Why Do You Collect What You Collect?

I bought a baseball card display case.

Then I spent some time pondering why I collect these pieces of cardboard. I’m a practical-minded person. I believe that anything I have sitting in my home should have some use, or else I should get rid of it. Baseball cards are no exception.

Much like fine china or paintings, the practical use of baseball cards is for display. They are, after all, sports memorabilia. With this in mind, I’ve decided that this is what I collect:

• Certified autographs of really good players.
• For any player I don’t have an autograph for, a single Topps flagship base card for the player in his prime.
• Certified autograph cards of top prospects who I think will be really good some day.

That’s it. These are the only baseball cards that matter to me. They will all fit in one big binder, one page for each year since Topps started making baseball cards in 1952. I want to get rid of everything else.

I hope to be collecting for a long, long time, so it will have to be sustainable. Storing thousands of baseball cards in my office is not viable in the long run. Spending hundreds of dollars a year on cards that don’t enhance my life is not sustainable or desirable.

Why do you collect what you collect?

Is it sustainable for a lifetime?

Does your collection enhance your life?

These are questions to ask about anything you collect. If you don’t have a good answer for any one of these questions, then you’re not collecting, you’re hoarding.