As a low-to-mid-thirties kind of guy, with an audience that partially mirrors that demographic, my guess is that a lot of the people who read my blog also collected baseball cards growing up.
The late-80’s and 90’s were full of cool baseball cards at the time, so we collected tons of them and they almost all ended up being completely worthless.
I have always been a collector: Autographs and sports cards/memorabilia when I was a kid, and some memorabilia but mostly golf stuff now that I’m older and more practical.
The two things I collect the most of now are logo golf balls and ball markers. I also apparently collect bottles of wine, but only because I keep buying them off the Ray’s Liquor email list and never find good opportunities to drink them. I now have about 50 bottles at my house. Oops.
I have around 100 logo golf balls from some of the different courses that I’ve played, and about 55 ball markers. I keep most of these markers on my desk at work in a little Tortuga Rum shot glass from the Cayman Islands. I like looking through them sometimes when I’m on hold with a customer, listening to a long and irrelevant story that’s not connecting, or trying to decide on what marker to use at the course that evening.
Do you remember the great error cards of decades past? Earlier this season, at a WSGA Net Partners event at Washington County, I picked up a Washington County Golf Course ball marker that made me laugh, remembering all the collectibles that would stand out as being the most valuable in Beckett magazines, especially this doozy of Billy Ripken (1989 Fleer):
My guess is a bunch of you remember that card. At Washington County, I picked up what I am assuming is pretty rare: An error ball marker. Instead of “Washington County Golf Course,” this one says “Washington Country Golf Course.” Very exciting, I know.
