Things you hated when collecting cards as a kid

[ALBB]

feel free to add to the list -

1) not understanding the whole " cards by series " thing...and kept buying packs and getting same players

2) getting a card of a player with no hat on

3) getting a card/insert of player with no team logo

4) seemingly getting the same player repeatedly ..and of course a no name/ out of state common

[Jim65]

Getting a card of a player no longer on the team pictured.

Looking through every loaf of bread on the shelf looking for the last Wonder Bread card I needed.

[rats60]

Not getting the last series cards in the store or them coming in so late that there weren't enough ordered to complete your set. I never understood why the lower series were so plentiful that you could easily collect them all, but the higher series were not. I only completed one set, 1968, by buying packs and trading prior to the "one series" release of 1974. All the others required mail ordering the cards that never made it into our area in sufficient quantities.

[Puckettfan]

When I was a kid I hated the local Coin/Card shop owner.

He was an older version of the comic store owner from the Simpsons.

He had a coin-first shop and showed real disdain for card collectors. Most of whom were pack junky kids not interested in coins in the slightest. I got the feeling that he hated kids in general but really hated kid card collectors who's pallet was not refined enough to know that the resurgence in cards was just a passing fad (in his mind).

He clearly resented the fact that coins were not enjoying the same renascence and that he had to shift his store's focus more onto cards.

Kris

[nolemmings]

I hated the fact that I always believed stuffing 5-7 sticks of that gum in my mouth would taste better this time than the last 200 times I tried it.

[AGuinness]

Growing up in Vermont, OPC cards really bugged me and I hated running across a card I wanted only to realize it was an OPC and not Topps.
Funny thing is, now I'm fond of OPC cards...

[gonzo]

Duplicate checklist cards. During the 70s and early 80s, even the first copy wasn’t much to look at, but once I had it and knew who was on it, opening a pack and seeing another one was a disappointment. No one ever wanted to trade for “Checklist 133-264”.

[Bigdaddy]

The gum.

And not being able to find a 1977 Walter Payton among the many packs I bought.

[ALBB]

Oh yea, that's a good one

getting the checklist card !....at the time you felt is wasn't even a baseball card !!

[ALBB]

another one I hated was getting a card showing a pitcher in some stage of a wind-up pose...

and you could see he didn't have a ball in his hand ,.... You Faker !!

[jchcollins]

feel free to add to the list -

1) not understanding the whole " cards by series " thing...and kept buying packs and getting same players


Unfortunately this was way before my time. I never understood the "why" behind vintage high numbers being worth more until I was no longer a kid...

[jchcollins]

My active years for "kid" collecting were 1986-94. Here is what comes to mind:

* Dealers who literally believed Beckett was the gospel. Yes kid, I know that card has been sitting in my showcase collecting dust for nearly a year, but I can't let you have it for $5 less because "that's not what Beckett says..." For the record I'm talking about cards like maybe an '87 Fleer Bo Jackson or an '86 Topps Traded Jose Canseco. Really dealer dude? For the record this was several years before I went on to major in economics in undergrad, but even as a kid I understood the principle. And as we all later learned, the canon according to Dr. Jim B. wasn't nearly infallible.

* I often traded cards for vintage (back in the 80's simply called "old cards") with dealers that were willing to humor kids. I made some great acquisitions this way, including some Mantle cards and various other HOF'ers. What I hated is the times when I would visit these stores (with my mother, I had no other means of transportation at age 12...) after elaborate planning and begging in some cases to be driven 30+ minutes away - only to realize that the owner or "decision maker" of the card shop wasn't there that day. In those cases I was more than welcome to buy whatever my eye fancied in the case that day - but trading was out of the question. I was usually told "oh sorry kid, Mr. Harold isn't here today, he's the one who makes those kind of decisions." :-( Dang it, guess I'll have to wait until next time.

* Jerk dealers at card shows who didn't want to deal with me just because I was a kid. Most kids were there to get an auto or try to score boxes of Upper Deck cards, but I was interested in the vintage stuff. It didn't happen often, but the times it did I remember. Dealers who gave me a hard time wanting to see a '50s card in the case that they had a $100 sticker on, or worse were the ones who would just sit on the other side of their display and ignore me. Just because I'm small doesn't necessarily mean I don't have a wad of cash in my pocket, mister. I was always glad to move on to someone else who was more eager to help me. :-)

That's basically it. I remember a few unpleasant experiences as a kid, but the positive always far outweighed the negative. I was an only child who if I didn't have the money saved myself from my allowance or whatever, could usually persuade my mom into covering a loan for the difference on whatever it is I wanted at the moment. I realized later in life that not nearly so many of my contemporaries were that lucky.

[Kurri17]

Patiently waiting for the new baseball or football release so I could collect players from my favorite teams, and then pulling them and they were head shots, or even worse head shots with airbrushed hats or jerseys or in the case of football helmets. Gee whiz.

Of course, I guess there is worse, I'll never forgive Topps for their 1973 Joe Rudi card, which of course isn't even Joe Rudi.

[mr2686]

I really can't add anything, other than saying it still pisses me off that I didn't understand about the series thing. Looking for players that were either in a series that was no longer being sold, or one that was in the last series that didn't get sold where I purchased them. Damn, I'm having flash backs and it's not good. Thanks for ruining my Valentine's day...I think I need therapy, or to spend lots of money on cards. Ok, problem solved. :D

[MK]

My years of buying packs was between 1959 and 67 at which point girls suddenly became more interesting than they were previously. Anyway, what I hated was that trip to the store when the boxes of baseball cards were replaced with football cards. I was, and still am, a baseball guy. Loved the summers!

[Nick55]

In order of most hated when I was a kid:

(1) black and white photos used for certain inserts in color photo sets (e.g., 1979 Topps rookie cards).

(2) any kind of air-brushing of the card photo

(3) heavy wax/gum stains on the card backs (I still hate it)

(4) manager cards

(5) checklists (today, I love them!)

(6) miscuts

[Yastrzemski Sports]

The only things I hated about it was not having enough money. But almost every spare dollar I had went toward cards. Good times.

[TheNightmanCometh]

* Having no concept of print runs.

I started collecting in 1991. :(

[ValKehl]

(1) Cards that didn't have each individual year's statistics for the players on the backs of the cards. Hence, of the years I bought Topps cards as a kid, 1955-1960, my favorite years were 1957 & 1959. As a kid, I liked to analyze numbers, which probably explains why I became an accountant for my career.

(2) That I couldn't find my two favorite Wash. Senators, Pete Runnels & Mickey Vernon, in the 1955 Topps set. Years later, I learned they were in the 1955 Bowman set, which wasn't available where I bought my cards as a kid.

[VintageVinnie]

Man, these posts bring back memories. For me, it was the dreaded checklist and or manager card. Yuk! Always felt like I got jipped out of a full pack when they threw in that checklist card. Also, getting doubles and triples of the same guy. I vividly remember opening Topps football cards in 1982 and kept getting Lawrence Taylor cards. I must have had 5 of them in my stack and was really annoyed as a kid. Had no clue. Still makes me chuckle.

[ALBB]

How about every time you open a pack and saw the advertisement on the side of the wrapper.... ,you thought about how cool it would be to order the flip down sunglasses or card album, or whatever it was.....but of course never did.... #1) you barely had 5 or 10 cents for the cards, #2) you had no idea how to address or mail an envelope ! !!!!

[mr2686]

How about every time you open a pack and saw the advertisement on the side of the wrapper.... ,you thought about how cool it would be to order the flip down sunglasses or card album, or whatever it was.....but of course never did.... #1) you barely had 5 or 10 cents for the cards, #2) you had no idea how to address or mail an envelope ! !!!!

Oh sure, but I bet you had the money for the X-ray glasses at the back of Comic Books. LOL

[jchcollins]

Oh sure, but I bet you had the money for the X-ray glasses at the back of Comic Books. LOL

For me in the 1980's, the wrappers had progressed to always advertising being able to win a trip to spring training. At some point there was an insert card which talked about the same thing. I was always like yeah right, I'm never going to win that. And I never did, LOL.

[hammer]

I hated it when you went to the store and they were out of packs and cards.

[tedzan]

All this is too negative. Excuse me, but I had to modify the theme of this thread. Collecting sportscards when you were a kid had to be a happy experience.

Here are some my very first BB cards which my sister and I pulled out of BOND BREAD packages in 1947. Yeah we ate a lot of bread (and toast) that year,
since I completed this set of 48 cards.
How did I know I had a complete set of them ? There were about a dozen of us guys in our neighborhood collecting these cards. And, between our trading,
and our comparing notes we concluded that there were no more than 44 baseball cards (plus 4 boxers).


http://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan77/images/1947bb6rookiestars.jpg



TED Z

T206 Reference (http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=237816)
.

[ALBB]

Ted,
very cool as always !

Hey, did you ever as a kid, make an impulse purchase over to the Non Sport side of things ? G men, Dick Tracy, Tarzan, Mickey Mouse...etc.. ?

[Fuddjcal]

when I would buy 4-boxes and they didn't have anymore in the back. I'd have to ride my bike around, collect pop bottles and then, spend all the $$$ on cards stopping at every liquor store that had them.:D

[Chris Counts]

I hated Twinkies. And because they came with cards starting in 1975, I ate way too many of them. I vividly remember one time buying a couple boxes, saving the cards and organizing a food fight in an alley behind a grocery store with the actual Twinkies. I was told that when the Twinkies reached their expiration date, they would be sent first to a store that sold old bread, then to pig farmers. The pigs, it turned out, didn't mind the Twinkies — or the boxes and cards, which they also devoured.

[skil55voy]

I agree with rats60. Because the distribution channels were so bad in the 60's you would sometimes never see the end series. The only 3 sets that I completed were, 62, 65 and 68. Each of those years the 7th series made it to Detroit. The worst was 63. I only saw 3 Series. 64 through the 5th etc..

[tedzan]

Ted,
very cool as always !

Hey, did you ever as a kid, make an impulse purchase over to the Non Sport side of things ? G men, Dick Tracy, Tarzan, Mickey Mouse...etc.. ?



Albert

In 1948 I collected LEAF Pirates Of The Seas cards, 1948 BOWMAN Movie Stars, and in 1950 Hopalong Cassidy cards.

http://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan77/images/large/48BMikanHolzBaughWfdxSHxRPxYDxSH.jpg

TED Z

T206 Reference (http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=237816)
.

[SAllen2556]

When I was 10, it was simple: the more Tigers in a pack, the better.
I'd rather have Bill Freehan and Willie Horton than Rod Carew and Joe Morgan any day. I felt totally ripped off if I didn't get any Tigers.

And, I used to get way more of these than I see today. I wonder if most of these just got tossed, because there were a lot more really awful mis-cut cards in the mid-70's than you see around today. I had a '73 Al Kaline like this Toby Harrah.

344584

[pingman59]

I never could get Hank Aaron. In 1968, my first year of buying packs, my local store had 1st series, but then no second series (which had Hank) and then returned with 3rd series. In 1969, I missed out on the first three series (series one had Hank). In 1970, I did get to buy a handful of 5th series, but didn't get Hank. In 1971, my last of buying cards as a kid, I bought plenty of the first three series, but stopped after that. Hank was in the 4th series. I picked up the hobby for good in 1974 and never got a Hank that year despite buying at least 100 packs over the summer. Same problem in 1975 and 1976 with similar quantities. Then, I ordered a 500 count vending box from Ted and Linda Pina of FL and viola! Hank Aaron!

The other frustrating thing was getting plenty of Phil Roof every year.

I still had fun collecting and trading anyway!:)

[GasHouseGang]

When I was 10, it was simple: the more Tigers in a pack, the better.
I'd rather have Bill Freehan and Willie Horton than Rod Carew and Joe Morgan any day. I felt totally ripped off if I didn't get any Tigers.

And, I used to get way more of these than I see today. I wonder if most of these just got tossed, because there were a lot more really awful mis-cut cards in the mid-70's than you see around today. I had a '73 Al Kaline like this Toby Harrah.

344584

I know exactly what you mean Scott. You'd put down your hard earned dime and get some mis-cut piece of crap plus a checklist and a team card! What the heck! These cards would just get stuck in the bicycle spokes or tossed into the trade pile. I still can't understand anyone wanting these poorly cut mistakes. But I guess there's always a collector out there for almost anything.

[Harliduck]

Fun to read all these and agreed with many. I started buying packs as an 8 year old in 1978...so never dealt with the series issues. Here were my frustrations..

1. 1981, my little corner store started carrying Donruss instead of Topps...I was ticked! You would literally get doubles in the same pack! Made mom travel into town. It was hard enough getting your complete set, now I had to do 3?? (Which I reluctantly did)

2. As mentioned, Team cards, checklists, multi rookie card, manager cards (unless they were HOF players), lack of Mariner cards (felt like it to a Washington kid)

3. Living in north Western Washington...O-Pee Chee SUCKED! They were a problem, some stores had them...I refused to buy them. Then when you trade with your buddies and they whipped them out...burn em! Haha...hated O-Pee Chee

4. Baseball cards gone, in came Football. Hated football cards. Still don't collect them.

5. Double, triple checking all the Hostess boxes...SAME ONES!!!

6. I swear I would get the same disc card for every Slurpee I bought...

7. ANY card with a player not wearing a hat. I still can't stand cards with hatless players. My WORSE card still is the 1961 Harmon Killebrew...my favorite all time player...terrible card...lol.


That's enough...everything else about cards as a kid was AWESOME.

[onlyvintage62]

Getting thoose incipid 1972 Award cards, what a waste...

[Hot Springs Bathers]

John the 1981 Donruss mention reminded me of two stories from that year. I pulled one pack that had 8 Pete Rose cards and 9 Mike Schmidt cards. I remember sitting back and thinking is this good or bad?

I got so tired of having to throw one card away out of each pack because their gum literally sealed itself to the top card that I wrote a letter to the company complaining. One afternoon I got the mail with a letter apologizing for that fact and a small Super Bubble decal was enclosed. I thought wow that was a weak effort of their part. About an hour later a UPS truck pulled up out front and the driver delivered a large box with four wax boxes inside! Then I really thought wow!