I hope that you’ve enjoyed the “Meet the Collector” series as much as I have so far. I also hope that you have found a new collector to follow on Twitter if you didn’t already. It’s time to meet another seeker of the cardboard and to do so; we have to travel all the way out to the Hawkeye state. I have never been to Iowa but I was a fan of Tim Dwight when he played for the Falcons. Another American Hero that calls Iowa home is John Sorenson, better known as @waxtopia. The Twitter handle is genius! He also has “sorely neglected” (self-described) blog at www.waxtopia.com.
John started collecting in 1986, when he was around 11 years old. He and his family moved to the same town in Iowa where a couple of his cousins lived, and one of them had already started collecting baseball cards. I was the oldest in my family and was the first to start collecting and am still the only one as far as I can tell but I digress. He was just starting to follow sports around this time and collecting sparked his interest. He didn’t realize at the time, like many of us, that it would be so addicting and he would still be collecting as an adult. Baseball has always been his primary focus but he has a passion for all sports and collects football, baseball and hockey cards. In the mid 80’s there wasn’t much he didn’t collect; including WWF, Alf and Garbage Pail Kids, which he had to hide from his mom.
The Sorenson’s camp at the State Fair in Iowa every year and there used to be an awesome flea market that ran the whole length of the grandstands. There was a booth within that flea market that sold nothing but sports cards and the cousins would go down there almost every day and buy a grab bag for around $2. Very few places were more fun to me than a flea market with cards growing up! They can still churn out some cheap finds today if you can find the right spots. At any rate, the grab bags would be full of 86 commons but there was also some random vintage included. The first thing they would do was check the card backs to see who got the oldest card. He specifically remembers pulling a ’68 Matty Alou and thought it was the greatest thing ever. That was the moment that hooked him and he didn’t look back for the next 7 years or so.
As you might imagine, growing up in Iowa presented some challenges with finding a MLB home team to hitch a bandwagon to. John latched on to the Kansas City Royals and George Brett because they were a great story in 1985, when he started paying attention to sports. Brett still is and will always be his favorite baseball player. He also became a fan of the Red Sox after watching the lose in the ’86 World Series, which probably sounds backwards. However, he notes that there is something about watching teams suffer that makes him want to root for them. It’s called the “Underdog Syndrome” and I think we all have it to some degree unless the underdog is one of our fierce rivals. He also enjoyed watching Wade Boggs and Jim Rice hit. He still PC’s Boggs but to a lesser degree.
As for basketball, which is pretty big in the Midwest, John has always been a Larry Bird fan which included the Celtics by extension. He still roots for the Celtics and adds Bird to his collection whenever he can. He didn’t really have a favorite NFL team growing up as he paid more attention to the Iowa Hawkeyes, a team which he still has, what he considers, an unhealthy obsession for. He collects any and all former Hawkeyes and also Kurt Warner due to his Iowa connection. There is also an AHL team in Des Moines for the Minnesota Wild so he is also a Wild fan. His fandom is admittedly quite random.
John names the 1975 Topps set as his favorite, without hesitation. He was born in ’75 and George Brett has a nice rookie card in that set so it was really just natural selection. He remembers puddles of drool on the pages of his Beckett Magazine when he would see the pictures of the set in the price guide. John describes the set perfectly, “The design epitomizes the 70’s in all its tacky glory.” There are other sets that he loves like ’83 Topps, ’84 Donruss and ’91 Stadium Club but ’75 Topps will always have a special place in his heart that can’t be touched.
When asked what he likes about the hobby in its current state, John likes that there are more ways to connect with other collectors than ever before. As he explains, “Before Twitter, there were a few scattered blogs and message boards. Now, the Twitter “card feed” is just a daily part of my life that I can’t fathom being without. The #CollectFam is strong!” Well said John and I couldn’t agree more. As for his biggest dislike, “Exclusives. They’re ruining everything. Money that could be spent innovating on great products is going to pay licensing fees which serve solely to limit the consumer’s product choices and creates undesirable checklist situations like licensed NBA cards with no Michael Jordan autos. And it’s only going to get worse.” Did I mention that he was an American Hero?
As for his favorite card, the choice is pretty obvious and you should know what it is before even looking at this picture.
There is still a card out there that he is chasing though; the 1980-81 Topps Larry Bird/Magic Johnson/Julius Erving card. This is one that he thinks he should have already but 3 kids = card budget probs. I can only imagine because I have 2 kids and my biggest purchases these days are $10 junk wax boxes.
Finally, the sage veteran of the collecting world has some advice for the young or new collector out there. John says, “My advice would be to collect the way that makes sense to you. If that only means collecting digital bunt cards, great. Anything that gets kids interested in sports is a good thing, in my opinion.” Again, this is very sound advice if you are getting ready to jump into the hobby. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen somebody jump in with both feet and buy all of the high end products because of the “hits” when the same players can be had in cheaper products like Panini Classics or High Tek or Field Pass. That’s not to say that the high end product can’t be fun. But if you want to burn yourself out really quick, make your first couple of purchases Museum and National Treasures.
Thanks to John for opening up with us today and helping this “Meet the Collector” series keep the momentum going. Check John out on Twitter or his neglected blog and let him know if you have that Bird/Magic for him. He also may be in need of any George Brett’s you have laying around. Until next time, thanks for checking out the blog!
J-Dub
Wow! He must be your long lost twin!