I have many hobbies, for instance, I love to write. I have been writing for all my life, I have written a few short books, many stories, and I have written many articles that have been published in various newspapers. Even though I am very good at writing and I love to do it so much, it is not my favorite hobby.

I am also a super fan of video games. I have had at one point in my life, every single video game system except for the Xbox consoles. I don’t know what it is, I just never had a chance to get any of them. I love games so much, that I will literally buy a system just for one specific game, like Pokémon. When Pokémon Diamond came out, I bought a DS Lite just for that one game. The same thing happened with the DSi for Black 2 and the 3DS for Pokemon X. I also have a PS Vita that I log 4 hours of gaming per day. However, video games are not my favorite hobby.

My favorite hobby does not include watching T.V. or reading. This is because, my favorite thing to do is collecting baseball cards.

My first experience with collecting baseball cards had happened almost 10 years ago during the 2004 baseball season. I remember that my dad would take me to a little shop in Richmond Hill, and I would spend hours in the store looking at all of the random cards, packs, boxes, and sets of cards.

I remember a little box that was on the counter that had packs of 1990 Topps cards. I used to love going through the box and pulling out packs. Each pack had 33 cards and only cost 50 cards. I remember being so happy each time I pulled a Barry Bonds card because at the time, those cards were worth $1.25.

I also remember going in and buying packs of 2004 Fleer Ultra. I really liked those cards because every once in a while, I would pull out a Gold Medallion card and sometimes I would even pull a game used card. My favorite card that I pulled from Ultra was a Ichiro game used card, though I don’t remember what the piece was of. When I first pulled the card, I looked it up and found out that the card was worth 25 dollars.

I also used to go to the store with my dad and we would sell some of our old cards for credit, and then we would use the credit to buy even more cards. Once, I even bought a few Baseball player mini figures, but I don’t really remember who they were of.

I had then gone on a small collecting hiatus. I ended up losing all of the cards that I have collected, even the Ichiro card, and in 2007, I had begun to collect cards again. In 2007, I started off with buying only Topps Baseball cards and for the next five or so years, I have only bought cards that were from Topps, at the time I did not really like all the other brands because of the prices.

I remember the craze that card collectors had gone through when the cards first came out because of the Short Print card that had Jeter, Mantle, and Bush on the card. When the series first came out, I saw some people selling this card for as high as 200 dollars. Another valuable card found in this set had been the Matsuzaka Rookie card. When he first came up, his rookie card had been worth about 20 dollars.

During this time, my least favorite set had been Upper Deck. I did not like this set simply because of all the cards that were in the set. Topps had almost just as many cards, but I still prefer Topps over Upper Deck at any time.

At the start of the 2008 Season, I have given up on getting more 2007 Topps cards, until just a few weeks ago. I am a huge Mets fan, and even though Matsuzaka had not been playing well over the past few years, I was really happy to see that he had signed with the Mets. Therefore, I went and bought a bunch of his 2007 Topps rookie cards, even the Japanese version of his rookie card.

Then came the 2008 Topps cards. I did not do much with these cards because I did not really like the way the cards looked, and the only card I still have from 2008 is another matsuzaka card and a Mantle card. I ended up buying a small box of these recently from Kmart and I pulled a few good cards, but none of them were high end cards.

Ever since 2009, I loved the designs for the Topps cards, since then I have collected cards from each year and I love the designs of each. I lost most of these cards, and the few that I still have left include A-Rod, Jeter, and Pujols.

I don’t have that many cards left from 2010-2012, because I did not really have the funds to buy many cards, but once 2013 came around, I went all out when it came to baseball cards. Anytime I had a chance

When it comes to Game Used and Autograph cards, I have two categories for these cards. The categories are cards that I will keep, and cards that I will either trade or sell. For the cards that I am trying to get rid of, I have a Walter Young card and a Miguel Tejada card, both have a piece of bat, except for the Young card, which has two pieces of bat.

I also had a Pedro Martinez card with jersey and a Marlon Byrd card with bat. I traded those, but I don’t remember what cards I had received. I also had a C.C. Sabathia card with a piece of his jersey from when he was with the Indians. I traded this card to somebody in return for a John Buck autograph card.

I have two autograph cards left that are in this category, one of them is an Austin Wright 2013 Topps Pro Debut card, and one of them is a David Buchanan auto. I used to have a Dylan Cozens auto which was also from Pro Debut, but I forgot what I got for it.

When it comes to the ones that I keep, I am very picky. There are only a total of 5 Game used or autograph cards that I am going to keep for myself. One day, I traded a bunch of cards to this user on Beckett, and I received two cards for them. The first one was a Mark Teixera card with a piece of his jersey from when he was on the Braves. I am a huge fan of him, and I have been following him ever since his third year in the majors with the Rangers.

The second card that I received was a Jose Reyes card, also with a piece of his jersey. This card was from when he was still on the Mets, and when he was with them, he was one of my favorite players. I never had a chance to get any of his rookie cards, which I really wanted, but this card is really worth it.

In another trade, I had received a Carlos Beltran card with jersey. Beltran is another one of my favorite players, and he is the only reason that I want the cardinals to win the World Series. If he was not on the Cardinals, I would want the Red Sox to win. I had also heard that he would consider coming back to the Mets if they offered him a contract, and I would love that to happen. If this does happen, I would start getting way more of his cards.

The final Game Used card that I have is of my favorite current player. This player is none other than Matt Harvey. I absolutely love him, and at one point during the summer, I did whatever I could to get as many of his cards that I could get. The Game Used card that I have of him is a Tier One relic card, it is numbered to 399, and it is the second greatest card that I have in my collection.

The final card that I put into this category happens to be the greatest card in my collection. It is a Matt Harvey Autograph card and I believe it is a 2011 Bowman card. I have always wanted to get a Matt Harvey auto card, and then once I came into some money, I went on ebay and I was able to get this card for just 30 dollars. I do plan on getting more Harvey auto cards, and I would like to get more cards in the Tier One Series.

Earlier, I had said that I love to collect Matt Harvey cards. Aside from the Game Used card and the autograph card that I have, I have many, many more cards as well. I do not really like collecting his base cards, I usually only want to get his rookie and prospect cards, parallel versions of his cards, and his Game Used and jersey cards.

The earliest card of him that I have comes from 2010 Bowman Draft Prospects. I do not like any of the cards because most of the cards do not have that much value, but at one point the Matt Harvey cards have become so popular, and this is why the only cards that I will ever collect from this set will be of him.

The first of his cards that I have in this set is his base card. I bought my first one during the summer of 2012, just before he made his debut. I bought the card in a card shop in Forest Hills for a dollar and I was really happy because I wanted to get my hands on his cards.

I only had this one card until August of 2013, when I began making a push to collect his cards. When I found his cards in random shops, they were about 5 dollars each. I ended up buying a bunch of his base cards in stores and online, and I ended up trading a lot of cards to get a lot more. Right now, I have a total of 7 of his 2010 Bowman base cards.

Next up is his Chrome card, which is just a little bit more valuable than his base card. Sometime in august, I traded for my first Chrome card and I went on both ebay and Check out My Cards in order to get as many as I can. Right now, I have three of his Chrome cards, but by the end of 2013, I hope to get to at least 10.

The next card that I have is the gold parallel of his base card. These cards are not numbered to anything, but they are far more valuable than the base card, and at some points, could have gone for as much as 10 dollars or more. One day, I was lucky on ebay because I was able to spend 11 dollars with shipping included and I received 8 2010 Bowman Draft Prospect gold cards and one of them was the Matt Harvey card. 11 dollars is good for just the Harvey card, and then I still got another 7 cards of other players. Right now, I am happy to say that I have 4 of these cards. The only thing I do not like about this card is the thickness of the cards, because the gold cards are about twice as thick as the regular cards.

The most valuable card I have of Harvey that is not a Game used or autograph card has to be the Blue Version of the 2010 Bowman set. This is the first numbered card in the set and is numbered to 399. I love the blue cards since they are so valuable and they look really nice. My goal had been to just get one of these cards, and one day I was able to get one on ebay, and then guess what? I went out and bought another one just a few weeks later, which means that I now have two of these cards, with the hopes of getting more.

That is all of the cards that I have for his 2010 Bowman series. Next, I have his 2012 Topps Update Rookie card. There are two versions of his rookie card which are card number 23 and card number 276. I do not have any of the number 276 cards, but I have 2 copies of the number 23 card, which I believe is the better card of them.

The last of his card that I have is his 2012 Topps Pro Debut card, which is also a really good card compared to some of his other base cards. Recently, Topps Chrome had been released and some of the Harvey cards look amazing and some of them are really cheap so I plan on getting a few.

I also like to collect cards of other players who either currently play for the Mets, are about to play for the Mets, or have recently left the Mets. This is my favorite team, and they had a few great call ups, so I figured that I should get as many cards as I can get. I don’t really have any of the very good cards of Mets players, but I have a lot of base cards, and somewhat good cards.

For instance, when it comes to batters, I have a 2012 Topps Pro Debut card of d’Arnaud from when he was with the Blue Jays, and I also have a 2010 Bowman Ike Davis Rookie card. For the other infielders, I don’t have many good cards, I don’t have any Daniel Murphy cards and all I have for David Wright, are a few base cards. When it comes to Shortstop, I have a few Ruben Tejada Rookie cards, and I have a really cool Gavin Cechinni prospect cards, he is currently my favorite hitter prospect in the Mets farm system. Other than those, I have a Wilmer Flores prospect card as well.

For the outfield, I have a few really good cards. First, I made sure that I could get my hands on an Eric Young Jr. card. Not only did I get a card, it was his 2010 Topps Chrome rookie card from when he was first called up to the Rockies. I don’t have any Matt den Dekker or Andrew Brown cards, but I have a Lucas Duda Rookie card, and I have a Juan lagares Bowman Chrome Draft Prospect card. I also used to have a Bowman Blue Daniel Murphy card and a Bowman Orange Lucas Duda cards but I recently traded them away.

For the pitchers, I don’t have as many good cards as for the batters, aside from all the Matt Harvey cards, but I mentioned them already. First off, I have Pro Debut cards for both Noah Syndergaard and Zack Wheeler. I also have one other card for Syndergaard. I own a gold Jon Niese card and I have Rookie cards for both Niese and Gee. That is all I have for current and future players, but I also have a few cards of players who have left the team, such as Collin Cowgill, Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, John Buck, and Marlon Byrd.

Right now, the three biggest cards that I am collecting are all from the Mets and, in order are Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, and Zack Wheeler. At one point, I really wanted to collect Rafael Montero cards, but now I am not that interested in collecting his cards now. Hopefully, all of the upcoming players such as Syndergaard and Cechinni can get called up as soon as they can, so more cards can be produced and so I can get as many of their cards as I can. I have an auto card for Harvey already, but I would like to get at least one for the other two top players.

I also have a lot of cards from the 80’s. These cards are practically worthless which is why I have so many of the cards. When it comes to the cards from 1985 to 1989, I have at least a couple hundred cards for each year. The year that I like the most based on the design is from 1987. However, this has to be the least value set of cards in the history of baseball cards. It's unlikely that 1987 Topps Baseball will ever see a huge price surge as there is such a huge amount of it available. That said, it falls into the category of a cheap thrill for many who might have passed their horde on.

The cards are so cheap, that you can get an entire hobby box, and sometimes even the entire 700+ set for under 10 dollars. My favorite set from this era has to be the 1985 cards. These cards can be as high as three times as much as the 1987 cards yet are still not as valuable as the 2013 Topps cards.

Also, I was actually reading the newspaper this morning and I found an article on the famous Honus Wagner card.

Bill Mastro, the guy who altered the $2.8 million 1909 Honus Wagner cigarette card in 1986 traded in phony memorabilia for years. In court Thursday, he admitted that he had trimmed the sides of the Wagner card in order to increase its value, and to failing to disclose that the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings trophy ball he sold for $62,000 was shown in lab tests to be a fake made after World War II. I never really card for this card, but I guess it’s important that the real info is finally out there.

I too have several hobbies. The two primary ones are like you, I like to write and do so as my vocation. Being a writer although very rewarding is not necessarily the easiest way to make a living. I often tell people that I write for a living, but doing something for a living and actually make a living I have found are two different things. Despite the struggles I have had I continue to press forward with my career. My other hobby which I also do on a daily basis is I like to record DVDs. When I was a kid I learned shapes off of a VCR and have been pretty much recording either VHS or DVD since I was two years old.

Ironically, my writing and my hobby recording intertwine with each other as I use DVDs for my research in writing material. It can be a little crowded because I often buy blank media in hundreds at a time. It does serve me well though. I do also like to play video games, but I have not been able to play my PlayStation 3 in over a year due to a botched firmware update. I need to get a new hard drive for it but I’m not rushing because other things take priority. I have gone through three PlayStation 3 consoles and even though I love PS3, the issues that I’ve had with those consoles has really soured me on the idea of investing money in PS4 when it is released simply because I want to be certain that the issues that I have experienced with PS3 will not happen with PS4 if I put money into it. As far as I’m concerned Sony, or really any other console developer has a responsibility to the consumer to make sure that the consoles are built to last.