Making Connections

In the beginning, I started this blog with the sole intention of talking about a hobby - well, a section of the hobby nobody else was giving much love, that is.  I had no idea how quickly I would make so many connections with people from all over the place.  And I'm not talking 257 Facebook "friends" kind of connections either.  But I've had genuine conversations and correspondence with people who are into the same hobby as I am.  It's been pretty cool.

If it hadn't been for meeting Walker at the Blazer Blog, for instance, I never would've known that Nic Batum was having an autograph session.

Meeting TJ at All Your Base Cards let me see that there are other guys in my exact situation - relationship, kids, job, rent, etc - just trying to scrape together a few bucks to enjoy a hobby while staying afloat in day to day life.

If I'd never made a connection with Big D from Hey That's Mine, I would've never had a custom Nic Batum card that will be on the top of my list to get autographed by Batum in the future.

I've also been writing on Nick's site, Basketball Card Pro, and have enjoyed working with another young writer just trying to get his foot in the door.

And the list just goes on and on.  Hell, if I'd never encountered Stackhouse guy, I wouldn't have to defend my point of view - that too can be important.  But recently, most of my connections are being made in my inbox.  I'm really shocked about how much "fan mail" I get.  People from all over the place just write me up to say that they read my stuff everyday.  Even though they don't comment on the site, they just drop a line saying that they've made my site a part of their daily routine.  And that's pretty cool.

One new connection that I've made in recent weeks is reader Zach L.  Zach sent me some Blazers team sets from a couple of releases that I didn't have yet.  And we've kept up a semi-routine correspondence.  He's a Bucks fan, so it's always nice having a dialogue with somebody who roots for the East. 

He recently sent me an offer to be a fill-in writer if I ever need a day off or so - and I'm sure that the way my life goes, I'll need the help in the future.  He also gave me an article for the site - which will be tomorrow's morning article on the site.  So look for that.  He comes from the point of view of a player collector - which is the best kind of collector, by the way.

So the site continues to evolve.  I'm just glad I'm getting as much out of it as I put into it.  I hope we all continue to enjoy it.