Getting back to the hobby

It's been a while since I've been able to post anything thanks to starting at a new job last week. But now I've managed to do something useful during my coffee breaks and here comes the next post.

If you have been collecting trading cards for a long time, I'm pretty sure you have had at least one break from collecting. Some have shorter breaks others have longer ones, some have just one break while others have many. The thing is though, almost every collector just keeps coming back to the hobby at some point. I had started my collecting habits with ice hockey cards, however football (soccer) has always been my sport. I have opened some ice hockey products but in recent years my collecting has been around the world of football. But I digress. For me the come back moments was 2014 World Cup in Brazil and to be more exact, Panini's official sticker collection for the tournament.

I had been talking about childhood hobbies with my fiancee a few weeks earlier and when she saw the colourful sticker album for sale she remembered that I had used to collect stuff like that years earlier. She immediately bought me one and told me that she wants to open some sticker packs with me. At first I was little reluctant but after opening the first couple of packs (and sticking them in the album) I got a little bit excited about the whole thing. All this was a few weeks prior to the World Cup, maybe a month or so before the opening game.

By the time of the first match, our sticker album was 95% full and I was thinking, the World Cup is just beginning, what should I do next. You guessed it, World Cup trading cards of course. At that time I didn't know that there were more than one set of cards about the World Cup because the only one at Finnish market was Panini Adrenalyn XL set. If you are familiar with Panini's Adrenalyn XL series, then you know it's trading card game primarily aimed for kids. I didn't mind. The card designs were nice enough for me to value them as a collector (though the base cards weren't the greatest of successes).

The following month we spend watching matches and opening card packs and after Germany were crowned world champions our sticker set was completed through trading and our card set was around 90% full with enough doubles to complete it through trading. The next few weeks I spent sending and receiving letters because I desperately wanted to finish the set. And finish it I did. Well to be honest, not exactly. I finished the official set that appears in checklists. Adrenalyn XL series have lots of Limited Edition cards that are not listed in any official checklists. These aren't found inside of the packs, instead they come in various products the packs are sold in (gift boxes, tins etc). And not all Limited Editions are published in every country. That is why many collectors don't bother with them at all. Personally, I just try to collect as many as I can and ignore the rest. In the end, I managed to get most of the Limited Editions too, just a few are way above my price range.

After hunting down my needs and trading for them I was again positively hooked into collecting. My fiancee still likes opening packs but storing cards to the binder, not so much. That is why I let her enjoy opening new packs from time to time while I focus on keeping the cards in order and organizing swaps. Though obviously I still open lots of packs myself, because you just love it. I challenge you to name one collector who doesn't enjoy opening packs and pulling out nice inserts and hits in person.

Enjoy your collecting :)

Where it all began

I remember it all very vividly. It was the winter of 1995 and I was at the grocery store with my dad when I first saw them. At the cashiers table was a stand filled with packets of ice hockey cards. I wanted one. I had to get one. But I didn't. No matter what I said (or yelled), my dad wouldn't buy me one. It was only a couple weeks after this that my dad decided to surprise me by bringing five packets from the store. Five! I couldn't believe my luck. I had to rip them open at once. The first pack had only base cards in it but I still thought: "Wow, these look so cool."

Little did I know it was only getting better. In the second pack I found my very first insert card. I was completely hooked. I loved the shiny 90's insert designs and if you have ever seen one, you'll know exactly what I mean. I still like going through my oldest cards every now and then. Mind you these pictures don't make the cards any justice, they look so much better when you are actually looking at them.

Of course I have later learned that in those mid-90's sets print numbers were so ridiculously high that the cards still aren't worth more than the paper they are printed on. That didn't bother me back then and it still doesn't bother me now.

Now a little bit about the actual cards that hooked me into collecting. The set was Leaf's Sisu 1994-95 SM Liiga series 2. As the name suggests it's about Finnish hockey league. The whole set is divided between series 1 and series 2 and consists of 400 base cards and 100 inserts in 8 insert sets. On top of that both sets had 1 super chase card (several thousands of each were made). By modern standards not very hard to complete, wouldn't you agree? Trust me, it was hard enough back in 1995 for a six year old with no internet and very limited trading possibilities. But I did complete it (with the help of my father and godfather). And it still remains, to this date, one of my most precious collections.

Around the same time I found out that there were also cards from NHL on sale and naturally I had to check how they looked like. You might have guessed that the set was Score 94-95 with it's classic base card design and awesome looking gold parallel set. I didn't collect much of this set back in the day and I still have some needs in this set. Every now and then I feel nostalgic and hunt down couple of my needs from Score 94-95 set as they aren't too hard to find.

The following autumn I was ready and prepared for Leaf Sisu 1995-96 Series I. As you might expect, by this time I was almost addicted to collecting cards. I still have one unopened pack left from that set. Actually it is the only unopened pack in my collection and I intend on keeping it that way. This is my story of how I became a collector.

I'd love to hear in the comments what were your first trading card experiences.

Enjoy your collecting!

New year, new habits

I've been collecting trading cards since I was 5 years old in mid 90's. Then I had a little break from collecting (like most of you I guess) until I got back to the hobby few years ago. What makes my story a bit different is the reason why I got back into my childhood's hobby. Three and a half years ago my fiancee encouraged me to get back to collecting trading cards and here we are, still together and collecting. She just loves ripping open new packs of cards whilst I enjoy going through piles of cards and chasing the missing ones from a set.

Collecting aside for a moment, I've also been writing for as long as I remember, little sketches on notebooks, short stories on computer and I even had a go with full sized novel. But there's something I've never done. I have never written a blog. That's why I decided to start year 2018 with one and combine my two hobbies. I'll be writing mostly about trading cards, my personal collections and other stuff related to collecting. Since I'm new to this, expect some changes in the layout and style of the blog in the coming weeks as I like to edit and update these on the go.

This blog is not, however, the only new thing I'll be doing this year. I have some other things in mind that will help document my collecting and hopefully bring some joy to the audience as well. More on these ideas in the future blog posts.

Enjoy your collecting!