Collectors share passionate hobby that’s all in the cards
By Hamilton Kahn
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ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KOAT) — The magic of collecting trading cards is not lost on Ryan Maxwell, organizer of the New Mexico Trading Card and Memorabilia show.
What started as a small show, with just a few vendors and a few hundred attendees, is now a two-day event drawing more than a thousand card fanatics — enough that Maxwell has his eye out for next year’s show to be in a larger venue.
For him, the card collecting bug was caught when he went to a baseball card show in Muscatine, Iowa when he was 10 years old. Maxwell said he bought a pack of baseball cards that included he rookie card of future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr.
Hoping to share the joys of card collecting that he discovered at a young age had a lot to do with starting a show close to his New Mexico home.
“There was nothing like this in this area,” Maxwell said. “If you wanted to go to a show you had to go to Phoenix, Texas, Denver.”
That’s not the case anymore. “It’ s getting to the point now where it’s almost overwhelming. It’s cool. It’s a good problem to have,” he said.
“One of the best parts has been both vendors and buyers come up to me to say ‘thank you for doing this.’ It’s emotional, because they had that moment that I had as a 10-year-old boy. Now all these guys have that moment too.”
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