People always say that if you can turn your hobby into your career that you will ultimately be satisfied. I am happy to say that I pretty much have accomplished this tough feat, and I am not alone among the lucky ones.

The reason I bring this up is because I ran into many familiar faces at this past weekend’s Sportsfest and it is really cool that all these guys do this stuff for a living.

I knew MEARS’ Troy Kinunen when he was just out of high school and now he is one of the industry’s leading authenticators. Mastro’s president Doug Allen was a big baseball card collector and now he is head of one of the leading auction houses in the world. Memory Lane’s Dan Wulkan has been collecting cards ever since he used to obtain packs from his grandpa’s candy store in the Bronx.

There are many, many others who share our good fortune. It seems that most people who start working in the hobby stay in this hobby in some capacity, even though they may not stay with a particular company.
In my case, I worked for SCD Authentic, then spent time at American Memorabilia, worked for about a year at Upper Deck, and now am back at Sports Collectors Digest. Funny how things work out.

Check out this great photo that was taken about ten years ago of Wulkan and the “Baseball Card Kid” Mark Murphy. The photo shows a big crowd of people opening packs of 1986 Fleer basketball cards, in search of an MJ rookie. Those were the days!