| By :
Mark Etinger
Trading cards used to be a passion of mine. Whether it was those NBA pictures or an indelible baseball image I could not get enough of those collectible cards. We would buy packs and packs until we got all of our favorite players. We would buy even more once we decided getting the whole set was key. Our parents, always patient with our hobbies, would take us to trading card shows and to many other places. They felt, after years of discovering that their trading cards (long since disposed of) would now be worth a pretty penny, that they were making investments in our future. The collectible market they thought was a great nest egg for their children. But something changed in the 80's and then in the 90's in collector's culture. What once might have become a valuable collectible was now collected by everybody. Demand and prices inevitably fell, and we were all left wondering what was the point. Used to be kids collected trading cards to have NBA images, images of their heroes. In a way the collectible culture had washed away much of the fun in having a pocket sized MLB photo in a fog of value speculation. It was not the youthful enjoyment of sports motivating any more it was the monetary pull of big business sports and everyone was going to enjoy a piece of it. Since then I have tried to move my collectible interests in other directions that felt more special and did not have the hyper speculative stamp of a money making scheme attached. I began buying glossies of my favorite athletes. A great baseball image that could simply be framed and hung above my bar had a lot more value to me than a pile of trading cards filed away in an attic. Lately I've gotten into some three-dimensional sports photos that I found on the internet. They combine great baseball and NBA images with eye popping graphics that are really great for around the house, especially in the kid's rooms. I was immediately immersed in the close up action of these shots which give the illusion of moving when you move. These are "collector's items" in a sense of course and I value them very much. But with these there is no distracting monetary prospecting. There is just sports and my sense of being a fan of them. What could possibly be worth more than that?
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