If I only knew then....

[almostdone]

I know this question is completely hypothetical and will very greatly based on any one persons age but I think most, if not all of us, have thought this before.

If your current self could go back and tell your past self one thing about a hobby decision that you didn't make what would it be? I think it would be fun to see the responses. List what year you would go back to and how old your past self would have been.

For me I think I would go back to 1986 and tell my fourteen year old self that buying all those baseball packs won't pan out as buying the same among of Fleer basketball packs. I remember seeing them on the shelf but I so badly just wanted my beloved Mets cards instead.

What would you do?

Drew

[egri]

Originally Posted by almostdone

I know this question is completely hypothetical and will very greatly based on any one persons age but I think most, if not all of us, have thought this before.

If your current self could go back and tell your past self one thing about a hobby decision that you didn't make what would it be? I think it would be fun to see the responses. List what year you would go back to and how old your past self would have been.

For me I think I would go back to 1986 and tell my fourteen year old self that buying all those baseball packs won't pan out as buying the same among of Fleer basketball packs. I remember seeing them on the shelf but I so badly just wanted my beloved Mets cards instead.

What would you do?

Drew

I'd go back 8-9 years and tell 11-12 year old me to write to a bunch of the old time players who I had always wanted to write to but never got around to it. I don't just mean the Bob Feller's and Dom Dimaggio's, but I had wanted to write to Lou Brissie and Bert Shepard about their war experiences, and to Phil Cavarretta, Duke Snider, Marty Marion, Preacher Roe, Virgil Trucks, Andy Pafko, Gus Zernial, Mel Parnell, Ernie Banks, Sam Chapman, Eldon Auker, etc but that ship sailed while I was stalling and putting it off. I did write to a handful of old timers, but not nearly as many as I would have liked to.

[begsu1013]

i'd go back to the summer of '89 and say "bobby, that upper deck jerome walton card is not going to be worth raking and bagging that yard of leaves, trust me".

[mrmopar]

I'll keep it simple and not assume that I use this to make myself a multi-millionaire:

In 1978, I tell myself to start seriously collecting autographs and vintage cards as best as my current budget allows. I would get autographs at games in the 80s, but that was it and I would also buy an occasional 1950s card and even added a 33 Goudey in the 80s, but never really tried to get the T cards and other goodies until much later.

To keep it even simpler…

I tell myself in 1984 to buy the Fleer Update set. I bought complete sets every year, but never bought the traded sets other than 83 when Garvey was in the Topps set and then started buying them as well around 85-86.

[bcbgcbrcb]

Funny you mention the '86-'87 Fleer basketball cards. When they first came out in December of '86, I bought two wax boxes at J.J. Newberry's in Paramus, NJ at the Bergen Mall, which was across the street from my first-ever bank job at 18 years old. At the time, the two wax boxes were priced at $10.00 each but the cashier rang them up as $10.00 total so I happily took them home at the bargain price of $5.00 each.

Of course, I ripped open all of the packs as soon as I got home and made three complete sets along with dups of Jordan, Ewing, etc. Fast forward to around 1990 and I see an ad in SCD with Rich Altman paying around $200 for the Jordan RC alone, of which, I had four from my sets. I quickly packed and shipped them along with Ewing's, Malone's, Barkley's, etc. and got back a fat check for just under $1,000. What a steal for my $10.00 investment, right? I had to go bragging to all of my friends too.

Of course, fast forwarding to today, unopened wax boxes routinely bring $10K+ each so, if I only knew then what I know now............

[jcromp78]

I find it hard to believe for as many 86 Topps baseball and football packs I bought as a kid that somehow I failed to even buy a single pack of Fleer basketball that year. Perhaps my town (pretty small) didn't have them I will never know. I also would have told myself to stop trying to open so many 89 Donruss packs to get Griffey when in the future they would be so cheap. I never bought any 89 Upper Deck as a kid but I managed to pull the Griffey rookie last year after only a couple of packs from a card shop in Vermont.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by begsu1013

i'd go back to the summer of '89 and say "bobby, that upper deck jerome walton card is not going to be worth raking and bagging that yard of leaves, trust me".

Wow, and I thought I was the only one who remembered Jerome Walton. 😄
I remember shows in the fall of '89 where that card was selling for more than Ken Jr. It didn't last long but alas, that was the year that 12 year-old me became a Cubs fan...

[jchcollins]

The main thing I would probably tell younger me (and this would be like 22-23 year-old younger me) would be to never buy a card that you know you can't really afford. I went through a bit of a dealer-scum phase in the early 2000's where I snapped up pretty much anything I wanted and just put it on the credit card. (Hey, cards for cards, right?) Anything high grade of Mantle, Ted Williams, Koufax, Aaron, Mays, you name it. I had gorgeous examples of a '52 Topps Jackie Robinson and a '49 Leaf Ted Williams. This was of course not sustainable long-term, and I eventually had to sell most of it off. What also got sold in the mix were some lower grade cards from my earlier collection that had sentimental value, and by a year or so later those were the cards I had real regrets about losing.

Since coming back into the hobby recently (I'm now in my late 30's) I am sticking to mostly mid- and lower grade vintage with a vow to never get put in a position again where I might *have to* sell something. I'm also slowly adding back some of those cards from my earlier collection that were lost at affordable prices. I've never looked at cards as an investment, just always loved the history and nostalgia wrapped up in each one. If I can remember that going forward I should wind up in much better shape this time!

-John

[brewing]

I wish I could go back to 1982 and tell myself to follow the rule I follow today. Buy cards of retired players only.

[gnpaden]

for me it would have been to buy all the 90's basketball wax I could find. I collected mainly between 1995 and 2000, so wish I had all the rare inserts today.

[jb67]

Originally Posted by begsu1013

i'd go back to the summer of '89 and say "bobby, that upper deck jerome walton card is not going to be worth raking and bagging that yard of leaves, trust me".

Good one!!