Why collect who you collect

I'm always curious of why people collect certain players. Did u meet them? A boyhood idol? Just love the way they play? So I ask why do u collect a certain player or players? Mine are as follows:

Jeter: everyone loves Derek Jeter

Brandon Wood: met him when he was coming up and even though he was a big name he was very nice and humble.

Clemens: best pitcher of my generation

Bonds: best player I've ever seen. Watched him a lot once he joined the Giants

I've stopped player collecting but those 4 had a big influence on my love of baseball.

I don't love Derek Jeter

David Wright......

Don't have many choices with the Mets. Only one "star" and team turns over every year.
Who else can you say has a shot with the Mets for a few years?

Plus he's a nice guy and doesn't get caught up in all the BS.

I don't love Derek Jeter either and I really hate it when people say everyone loves him or should love him.

Anyway, I collect Sandy Alomar Jr. because I collected him as a kid. He was a rookie when I started and I liked catchers.

Jeter doesn't have to be loved by everyone but I think it's fair to say you should respect him. Dude played the game the right way for a long time in the media **** that is NY. That's hard for anyone to do.

I respect Derek Jeter just like I do Kobe or any other great athlete I don't care for.

As a Royals fan, Hosmer, Ventura and Moose are cheap enough and obvious choices. That said, after Butler moved to Oakland and I'm stuck with a bunch of his stuff, I am seriously reconsidering player collecting.

My longstanding player collection started as a kid (Steve Garvey) and it was only because I was introduced to baseball by a friend who moved into my neighborhood from Southern California, and Garvey was his favorite player. Living in the Seattle area, the Mariners were fresh off expansion and were not a good team, so looking elsewhere when I discovered baseball cards was not a stretch. Ruppert Jones, Dan Meyer and Bruce Bochte were early local favorites. Good luck finding anyone with lasting collections built around players like that! In fact, aside from new baseball cards pulled from packs, my love of baseball went directly into the history through library books and such. I knew who current players were from the cards, box scores and an occasional trip to the Kingdome, but you'd more likely find me pretending to be Duke Snider or Jackie Robinson in neighborhood wiffle ball games than Reggie Smith or Dusty Baker (yes, I assumed the Dodgers as a favorite as well).

I have collected other things along the way due to changing interests or if a previously unnoticed player suddenly caught my eye (Al Oliver is a good example for me). I started collecting Frank Thomas in 1993 after getting back into cards following a good 5 year or so break while I was off in the Navy and he was just starting to tear it up. I suppose I jumped onto that bandwagon, but there were other similar players at the time that competed with him for a fan base (Gonzalez, Piazza, Griffey Jr, Maddux, Bonds, etc). The explosion of sets/brands and the increasing financial aspect of new cards ($60-80 for a new box that would yield crap 95% of the time) turned my focus back on older collecting interests in the late 90s and I abandoned Thomas and began searching ebay for vintage Dodger stuff and Garvey items again.

I'm not really collecting any specific players right now. In the past I PC'd:

Melky Cabrera - Yankees Rookie with a cool name.
Xavier Nady - I just liked him.
Shaun Marcum - Has a similar last name to me - pronounced the same, but his spelling is what mine was when my family originally came over in a boat.

I lost interest in these guys for various reasons. I'm not sure who I want to PC at the moment, but have been trying to come up with a collecting goal.

I Respect jeter and the way he played. just like peyton manning or Jordan or kobe.. they are the upper echelon for their given sport it's almost a given. I dislike kobe actually.

I player collected Griffey and later Felix hernandez. Growing up with Griffey playing in my back yard it was a given I watch and emulate one of the most gifted athletes of my generation. with a combination of his retirement and the topps monopoly I've pretty much stopped on that front. with the latter reason being why I stopped collecting felix.
Upon Griffey's retirement I lost interest in watching baseball for a bit but worked back into it. There are some impressive players today but I just can't connect to them now as I did when I was younger.

So, to make a long story somewhat short my focus turned to hof players and autographs. the history and the lore of the names intrigued me

AnthonyCorona said:

Brandon Wood: met him when he was coming up and even though he was a big name he was very nice and humble.

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He was a great kid. At spring training he would always come over and pay with kids and talk to them. It was sad to watch his career go down the drain with the aid of scioscia and hatcher, they helped ruin the kid.

Nate Colbert

...was the Padres first "star" player.

Craig Biggio-Favorite Astros of all time..Good guy...Future HOFer (I hope) Has parts of the late 80s...early 90s...and the 2000s for cards

Derrick Brooks-See above minus the 80s part and he is a HOFer

Stanton, because he's my favorite player on my favorite team. And with his deal, he'll be there at least another few years

All other Marlins...same reason.

2013 WBC Tribute and 2014 Five Star because I really like the designs

Garbage, because, like me, it stinks.

Carlos Baerga was my favorite Indian during my formative years.... I've spent the last 20+ years amassing all but an elusive handful of his cards. He was also the first player I ever met in person to get an autograph when I was in high school....

I had an insane Jim Thome collection at one time (over 2000 different cards, tons of autos and game used, lots of memorabilia), but financial issues and having kids forced me to sell it off. He was my favorite player on those great Indians teams from 1994-2001 and was just a great guy. He was also the first "celebrity" I ever waited on as a pharmacist

I'd love to start a new collection this year, but my first choice got traded (Justin Masterson) and my second has taken a severe career downturn (Jason Kipnis).

AnthonyCorona said:

I'm always curious of why people collect certain players. Did u meet them? A boyhood idol? Just love the way they play? So I ask why do u collect a certain player or players?

I've stopped player collecting but those 4 had a big influence on my love of baseball.

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I collect Brooks Robinson; he was my hero growing up. He was a great player as well as a great guy personally.

Nice quote to get a good idea:

"Brooks (Robinson) nev[SIZE=-1]er asked anyone to name a candy bar after him. In Baltimore, people named their children after him." - Gordon Beard[/SIZE]

I started collecting Gaylord Perry right after Meet the Parents came out ( Ben Stiller = Gaylord Focker). Saw a card of his in the UD 1970s set and I have been picking up his cards ever since.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G730A using Freedom Card Board mobile app

CatdaddysCards said:

, after Butler moved to Oakland and I'm stuck with a bunch of his stuff, I am seriously reconsidering player collecting.

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This is the kind of stuff that's kinda ruined modern card collecting. You are "stuck" with cards you collected, a player that played for your team at the time??? Being "stuck" means that you only collected cards for their value or perceived value not for the pure enjoyment of the game and/or collecting. Butler was an important member of your self professed favorite team for many years. It's a shame you consider the cards of his that you have with being "stuck" with them.

I have many Jimmy Rollins cards and I'm not "stuck" with any of them. I enjoyed them when I got them and will always remember him when he was a phillie.

Lancemountain said:

This is the kind of stuff that's kinda ruined modern card collecting. You are "stuck" with cards you collected, a player that played for your team at the time??? Being "stuck" means that you only collected cards for their value or perceived value not for the pure enjoyment of the game and/or collecting. Butler was an important member of your self professed favorite team for many years. It's a shame you consider the cards of his that you have with being "stuck" with them.

I have many Jimmy Rollins cards and I'm not "stuck" with any of them. I enjoyed them when I got them and will always remember him when he was a phillie.

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I get what you're saying, now will u continue to collect Rollins since he's departed from the Phils? I started collecting Pablo Sandoval and would probably still pick up his stuff in a giants uni but not red Sox