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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Passing cards from one generation to the next


The first card I gave my son, the day he was born a few weeks ago, is this Derek Jeter 1993 Topps rookie card. I have two of them, although having a dupe didn’t factor into play. I figured that Jeter, while past his prime, is still the biggest star on his dad’s favorite team at the time he was born. In his birth year, Jeter got his 3,000th hit, so there will be a history lesson involved too.

Who knows what he’ll do with the card in a few years, or if he’ll be interested at all. Maybe he’ll treasure it. Maybe he won’t care. Maybe he’ll trade it to his friend for a Pokemon card (shudder). Maybe he’ll save it until college and then sell it so he can buy beer one Friday night. But I wrote a small blurb about Jeter and the card and taped it to the back of the top loader. I hope it’s special to him for this reason alone one day.

I’m not sure when I’ll give him his next card. Maybe when he turns one? Maybe when he takes his first steps or says his first word? I’m not sure what the next card will be. Something vintage or any autograph I think.

To all of you parents out there – do you ever give pieces of your collection to your children? If so, how do you do it? As gifts? As rewards for a job well done? When were they old enough to receive it? Did you have any special methods to how you handed down a card(s)?

I’m interested to hear and hope you take the time to share.

7 comments:

  1. Congratulations on the new addition to the family.

    A few idea's collect people who were born on his birthdate, or involved on events on his birthday.

    Maybe even build a certain set including Sp's every single year & give it him on his 18th or 21'st.

    My friends son is 5 and has ADD he loves soccer cards but isn't mature enough to collect, I believe i was about 7 when i started collecting stickers.

    It caries from child to child, how about on his first ever visit to a major league ballpark?

    Again congratulations on the baby boy, if you email me your address i'll send him a Yankee card.

    martynheap@yahoo.co.uk

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  2. Glad I'm not the only one who started putting cards away before their son was old enough to eat solid foods.

    moe.

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  3. I'm not a dad... but if I were, I'd definitely pass down some cardboard to my kid. Great choice with the Jeter... he'll appreciate the card's significance with time.

    Two years ago... I started a birthday PC for myself... picking up autographs of athletes who share the same birthday. Just an idea.

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  4. My oldest son is 11. I tried from time to time to interest him in collecting, but it didn't take until one day in 2009 when he asked if he could buy a pack of cards with his own money. I said yes and not only did he like them, he asked if he could play Little League baseball too! He's not a fanatical collector, but we do buy some blasters and he gets cards for Christmas. Sometimes I trade directly for cards for him because he likes anything that has to do with the USA team. I'll sometimes reward him with a "hit", such as a relic or auto out of my collection. It's really going to be his collection some day anyway.

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  5. My "boys" are now 24 and 27. We have collected cards together for nearly 20 years.The youngest is a sports editor for a newspaper in Illinois and he just got married, so his collecting is sort of in limbo.The oldest is still here at home and we are going to the Tribe press tour this week end and will probably pick up some cards on the way.We have created a lot of memories over the years !

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  6. Thanks for all of the comments and great ideas!

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  7. That's a pretty fantastic thing you did right there. As for how you proceed, play it by ear. When you see the right card or cards, you'll know.

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