[Archive]

Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Actually John, I did collect nearly every new set that has come out since 1976 -- and that included the Griffey rookie card. I can tell you now that I have gotten over my bitterness of only collecting the one that still sits in my unopened box from 1989. It hasn't been easy. Many years of analysis and 12 step programs have allowed me to work through this trauma. Unlike you, I suppose I wasn't completely wowed by a rookie card from that era no matter how seminal it may have been. Same goes with the McGwire rookie card. It was nice but not quite as compelling as cards of people that actually hit more than 49 homeruns in their career. The fact is, while the card may have been hot during that period, it never approached any kind of signidficant dollar value. While I contemplated trading my mint Griffey rookie for a new Camaro, I resisted -- and look how lucky I was because that car now is probably worth much less than my baseball card.

I apologize if my lack of enthusiasm then and now for the Griffey card makes me look bad in your eyes. Again, this will take me years of analysis and 12 step programs to work through. I hope that the rest of the baseball card collecting world will judge me not on my purported lack of interest in the Griffey card but on my other accomplishments in my life.