Posts Tagged: sports cards

Ben had always been able to read his dad pretty well however recently he was having difficulty knowing what he was thinking. Much of the time his father appeared to be managing his life with no particular problems but occasionally he seemed disconnected and absentminded which worried Ben. The only time his father would seem to get excited was when they were talking about past experiences and he would even get animated telling a familiar story he recollected but anytime he was questioned about a recent happening he could not find an appropriate answer. This was confirmed the day Ben took him to a sports cards shop and his father displayed quite an interest in many old football cards that were on display there. In addition to remembering the league player highlights he could also recall where he was and what he was doing the year these events happened. This was just the opposite of what had happened when Ben tried to have with him about the big championship game they had both watched together the weekend before.

Ben was correct in his assumption that his dad was showing beginning signs of dementia and he found in talking with his personal physician that he had missed the early warning signs until now. The earlier this process of deterioration is discovered the better it can be managed but it is certainly not a disease that can be cured. The diagnosis of dementia can only be made by a doctor after screening tests are given usually consisting of an MRI, blood tests and a memory test where the patient is asked a series of questions including one where he is given three words to remember and then asked in several minutes what they were. Many times people with dementia cannot remember a single word in just a few minutes. The most common early warning signs of dementia are:

1. An inability to find the right word in conversations, leading to slow talking and disjointed ideas can affect us all occasionally. In people with early and moderate dementia, this becomes the customary way they can communicate and so it results in a very difficult conversation on both sides. This can be extremely upsetting to the dementia patient and the person who is trying to interpret what this person is trying to say.

2. A growing difficulty on the part of the person to understand numbers and financial concepts. Often this is first obvious when someone has tremendous difficulty balancing his or her checkbook.

3. A tendency to get confused or lost in familiar places is also a key indicator of dementia. This situation sadly, is hazardous not just to anyone suffering with the dementia but also to others on the road if the person is still driving. It is sometimes helpful to enlist the aid of the doctor to advise his patient that it would be the best for all involved if he voluntarily decided not to drive anymore.

Basketball cards, football cards, wrestling cards, and all manner of sports cards have been around since the middle of the 20th century. The start of the 90’s was a great period in basketball and other games, with athletes like Michael Jordan, Scotty Pippen and Reggie Miller doing amazing things on the basketball court. The trend of collecting basketball cards was never greater at this time, with a number of successful companies vying to be the most valuable.

It was always young children, of course, who would decide these cards were valuable. One of the easiest ways to tell which card was worth the most was by how popular the athlete on the front was. A Michael Jordan card would be worth far more than a Luc Longley, for instance. But also available were rarer cards, which included gimmicks like holograms and shiny material to be worth more, and make the image more attractive.

The companies that made these cards saw a great deal of money in this time. Fleer cards were usually considered to be of high quality, while Topps cards could at this time never seem to be quite as stylish as the rest. The most popular, though, were those from the Upper Deck style. With each card made in smooth, crisp detail and a small hologram declaring it to be official Upper Deck merchandise on the back, these cards were the one most looked for by children in the schoolyard.

The question is often asked: Why do children place so much value on these little pieces of card? At first, it seems like a fair question. The material used by the manufacturers cannot possibly be worth anywhere near what the producer has paid to create them, or what any of the objects are worth. It’s only the fact that many different people agree on a card being worth getting or not valuable that creates any value. As strange as it sounds, the perception of something being real makes it real. When one person says a piece of cardboard is worth a lot, he’s delusional. But when many people say it, the people who don’t agree are missing out.

Now, this all seems to be a strange thing to think of as true, yet think about this: Why is their value to money? Do the materials of cash have any actual value? Of course not, greenbacks are worth getting simply because everyone agrees that they are worth something. So as delusional as we think the kids getting the basketball cards are, we would think someone who didn’t care about money would be crazy, too.

Basketball cards have in these times become highly unfashionable among youngsters. While there was a momentary craze for Pokemon, the fads of today tend to be digital, with many children using mobile phones instead of cards, or pogs or yo-yos. It’s easy for us to look at them and think of how silly they are, but were we really any better? Now here’s a scary thought: When these children are our age, what will their kids be collecting?