Keeping the hobby alive--Cub Scouts event at my store

TonyC

I know old-time collectors often question whether the hobby will still exist 10, 25, 50 years down the road, so I wanted to share some of the efforts being made to keep sport card collecting alive. The Major League Baseball Players Association and the Boy Scouts of America work together to run a program called "Baseball Card Clubhouse," where Cub Scout troops visit card stores for an informational lesson on card collecting and receive free starter kits provided by the MLBPA.

I held my third Baseball Card Clubhouse of the year last night. I have let my son give the presentations this year. A few pictures from the event and his "lesson plan" are below (the lesson plan didn't copy and paste great). He designed the lesson plan to focus more on how the point of collecting baseball cards is "fun" and "enjoyable" rather than because "they might be worth money some day," as that is the wrong message to send to kids. A note about the lesson plan: some of the details (especially the history section) are not 100% accurate, but we felt they are as accurate as possible while presenting a simple narrative for elementary school-aged kids.

Oh, and for the trivia questions, the one where the answer is Michael Jordan, at an earlier session this year no one knew the answer, so my son gave them a hint that his initials were "MJ," and some kid yelled out "Michael Jackson!"




Cub Scouts Baseball Cards Presentation

• Introduction
o What does everyone collect?
o Why do you collect?
• Why collect baseball cards?
o Makes you a part of the game
o Feel connected to your favorite teams and players
o Collected Cal Ripken cards as a kid
 Liked him as a player and person
 “Perseverance” poster; played in 2,632 consecutive games
• History of baseball cards
o Pre-WWII
 First card: 1869 Cincinnati Reds
 Cards first mass-produced in 1880s (Allen and Ginter tobacco)
 Tobacco cards gained popularity in the early 1900’s
• T206 series holds most valuable card—Honus Wagner (prop)
 First major gum issue—1933 Goudey (prop)
• Contains first mass-marketed Babe Ruth card
o Post WWII
 Topps first makes cards in 1951, first standard issue in 1952
• Contains most valuable post-WWII card—Mickey Mantle (prop)
 Topps is sole producer of baseball cards from 1956-1980
o Modern
 Other companies join Topps in making baseball cards
 Baseball cards become collectible; market booms from mid 1980s through early 1990s
 Card manufacturers introduce autographs and relic cards in the 1990s
 Topps again becomes sole producer of baseball cards in 2010
• Types of cards
o Rookie card—first mass-marketed card of a player issued in packs (prop)
o Base card—card that is part of the main set of a product (prop)
o Parallel card—card that is a “special version” of a base card (prop)
o Insert card—card that is separate from the base set and is part of a different set (prop)
o Relic card—card that contains a piece of memorabilia (prop)
o Autographed card—card that contains a player’s signature (prop)
• How to buy cards
o Single cards
 You know what you are getting
o Packs and boxes
 Cards are a surprise; you might get a special card
o Sets
 You automatically get all of the cards in the set
• How to collect
o Collect what you like
 Players
 Teams
 Rookie cards
 Sets—all of the base cards in a certain product
 Relic or autographed cards
• Condition
o Collectability of cards relies on condition
 “Mint” card has four sharp corners, no creases, writing, etc.
 Damaged cards are less collectible
 Important to keep cards in good condition
• Storing cards
o Toploaders (prop)
 Always use a penny sleeve first
 Allows you to look at cards while keeping them safe
o Binders (prop)
 Allows you to look at cards and keep them in a fixed order
o Storage boxes (prop)
 Allows you to store a large number of cards cheaply
 Should not be used for valuable cards
• Pass out MLBPA packets
• Trivia
o What Yankee legend is known as “The Great Bambino?”
 Babe Ruth
o What team won the Stanley Cup this past year?
 Boston Bruins
o Who are the “Big Three” of today’s Boston Celtics?
 Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce
o What is a “rookie card?”
 First mass-marketed card of a player issued in packs
o Who is the quarterback of the New England Patriots?
 Tom Brady
o What is the one company that currently makes baseball cards?
 Topps
o Who is the last baseball player to hit .400 in a season? He was a Boston Red Sox outfielder.
 Ted Williams
o What player is pictured on the most valuable baseball card?
 Honus Wagner
o Who played for the Chicago Bulls in the 1980s and 1990s and led the team to six NBA championships?
 Michael Jordan
o What team won this year’s World Series?
 St. Louis Cardinals
• Conclusion
o Bob Costas carries a 1958 Topps Mickey Mantle All-Star card in his wallet
o Costas says baseball cards are “part of our connection to the game…”
o Collect sports cards to make yourself feel closer to the sport
• Questions?
• Feel free to browse

jwgators

Nice job. I applaud your efforts.

lostdart58

Sad Truth be told: A 9 year old is not going to know Michael Jordan.

Stadium1978

Nice write up on your program.

As an Eagle Scout, I was given the duty of doing our Cub Scout demos in the store. We've done around 30 of these things over the past few years and have gotten anywhere from 2-20 kids for each one (mostly around 6-8). My presentation is very similar to what you have written up except that all of my trivia questions are based on information from the presentation. I let them know that in advance so hopefully it'll encourage them to pay attention.

The only downside to my demos is that the kids in our area would usually rather hear about Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh than sports. It can be a little discouraging to find out that 10 year olds in mid-Michigan don't know who Justin Verlander or Miguel Cabrera are (they know who Brian Wilson is if I mention the “black ops” Taco Bell commercial though). Regardless of that, the kids always have a good time opening the packs and ask questions about the cards that they pull. They get really excited about it which is nice to see.

Notes:

My favorite player is Alan Trammell so I use him in the section where you use Ripken. Of course the kids have no idea who he is, but their parents always chime in with something nice to say about him. Trammell is the favorite player of a lot of 30-40 year olds in Michigan.

When I show the Honus Wagner T-206 prop, I always let them know it's worth 2 million dollars right before I "accidentally" drop it on the floor. That usually gets a good response. Then I let them know it’s only a copy.

When I talk about how baseball cards used to come in tobacco products I always point out that they don’t put cards in there anymore so there’s absolutely no need for them to buy any tobacco products.

I pass around a Shane Victorino card for the kids to see because he is an Eagle Scout.

hookem

<< <i>Sad Truth be told: A 9 year old is not going to know Michael Jordan. >>



I disagree as my 9 year old's favorite two players are Michael Jordan and LeBron James. My 10 year old's favorite players are Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. I am not a big Jordan guy (respect and all that) so they are not influenced by me. I think you would be surprised how much influence Space Jam & the shoe stores have on carrying on the MJ legacy. I push KD on my boys but they don't care for the state of Oklahoma to much


GREAT stuff Tony. If it is not to much trouble, can you tell me how to get info on the program? My 10 year old is a scout and this is a project that I might want to see about doing if the local card shop guy will work with us.

TonyC

<< <i>GREAT stuff Tony. If it is not to much trouble, can you tell me how to get info on the program? My 10 year old is a scout and this is a project that I might want to see about doing if the local card shop guy will work with us. >>



Sure. This is the MLBPA website on the program. Link

There is a list of participating stores, so if your local store is on the list, you can contact him and he will call MLBPA and request the kits. It takes usually 3 weeks, give or take, for MLBPA to send the store the kits.

If your local store is not on the list, he can sign up on the same website.

Stone193

Cool idea!

I like anything that engages the youngsters.

I'd imagine there's all kinds of things one can come up with to get the cubs in the store - free pack of cards when ya get a new merit badge, birthdays, B average or A average incentives - dads usually come with the kids....

Very nice presentation - hope it didn't go too long - attention span of kids these days isn't all that good I would guess?

TonyC

<< <i>Very nice presentation - hope it didn't go too long - attention span of kids these days isn't all that good I would guess? >>



That would be a safe assumption



<< <i>I'd imagine there's all kinds of things one can come up with to get the cubs in the store - free pack of cards when ya get a new merit badge, birthdays, B average or A average incentives - dads usually come with the kids.... >>



Topps does run a promotion called "Topps of the Class" where kids can bring in the report cards and we give them special Topps of the Class packs that Topps sends us to reward them for good grades.

gemint

That's a nice program. Thanks for sharing this.

TJMAC

Michael, thank you for trying to keep the hobby alive for the next generation. Guys like you give me hope. My son is still young, but I hope that he is into card collecting. If not, I would like to see him having a hobby that will teach him about organization, patience, anticipation and value of taking care of things. In a world that is becoming faster and faster, sports cards are a relaxing diversion for me.

LarryP

This is awesome, just wish you would had posted it 3 weeks ago so that I could have had time to get it all together with the local card shop. My son's den is doing the "start a collection" for their December meeting.

Thank you for the information,
-Larry