Posted By:
AdamBaxterI was born in the 70's I didn't really come into cards until right in the middle of the 1986-87 rookie class. I was too busy collecting Star Wars figures. 
I remember that some of the big names then were Mattingly, Henderson, Canseco, Dale Murphy, Davis etc. etc. You were a big deal if you had some of these guys: 84 Donruss Mattingly, Strawberry, 85 Clemens, Gooden, 86 Donruss Canseco. I remember picking up 87 Topps wax packs on the way home from school and trying to pull McGwire, Sierra, Bonds, Bonilla and so on. Those guys were all cool. But Canseco was the guy to have. My favorite rookie back then, who has also remained one of my favorite players of all-time was Barry Larkin. I remember the heated disagreements my friend (who worshipped Eric Davis) and I used to get in over who the real star for the Reds was. Topps was usually the brand to build sets from each year, But Donruss and Fleer usually had the cooler rookie cards. I was also CRAZY into the 1980's O-Pee-Chee Hockey sets. The wax for those were tough to come buy and scoring Gretzky's and other big names like Lemeiux, Roy, Messier and Bourque was a big thrill. Then 1988 came and all the baseball card companies overproduced to the point of ridiculousness and my interest started to wane as there were just too many cards, too many sets and too few cards worth collecting. It just wasn't fun anymore. The first truly pre-war card I ever bought was in 1996. It was a 1934 Goudey Charlie Gehringer at the local card shop for $60.00 and I've been hooked on Pre-War ever since. I've sworn up and down that I'd never get back to the modern stuff, But I have to admit that I do sometimes miss it. I've actually been hanging around the 1980's categories for baseball and hockey on Ebay lately trying to decide if I should use Pre-War card money to pick up some a nice '83 Boggs rookie or '86-87 Roy.