Becoming A Hipster Collector or How To Collect Ironically

Attempting to be a "hipster collector" can be a precarious task.  There are a lot of things to take into consideration. For those of you unfamiliar, the hipster collector shuns all mainstream baseball card collecting.  Searching all of your local Targets to see if 2011 Bowman has been put out to try to get a Bryce Harper card?  You're not a hipster collector.  Buying cards in the year they were produced?  You're not a hipster collector.  If it's popular and you want it, you're not a hipster collector.  Remember, each card purchase should be making a cultural statement.

You also can't put in too much effort to actually obtain a card.  Searching and finding a card on eBay and waiting until the last minute to scoop it up.  That's not how a hipster collector does it.  The hipster collector has to be randomly at a mall (shopping there ironically, of course) and stumble upon a card show.  They of course don't have want lists (that shows too much caring about cards) and they are certainly not going to pull up a chair and go through a box marked "10 Inserts For $1.00."

Instead, they take a look at a random bin of cards and pull out this gem:

2007 Upper Deck Series 1 #SS-YB Yuniesky Betancourt Autograph

This Yuniesky Betancourt autograph card is the perfect example of a card a hipster would like.  The ironic greatness of a poor to mediocre player we an autograph card as if the was one of the baseball's greats.  All that foil, that over sized photo.  It is exactly how an ironic card should be for a "common" player.

Comments

Jason said…
That was funny. I read the first 2 paragraphs, not realizing who the player was, and when I saw it was Betancourt, on a 'STAR SIGNINGS', I had to laugh. As far as hipsters, maybe I'm just getting old, but I don't get it, at all. Your description of them though, from what I've seen, is spot on.
Laurens said…
Aren't baseball card bloggers mostly hipster collectors?
night owl said…
I LOVE the hipster collector!!!!
dayf said…
I liked Yuniesky Betancourt autographs before he stunk. He's just too mainstream now.

(Dayf adjusts his keffiyeh, twirls his handlebar mustache, lights up a Parliament, puts on his mirrored Ray-Bans like a boss and rides off on his fixie while listening to In The Aeroplane Over The Sea on his vintage Sony Walkman)

vw: lamism. no fooling.
Josh D. said…
I think I'm almost there.
mike said…
I don't know about all of the pomp of the hipster token (I'm thinking of someone who might scoff at an invite to drink a couple Dos XX with the Most Interest Man In The World) - but when I saw the Betancourt card, I actually thought it was a sweet looking product. Betancourt as a "star", OK, I get it...
I'll get back to my hi-fi recordings of David Bowie B-sides.
Community Gum said…
I have this card on vinyl.

And dayf forgot to take a swig of his PBR. Which I will now do, whilst sporting a trucker hat that reads, "God, Guts and Guns Made America Free So Let's Keep All Three." You are all amateurs. -Andy