Looking back...

[freakhappy]

I was doing my nightly routine...laying with my two boys (6 and 3), waiting until they fall asleep before I leave the room...and during that small window of time, I started thinking about cards and what they mean to me. In the grand scheme of things, they are just pieces of cardboard...but these pieces of history mean so much more than what they really are. I've been collecting pretty heavy for the past five years or so and collecting in general all the way back to when I was a kid (started in '87 when I was 8 yrs. old). Some people get the "bug" and some don't...it stays with some and others not so much, but I think we can all agree that most of us have had it or definitely still do have it and it means so much to us...it holds a special place and connects us to many memories that we have had with friends, family and events that have occurred in our lives. A few things that never gets old are learning things in our hobby and looking at old cardboard!

But the purpose of this thread is for anyone that has a memory or memories that they would like to share with the rest of us that means a lot to them or just a memory that has stuck with them over time (good or bad) that connects them to this wonderful hobby of ours, feel free to do so...I'm sure everyone would love to hear it!

One thing that I remember from my childhood that I loved thinking about was me and my cousin playing "cards for cards". While our parents and others were playing nickel/dime poker, we were in the other room playing poker, for baseball cards. It was so much fun raking that big pot that contained a Ripken, Griffey Jr. and The Big Hurt at the same time! Back then, when we were young it wasn't about money as much, it was about collecting, friendship and having something in common...as it is to a lot of us today

So please share what you have and show pictures if you have them...

[itjclarke]

Like you Mike, I've had the bug since I a very young kid... earliest memories are of my dad buying me 1980 wax packs (I was 3) from his office lunch truck. Within a few years, once I learned how to write my name, I scribbled "Ian" on the backs of all my cards. I still have many and got a handful of them signed at spring training and/or baseball games (gotta love the 1981 Fleer Dusty Baker with his auto on the front and mine on back)... however I traded most away as a kid. Seeing the famous F Scott Fitzgerald stamped T206s makes me wonder if any of my worthless "Ian(s)" are still floating around.. or laying around anywhere right now. If anyone stumbles upon at a flea market, or penny/card box at a show please PM me.. I'd pay 1000 times the actual worth to get any of those back.

[freakhappy]

Originally Posted by itjclarke

Like you Mike, I've had the bug since I a very young kid... earliest memories are of my dad buying me 1980 wax packs (I was 3) from his office lunch truck. Within a few years, once I learned how to write my name, I scribbled "Ian" on the backs of all my cards. I still have many and got a handful of them signed at spring training and/or baseball games (gotta love the 1981 Fleer Dusty Baker with his auto on the front and mine on back)... however I traded most away as a kid. Seeing the famous F Scott Fitzgerald stamped T206s makes me wonder if any of my worthless "Ian(s)" are still floating around.. or laying around anywhere right now. If anyone stumbles upon at a flea market, or penny/card box at a show please PM me.. I'd pay 1000 times the actual worth to get any of those back.

That's an excellent story and exactly what I was hoping would come out in this thread! Thanks for sharing! I think that's awesome how you got some of those very first cards that you signed, signed by pro ball players too...classic move! Paying 1000 times what they are worth would still only bump the price to $.50

Another good memory for me is trade night at Jim's Dugout! Every Tuesday, me and my cousin would grab our binder and rendezvous at the Dugout for some crazy trading with a few dozen other small kids...it was special. The two things that stuck with me during my times there was winning a box of 1988 topps baseball on a raffle (wow that was great when you were only 10!) and trading away my '89 Score Aikman RC for a Jose Canseco Sportflic...I'd like to forget that last one but nonetheless a good memory for me.

[Rickyy]

I wish I had pictures...but whenever I think of cards...it ultimately comes back to memories of child hood friends and wondering what ever happened to many of them... Gary, Robert C and Robert M...we'd spend many a summer afternoons going over to each others houses, eating cookies, drinking soda pop and looking at and swapping cards, before heading out to play ball... Gary especially knew cards...and he always was a tough negotiator when it came to trades..., but he did ultimately give me the 1974 Topps Dave Sells card so I could complete the set...

Ricky Y

[Vintagevault13]

Great thread. My best memories are from 1974 when I was 8 years old and just beginning to collect baseball cards. This is a special memory because I kept them at my grandmother's house (so my little brother wouldn't bother them!). I can remember spending countless hours sitting in the floor at her feet going through the cards and absolutely absorbing the stats on the back. On Saturdays she would take me with her shopping and buy me some packs at the local Woolworth's store. I still remember the anticipation of getting back to her house to open the packs to see what I got. This was a time of pure collecting innocence as I had absolutely no idea that these cards held any value to anyone other than me. It wasn't a business or an investment, it was just a wonderful hobby that let a small boy from Georgia visit ballparks and meet players in my imagination. To this day I almost feel like I personally know the players from the mid-70's because of what I learned about them from these cards. My grandmother passed away last year and these "baseball card memories" have provided me with a wonderful connection that I will never forget.

[dabigyankeeman]

Hey Mike, I have a few things I remember from childhood. I remember even as a kid spending every penny I had on cards. I remember when the 1955 Bowmans came out how neat it was that they looked like little color televisions! This is the oldest set I remember, I was 7 at the time. I remember selling a model ship to another kid and using the money to buy packs of cards. I remember when none of us kids could get a Stan Musial card (we didnt know there werent any) and one kid claimed he had one and we went to his house to see it and he seached and searched but couldnt find the non-existant card!! We flipped them and put them in the spokes of our bikes, had fun with them, all the cliche's are true, we did those things. And of course ultimately my mother threw them away.

I bet a lot of the cards I have been buying the last 30 years are cards I owned as a kid growing up in New York!!! I also wish I had someone to sit and share my cards with, but never had any kids, and none of my friends are into the hobby! Oh well, I love the cards anyway, and have my whole life.

[Sean]

I started collecting cards when I was seven. I collected the 1965 Topps set. My father gave me my first cards, and after that I spent what little money I had on packs of baseball cards. They were 5 cents for a pack of five cards. For some reason it seemed like every pack had a Gary Bell card in it.

Back then my friends and I always searched for Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, or Sandy Koufax. I got a Mays and Koufax, but not the Mick.

A few years later my cards were thrown away when we moved. I only have one card left from my childhood:

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[Rich Klein]

when you traded the Aikman RC for the Canseco -- I'd bet that was an 86 SF Canseco you traded for and if that was the card with Mike Greenwell on the card, that was a pretty sweet card back then. That was when that was Greenwell's only 86 card and we all thought he had a great future based on his early years/

Just goes to show, you never can tell as Chuck Berry sang.

[baztacula]

I was always obsessed with 1975 minis when I was a kid. I began cobbling together a set in the late '80s and early '90s. One day a friend of mine told me that his sister had some '75 minis in their basement and that they were probably perfect because he remembered opening packs with her when they were kids. He explained that she would carefully remove the cards from the wrappers and then gingerly place them in a box which she never opened again. This really got my attention. Soon after hearing this intriguing story, while I was playing softball with that friend, I saw his sister sittinig in the stands, watching us play. Excited, I nudged another teammate, who apparently wasn't all that interested in baseball cards, and pointed at the bleachers and said, "Do you see that girl over there? She has minis!" He looked at me strangely and then silently gazed over in her direction. After a few minutes of confusion and me blabbering on about how much I craved her wonderful minis it dawned on him. "Are you talking about baseball cards?" When I nodded yes, he responded, "Ohhhh, I thought you were talking about her boobs."

[ATP]

Being born in the late 1970's and a child of the 80's collecting culture, I couldn't wait to get each months Beckett. I have always been a numbers person, and I would pour over that thing each month seeing what went up and what went down (I think they used to use plus and minus symbols, and then arrows if I am remembering correctly). And then wow, if a card you had ever went into bold type then you really new you had the key card. I think part of the mystique for me back then was that I really had very little access to vintage cards from my local store. I knew what the sets looked like, and could recognize the key cards, but I had no idea what a 1959 Clemente looked like unless I saw a photo in a mail order catlog, Beckett article, or happened across one in person. Money was different back then or course as well, so seeing a card worth $50 seemed out of this world at the time.

[z28jd]

When I was about 10, I bought a Willie "Puddin Head" Jones card and I thought that was one of the best cards at the time because my dad still used his original four-fingered glove when we played catch. The glove was from when he was a kid and it had a facsimile autograph of Jones. It was beat up, but he could still use it and he still has it to this day, though he eventually bought a new glove.

Not only was the nickname cool to me, I spent part of my meager allowance to get the 1960 Jones card for my dad, so at the time I thought it was a big deal.

[vintagechris]

I discovered cards in 1980 at the local mall where my Mom worked. After discovering them and buying some for myself, My Mom would bring home two packs of cards for me everyday from work. She did this for 7 years.

I'm still at it after all these years and even though my Mom passed away in 2009, I give her lots of credit for my collecting bug and the enjoyment I get from cards. Thanks Mom! You were the best!

[sycks22]

I remember going to the local store here in MN with my bro and dad every saturday and see what cards they just got it. My player was always the big hurt and when his '90 leaf was the hot card I got an idea. My bro wanted a sweet bike and I figured if I got a Giant impactor (my bike) and the '90 Leaf Thomas it would equal his diamondback tailwhip. We also pretended we were bmx bikers after watching the movie "Rad". I also remember going to SA and getting a '91 upper deck Jordan baseball card the day after my bro got one in a pack. I was jumping around the parking lot.

[DHogan]

I remember being in 3rd grade at St. John's Catholic school in Worcester Mass. in the late 60's and trying to trade cards at recess time. Or, if the nun's minding the school yard at recess saw anyone with cards in their hands worse yet playing flipping card games against the school building. They would come over and take everyone's cards away and never give them back. I guess they considered it gambling !


A strange thing was, that no one wanted anything to do with rookie cards. Kids would give them away or even throw them away !

[cockrellcollection]

I remember at some point in the early 90s when I was 10 or 11 years old my mother would help me bid in Ron Wilson's (if I remember the name correctly) mail auctions. He was out of Ohio and we would get a typed list in the mail (no pictures that I recall) and I would pick out the lots I was interested in. I really wish I remember how I went about picking out those lots. I do remember winning my first three T206s, all sovereign backs: Shaw 350 (which I don't have anymore), Phelan 350 and Pfeffer 460. I also remember winning a Yuenglings Dugan and a whole lot of 50s commons through a year or so of doing these auctions. I learned some great lessons in collecting and got to spend some fun times with my mother going through those lists. I guess I caught the auction bug early and still love the excitement of it. Did anyone else participate in these auctions?

[ValKehl]

My 3 best buddies and I were always doing sports together, and we all collected cards (mostly baseball) in the mid-1950's to the early 1960's. Being very competitive kids, we spent countless hours trying to win each other's cards - we did some card flipping, but we mostly played two games that we called "sail touch" and "knock down," both of which turned NM cards quickly into G cards! We mostly played with our dupes, but one day my ego and that of one of my buddies got the best of us - we agreed to risk our best singles, my Wash. Senators vs. his Brooklyn Dodgers - I happened to have one of my best days ever, and I cleaned my buddy out of his Koufaxes, Sniders, Reeses, etc.! After we learned how to play cards, we spent countless hours playing blackjack and poker for each other's cards. Those were fun times!!
Val

[freakhappy]

Anyone remember the Fun Cards that Beckett had in their monthly magazine?? I always looked forward to reading which cards were hot and cold...along with the Fun Cards, which were always amusing to me Below I have attached seven cards total...two of which were made by me and a buddy a long time ago and five that I kept because I always thought it was cool that they had the same names as other famous people...can't make this stuff up, people!

For the life of me I don't know how Michael Keaton's face got attached to Will Clark's, but when I found it in a random box a few years ago, I had to keep it. A buddy of mine did the Hendrix and I've always loved it...good memories there!

I'm sure most everyone knows the cross referencing of each or most names, but I'll list them anyway:

Jim Morrison - Singer
Buster Rhymes - Rapper
Mike Tyson - Boxer
Willie Beamon - Jamie Foxx's name in "Any Given Sunday"
Razor Shines - no cross reference...but who has a name like this???

[freakhappy]

After going through a few of my old Beckett Monthly's, I noticed that this was the back cover of the August 1991 Issue #77:



Keepin' it real...even in this thread

[steve B]

I got my first pack in 1969. We lived in a rural/suburban sort of area, some new construction mixed among old farms. One or two houses still had the old crank telephones and the local pharmacy was a great store/meeting place for everyone. It was also a sort of special treat to go there and get some penny candy.
For some reason I decided on baseball cards, and bought one pack.
I opened it sitting on the car with dad and he said "Hey this guy is pretty good"
The cards eventually found their way to the bottom of the toybox with a bunch of other small stuff, and Reggie had to wait a whole two years before any other baseball stuff joined him. By then a couple of the cards had probably become lost. The 71s had a coin! so Danny Cater joined Reggie in the toybox. Until early 74 when the Hank Aaron specials got me interested in old cards. And eventually the Reggie Jackson rookie got recovered from it's toybox exile and added to the collection, having survived 6 years in the toybox, several cleanings and a move.

I still have it, and the Cater coin.


But then I've always been a collector. as a younger kid I liked shorts that had lots of pockets so I could carry more "interesting stuff" back from the woods and fields behind the house.
My first try at collecting baseball stuff didn't go as well. 67 or 68 we went to a cookout and the soda had pictures inside the caps! I rounded up a couple big pocketsful before we had to go and mom confiscated them all to throw away. Apparently the rocks, and bits of fungus covered wood I usually kept were ok but a bunch of "dirty old bottlecaps" were just too much.

Steve B