My First Treasure

5 min readJul 5, 2018

Topps 1986 - Wade Boggs

I collected all sorts of small trinkets growing up: coins, bottle caps, and postcards to name a few. I was also obsessed with the concept of finding a treasure. Thanks to the movies and books I consumed growing up I was filled with fantasies that I would one day stumble upon a map, successfully decode it, and in turn be lead to inordinate piles of riches. Because of this, I would pretend that everything I collected was treasure; I kept it, organized it, and displayed it for all to see. I don’t still have a lot of what I collected back then, most of it was lost or thrown away. However, I do still have my large collection of baseball memorabilia. I made sure to keep these pieces in mint condition. All it was stored in plastic and bins in my parents attic after I moved out. When I recently returned to my parents house it was all still there, exactly where I left it.

These baseball cards and other pieces of memorabilia were, and still are, my most prized possessions. Over the years I have amassed boxes and boxes of baseball cards. Many have little to no value at all while others could be on display at a museum. I can still remember the very first card I got that ignited my passion for baseball card collecting. It has nothing but sentimental value but I have it to thank for every other card and piece of baseball memorabilia I have ever acquired.

I got my first pack of baseball cards when I was very young as a surprise present from my grandparents. It soon became tradition for them to bring me a pack whenever I saw them. My routine was the same every time; I would open the gum and pop it into my mouth, then go through each card making sure to study the image on the front and read the stats on the back before moving onto the next one. I would then organize my cards from my favorite to my least favorite based solely on the image and team of the player. By the time I was done, the gum (that started with a bad flavor) turned an even worse one, and I raced to spit it out. When I got home I would put my cards, still in this arbitrary order, into a box under my bed.

Ever time I opened a new pack I felt a wave of excitement and anticipation; a feeling any card collector should know by heart. Even so, I didn’t appreciate the intricacies of card collecting like I should have or like I do now.

My system changed as I grew older. I became more meticulous when I opened packs and I never chewed the gum. I started organizing my cards by year, brand, and team instead of which ones were my favorites. My grandfather began to teach me the nuances of the hobby, how to identify cards, which ones were the most desirable, and how to build a great collection. Still, I had a soft spot for any Red Sox card, and more than anything I wanted a Wade Boggs baseball card.

On my eighth birthday, my grandfather took me to a baseball card shop for the first time. He bought me a few packs of Topps baseball cards and I opened them right on the spot. I carefully cracked open each pack and slowly looked through the players. It wasn’t until I was opening my last pack that I finally found the treasure that I had been seeking, a Wade Boggs baseball card.

Boggs was a great player but this card wasn’t anything significant. It was autographed or special edition, but it was still everything I wanted. At the time, Boggs was my baseball idol. In 1986, he was coming off his first All — Star game appearance. He was an elite hitter and a great defenseman. He was my favorite player and the reason that I started playing third base for my little league team. I dreamt about playing third base in a Red Sox uniform and wanted to be him when I grew up.

The card wasn’t anything special, and it certainly isn’t an item any collector is dying to get a hold, of but it ignited my passion for collecting. I started tracking down more valuable cards and was even able to score a couple big ones later in my life. But to this day, nothing has compared to this feeling of blindly opening a pack and the thrill of hitting big. No matter how many valuable cards I tracked down throughout the years, this one will always hold special sentimental value to me. This type of experience is what makes baseball card collecting so much fun and a huge passion of mine.

Whenever I open packs of Baseball Treasure coins I get flashbacks of the feelings I would get when I opened cards as a little kid. I love that this product is something new and unique. I will always love baseball cards but these coins bring a whole different and exciting chase element to collecting and I can’t help but join the hunt. The inaugural set contains 30 coins of 30 different MLB players. The feeling of completing this set is so rewarding I hope everyone will one day know what I’m talking about. The experience of finding a silver coin is comparable to what I felt when I finally found a Wade Boggs card 30 plus years ago. It is the thrill of the chase that is so exciting to me and knowing that every time I open a pack I have a chance at finding treasure.

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