Dpmsportcards Blog

For the past 15 years I have dedicated two nights a week and several hours per day providing whomever would listen or read commentary on the hobby known as trading card collecting. Luckily for us, a lot of people listened! As a collector since I was five years old, the hobby hooked me. I also collected toys. I don’t know what it was about building sets, going to the store to open packs and chew that gum, but like clockwork, I did it. That magical feeling of getting your favorite player, or more precise, the exact card you wanted to pull is still a thrill today. But the hobby has changed for me. Now it is more of a gamble, a much more expensive gamble. That thrill in my opinion is nullified by the fear of not getting anything you wanted or anything of substantial enough value to justify what you spent.

In this venture we have called Cardboard Connection Radio, that began as a conversation between Russ Cohen and I at an Army-Navy football game in 1999, I have been blessed to have great partners that have helped us improve our delivery of content over the years. I would go to war with those guys, and I was lucky to find people, or have people find us, that could make it seem that nothing was missing if any one of us was absent from a show or event to spend time with our families, or if we just needed some time off.

When we closed our last show for 2014, we were working on doing some truly amazing things for 2015, things that at some point I will probably regret not doing. But something else happened during the holiday break. I realized how little time I was spending with my family. I worked all day, and then on top of it I worked through most of the night each night. When it came time to come back, we had a conversation that resulted in us taking a longer break and seeing where we stood after a few weeks.

That brings us to today. After a couple of long conversations, we realized that we had different aspirations and wanted to try new and different things. We realized that we gathered on Wednesday and Friday to hang out with each other and our collecting friends. We also realized that we really enjoyed the time off and having that extra time with our family. That is why, after 15 years, we are deciding to enjoy that time more.

It has been an amazing 15 years. From our first live broadcast at the NHL All-Star Game to becoming the MCs of the first-ever National Sports Collectors Convention Case Breaking Pavilion, we have never looked back and always tried to be ground-breakers.

To our loyal listeners, thank you for letting us into your lives. We couldn’t have lasted as long without you.

-Doug Cataldo

Well guys let me just say its been a great run, and hope to still see you guys around a Sun-Times Show or The National.