• The hobby that gives back
The hobby that gives back
By Duane Shimogawa Jr. – The Garden Island
Nestled somewhere at my mom’s house is an old shoe box, probably under one of the beds in her “storage room,” which contains sports cards that have a ton of sentimental and real value to me.
I’ve been collecting since I was around 10 years old and I stopped upon the graduation of high school.
But at its peak, I remember my two favorite card shops. There was one in Hanapepe and one in Lihu‘e.
The old, “Say Hey” sports card shop moved from Hanapepe to Kalaheo and Mr. Vidinha never lost a step, with his love for the hobby.
Meanwhile, good ‘ole Mary of “Mary’s Card Shop,” was just as enamored by the collectibles, which is a vivid image from my childhood to near adulthood.
I even remember the friends I collected cards with.
There were the Furukawa twins, Jon and Dean, along with Brandon Shimokawa.
We used to spend the night at the Furukawa’s plantation house up German Hill and talk about girls and cards.
However, most of the time, our weekend’s were spent buying packs of cards and trading them away with each other.
I don’t think it was the fact that we knew that the cards would be valuable someday, instead I think we cared more about sharing a love or hobby that kept us close.
Another friend, who took sports card collecting to another level, was my good buddy James Ellis, who seemed to have every card I wanted.
James and I both lived in the Lihu‘e area, but at times, we’d travel out to Kalaheo to give Mr. Vidinha a visit.
He’d always give us a hard time when we bought a pack of cards and opened, to find nothing but so-so collectibles.
But it was fine, because as soon as we uncovered a card he didn’t have and wanted, we just snickered away and left him in suspense.
James and I also made stops at Mary’s shop too.
Mary’s seemed to have the best deals and the card-friendly atmosphere.
Both of those shops are gone and the dying breed of sports card collecting seems to have gone down by the way side.
I think kids would rather collect video games and pick up instant satisfaction, rather than collect something that might be worth something, 10 years down the road.
However, everytime I open that spider-webbed, dusted up box, I still reminisce about my sports card collecting time.
The best part about gathering the cards, is looking at them when you haven’t seen ‘em for awhile.
Every card, especially the one’s with value, give you a good feeling, because you know that it was worth keeping.
It could be compared to friendships because it’s good to see friends that you haven’t seen for awhile.
And when you see them again, it’s like seeing a valuable treasure that keeps on giving back, but not to your wallet, instead — to your heart!
