A new week means a new post for Collector of the Week here at The Art of Fatherhood. As a fellow geek and collector of all things Pop Culture I wanted to showcase some cool collections that dads share in our community. We talk about the latest movies, cards, comic books and video games that we are enjoying at the moment.
This Week’s Collector – Sharing The Love Of Collecting Cards With His Sons
This week’s collection comes from Ryan Darcy. Ryan is a dad of three and shares his passion of sports cards with his sons. When Ryan was a kid he loved collecting baseball cards. Fast forward to the present Ryan and his sons love hockey. Now they are collecting cards together Here is what Ryan wrote about the collection.
When I was a kid, I was an avid baseball card collector, more specifically, Frank Thomas (I was a pitcher, so not sure how this came to be). Fast-forward 25 years. I’ve now got three boys – 10, 7, and 5 – who are all avid card collectors, but it’s hockey, not baseball. I think this whole idea spawned at the beginning of the pandemic, but at the time, prices for cards were through the roof thanks to flippers buying up all the cards at places like Target and Walmart at retail prices and selling for twice the markup – not exactly the easiest way to get back into the hobby, especially with three kids.
More On The Collection
Prices have subsided a bit, the hobby is huge on Twitter, and thanks to some awesome people I’ve “met” along the way, trades are readily available. Turns out, people collect who they collect and are always willing to part with who they don’t. My 10yo is a huge Capitals fan so naturally he collects them – especially John Carlson. The middle guy is 7yo and is a big Islanders and Yankees/Aaron Judge fan, so he collects those, while the youngest, 5yo, is a Calgary Flames fan. Johnny Gaudreau is his guy and he has quite a few Johnny Hockey cards! The vast majority of our cards are from Upper Deck, who always puts out a great product that at all different price points, from lower end (MVP, O-Pee-Chee) to the flagship (Series 1 and 2) to shiny sets that really catch the eye (Allure, O-Pee-Chee Platinum).
Here’s part of the collection we’ve built over the course of the past year or two. There are binders, boxes, top loaders, they’re stored all sports or ways all over the house. Some of the cards were acquired via trade, some purchased by me. Some were given as Christmas gifts, and some purchased by them with their own money. If you’ve got more than one kid, you know that they typically don’t agree on a lot of things, but card collecting, this is something we can all agree on.
Make sure you follow Ryan on Twitter at @ryandarcy22 and check out their podcast called, The Backhand podcast.
Whatcha Got?
It can be comic books, bottle caps, records, helmets or whatever you are into! I want to see what your passion is and why you started up that collection. For me, I believe that in each collection lies a better story. I want to share your story! Feel free to reach out to me and share your collection. If you enjoyed this post you may want to check out an article in this series for Collector of the Week where I showcase a very cool comic book collection story.
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