. It was just neat to picture that. I was wondering what he was thinking of at that time as he was going through them.
After making it through one of the 23 boxes I found myself overwhelmed! I knew I wanted to connect with someone in the hobby, so I reached out to some community pages on Facebook. A guy named Ray commented on my post saying he’d be willing to help me. I began messaging with Ray, along with a couple other people, including my neighbor’s dad.
Ray and my neighbor’s dad turned out to be the same guy!!! There are no coincidences. Ray helped me go through the cards, letting me know what’s valuable from each brand and era. He told me he was going to a show the following week and asked me if I wanted to go.
Ray and his son and I went to the Shipshewana Card Fest today. It was a very enjoyable experience. There were so many people and cards!!! I ended up making a trade with a guy for a couple of his cards and I bought quite a few. In November I plan to go with Ray to Chicago to the next show. I am excited to see what comes next….
I’m glad I listened to the signs from the Universe. The Universe is always speaking to us. It has helped me reconnect with my grandpa, with the joy of card collecting, and with the my younger child-self.
