To collect or not to collect....

This afternoon I cracked open my card collection for the first time in since two years ago. Its always fun to do this with so much time in between collecting for more reasons then one. First I love looking at the rookie cards I have to see who has established themselves as bone fide NHLers and who became wanna-be-never-has-beens. More often then not there are more in the latter column then in the former but there were a few exceptions.

First exception was a Tim Thomas rookie card. Though I had already had it in a protective sleeve I find it interesting that at the time Thomas was not a known quantity and now he is a Vezina winning goaltender for one of the better teams in the league.

Another card was a Henrik Sedin rookie card from the Be A Player Memrobilia 2000-01 set. Again another player who in this case was highly touted but was not really hitting his potential at the time who has gone on to win an Art Ross Trophy. (After some research it turns out this is not a rookie card, stupid research)

I also came across a Sean Avery Young Guns Upper Deck rookie card from 02-03. Now I'm not saying Avery is star and to be honest I can't stand him, but the guy has had a pretty solid NHL career.

I also enjoy seeing how rosters have changed over the years, how stars fade and are pushed aside for other stars. For example the Avery card I mentioned, I totally forgot he started with Wings and moved from there on to the Rangers. Also as a big Oilers fan its interesting to see all the names that have come and gone. Mike York, Tommy Salo, Anson Carter, Mike Comrie, at one time these guys were pretty big names for the Oil and now the only one I could tell you where they ended up is Mike Comrie.

As for me continuing to collect I hum and I ha about this alot. First is the financial commitment, do I really want to start spending money on collecting hockey cards? Is this a priority for me right now? And second, with another mouth to feed coming soon do I have the time for collecting. I guess what sways me to towards getting back into it is that I really enjoy collecting and it would be nice to have a hobby to share with my kids.

Somethings for me to ponder I guess.