Are baseball cards a sanctuary for anyone else???

(long read and written at 3 am, and in some pain---please forgive typos and even errors)

I write this as a thank you to the hobby and my wife.

I have been selling cards on ebay for close to 17 years amd before that it was the aol message boards. When my daughter
was born, my wife asked me to quit with cards and put my time into her, so I did. I had very little to do with ebay for quite a
few years.

About 3 years ago, I got hit with something I had never faced. A person, who had never broken a bone, never been sick in any
major way, was losing weight like crazy and couldn't eat without being in pain. I ended up losing 90 lbs in around 7 months.
Many trips to the doctors and they still couldnt confirm what was wrong. The worst part, was the way I was handling it. I was so
stressed, I was killing myself. They tried me on a few meds for stress, but my brain hates them and they made me worse. I sat there
one day, totally assuming I'd leave my wife and kids and go die in a psych ward. After swithcing around from doctor to doctor, I finally
found one who got me to a counselor who has changed my life. The counseling is great and we have trained my brain to look at
problems, logically, instead of emotionally, which is huge, But she also suggested I find a hobby, to keep my mind busy.

I knew the hobby, right away, and my daughter was 7 or 8 at the time. I prayed about it and went home to talk to my wife. She thought
about it and said yes, didn't even think twice. I think I lost money that year for the first time, but it didn't matter, the hobby was saving my life,
by keeping me busy, reading stats, reading the boards and keeping up with players and prices. I went from thinking about dying and writing letters
(in my head) to my kids, for them to read later in life, to thinking about shipping stuff off.

That brings us today. I am currently working with doctors at ucla and I hope they are able to some day figure this out. It seems to be an immune system
issue with my stomach, along with some possible nerve damage. Causes continual pain and I cant eat about 90% of what I used too. I have had nothing
to drink, but water, in 3-4 years. But, you know what, the man that was scared a few years ago, has finally gotten to the point, where it don't matter.
I do the best I can. I play with my kids, work, and buy/sell some cards, and do some breaks with allincards.

Over the last couple months, things got even tougher around here, my 12 year old daughter, was found to have a very enlarged lymph node on her neck.
We have been working with childrens hosp for a few months and thank God, everything has come back clean and no cancer. Doctors seem stumped, and we
are doing a final surgery in mid january. Biopsy on the node, tonsils/adenoids out, needle aspiration on local nodes and a few other things. Once we get
through this, it will be so much weight of my shoulders and I can go back to working on me. If you pray, please pray for clean results or health.

All through both of these situations, I have been lsiting and selling cards on ebay. Some times I list all day, it's been a real life changer.
right now the selling makes sense, because I'm selling stuff I have had around or rookie lots, and it's helping me pay for all the med bills.

So, thank you to the hobby for helping me get a grip on things and keep me around a little longer for my family.



I figured this would be a good story for the Christmas season.

Anyone else go through something similar?

Greg

"Never give up " quote Jimmy V
PM me your Ebay name I'll check you out

All I can say is that I wish you and your family the best throughout life. There are up and downs, but we all fight and strive to live. Just glad you are still on board and still enjoying this hobby...

Actually it was my mom who encouraged me to "play" baseball cards when I was like 12 years old. She told me that she thought collecting / selling baseball cards is good for my "math" skills. And she's right - right now I am in the Purchasing department of a wholesale company, and I am enjoying my job so far. I see myself both a collector and an investor - I collect Cal Ripken Jr (I know everyone pretty much knows that), and did well on prospecting in the past couple of years. This hobby balances me - kinda arkward to say that; I meant I have a stressful job (even though I love it) while this hobby gives me a way to release my stress. I also release stress by working out, playing sports and walking Cammie my pup in trails / parks. Yet I know I have a supporting group here in FCB where I can talk and show off cards with.

Anyways, I wish you and FCB a warm Merry Christmas and a wonderful Happy New Year, everyone especially Andrew, Lisa, Skrip, Scott aka Sbib, and those I forgot to mention... Time for my Starbucks coffee!

Yes I do well to be honest going threw divorce and losing both of my grandparents with in three years has took a mighty toll on me. Looking and my cards and finding new one has helped. My grandfather got me into collecting at 8years old he would take me to show or fund my collecting as a kid. I remeber on show like it was yesterday we met bobby murcer and got his autograph on a baseball it was awsome and I remember it was $50 dollars and my grandpa saying "I not paying $50 dollars for some ones scribble" then he reached in his wallet and said here son. I inherited there house after my grandmother passing in july and my brother is living in my house and as I was packing some of my collection I came across that baseball and I fell to
My knees and cried for a longtime about the memories of both of them. So during this Christmas if your grandparents are living give them a hung for me as I wish I could just one more time!!

Chris Wright

Best to you and your family this Christmas, Greg!

Jon

I hope everything with your health improves. I have Crohn's disease, have they ruled that out? I was extremely I'll for 5 years (my college years , yeah buddy) and know it was a very tough time. Lost 57 lbs in months like you, multiple surgeries etc. But I can tell you that things have turned around and there is a light at the end of the tunnel for you in sure.

I know I was able to escape at times with the hobby, and glad you can get your mind off things as well. It's always important to have an outlet. My wife and daughters think I'm nuts at times, but it's about balance.

Good luck to you and I hope they can figure out something to help you out.

Ryan

Thanks everyone for sharing -- it's good to hear real stories like this -- it helps explain why we spend so much time and effort on this hobby when it can seem so silly sometimes.

It does seem like this hobby involved a lot of people that deal with real sickness and pain -- and strangely enough, that's one of the things that I like about it. There is a community aspect to it that is great and important and I like the idea that cards are meaningful or therapeutic, beyond being just material objects.

I will pray for everyone's health and their family's health.

I'm sure at first glance some people might see your situation and say, "How can you waste so much time and money on cards when you have so much else to worry about?" I think a lot of people don't realize the therapeutic value of a hobby, whether it's collecting cards or whatever.

Thank you to the guys who've shared such personal stuff here. I wish you all the best in the new year and hope things turn out OK with regards to your health issues.

Myself, the only somewhat similiar personal experience I have is when my mom died suddenly in a car accident back in April 2012. I got a call from my sister while I was at work that mom had been in an accident, and I had to drop everything and fly out east to make the final arrangements with my sister. My wife and three kids (my youngest was only six weeks old at the time) couldn't make the trip with me so throughout the entire ordeal I felt incredibly alone. Even though I was with my sister, not having my wife and kids with me was hard. Through it all I still logged onto FCB when I could to read the forums and escape for a little while, and it was immensely helpful.

- Rodrick

I had written 8 paragraphs and got a message --Internet explorer has stopped working and needs to close! BS BS Flock!
To make a long Story short, what I went through 13 years ago from Great job and family stress. I now have IBS and it is here to stay. Thank God for my wife! She gave me card blanche to start collecting cards again. Her and card collecting have saved me from crawling in some deep hole and dying.

Funny how a person's mind can cause so much to a person's body.

Here's hoping you get better from whatever ails you.

To me, collecting has a definate psychological value but I'm not sure it's net-positive. I like to think it is. Golf and Collecting are two things I use to get away from life for a while and are very similar in some regards to me. I'm obsessed with both but each drives me up the wall some of the time.

I wish nothing but the best for you and your family, glad to see your a fighter as not a quitter, my hats off to you sir!

I will respond later to all, when better equipped(cell phone) and have some time.

But thank you to all for the kind words and hope.

And to anyone else wanting to add to this, let us hear about it. It brings healing.

Hope u all have a great Christmas and holiday. I'm building my daughters new loft bed. Man i would have wanted one of these as a kid. Maybe I'll add a pic when i can.

Greg touching story bud. I knew you had some sort of medical problems but we never talked about it. Cards are indeed a sort of therapy for me. I feel it has a calming effect on me. I grew up being very angry and for a time very violent. First and foremost my wife saved me for alot of things but cards def had a good effect on me. I love this hobby and and thankful for the friends I now have because of it.

Jc. You have always been one of the good ones. Thanks for your addition to the thread.

Just got done with daughters room. Time to go sit and stretch out, maybe even jump in the spa.

Yes, it has been, and I didn't realize how much until it was gone. I've dealt with depression and body dysmorphic disorder since senior year of high school. Years after it had taken quite a toll, and I had little in the form of a social life, or much social support, and I had gained about 40 lbs from my meds, developed severe dermatitis out of nowhere, and had some other physical issues as well. Around the same time, I lost my original ebay and PayPal accounts due to issues with a Taiwanese buyer trying to screw me, and me not having enough funds in my account at the time. If everything else wasn't bad enough, now I didn't have that thing to keep my mind occupied, and keep me going out of the house to the card shop and post office. Eventually I started going to the gym daily, but by that time it was the only thing holding me up, and once I stopped going, I fell into the deepest hole I'd ever been in while dealing with my issues. For about 7 months, I left the house less than 5 times, I stopped taking care of myself, went weeks, maybe even a month+ without showering. I had given up, I felt hopeless, and was waiting for a miracle or death, because I couldn't find good enough reason to do anything for myself, or to believe I could do anything to really change it. Once I started slowly crawling out of that hole, one of the first things I did was to open up new ebay and PayPal accounts with some help from my friend Ed. I started with less than $200 in my account, and have done quite a bit with that since. It once again gave me something to keep my mind and time occupied, to keep me going out of the house, and to give me something I could be proud of, that I did well and accomplished something in. You need to believe you can affect change, and accomplish things, and it can start out small. Getting collecting/buying/selling back in my life was a huge step to getting to where I am now, which isn't where I want to end up, but it's a long way from where I've been.

Keep ya head up BK you'll get there. for what its worth you have always been a class act on this site

everyone keep your head up and we are all here for you. This place is such an amazing community, I have made a ton of great friends from this place