How Collecting Baseball Cards Can Teach Valuable Life Lessons

MARCH 21, 2023  Financial Pilgrimage

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

I spent my Saturday nights as a pre-teen trading baseball cards with friends. My best friend lived three houses up the street and was my leading trading partner. We often had sleepovers with wrestling videos, video games, and an all-out baseball card exchange.

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

Important 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, it makes me feel super old that Ken Griffey Jr. has been retired for more than ten years (well, 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 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 estimate the future value of an asset.

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

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

Negotiation Skills

As a kid, I spent a decent amount of time searching the local newspaper for baseball card shows.

Baseball card shows were usually held at hotels or conference centers, and the rooms were filled with overweight middle-aged men. Tables were set up in large conference rooms with people looking to buy, sell, and trade baseball cards. Some vendors sold individual cards, others sold boxes or packs, and some were a mix of both.

My preparation for baseball card shows would involve the meticulous process of building my “selling binder.” This binder would include the baseball cards I wanted to sell to baseball card show vendors.

This put me in situations as a 10-13-year-old where I negotiated the sale of my prized baseball cards with grown adults who had much more experience dealing than I did. As you can imagine, they often tried to take advantage of my youth and lack of experience with lowball offers.

Becoming a solid negotiator only comes with experience. Walking up to someone three times my age and trying to strike a deal was sometimes intimidating. However, those skills learned at a young age have transitioned to many different aspects of my life.

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