Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Obsession - Secret or Social?

I've been collecting hockey cards since I was a kid in elementary school. Back on the playground other kids would bring ziploc's full of hockey cards and we would gather in a circle, sit down, and trade like professional general managers. We all had our favourite teams and players etc. The teachers would walk by and smile, maybe giving us some input if they knew about hockey at all. It was socially acceptable for a kid to be talking and bragging about hockey cards. I look back at those days and smile because, of course, high school is nothing like that.

In my school I'm considered an athlete and I'm not going to say I'm top of the charts popular but I'm certainly not your average folk (not to seem conceded). I'm fairly muscular and a sociable guy. But how would my school react if they knew I collected hockey cards - obsessively?

Being known as who I am now, would that change the way they looked at me? Would I become less of a jock and more of a nerd? The times of elementary school have passed and thinking about my career and future has been the centre focus of my life in grade 11.

Of course I wouldn't be announcing it down the hallways but a reason I started this blog was to give myself an outlet to talk to other hobbyists, something I don't have currently.

Maybe it's something I just needed to get off my chest but is it wrong to select only a few people to share my obsession with?

Personally my infatuation with hockey cards is fairly secret. I keep it to myself (and of course my readers), but is that reasonable? Is your hockey card obsession secret or social? What would your experiences collecting at my age?

Just something I needed to share.

GO NUCKS GO!

4 comments:

  1. I had stopped collecting around the 8th grade, missing high school entirely. There were more important things to me then... I started again about 3 years after high school near the end of university. But stopped again after 2 years. Then picked it up AGAIN 3 years ago or so...

    As for people knowing about it... I'd have to say while it wasn't a secret... it wasn't something I blurted out to people either. Same goes for now. My hobby is my business. My wife gets it... or at least pretends to, and that's all that matters.

    However, I'd maybe not bring it up to any high school girls you go out with.... they tend to not be an understanding bunch as a general rule.

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  2. Ya I got that covered...it's a no go for the chicks

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  3. I stopped in grade 8 as well - mostly because the lower-end sets bored me and the higher-end sets were way too expensive for me. That was the early-to-mid 90s.

    Then in the 00s, a dollar store (clearance) was selling packs of Stadium Club and I got an autograph in my first pack. I bought a few more each time I went, and when I started getting those cards signed, I started purchasing a lot of cards again, mostly through Ebay. Now my house is over-stocked with cards.

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  4. I collected straight through till about 4th year university before dropping out for 10 years. There were always a number of others in my courses who collected. It was a hobby, one of many, so I never really worried about it.

    If anything, it's less of a kid's hobby now than it was then.

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