Its great to have a hobby. Something you can enjoy by youself, with friends, kids or family. Trading cards, be it sports or non sport cards can be fun and at the same time can be a great investment. I myself love vintage hockey cards. For a few years now I have been on a mission to complete all NHL hockey card sets from 1970/71 to 1979/80 seasons. Its been a huge challange and at the same time a blast! I have made many new friends in the hobby as well as have gotten a few old ones into it. http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Mister_K Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:44:52 -0600 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.squidoo.com/Hubble-wow I live in a small town around 2 hours north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. On clear nights when the sun goes down the stars come out it's still "WOW". They are still very bright up here being so far away from any large type of city with all there lights that its amazing what you can see in the night sky. You can still see shooting stars, satellite's, planets as well as some amazing displays of the northern lights (Aurora Borealis). I came across these and was blown away and needed to share the amazing things beyond our haze and light pollution of earth. Spend about an hour here and watch as this amazing piece of technology "The Hubble Space Telescope" takes you to places that only happen in dreams or a few billion light years away from home. Bookmark this lens and share it with your friends so they can have the same amazing experience! A little bit about the man: Edwin Powell Hubble (November 20, 1889 – September 28, 1953) was an American astronomer. He was born to an insurance executive in Marshfield, Missouri and moved to Wheaton, Illinois in 1898. Hubble discovered the asteroid 1373 Cincinnati on August 30, 1935. Please check out the bottom of this lens for stories form NASA the JPL with great current stories on space and other wonders that are above us and out there. The quality of these videos are pretty good so I suggest you use full screen mode as shown in this image.   If you enjoy this lens and topic please click on a star so others know how you feel and they can enjoy it as well! Thank you Please bookmark or add this lens to your favorites lenses and come back often as it is being updated all the time. Also check out my other lenses! THANK YOU to everyone who has voted for this lens! Make sure you get to the bottom and checkout the links related to the latest space news from www.spacedaily.com and www.space.com and many other great related space sites!!! E.g. - Near miss with the latest astroides and much more! education Wed, 07 May 2008 04:32:35 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/converting-VHS To Save or Not to Save! As time goes on all those old home videos on VHS tape are slowly going to die on you. One day you are going to have no choice but to convert those treasures on to DVD or Blue Ray disk. If you don't, one day your going to slip one of those tapes into a machine only to find all those precious memories are GONE!. VHS or (Video Home System) was lunched in 1976 and has given us over three decades of movie and home movie fun. But sadly those tapes sitting on the shelf have a shelf life! Tapes are designed to last for at least 20 years. This is if the tapes are stored properly. Being stored correctly is one thing but having accidents is another. Have you ever had your VCR chew your tape to death? Ughhhhh! Please read on and find out what options you have on saving you homemade treasures from this almost obsolete technology! If you enjoy this lens and topic please click on a star so others know how you feel and they can enjoy it as well! Thank you computers Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:18:41 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/new-age-of-card-collecting First we will start with Rookie cards The most desired and widely collected of all sports cards In today's world of card collecting theirs many brands and big fancy names to choose from, Packs of cards can cost you $2.50 or $450.00 pre a pack. One example of a rookie card that should be put away for the future is Sidney Crosbys Rookie card. His card as almost doubled in price. When first issued in the 2005/2006 season the card had a book value of $200.00 and now just a little over a year later has a bookvalue of $350.00. On the other hand this is not ture for all rookie cards, Eric Lindros is a fine example of this. His rookie card was worth $80.00 back in the early 1990's but because of all of his injurys his card can now be had for almost near to nothing, book value today is around $8.00. Pulling a rookie card is all odd releted. Most of todays sets have a ratio of 1 to 4. So if you buy an unopened box of 24 packs, odds are that you will pull 7 rookie cards from that one box (on average). Todays sets noramlly have 200 cards to the base set (common cards) with an average of 50 rookies so that the complete set is 250 cards. Well with just a little simple math you can see that completeing a set with all the rookies is going to be a very diffeclt task! In the above senerio you would have to buy at least 8 sealed boxes to get your 50 rookie cards. Now lets hope you dont come across a double to ruin your day... Odds are you will. I guess this is where eBay can come in handy getting those missing rookies cards. diy Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:52:36 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/vintage-hockey-cards     Funny now when I look back on how this all started. With a few wax packs unopened that my father gave me from 1982/1983 season. They where O-Pee-Chee Hockey cards. They where kicking around in a box for years when one day as I was sorting thorough some cluttered corners I came across that box. I took it out and showed it to my son who suggested that we open them. So we did, and load and behold there was a Dale Hawerchuk and Ron Francis Rookie cards and two Wayne Gretzky 3rd year cards and then WHAM! Starting to collect vintage hockey cards can be just that easy as above. It also can be a very daunting task. But there are ways you can start now and depending on how eager you are, you can have a complete vintage set to brag about in no time! I have completed 98% of all OPC card sets from 1970/71 to 1979/80. Its been fun and now has turned into a hobby which in-turn has become my nest egg!!! The best part about this is that anybody with a hobby can make a profit from there hobby! diy Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:05:04 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/eye-brain-illusions An optical illusion is always characterized by visually perceived images that, at least in common sense terms, are deceptive or misleading. Therefore, the information gathered by the eye is processed by the brain to give, on the face of it, a percept that does not tally with a physical measurement of the stimulus source. A conventional assumption is that there are physiological illusions that occur naturally and cognitive illusions that can be demonstrated by specific visual tricks that say something more basic about how human perceptual systems work. They trick your eye to make it seem like there is no illusion sometimes. entertainment Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:15:31 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/hobbycardstorage Below are suggestions and products that I use to keep my sport card collection safe. Some of it comes from reading or other people telling me about there experiences. But in most cases it has come form my own experiences of trial and error. If you own something and it has a value then spend a few dollars and "Protect It" properly... Common card size: There is no firm standard that limit the size or shape of a sport cards. Most cards of today are 2-½ inches by 3-½ inches (6.35 cm by 8.89 cm) and in the shape of a rectangle You can also find cards from 1-½ by 2-½, postcard size all the way up to 8 by 10 (portrait size). Below you find some storage methods that I use to keep my card collection safe. If you enjoy this lens and topic please click on a star so others know how you feel and they can enjoy it as well! Thank you diy Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:10:41 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/Northern-Card-Chiefs You can start small by maybe collecting just one player, team sets or even complete sets. You might like the look of new cards with all there gloss and 3D effects, from all the inserts, Parallels, jerseys, gloves, sticks, bats, pucks, balls, autographs and numbered cards out there. And then one day you open a pack find that card numbered 1 of 1 in the whole world! And you scream inside or maybe outloud "YAHOO" Or you may just find that vintage cards to are up your ally. With the thrill of finding the cards to fill the voids in your old sets. Or maybe its the rough edges, bad colors or just the off centering. Or it's the thrill of holding something in you hand knowing its 50 or 60 years old and knowing the history and that the value will at the very least stay the same. But deep down inside you know that the little peace of cardboard in you hand will no doubt go up in value. And you scream inside or maybe outloud "YAHOO" Some of the first cards issued were from the tobacco companies. Some came in a tallboy format others minis cards. In hockey some of the 1st sets had titles like - 1910/1911 C56 with 36 cards and a book value of $10,000.00 or 1923/1924 V145-1 with 40 cards and a book value of $12,000.00. Baseball is similar, 1909-T206, 523 cards with the average of $100.00 pre a card or 1911-T205, with 218 cards and a book value of $35,000.00 You don't have to start big to get the joy out of this great hobby and to share with your children, family and friends will give you joy that is pricless! If you enjoy this lens and topic please click on a star so others know how you feel and they can enjoy it as well! And please have a look at my other lenses related to the topic of sport card collecting! diy Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:08:07 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/sellingon-eBay I have learned a bit about selling on ebay in a short period of time. Most of the hints and experiences. I will share are related to the hobby of cards, be it Hockey, Baseball, Football, Non-Sport cards and so on... But this information can be used with anything you sell on eBay. This is not your traditional 12 step program, but my personal 8 step program for eBay and shipping paper products of value! education Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:30:51 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/Lord-Stanley-Cup The Stanley Cup On March 18, 1892, at a dinner of the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Association. Lord Kilcoursie, a player on the Ottawa Rebels hockey club from Government House, delivered the following message on behalf of Lord Stanley, the Earl of Preston and Governor General of Canada: "I have for some time been thinking that it would be a good thing if there were a challenge cup which should be held from year to year by the champion hockey team in the Dominion (of Canada). "There does not appear to be any such outward sign of a championship at present, and considering the general interest which matches now elicit, and the importance of having the game played fairly and under rules generally recognized, I am willing to give a cup which shall be held from year to year by the winning team." 1 sports Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:20:46 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/Christopher-Pike Christopher Pike, born as Kevin McFadden in 1954 in Brooklyn NY but had grown up in California and is where he still resides. Pike is a very private man, as you can tell by his pen name.    There are no known pictures of Christopher Pike/Kevin McFadden (a very private man) also he has had very few interviews. Even from the FEW interviews done Christopher prefers it that way. He had gotten the name Christopher pike from the original Captain from the first pilot episode of the Star Trek series. He first started out writing adult science fiction but he had been advised to try a young adult novel.  Christopher Pikes books mostly fits into these age groups - Young Adult Teens Young Reader and Children (9 to 12) Note: This is for my daughter who shared this with me, her love for this author and her desire to collect everyone of his books published! Even now in her 20's something she stills inspires to collect this persons work. Thank you Tasha for sharing! (LOL she collects just like me!) entertainment Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:39:25 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/groups..The-Love-of-Hobbies Share your hobby with us! A place where you can find cool hobbies or share your hobby passions with everyone! Whatever it is you collect there's thousands of others who love collecting the same thing. From cards, coins, stamps, comics, plates, spoons, records, dolls and there is no end to what can be collected. Read some of the great Squidoo lenses of other squids who will share there great and amazing hobbies with us... If you have a hobby related Squidoo lens we welcome you to add it to this growing group! Note: If I have added your lens to this group please add your lens as well so it shows in the list of hobby's! diy Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:20:06 -0600