My card collecting days started in 1987, at 5 years old.  For 25 years, with a few breaks, I enjoyed collecting various players cards, trading online, and attending local shows. 

  The older I got, I realized that I had to modify my collection.  I decided to collect and dedicate my collecting to one player...Nolan Ryan.  He was my childhood idol, and an all-around role model.  Later, I added two more players, J.J. Redick & Art Monk, but still mostly dedicated to my Ryan collection. 

  At age 30, I put my collecting aside...and 8 years later my 11 year old son motivated me to get back in the hobby.  Now 13, Colby is an avid Mookie Betts collector.  Like me when I was his age, he collects other players in baseball and football.  He's more involved, and i'd say more advanced than I was at his age.  

  There's a second son, only 5 now, but we're hoping he'll enjoy the hobby as much as we do when he gets a little older.  I have a growing collection to pass onto them one day, and I plan on having a lot of fun with it until that day comes.  

  My favorite daughter tags along 

with Colby and I to card shows

occasionally...and is an amazing 
artist!!!  Her work is displayed above, the Nolan Ryan acrylic painting.