3 Important Lessons I Learned from Collecting Baseball Cards

3 Important Lessons I Learned from Collecting Baseball Cards

MAY 10, 2021

A few weeks ago my dad asked me to list a few baseball cards on eBay. The cards were 2001 rookie cards of Ichiro Suzuki and Albert Pujols. To my surprise, each card sold for several hundred dollars really fast. Listing those cards brought back old memories of collecting baseball cards as a kid. This post goes over three important life lessons I’ve taken into adulthood from my time collecting baseball cards.

My Saturday nights as a pre-teen were often spent swapping baseball cards with friends. My best friend lived three houses up the street and was my main trading partner. We’d often have sleep-overs filled with wrestling videos, video games, and an all-out baseball card exchange.

Yes, I was (and still am) a huge nerd.

Professional Skills Learned from Collecting Baseball Cards

While going through my old collection, I came across the crown jewel of most baseball card collections from the early 90s. A Ken Griffey Jr. 1989 Upper Deck rookie card. First of all, it makes me feel super old that Ken Griffey Jr. has been retired for more than 10 years (and let’s be honest, he’s pretty much been retired since 2000 when he left Seattle).

Even though most of the cards in what’s left of my collection are worthless, it got me thinking about all of the lessons I learned from collecting baseball cards as a youngster.

Collecting cards taught me how to negotiate with friends and vendors at a young age. It also taught me how to make what seemed at the time like tough and sometimes emotional decisions. As silly as it sounds, I used to get very attached to cards in my collection. Last but not least, it helped to estimate the future value of an asset.

Even my decision to major in finance was in some ways driven by collecting baseball cards. My mom used to say, “You should be a stock broker, it’s like trading baseball cards only with stocks!” While this didn’t make much sense at the time, I can see the connection now. Baseball cards are an asset with a present value based on a variety of different factors. The goal is to predict the future value of the asset to maximize return.

Below are a few of the lessons I learned from collecting baseball cards as a kid.

Negotiation Skills

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