Reminding myself it is a hobby

As we’ve kicking off this ‘rebranding’ effort, one of the things I’ve continually pushed myself to remember (like a matra of sorts) is that collecting cards is, at the end of the day, a hobby. I, like many others started collecting baseball cards when I was a kid (8 years old) and it was always about fun. Trading with friends, going to card shops and shows to search for something I could afford with my lawn mowing money. As I came back into cards as an adult, I noticed the hobby landscape had changed significantly. Gone were the days of monthly Becketts to read articles and check the value of your cards, hoping some in my collection had that triangular up arrow next to the price. In my opinion, as I came back into the hobby as an adult the internet had the biggest impact on the way I started to collect again. Having pricing at your fingertips and social media content constantly in your face about another’s collection or big profit from a liquidation made it harder to just stay in the lane of ‘I’m doing this because I implicitly like the cards and enjoy the process’. All of that to say as I’ve made new friends and connections in the hobby again, I’ve been reminded that this is indeed something I should be doing for fun. We all have jobs, life, family and other stressors day to day, why add pressure to something that should be a good time? As I’ve started to recalibrate my personal collecting habits and mental framing I’m excited that Matt and I decided to brand our content moving forward as ‘Joy’. It should bring us joy to display our recent pickups, organize our collections or share and talk about the hobby with our friends. We’re hoping this blog and our shows can bring fun, excitement and joy!

Best,

Ben