Friday, December 12, 2008

Play Ball Collecting Baseball Cards

There are a plethora of hobbies that people engage in. In fact, if you have an interest in something that interest is many times considered your hobby. Hobbies are a great past time and, in fact, many hobbies can turn into a source of income for the particular hobbyists.





One of the grand daddies of all hobbies is collecting baseball cards and baseball card sets. The sets of baseball cards published will, of course vary from year to year. For the base ball card collector each card represents a potential treasure. You never know what young player will turn into the next Mickey Mantle or Honus Wagner. For this reason alone baseball card collecting has become a passion for many.





The elusive rare baseball card is the treasure. And that's what drives a card's market value. When cards originate or are put into production there are only so many of a particular card or card set that will originally be produced. Then when subsequent to the production and years down the road when a player or team becomes an icon of the game these original productions become valuable.





These baseball card sets are available in shops that sell many different sports cards. These cards will have different prices and values placed on them. To find the value of these many different card sets there are guides that can help you. You will find these guides in book shops and baseball card shops.





With the card guide you'll find all kinds of information on cards and baseball card sets that you are researching. Don't worry too much about overlap and duplication with your collections. Anyone who has collected and traded baseball cards will have some duplication. Use the duplication to your advantage as you can barter and trade cards with other collectors instead of actually exchanging funds.





This is why it is important for you to become involved in the trading community and to find and subscribe to some baseball card publications. And besides, trading and negotiating trades and getting to know some of the other traders in a big part of the fun and passion. Remember, on person's duplication might just be the card you need to complete your set.





There are other avenues which will provide you with the opportunity of buying great baseball card sets. These are shops which sell many different baseball cards. You can also try the Topps Baseball Card Company. Here you will find a wide choice of cards that will please any fan of baseball.





Baseball card sets from Topps can include team sets, various gift sets, hobby sets and much more. Topps is a high quality type of baseball card that is well respected amongst the marketplace. Each player or team's card will have the statistical information on the card itself so the baseball lover will also be able to check out the player or the team's records and information.





For many, baseball card collecting is just something they picked up as a child and have carried with them for a lifetime. For those who know someone hooked on collecting cards and sets, a gift of a set of baseball cards is the perfect choice. One can never have too many cards... besides you can always make a trade.


For more information on baseball cards, visit baseballcards.onwebnet.com where you'll find information on cards such as the Babe Ruth Rookie Card, baseball card sets, & more.

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Sports Memorabilia Covers A Wide Area

Most people associate sports memorabilia with sports such as baseball and football. However, there are many other areas of sports that provide an avenue for collectibles. Nascar racing, for instance, is a sport with thousands of fans to say the least. Fans from all over the world enjoy the thrill of the race and the items associated with it. Then there are sports like wrestling, fishing, motorcycling, biking, Olympic sports, hockey, tennis, boxing, baseball, and many more.





People fight for and fight over things an important sports figure may have signed, touched, used, thrown into a crowd, sold, or donated. There have been greedy and ruthless adults who have such an obsession they would beat a child out of their moment of glory by trying to shove them out of the way when something would be thrown into a crowd.





Children can be avid collectors of sports memorabilia. What might begin as a gift from a loved one, a chance to actually meet a player in person at a game, or a child seeing how much a parent idolized a famous sports figure could start a lifelong adventure into collecting. Sometimes a collection is a shared passion between parent and child, a bonding point that they both cherish.





For those new to the indulgement of collecting sports memorabilia, there is a book called 'Sports Memorabilia for Dummies' which might be a big help. Pete Williams and Gary Carter are the authors. There is probably even someone who collects the series of books written for so-called 'dummies', which was meant to put a comical spin on things for someone who needed a more down-to-earth explanation of how something works.





The largest private collection known of baseball artifacts was one held by New York Yankees fan Barry Halper. He was a minority owner of the Yankees. He began to sell off his collection in the late 1990's. One of the more valuable items in his collection was a glove used by Lou Gehrig in his last game which brought $387,500! Another item owned by Halper was a glove used in 1960 by Mickey Mantle, which brought $239,000.





A collection of sports memorabilia often overlooked by the majority of fans is that of postage stamps. These delight stamp collectors and sports fans alike. A friend of my husband once had a girlfriend who collected stamps. I naively offered to help, knowing nothing of stamp collecting. I began pulling stamps off envelopes to mail to her. She wrote back upon receipt, thanking me but advising that the stamps be cut out of the envelope was I to continue to 'help'. I'd sent useless items by ruining their condition. Even though the stamps were used, there was still a certain guideline to keeping them valuable.





Just the amount of sports memorabilia sold during the Olympics alone is phenomenal. People who attend these events buy for themselves as well as for loved ones who were unable to attend. Of course, the towns or cities where the events are held make their own fortune off their local souvenirs, so joy of financial gain is spread into yet another area.


Dave is both Author and Webmaster at ArticleWealth.com - Article Directory. To find out more about Sports Memorabilia, and Sporting Memories, please visit Sports Memorabilia
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