Man Didn’t Understand Concept of Baseball Card Collecting, Just Kept Buying Same Card

One of the most magical things about kids is that they often do things just because it makes them happy. They could care less about the way they're perceived. Nor do they pay any heed to the "correct" way of doing things.

And one TikToker, Doug (@catsupwithdoug) showed how he embodied this behavior with the way he collected baseball cards as a child.

"As a kid apparently I was terrible at collecting baseball cards," the man says at the top of the video before the camera changes orientation. Next, he records a book filled with the same Will Clark San Francisco Giants card. This includes a framed signed Will Clark card in a piece of plastic resting on a piece of wood.

Beside it is a miniature cardboard cut-out of a baseball player, presumably Will Clark as well. Doug continues to speak, "Cause I didn't understand the concept of trying to collect them all. Or get a full team set, or anything like that."

As he says this, he flips through page after page of the same exact 1986 Will Clark Topps rookie cards with each slot in the 9 card page packed with the identical offerings. "I thought you picked a favorite card and stuck with it."

Doug continues to show his devotion to this specific Topps trading card, explaining his baseball card collecting methodology. "Try to get all the copies of it that you could." After saying this he continues to flip through the binder revealing what seems like an endless supply of the Clark rookie cards.

He added in a caption for the video: "If you’ve ever wondered who’s hoarding all of the 1986 Topps Traded Will Clark rookie cards, it’s me."

You're probably wondering whether or not if the Will Clark card that's in Doug's possession is rare or not, or if it's worth any cash.

Like any trading card, it depends on the condition of the item in question. A PSA 10 card, which is a mint condition one kept in immaculate condition carries an average price of $48.95, according to PSACard.com.

According to Issuu, a PSA 10 rating sounds pretty difficult to maintain for extended periods of time, however.

The website reads: "A PSA Gem Mint 10 card is a virtually perfect card. Attributes include four perfectly sharp corners, sharp focus, and full original gloss. A PSA Gem Mint 10 card must be free of staining of any kind, but an allowance may be made for a slight printing imperfection, if it doesn’t impair the overall appeal of the card. The image must be centered on the card within a tolerance not to exceed approximately 55/45 to 60/40 percent on the front, and 75/25 percent on the reverse."

Subsequent PSA ratings indicate specific downgrades in terms of overall quality. 9 can have "minor flaws" such as a "very slight wax stain on reverse" or a "minor printing imperfection or slightly off-white borders."

The average auction price for a PSA 9 Will Clark card like the one Doug has goes for about $12.56.

Unsurprisingly, the sales amounts only drop from there. A PSA 8 '86 Will Clark would nab you around $5.32 at auction. A 7 is $5.01 and a 6 is $2.97.

Other variants sell for just under a dollar. PSA Card indicates that there are 4,528 Will Clark cards in circulation. And it looks like Doug has a decent amount of that in his binder.

Numerous TikTokers who responded to his video took the opportunity to crack jokes, but to also let Doug know that the childhood version of himself was indeed collecting baseball cards the right way.

"I’d say you were excellent at collecting baseball card," one person quipped, intentionally leaving out the pluralization of the word "card" in order to craft a fat with virtually zero fat.

Another said that the move was one that helped to create a dearth of Will Clark's in the baseball card trading space.

"That’s called creating demand. No one else can find that d*mn card!" they wrote.

Someone else highlighted how Doug's parents were totally fine with allowing their son to collect baseball cards in this fashion without ever feeling the need to correct his Clark hoarding activities.

Another also joked that Doug's actions must've driven up the value of the card. Albeit, not by all that much, however. "You single handedly drove the price of that card up by .004 cents."

And then there was this person who thought younger Doug was a baseball card collecting ace. "Brother the only way to be good at collecting is to enjoy it. Younger you did a great job."

Someone else imagined a scenario where there's tons of folks looking to round up their 1986 Giants Topps Traded roster by getting a Will Clark rookie card, but not knowing where to turn to: "somewhere there's several guys looking for a Will Clark to complete their 1986 Topps baseball set."