Maintaining Your Baseball Card Collection Overview

Writing about baseball cards is certainly not an easy task. After carefully researching, examining, and testing these methods, keeping a collector’s baseball cards safe is easier than ever before. After doing the research necessary, the process explained throughout the article is not as complicated as one would originally think. Most of the research done for this wikiHow was done based on personal experience and some basic internet research. The pictures used were taken to be as simple as possible. Closely reviewing the pictures, the collector can see clearly how they can protect baseball cards in the best way and (hopefully) realize that keeping them safe will be relatively inexpensive if it were to cost money at all.

At the start of the article, it was established that the tips listed could also be used on virtually any other card, not just baseball cards. In addition, the tips to keep the cards safe will hopefully keep them in the best condition possible should a collector wish to gain any potential monetary value from the card. However, besides listing these two key points, starting this piece was a real challenge. More specifically, it was challenging to find where to start. With so many options available, it was hard to pick the best one to start with and make it gradually flow together as the wikiHow article went on. Starting with the keeping the card in a safe environment went first because this is the easiest and most “common sense” step. When the baseball card is in a safe place originally, it is hard for it to get damaged as opposed to it being out in the open. In this case, the cards were kept in a safe box that was in a closet drawer.

 The pictures below show this:

          

The other step conveyed in the wikiHow article was to place the card in a plastic case (show below).

The purpose of this step was meant to show the reader how to keep the card from getting bent, smudges, and keep the corners from coming in. In addition, the tape in this step was shown to keep the card from accidently sliding out of the case. This tip was listed in the article as a nice helpful hint for the reader. Based on experience, this tip was necessary as when cards do accidently fall out, they are exposed and who knows what could happen from there.

In the baseball card collector world, trades for other cards and trades for money are very common. Having baseball cards in the best condition possible is a necessity. Some cards have been known to be worth hundreds if not thousands of dollars. If they aren’t in the best condition possible, a card originally worth $3,000 may only end up being worth $0-100 at best based on the condition. Yes, keeping them in the best condition is being repeated a lot throughout this. There is a reason for it. The reason is because of how important it is. To maximize monetary value, and to keep a collection in a perfectionist order is the dream of every avid collector. If the collector doesn’t take care of whatever it is they collect, then why collect it at all? See? It does not make much sense.

Communicating these steps was fairly straight forward. While it was challenging in the beginning, the simplicity of these steps made it easier as it went on. The main objective was to “keep it simple stupid.” Having these steps described in too much detail can make it confusing on the reader. These are simple steps and should be described I the same way. Not just in this article but in any wikiHow article. The steps of whatever the task is should be written out as simple as possible so it is the easiest for the reader to understand. Trying to sound fancy and sophisticated will be no help to the reader who is simply looking for a quick and easy guide to whatever task they are looking to accomplish. Think of it as reading a question on a test. The student wants to take out the key words to get the gist of what the question is asking. The student does not care about all the extra “fluff” surrounding it. The same would go for this and any other wikiHow article. The reader only cares about the key steps/tips, not about the “fluff” around it.