Getting back in.......

Hello there, 

     I have been collecting cards since 1975......I was just a small child at the time, but the weird thing is, I remember buying packs at the store 3 houses down from my house.  My grandmother giving me some change (like 75 cents) and I'd go and buy a 10 cent bottle of coke and maybe a bag of chips or some penny candy or even a candy bar.......whatever was left, I'd buy baseball cards with that extra coin ;)

     The weird thing is......when I brought those cards back to my grandma's house, I remember the very first time I bought cards.........I think it was 4 packs of 1975 Topps, and my grandfather was mowing the lawn.  He came close to me and shut off the lawnmower and asked what I had there (in my hands).  I told him baseball cards in between sips of my coke......

     I will never forget him saying, collecting cards is for losers, playing baseball is what real boys do !!!  LOL.......still to this day I will never forget, as he pushed the lawnmower back down the hill towards the back of the property past the white birdbath he installed (that me and my friends would eventually wreck as it toppled over at a certain play at the plate) that we used as home plate for our whiffle ball games. :D  Well, as he mowed moving away from me, I remember thinking, these baseball cards will be worth something some day !!!  Too bad I didn't realize that you needed to keep them in good condition.  Good thing I didn't flip my cards, but I did tie yarn or use rubber bands and keep them in shoe boxes until my 7th grade HOBBY CLUB / Science teacher taught us to use EMPTY CHEESE BOXES :D  They were perfect !!!

     I never liked trading or selling my cards, it was hard for me to do such a thing.  Until they start over producing / mass producing the junk wax when I became a teenager.  One of my friends start buying 87 Donruss in rack packs and start selling them, not only making money, but getting the equivalent of free cards from doing so.......

     I was hooked !!!  My first case I bought was......1988 Donruss......bought a case for $100, and then start selling the boxes to the local kids for $10 a box.....  I then moved onto 1988 Fleer, bought a case of sets.......bought 1988 score, 1989 Donruss wax case.....then start buying off Kruk Cards and through advertisements in TUFF STUFF & BECKETT or even Baseball Card Investors Weekly.  I start buying cases of 1987 Topps, 1986 Donruss.......cases of 1986, 87, 88, topps traded cases with 100 sets per case and it was HEAVEN :D

     By the time I got into Upper Deck.....I start buying all these different brands with different inserts....with different crazy insert sets.......It became overwhelming.  So I start buying tables at card shows.  I start actually making some good cash doing so :)   So..... I started up my own baseball card store in 1991 and start RUNNING MY OWN CARD SHOWS........I had a hotel franchise with hotels in 4 neighboring cities.  Something that started out at 1 show every couple months turned into once a month turned into.......once a week (4 per month) each taking turns in another city :D  I was in baseball card heaven.

     Then in 1994, by the persistence of my father, he persuaded me to go back to college......I studied 4 years to become a civil engineer......but.....he forced me to do this........and when I discovered that C.E.'s made minimum wage for the 1st 5 years of work and were not allowed to become certified surveyors until 5 years minimum of working.........I changed my major back to Math Education and transferred to a college 81 miles from home and took less than 2 years to graduate.

     I remember selling a lot of Ken Griffey Jr. cards to kids at college.....but, I was there to study..... I didn't really mess with cards or even go to shows......... Being 81 miles from home, I stopped running card shows........and I partnered up with a poker playing / friend from my youth..... so he could run my card shop while I was at college.  He wound up trying to gain my shop through deceit with my landlord and failed miserably....when I came back I gave him another 6 months to try to be partners, but missing / stolen merchandise (especially his girlfriend stealing) really upset me and I changed the locks on him.  When he questioned me about it, I just simply said, I tried to help you and you tried to help yourself, the landlord were deep friends of our family and lived next door to my grandmother's house.  When the GREAT DEPRESSION hit America......they were the people in town who owned a store.  When people didn't have money to pay for groceries......they let you buy / take food on credit.  They called it a TIC or a TICK, I do not know......it was over 40 years before I was born.  Well, put it this way.........  My family (my grandfather) was the only person in the whole town to fully pay off his TICK / debt with these people.  Everyone else screwed them a little bit or a lot of bit ;)   Soooooo, my partner's attempts to get these people to believe I wasn't paying rent (we used to split it 50 / 50), but he would pocket my half and give them half the rent....He ran up a $300 phone bill & kept stealing things.  So, I didn't even fight with him, I just changed the locks and when he tried to confront me at the poker table one night going on and on how I screwed him over.  I simply said, I tried giving you a chance and you stole from me.  The other guys at the table were on his side at first b/c I got their after he had already lied to them about how unjust I was to lock him out of MY STORE / not his......   After telling them about how he stole all that stuff......I let them know about the $300 plus phone bill (which pissed off the guys playing poker) & then I put the final nail in the coffin........how he tried to make my landlord pissed off at me by lying to them and trying to set me up.  After this embarrassing information was revealed, he made up an excuse he had to go pick up his girlfriend.  Then I told the guys in detail what he stole from me (which I could live with), but I couldn't live with him lying about me to my landlord trying to stab me in the back.  I actually had 4 parthers........weirdly enough.......they were all named MIKE.  LOL   Comix Mike, Coin Mike, Sportscard Mike, and the first guy / Thief Mike aka backstabber Mike.  I forgave him eventually, but I still can't think about him without scratching my head.  He was unemployed, and I tried to help him out during a downtrodden point in his life.  I should have known better though, I also got him a job where I was delivering pizza a year before I went off to college and he did a similar thing trying to become an assistant manager.........I was like........more power to ya.......I'm going to college to earn real money --- I'm not interested in becoming an assistant manager of Little Caesar's Pizza ;)   Too funny.

     Well.......after college and doing the job thing......it took until maybe 2012, 2013, 2014 to start really getting back into cards again.  I discovered Ebay while in college and sold a lot of stuff I bought for my store for hundreds of dollars online.  Stuff I paid $5 for, was now getting bid up in bidding wars and being fought over for $120 or $118 and change........was CRAZY :D

     So, after using my store as a storage facility for years.......I found baseball card clubs / groups on Facebook and start getting back into cards heavy again.  I eventually started my own group which turned into 4 or 5 groups........... I had over 3600 people in one group and over 2000 people in my hockey card group.  I start doing auctions / card breaks and I loved it........until people start screwing me out of payment and it got to be a hassle while not even being paid for my hard work.  A lot of cheap skate scums trying to get stuff for free.  So I stopped cold after 3.5 to 4 years of doing it, having 1000s of subscribers and 100s of BREAKS under my belt.......hell I even used to do videos for free for other breakers when they needed a neutral video maker.  But people got mad at me for doing it for free, so I eventually even gave that up.  I mean, how do you demand a tip for making videos.....what if you suck at making videos......I thought that was pretty stupid.  You want to charge a TIP FEE fine, don't get mad at me for gaining video experience and not charging for it.   Makes me laugh.......lol

     Now I found YouTube videos of people cranking out video after video daily........and I was thinking of getting back into it.........I was wondering if anyone is out there and reads this.......tell me what you think, should I give it another go ???  I loved dealing with the people, I just really hated dealing with the scam artists and the users / non payers who preyed upon my kindness and generosity of monthly free breaks......

     I just love baseball cards, always have, and always will........BTW I've amassed over 3 million cards now........I have bought the house / apartment building my shop was in / is now storage.......and have plenty of room to do this.........I just want to know if people want me to start back up..........I know a lot of people that joined my Facebook clubs would say yes, but I was wondering from people who do not know me and read this BLOG........what do you think.......should I (as the title says) GET BACK IN ???

Thanks,

          John