Collecting is in our DNA

This post isn't just about the subject of us card collectors.

It's about everyone.

Often times, I've wondered if everyone collects something or another, or at least have a desire to collect. As baseball card collectors, most of us have a pretty good idea of what we want and what drives us in the hobby.

But I've come to believe that everyone out there is some sort of "collector", even in the most primitive forms.

Granted, sports card collectors take it to a whole other level. Case in point, I collect a few backup catchers, like Brian Schneider.

If I could show someone just how deep my collection goes, this would be one of the first cards I'd pull out. It screams "obscurity". Schneider doesn't even have his catching gear on, which is one of the first signs that he's not exactly a "star" player.

But that's why I love this card. It reminds me just how far I've delved into this hobby.

There's a countless amount of people my age who probably consider themselves "too cool" for collecting anything. But I bet the first thing you'd see at their house is a big stack of video games. While it doesn't offer up a lot of excitement (at least in my view), stockpiling video games is a form of collecting something, whether they know it or not.

We're not so different.

Lately, I've come to think that card-based hobbies just might make a comeback with my generation.

While I've never met anyone else my age who collects baseball cards, I've come to reconsider my previous thoughts that card-based hobbies are in the doom-and-gloom phase for young adults.

As I was hanging out at my friend's house last weekend, I learned something new. Apparently, a bunch of my friends still play Yu-gi-oh. It took me by surprise.

For one thing, I didn't even know they still made those cards. I had my Yu-gi-oh period in about fifth or sixth grade. While I don't plan on partaking in any of their Yu-gi-oh "battles" anytime soon, it's still refreshing that people my age still get a kick out of a card-based game.

Heck, I still love MLB Showdown, and they stopped making those seven years ago. I'm all for card games.

It got me thinking.

In between my classes at college, I'll sometimes take the short walk to the McDonald's across the street to grab a quick bite. A couple of the times I've gone, I've seen a few different groups of students playing the "Magic: The Gathering" card game in their free time. I personally never indulged in "Magic", so I really didn't think anything of it at the time.

While I've only been in the cafeteria of the college I attend on a couple occasions, I've seen people huddled around tables, playing "Magic" or "Yu-gi-oh" each time. Again, I pretty much glanced over and didn't think twice about it.

I guess it never really hit me until I saw my friends doing the same thing.

People my age actually still collect cards. Okay, so they're not baseball cards. But they're a definite step in the right direction. Any card-based hobby is a whole lot more tangible than any video game could ever be.

It just might extend over into the realm of sports cards.

My hope is that there's kids in other high school or college cafeterias trading and discussing baseball cards. Maybe that's a stretch. Maybe I'm wrong about the comeback of card hobbies. But I do know one thing.

Deep down inside, we're all collectors.