Sharing a Piece of My Story-I'm Back

Firstly, I want to say thank you for reading this article, it truly means a lot to me that you, the person reading this, care about my voice. This is my first article back since early November, and I’m happy to be writing for you all once again. As the title says, I’m sharing a bit of my story, and ultimately, I hope it allows you to see a different side of me and build greater connection. 

The time I took off from writing for Hobby News Daily, was because in late November my dad passed away. I won’t get into the specifics, but just know that it wasn’t expected and came as a shock to my family. It’s never really something you can prepare for, and I needed to take time off to navigate my way through grief, and figure out what I wanted to share going forward. While I’m saddened many of you will never get the opportunity to meet the man that is 50% of the person I am today (Have to give my mom some credit as well), I hope that through these stories of our collecting journey together, you get a little piece of him. I want to share these stories with you, because although they are precious to me, I know there are also many fathers out there that share this hobby with their kids, or hope that one day their daughter will follow along. 

Origin Story of Collecting “Together”

While my father and I collected “together”, it was never something forced upon me. Sports cards were something I came about on my own through my love of baseball, and the desire to always get closer to the game. So I started collecting sports cards in 2013, as a completely new concept. My dad collected when he was in middle/high school, and college, but fell out of it. After seeing my love and passion for sports cards, and the way it lit up my eyes talking about it, my dad decided to get back into the hobby too (2016). 

My dad decided to have sports cards be an outlet of time we could spend together, and bond over a similar interest. He took time to learn about all the new types of cards, parallels, patches, autos, etc. and would always have many questions after explaining. Something about my dad that I’ll always appreciate is his desire to always learn about things someone is passionate about. He did that, and then some, when it came to my love of sports cards.

Always Encouraging Collecting 

I have memories from an early age of collecting different trinkets, and it all goes back to my dad. When I was young, my dad would go on business trips and be gone for what seemed to be a long time to a little girl. He did create something to look forward to though, as every time he came home, he’d have a gift for me and my sister. It started out as stuffed animals, and eventually developed into one of my favorite collections I still keep up with.

On a business trip back from Montana, my dad brought me back a snowglobe that said “Montana” along the trim, and had a big black bear under the dome. I don’t know what sparked my little kid brain then, but I then asked, “Every new state you go to, can you bring me home a snow globe?” The tradition continued, and ended up being carried on by me when I went on my travels, adding to my collection. So without even knowing it, my dad started the little collector brain in me all those years ago.

Some Card Show Memories

My dad attended my first National card show (NSCC) with me in 2021. This trip was awarded to me after winning a contest held by Jimmy Mahan (kentuckybasketballcards) and Tyler Santiago (santiagosports). For the contest you had to submit a video answering a couple questions, with one of them being, “Who would you take to the NSCC with you if you won this contest?” In my video I said this, “I would want to take my dad to the National. Surprisingly, I got into this hobby by myself, but he collected when he was younger. He did support me in the beginning, he would occasionally buy me packs. As a kid we were short on money, and as a kid you don’t really pay attention to that. Being older now and knowing that, I’m even more grateful for the opportunities he gave me. And the reason he got back into the hobby was because of me. He saw the love I felt from this hobby, and how excited I was through my instagram platform, and at card shows. So I would love to share this experience with him. For him to just see the community, and potentially meet people I have known for a long time through instagram, would be amazing.” That experience was just that! My dad got to meet so many people who were/are so important to me and my collecting journey, and that is something I am forever grateful for. That trip was continuously talked about, and he was always checking in on the handful of people he met on that trip asking how they were doing. The coolest outcome from that trip was seeing my dad be immersed in the hobby and truly understand why it means so much to me.

He also took me to my first Chantilly card show. This was shortly after we moved to the Northern Virginia area in 2016. He picked me up after school on a Friday, handed me $10 to add to the money I had been saving, and we roamed around the show for hours together. For many years continuing, we attended that show together, and many cards I still hold dear in my collection.

Lastly, two of my favorite things that he did were the “lists” and “Get two”. The lists started out by him wanting to know which players/cards I thought were good buys at the time, and he wanted to look for them throughout the show and “go on a little treasure hunt.” He wound up with a lot of great cards for his collection through the lists I used to make him. While he still liked to pick my brain, the last couple shows we attended together, he made his own lists and had me advise his picks. The “get two” was a little agreement my dad and I had. One of my dad’s favorite things about me was my sports brain. I could often see potential in a player/card, months/years in advance to the average collector, mostly always being ahead of the curve. So to encourage me to keep diving in, my dad came up with a little method he marked, “If you find two, buy two.” Meaning when I felt really strongly about one card or player, I’d let my dad know why or what I saw, and if I could find two of that card, he’d buy two, one for him and one for my collection. This didn’t happen very many times, but it became a great topic of conversation between me and my dad. Again he always encouraged collecting.

Leaving You With This 

So while you won’t ever get to meet the man I so luckily got to call my dad, I think there’s some important messages in this, to take away and learn from. Always encourage those around you in whatever they are passionate about and take time to learn about their passion and why it brings them joy. 

Lastly, I want to encourage you all, to reach out to the people you care about. Phone a friend or a family member you haven’t talked to in a while. And for the fathers out there, please give your kids a big ole squeeze for me! You never truly know what anyone is going through, so treat everyone with kindness.