Have you or anyone you know…

ever been a victim of ‘Hobby Shop Ridicule’?

My name is Mario Alejandro and I have suffered through H.S.R for the last twenty years of my life. In the late 80’s, every single baseball card store I ever walked into never failed to make a joke about my favorite player.

1989 – Florida Sports Cards

Mario [age 10] – Excuse me, sir….do you have any Jose Canseco singles?

Owner [age 40+] – You mean to tell me you collect that jerk? Yeah, I got two or three, right next to huge stack of Darry Strawberry cards. That guy is going places!

That is just an example of the pain I went through as a kid, teenager, and yes, even as an adult, anytime I would walk into a baseball card store and ask the owner if he by some miracle, carried cards of Jose Canseco. Over the years, after a ball bounced off his head, he destroyed his arm pitching, got arrested 2-3 times, and bounced around from team to team, the reactions got worse and worse. It seems like I am destined to go through this ordeal, even years after Jose’s last game. Why couldn’t I just collect Ken Griffey Jr.?

I know I am not alone here. There has to be someone else in this hobby who has gone through the same struggles that I have endured. If you are that one guy who was snatching up those Michael Vick cards after his arrest, I want to hear from you. If you are that one collector looking for every card ever made of Tony Philips, now is your time to speak! Or if you love Albert Belle & Barry Bonds and don’t care what the world thinks of you, this is your forum.

I don’t want to be the only one suffering from H.S.R any longer.