BY MARK A. LARSON
Are we nuts?
Have you ever met someone who wasn’t into collecting something? When you tell them about your hobby, they just don’t seem to get it. Either their eyes glaze over or they scratch their heads trying to figure out the appeal of collecting.
They wonder what you do once you bring home those baseball cards or coins or antiques or Beanie Babies or whatever it is you’re after. In short, they think maybe you’re a little bit on the weird side.
They don’t understand the having is really only part of it. The pursuing – and eventually the finding – is often more fulfilling than the actual accumulation of items. It’s that something that all collectors share, an almost insatiable need to seek, look for and search out. In other words, “the hunt.”
Yet, no doubt there is also the unique satisfaction of “the find.” When a collector finally locates a long sought-after item, the exhilaration can put one on cloud nine. At its extreme, it can be an obsession. In its milder form, just plain fun.
Even among collectors there is sometimes a certain amount of snobbery. When Beanie Babies hit big last spring, I found myself wondering why anyone would collect those things. But then, isn’t that what people were saying about my hobby of sport card collecting – especially before the mid-1980s?
I remember once being asked if I was entering my second childhood because I was collecting a kiddie thing like baseball cards. So I realize that even though Beanie Babies weren’t my thing, I shouldn’t scoff at them. I had been there before myself. I remembered furiously running from store to store in 1981 buying packs of Fleer baseball cards in search of errors and variations. And who can forget the height of the rookie card craze?
1981 Fleer — Box, Card and Pack
Over the past couple of years, I’ve been pursuing a separate hobby while visiting flea markets and antique shops – collecting books and pamphlets published by The Boy Scouts of America. My wife joins me on these safaris, as she collects a variety of children’s books. One thing we’ve both learned is that people collect anything and everything.
The old saying, “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure,” has more truth to it today than ever. There really is no such thing as junk. There really is no such thing as non-collectible.
As much as I might be surprised or perplexed by what other people collect, I know one thing for sure. All collectors share a unique perspective that many non-collectors just can’t relate to. However, most of us don’t care much about what others might think because we understand each other. We might not be able to explain it, but all of us know what the collecting mentality is all about.
Most of us aren’t nuts. We just venture off into our own little collecting worlds from time to time and are enlightened enough to know there is no known vaccine – and definitely no cure – for the collecting bug. That’s okay. It’s one kind of ailment I’m glad I’ve got !
• Originally Published in Jan. 1998 “Twin Times” •
THIS ARTICLE FROM THE “TWIN TIMES” NEWSLETTER – OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE TWIN CITIES SPORTS COLLECTORS CLUB – IS REPRINTED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR. IT HAS BEEN RETYPED, BUT NO CONTENT HAS BEEN CHANGED (EXCEPT FOR VERY MINOR ADJUSTMENTS, CORRECTIONS TO ANY TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND THE ADDITION OF GRAPHICS). COMMENTS OR INFORMATION IN THE ARTICLE MAY BE OUT-OF-DATE.
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