Collecting Trading Cards--Make Money With Your Hobby

Trading cards are an extremely popular collectible for both adults and children. These sets of color printed cards, usually presented as a series or a theme, are traded with other collectors, bought and sold and saved in albums. When people think about trading cards, they most often visualise sports trading cards. Sports cards have photographs and stats of players in all sports including hockey, baseball, basketball and football,to name just a few of the very popular series. There has also been increasing interest in trading cards other than sports cards. These usually feature themes from movies, television, or music.




Some people will think of trading cards as childrens toys. It is a fact that collecting trading cards is a wonderful hobby for children. As a parent you must teach your kids to keep their cards in mint condition in order to maintain their value. Make sure that while enjoying their card collection,they realise that only mint condition cards have full value as collectibles.




Sports cards began with baseball cards which date back as far as 1887. As a matter of fact,the great popularity and continuing growth of baseball card collecting is tied to the expansion of the game of baseball across the United states. This took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first trading cards were quite different from today's cards. They were usually printed on cloth or other soft materials. In 1902 baseball cards began to be produced on a commercial basis. Soon after that baseball cards were packed in with products like tobacco, bubble gum, and Cracker Jack.




As baseball cards became ever more popular,by the mid 1900s,other sports and more companies wanted to get in on the act. Trading cards became very popular once more in the 1980s as kids built their collections of sports cards. The trading card industry reached maximum production in the mid-1990s. Large numbers of trading card series as diverse as Garbage Pail Kids and Olympic athletes were produced.




Sports cards have remained the most popular trading cards. The late 1900s saw the production of many pop culture card series. Anyone who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s will know all about cards such as Uh-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, Digimon, and World of Warcraft.




Even Hollywood saw the profit potential and popular cult TV and movies were produced as trading cards. Some of the shows which were made into trading card series include Star Trek,Buffy the Vampire Slayer,The X Files and South Park. Popular movies which were placed on trading cards include Ace Ventura, Independence Day, and even old time movies such as The Wizard of Oz and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.




The trading card market is almost completely dominated by several large companies. These include Topps, Upper Deck,Fleer, Leaf Candy Company and Donruss. Most of these companies,which are known best for their sports cards,also produce non-sports series of trading cards.




The value of a trading card depends entirely on its condition. Mint or Near Mint condition cards must have almost no flaws. They have must have sharp edges and corners,no creases and no damage. Such things as writing on the card,off-centered printing,corner damage, tears, creases or any other imperfections will lower the value greatly. Cards graded as Poor will have serious damage such as tears,creases or worn corners.




What can you do to keep your cards in excellent condition? There are many storage and protective covers,which can be purchased,to keep your trading cards safe from damage. Plastic sleeves and covers are very good for protecting cards from damage,although they could still be creased or bent. If you have valuable cards you must keep them in hard cases.




If you want to put a price on your cards,value guides can be purchased for most collectible series of cards. The well known Beckett price guides are generally accepted as leading value indicators for sports trading cards.




Collecting trading cards is an extremely popular hobby. Plenty of information and resources is available for card collectors. Online forums and price guides will help collectors to put a price on their cards and to discuss their hobby. Card shows are held in many major cities. These shows enable many buyers and sellers to meet for the purpose of trading, buying and selling cards.

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Involve Your Kids in a Healthy Diet

Eating habits are formed early in childhood and they can be difficult to break. That's why it is really important to get your children to eat healthily right from the beginning. Sometimes, though, that can be easier said than done. That's why we have put together some hints and tips on getting your children to eat healthily.




Make children responsible: A fact of being a child is that very few decisions are actually left up to them. That is why children rebel. Having children rebelling over food is just storing up weight problems and eating disorders for the future, though. It's a battle you don't need to have. Your best chance of getting children to eat a healthy diet is to involve them in the decisions and educate them. That is what this article is about, how to make children happy to eat a healthy diet so they don't feel forced into it and feel that they have to fight you on it.




Not everyone is created the same: The media is quite a big pressure for even young children these days. It can push a certain way to look as being the only right way to look. That can be quite damaging to self-esteem, especially for children. You can't protect your children from all the media's messages but you can help them to process that information. Girls are more likely to eat healthily if you let them know that eating well is a way for them to get clear skin, beautiful hair, strong nails and an attractive figure. Boys won't necessarily be interested in that but they may like to know that a healthy diet is the best way for them to develop strong muscles and good skin as well as to do well in sports. If your child wants to eat school meals, get a copy of the school's lunch menu and discuss healthy choices with your child.




Lead by example: Children learn what we tell them, and the biggest influence on your children is you. Parents have a lot of power when it comes to shaping a child's views on food. However, the way to use this power wisely and get them into a habit of healthy eating is not to lecture and dictate but to lead by example. Make a point of sitting down together as a family to eat. If children see you eating regularly and eating up your fruit and vegetables, they will too. They will view it as normal. Making mealtimes a fun time where you can all chat and enjoy spending time together will encourage a healthy appetite towards food. Also, ensure that all the family eats regular meals, including breakfast.




That is linked to my next point: Food is a necessity, not a reward or punishment. You should not force children to eat all that you put before them. A taste soon becomes boring for a young child hence they can eat half their main meal and truthfully say that they are still ready for pudding. They just got bored with their main meal. Don't make a fuss about that. Don't hold dessert over them as a reward only for eating everything on their plate as that quickly destroys the child's inbuilt sense of when they are full or have had enough of a particular food. Also, telling a child that they can only have candy if they eat up all their vegetables simply increases the appeal of the elusive candy and makes the vegetables seem even less appetizing.




Get children involved: Children, especially young children, are much more likely to eat something that they have prepared themselves or at least helped to cook. Let them help you make healthy dishes like salads, home-made burgers, wholemeal scones and pasta dishes. Let them taste as they go along and this will take the mystery and fear out of eating healthy food.




Demystifying healthy food, educating your children, involving them in the cooking process and making mealtimes fun is the best way to encourage your child to have a good attitude toward food. That will make them more likely to eat healthily for life.

The author operates Time 4 Lunch a website that offers the transformers lunch box and a great range of childrens lunch boxes

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