[ryanmo5]

I know that people's favorite players are traded all the time but I'm curious to see what you guys would do. If the player who made you love the game and your team more than ever was traded to another team, how would it affect your love for the player/team/baseball? I'm bracing myself for the possibility that the dbacks are gonna trade Goldschmidt and I won't lie, it's making me sick to think he might not be here next year! He's the reason I got back into the game so heavily and started collecting cards again. I will always root for him but I don't know if I could collect his stuff anymore unless he was with the dbacks. I'm not saying I would give up on him, the dbacks, or baseball but it wouldn't make the game as fun for me I know that much. Thoughts?

[zeprock]

This happened to me back in 2004 when the Red Sox sent Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs. He was my favorite player to collect at that time I had more than 1000 different cards of his. I was very disappointed to see him go but I still collect his cards to this day, just not as vigorously as I used to. I still like the Red Sox and it did ease the pain a bit when they won the World Series that year.

[djohn]

Happened to me with Gary Carter (as I loved him as a Met) and then Ivan Rodriguez (as I liked him as a Ranger). However neither really affected my collection as I like the player more so than just the team. I still cheered for the Mets, but when Carter was playing for the Dodgers, Giants, and Expos I still cheered for him just the same. The really hard part is when your favorite player is in a game against your favorite team. You want him to do well, but you still want your team to win.
You just need to focus on whether you want to collect/cheer for the player or just the team. You could consider just focusing on his cards as a DBack, and not worrying about all his new stuff each year if he gets traded.

[garrisc]

I have had this situation twice since I returned to card collecting in 2012. Once with Starlin Castro and the second time the player was Jorge Soler. I still have all of Castro's cards including about 50 autographs. I was able to trade all my Soler auto's. I was frustrated with the trade (Castro) and did try to dump all cards but had no interest. Glad I still have them now. I no longer focus on one player for my collection.

Scott

[Ziveus101]

My favorite player of all time is Luis Torrens, a one time Yankees prospect who wound up on the Padres following the 2016 Rule 5 Draft. Even if he doesn't play for the Yankees org anymore I still collect him. Mainly because he doesn't get a ton of cards (which is great for my wallet). Also because it's easy for me to say I'll stop, but then find myself be really tempted to pick up his nicer cards with his new team as they hit the market. So I just dropped all pretenses and kept collecting along. At my core I root for the player, not the laundry.

[mgruber2]

Happened last year when Verlander was traded. Understood the move but hated to see him go. Still a huge fan and continue to collect (even his Astros cards). I root for him every time he takes the mound. I was at the Tiger game in September when JV made his first start against the Tigs. I love my Tigers and they are years away from contending so I was rooting for JV to win, which he did. If the Tigers were good and in a pennant chase it may have been more difficult for me to do. Great pitcher and can't wait to see his plaque in Cooperstown donning the Old English D!!!

[bengalsandreds]

I've been lucky so far in that Barry Larkin played his entire career with the Reds, and now I don't think any one is going to want to take on Joey Votto's contract. But I'm a Reds fan first and foremost, and when they did get rid of players in recent years that I had small pcs of, I've slowed down considerably picking up their cards. Although when I come across nice ones, they're way cheaper.

[aprirr]

The kid and I went through this with Lucroy. I decided to limit the Luc collection to cards of him in a Brewers uni only. It is kind of nice having a finite number of Lucroy cards to collect now instead of a whole new slew of them every year and it has allowed me to expand my other Brewer projects.

[cjgiannini]

Will Clark and Matt Williams were my two favorite Giants growing up. Giants got rid of Clark in 1994 and Williams a few year later. But I still loved the Giants and Clark remains my all-time favorite Giant. Of course, at the time it helped that we still had Barry Bonds, but it still sucks when a team gets rid of the player that made you love the team.

If you're a true fan of the team, another player will always come along that you gravitate to.

[mgruber2]

Will Clark and Matt Williams were my two favorite Giants growing up. Giants got rid of Clark in 1994 and Williams a few year later. But I still loved the Giants and Clark remains my all-time favorite Giant. Of course, at the time it helped that we still had Barry Bonds, but it still sucks when a team gets rid of the player that made you love the team.

If you're a true fan of the team, another player will always come along that you gravitate to.

The Thrill was my favorite player growing up as well. When he signed with Texas I immediately went out and bought a Rangers cap