I have been a Collector (with a capital "C") all of my life. My 1st recollection of collecting something of value was in buying, sorting, trading and storing Baseball cards. Many of you can recall your first "collections".....Dolls, Toy Cars, Comic Books, Record Albums, 45's, Perfume Bottles, etc. My recollection was prefaced with a distinct element which still to this day conjures up nostalgia for one's childhood. It was that unique, slightly sweet smell that came from a freshly unwrapped Baseball card package. It was the smell from the pink bubble gum slab that came with the cards. One would either wad it up and place it in your mouth and chew away, or give it  to a friend or family member as a token gift . This one of a kind odor stayed with the Baseball cards. That smell was a special totem for my early, "formative" years. It was the smell of adventure. It was the smell of your first business enterprise (the sorting and resorting and eventual trading of "doubles" or those player cards that you did not care to have). Most of all it was the smell of happiness. Even when you opened a package of cards that was almost entirely made up of doubles, that "Baseball Card Smell" would still trigger a warm and fuzzy feeling to dissipate the bummer of getting so many "doubles". I still remember the excitement of getting a 5 cent package and after opening, finding a "Mickey Mantle", or an "Ernie Banks", or a Sandy Koufax, or a "Roberto Clemente" card buried inside.  I really don't recall when it was that I stopped buying Baseball cards, or when I lost interest and "traded" them to one of my brothers for something different that I was now interested in, like a Lionel Train set. Back in the "Day", no one thought about Baseball Card values....or "Futures"...or "Collectibles". We just knew that next year there would be a brand new crop of cards , with fresh Rookies and Players who had been traded to other teams. Eventually there came to be several new competitors to Topps and Fleer who were the 2 big baseball card companies when I was a kid. So maybe I lost interest when the competition got diluted (like it is today with many variations of  Topps and Fleer as well as.... Upper Deck, Dunruss, Bowman, etc.). At some point , my Mom probably "threw out" my baseball  cards.....and  of course, I didn't really care. Flash forward 30+ years and now we all see what baseball cards from the 50's, 60's and even 70's can command. WOW, how could we have not set aside (Bank deposit box?) these gems and wait for them to percolate into the tens of thousands of dollars they are valued at now? So if you are a Baby Boomer, who still has "all of your" Baseball Cards, Comic Books, Dolls (especially Barbie's), 45's 'etc., count yourself lucky and loaded!