Cards

My new YouTube addiction – watching boxes of baseball trading cards being opened, on the lookout for “autos”, “relics”, “rookie cards” and other hits.  This is wrong on all sorts of levels, but I somehow find it kind of relaxing to watch, and share in the joy when some expensive and rare card is found  – and I like the sense of community.  All this, despite (a) not particularly enjoying baseball (though I might be going to see the Mariners play at some point next month), (b) not knowing who any of the best players are currently (therefore not knowing which cards might actually be worth something in years to come), and (c) not owning any baseball trading cards of my own, apart from those I picked up on a family trip to California in the early 90’s.  And those cards are worthless – I checked - apparently that period of time is notorious for terrible and overproduced sets.  I’m almost tempted to buy some baseball cards of my own – but the only sets I would be interested in retail for ridiculous amounts of money.  And I spend too much as it is on James Bond cards - it’s a shame that they are just too niche.  This is when I think about the Panini and Garbage Pail Kids stickers, plus the many PG Tips cards, I collected as a youth and wonder how much (or how little) they are worth now.  But that’s not the point, there is definitely some kind of nostalgic appeal to me for card collecting going on here.