[ripkenfan72]

In my house we all have PCs and boxes of card FT. My husband, my daughter (who's 12), my son (who's 10) and myself (of course) . Here is my dilemma and it really just concerns my son. He has some very nice cards in his PC but the problem is he just does not take care of them the way I feel he should. For example, I'll find his regular base out of the box and just thrown on a shelf where he keep them. Or in his PC box the cards will be in there in every direction and including upside down I have taught him the importance of card care but it seem to go over his head.

Now I still buy him some nice PC items but of late I have been putting them in with my cards so they get the proper treatment. Now I feel bad because when he sees them come in he wants to have them. And I've tried the "If you would take care of them better, I would give them to you."

Any other parent have this problem? Thoughts and advice welcome
-T-

[pbean]

hmmmm ..... this is a "stickler"

couple things to remember ..... he's 10, teaching a youth of that age the "importance" of an investment is kinda hard, they may not care about $$$ or other, but there is a few things you can do to maybe help out

in the org you can show him the difference of what a card books for by condition value, maybe if he see's his favorite card is worth 1/2 now because it's been kicked around might help

the other is to let him play and trade the cards he has, and just add to his "PC" privately so that when he becomes more careful with his cards you can "reward" him with some cool new ones

I really don't know what more I can add T ..... it's a bit of a quandry but remember with age comes "responsibility" ..... I'm sure he'll start to care for his stuff in time

Personally I wouldn't worry too much about it, the things we did with our cards at his age would scare most folks here ..... remember ..... it's only cardboard

[y2hood]

No kids yet, but one day my fiancee' about gave me a coronary. We were busting a box of Topps on this day, 36 packs, and she gathered a handful of cards and started packing them on the table like they were a deck of playing cards, and organizing them in her hand like it's the 1950s and she's about to stick him in bike spokes. Sure it was "just" base, but you never know when you'll run into a condition sensitive base collector wanting to trade.

I'm not one to dispense parenting advice, but I'd say this, you're doing the right thing. If I was breaking my toys my parents would have quit buying me toys. They never really gave 2 craps about my baseball/football card collections so I didn't have anyone preaching condition sensitivity to me. Now granted my collection started in 1986-87 so its not like I damaged anything too good by keeping them in an old ice cream tub for years mixed with Garbage Pail Kids, but still it would have been nice for them to have been involved.

I think you're doing right.

[koolkellygirl]

Show him how clip them to his bike spokes, then when he wants to trade some or buy some, have him take those ones off of his bike and take them into the lcs to be traded...Maybe talk with your lcs guy and have him help teach your son the importance of taking care of his cards...(I'm just kidding about clipping them to the bike!)

[ripkenfan72]

hmmmm ..... this is a "stickler"

couple things to remember ..... he's 10, teaching a youth of that age the "importance" of an investment is kinda hard, they may not care about $$$ or other, but there is a few things you can do to maybe help out

in the org you can show him the difference of what a card books for by condition value, maybe if he see's his favorite card is worth 1/2 now because it's been kicked around might help

remember ..... it's only cardboard

Love the advice Pbean Thanks!! I did take your advice and show him the difference in BV between a 9 & 7 graded card. I did this with the Pennington I just got him hoping it will come closer to home. He said "OK". We'll see, LOL

Being 10 and having a cardboard PC is difficult, LOL Ecspecially when Mom LOVES cards and cringes when I see his good cards hanging loosely in his box.

---

No kids yet, but one day my fiancee' about gave me a coronary. We were busting a box of Topps on this day, 36 packs, and she gathered a handful of cards and started packing them on the table like they were a deck of playing cards, and organizing them in her hand like it's the 1950s and she's about to stick him in bike spokes. Sure it was "just" base, but you never know when you'll run into a condition sensitive base collector wanting to trade.

I'm not one to dispense parenting advice, but I'd say this, you're doing the right thing. If I was breaking my toys my parents would have quit buying me toys. They never really gave 2 craps about my baseball/football card collections so I didn't have anyone preaching condition sensitivity to me. Now granted my collection started in 1986-87 so its not like I damaged anything too good by keeping them in an old ice cream tub for years mixed with Garbage Pail Kids, but still it would have been nice for them to have been involved.

I think you're doing right.

Thanks Y2 I cringed with you at the sound of a deck of football cards hitting the table like a deck of playing cards, LOL felt your pain.

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Show him how clip them to his bike spokes, then when he wants to trade some or buy some, have him take those ones off of his bike and take them into the lcs to be traded

LOL Kel That sounds like a lesson I would try.

[CowboysFanatic]

Kids love to ignore andnot listen to their parents, we all know it lol. However i found with my daughter is is extremely impressionable with other adults and loves to put on a good perfect angel show.

So knowing this bring him around other collectors who have proper collecting etiquette, friendly people, maybe a lil older but still closer to his age. He will pick up things you probably done told him a hunerd times.

[mrgonzodad]

That's how I store all of my cards, I really don't see the big deal.
Maybe give him some old one touch cases or screw downs for the ones he wants to look at all the time, and toss the cases when they get too beat up. After that tell him you're going to store those cards in your boxes because he beat the snot out of the cases?

[biglump007]

My son has an album for his base cards and he sits down and flips through the pages a lot. When it comes to his nicer PC cards they go in a one touch or penny sleeve/toploader. He still gets those out every now and then but most of the time he puts those in his little stash box and hides the box on his room. He has watched real close how I take care of my cards and I guess it's been easier for me cause he tries to do everything I do. Kinda surprises me that a 4 year old takes such good care of them but he does, the only thing I've seen him do that might do damage really didn't damage the card, he peeled the sticker off a plates and patches sealed golden Tate so that he could feel the patch lol. I would say my advice would be just keep doing what your doing and let him know that if he wants them he has to take care of them or you just won't give him anymore

[ripkenfan72]

Thanks guys for the great comments I definitely will keep up what I'm doin or all his great cards will be mine until the time is right