Hello and Welcome!

Hi there,

My name is Josh. For years I have tried collecting various items. Rubber ducks, signed merchandise, old football programs. But I have always collected cards. Be that Pokémon (as a kid and later as an 18 year old), Yu-Gi-Oh! (at secondary school) and Magic (very shortlived), I have always ploughed pocket/birthday/Xmas money into cards. Granted, as a young child, I didn’t realise their value or the fun of collecting them. (I just wanted a Charizard to show off in the playground!) But with the advent of eBay we all now know how much cards go for, and the thrill of a rare pull is a great feeling

But I digress. Now I’m 23, and I need a new hobby to collect. One I can really stick my teeth into. And I believe I’ve found it.

Baseball Cards.

So here’s how it started. A few years ago I was hospitilised with pneumonia. I have a condition called Congenital Muscular Dystrophy. This is basically a muscle wasting disease that also affects my respiratory. Therefore when I get a cold I have to be very careful it doesn’t go onto my chest. Unfortunately this time it had. So I was in hospital for a few days, and when I came out I bought a load of NFL cards. I didn’t really follow through with it, but it distracted me a bit. While I was searching I found lots of Baseball cards, and thought they looked cool. At this time I had never really followed Baseball and forgot all about it…

A couple of years later I subscribed to ESPN through SKY. This is when I started watching Baseball a bit. I loved all the statistics and jargon, but again just watched the odd game. Now fast forward to last Monday. I was trying to figure out what to do sport-wise over the summer, after the World Cup. So I started reading up on Baseball rules and news. By Tuesday I was hooked, with the sport quenching my American sport lust (I’m a huge NFL fan), my craving for statistical data, and they’re season is during the summer. So I did a quiz to pick a team, and am now a proud St. Louis Cardinals fan.

But what about the cards?

Well, I Googled ‘UK Baseball cards’ and found a blog called The Wax Fantastic. This blog hooked me. Within 5 minutes I knew this would be something to collect alongside becoming a fan of the sport. I have already ordered several boxes from the US and found some cards from UK sellers.

Anyway, now I’ve explained the background, about this blog. This is basically going to be me documenting my Baseball card collecting exploits, whether buying, selling or trading. They’re might be the odd random post but don’t hold that against me! Hopefully you’ll enjoy this odyssey into Baseball card collecting, or just find it curious.

Anyway, I’m off to watch some Breaking Bad or True Detective. I’ll decide when I’m settled. Tomorrow or Monday I will post a list (maybe photos) of my first 8 cards that came today.

(Sorry if I waffled :))

J

PS Please visit The Wax Fantastic, it’s a great blog and really interesting. Without it I might not have started this journey.

PPS Feel free to follow me on Twitter (@josh_hall66), I will follow you back!