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 :)