STAMPS and the Children That Love Them

The Stamp King of California

Why is this boy so excited?  He just won some STAMPS! 

This was a picture from my local paper this week.  The local stamp collectors club held a "youth day" to get kids interested in stamp collecting.  They had over twenty kids show up.  For stamps!  They had raffles, stamp-related games, and a big pile o' free stamps.  Everything a stamp-loving youth could want.

I couldn't help but see the parallels between the stamp collecting and the card collecting hobby spheres.  According to the event's organizer:
"It's a dying hobby, and a lot of us that are members have been collecting over 50 years," he said. "This is a wonderful hobby that's taught us all about history and geography."  The club is primarily made up of older adults averaging 65 years old.  "We still have a lot of fun with our hobby, and we're trying to educate our young people that there's more to life than video games," he said."  
It went on to talk to a couple of the old-timers and how much their stamps were worth.  These guys didn't even care since the stamps had such sentimental value to them.

Could you not write that exact same thing about the card collecting world?  As the average age of collectors continues to creep up, take a look at what could happen to the hobby if you don't get kids excited about it.  It could be relegated to the Senior Citizen center.

But these folks are not going down without a fight.  They are investing some time and money into these kids.  I think it was a great idea to have an event specifically for them.  And the kids seemed to love it.
"I have about 1,023 stamps," one boy said.  Do you remember those days when you first started collecting cards and knew EXACTLY how many cards you had??  That's the level of passion that was being ignited there.

Could this be done in the card collecting world?  Could the hobby shops or a group of collectors  in a city band together to stage an event like this? 

Have these things:

• Card and memorabilia displays
• Games
• Raffles (for cards and binders/pages/boxes),
• Snacks
• A giant pile of free cards (with the local teams well-represented)
• Make sure every kid goes home with 50-100 cards and info on where they can get more.  
• Post it on Craigslist, email it to the Little League coaches, and submit it to the local paper.  
• Make it all FREE

 I think it would be easy to find people to "give back" if you made it easy for them to donate.

Has anyone ever seen this happen?  Do you think it would work?

Most Wanted List - Now with Kids!

Certain cards catch my eye for various reasons.  Sometimes it is a great design or color scheme.  Other times it is the photography or a funny pose.  But I will always take a second look at a card with a kid in it. 

Even though kids play sports, watch sports, love sports, buy cards, trade cards, and collect cards you don't see too many kids ON sports cards.  Those precious square inches on the front of a piece of cardboard are reserved for the MEN -- the modern-day warriors who perform at the highest level in the games that they play and entertain millions with their skill.  Since their on-field personas can be so tough, it is easy to forget that many of these guys are family men with a "real life" off-the-field. 

All that brings me to this card:

2010 Allen and Ginter #287 Drew Brees

I love this card because it captures a moment that I remember so well.  The picture for this card is from the celebration after the New Orleans Saints won Super Bowl XLIV over the Indianapolis Colts.  The Saints had scored 15 points in the 4th quarter to win the game.  As the confetti rained down, all the players were celebrating and a big crowd was gathered on the field. 

When I saw this happen on that Sunday, I was first drawn in because the little tiny kid was wearing gigantic earphones (who doesn't love ridiculous proportions, right?).  However, a second look at that really touched me.  Here was Drew Brees, the winning QB -- He could celebrate with anyone, and who does he do it with?  His one-year-old son, Baylen.  Wow. 

My first son had been born three months earlier, so while he was new I definitely knew what it was like to have that fatherly-love.  It humanized Brees to me in a way that otherwise I never would have seen.  At that moment he was just like any other daddy who was done with work and wanted to see his family at the end of a long day. 

That's why I love this card.  Well, besides the giant headphones, of course.  :-)  However, I still don't have it!  Therefore, I am putting it as card #1 on my newly-christened "Most Wanted" List (see the bar at the top).  If anyone has this one for trade, please let me know.  I will be steadily adding more cards to this list over the next few weeks. 

For another article about that moment:
http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/a-quarterback-and-his-boy/

For a gallery of Baylen/Drew Brees pics from that day:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/07/drew-brees-son-baylen-cel_n_452946.html?slidenumber=hCi%2B1CLIcwQ%3D&slideshow#slide_image