[wavytiger1975]

I started watching NFL in 1989 and collected cards then as well. I think it has a lot to do with local teams, but I know it's not limited to that. In my case, I grew up in Minneapolis, MN so the Vikings are what I started to watch. I collected Cris Carter starting a bit later because he was a good player of course and was with the team a long time. As it started to become a bit more difficult to find stuff I needed for my collection I expanded to John Randle and then again for additional Vikings. If I had a much bigger budget to work with I would collect more than just Vikings since I am a fan of a lot of players over the years.

TLDR summary: Local team and budget would be main reasons I think there are player collector's