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  #1  
Old 10-29-2015, 12:23 PM
Sean1125 Sean1125 is offline
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  #2  
Old 10-29-2015, 12:32 PM
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You are welcome Sean and good luck to everyone on the giveaway!!
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  #3  
Old 10-29-2015, 12:38 PM
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M.att C H A R L T O N
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Well I was once a young collector. I tried to assemble a 55AA set after hearing the story about Nile Kinnick. It sat gathering dust for 20+ years. I just bought 2 of the last 5 that I need to complete the set from... You. So happy to say that I'm closer to completion thanks to your store.
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  #4  
Old 10-29-2015, 12:53 PM
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D@vid L@dd
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I have many hobbies that span from when I was young, but one constant has been baseball cards and autographs. I was a pretty hardcore collector in the late 80's-early 90's (like many others) collecting almost anything that was printed, including hockey, football and basketball. I collected with my buddies and we all loved it. Then when I was 17, my best collecting friend lost a 2 year battle with cancer. This hit me hard and I forgot about cards. I was completely separated from the hobby as other things occupied my mind. I went to college...then law school...then started working.

What got me back in was my mom actually. She enters contests as a hobby, and has won everything from cars to trips to cash. In 2002 I believe, she entered me into a Steiner Sports contest, where the winner got to meet former WS MVP John Wetteland. She won the contest, and I met him with my girlfriend at the time (now my wife). While I watched baseball religiously, this was my first re-exposure to the hobby in about 10 years. Since then, I have been back to stay!
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  #5  
Old 10-29-2015, 01:07 PM
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Jeff C.
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Like others I got back into collecting a few years ago. My 2 twin boys and my daughter were finally old enough to be introduced to the hobby. At the age of 4, my daughter knew who Jeter, Trout, and Harper were. She loves opening packs with me.
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  #6  
Old 10-29-2015, 01:11 PM
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I got into collecting with my dad about 10 years ago.Went to a card show in New Haven CT and fell in love with the hobby. Even though I was only about 12 I only liked the older cards. Loved the history. We had a great time collecting together.
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  #7  
Old 10-29-2015, 01:15 PM
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Another 80s/90s kid here. I collected Ryne Sandberg and Patrick Ewing until I went away to college at the end of the millennium. There was nothing more fun than going to the local card shop and sifting through box after box looking for any I didn't have. I would read holes in the pages of every Beckett I could get my hands on, and as silly as it is I would send in prices for a chance to win a subscription (which I did win in the June 1994 issue!!). Flash forward to the beginning of 2009, and I started buying overpaying for T206s on eBay, and randomly came across T206Collector's website which led me to Net54. A few years later I sold them all and began my insanely impossible quest to complete the E105 set. The End.
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  #8  
Old 10-29-2015, 01:18 PM
ALR-bishop ALR-bishop is offline
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One day I was born. Over time I got old. And, in between I collected baseball cards.
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  #9  
Old 10-29-2015, 01:23 PM
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Quote:
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One day I was born. Over time I got old. And, in between I collected baseball cards.
TMI, dude.
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  #10  
Old 10-29-2015, 01:26 PM
Sean1125 Sean1125 is offline
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Quote:
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One day I was born. Over time I got old. And, in between I collected baseball cards.
10/10 would read again
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  #11  
Old 10-29-2015, 01:34 PM
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I remember riding with my cousin on our bikes down to the local card shop in downtown Walnut Creek CA circa 1984. As 12 yr olds we were working re-sanding my uncle's deck and would spend every dollar on cards as fast as we earned it. I remember getting hornswaggled by the dealer on buying these large format topps cards that were supposed to be the next big thing. lol
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  #12  
Old 10-29-2015, 01:43 PM
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I started collecting, for real, in 1988 when I was in 7th grade. There was no card shop in my town, so I'd have to beg for rides to the next town over where the card shop was called Triple Play. I always had an inkling toward the 'older' stuff...but the $1500 price tags on the '52 Mantle was wayyyy too much for me.

Since then I have focused on Nolan Ryan, Mickey Mantle, the 1957 topps set and the 1933 Goudey set.
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  #13  
Old 10-29-2015, 01:53 PM
Rich Klein Rich Klein is offline
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Sean:

I've been very forutnate in that I have an eidtor who has allowed me to write about both my old collecting and dealing days for Sports Collectors Daily (a valued Net54 advertiser)

Let's just say that I'm working with Mr. Matt to try to convince to fly into Dallas for one of my shows (Our next one on November 14th will be our biggest yet and both Matt an myself have off-cut cards for your buhing pleasure.

So, now when I got a chance to be a local show promoter (with some backing) -- I've been working on growing the hobby in DFW and with good dealers such as Matt (who gave away a Mercury Morris RC at the last show to a good kid) and others who help kids, I'm working on our next gernation.

And I remember at my first show bying Tinker to Evers to Chance T206 for $6 total from Tom Reid. And No I don't have those anymore

Regards
Rich
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  #14  
Old 10-29-2015, 01:57 PM
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I was very poor as a kid and just got cards others didn't want but that didn't mean I couldn't collect what I liked. There is always a way to have fun with collecting.
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  #15  
Old 10-29-2015, 01:59 PM
unamuzd1 unamuzd1 is offline
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A highlight of many Christmases, when I was a kid, was finding that one box under the tree that looked like it would contain clothes, but instead contained plastic pages filled with early- to mid-50s Topps and Bowman cards. My dad's collection was stolen out of the storage unit beneath my grandparents' apartment some time in the 70s, and every year he would buy a few lots of cards from the era he remembered, which he would then split between myself and my little brother for Christmas. And every once in a while, he'd go further back, and put in some Goudeys or t-cards.

The cards I can look at and say, "Dad gave me that," are still some of my favorites.
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  #16  
Old 10-29-2015, 02:02 PM
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I have a genetic inheritance to collecting—everyone collects something in my family. I started collecting in 1974, and at that time, I split time/money between GI Joe’s and baseball cards. I tried hard to complete the 1975 Topps set, but the 1976 Topps and Hostess sets were the first ever completed. Tried to go to the local pool every weekday, just to complete the Hostess set. Now, I did play with them as well, at least the Reds and the Red Sox cards.

The 1977 and 1978 sets were also completed, as well as many “star” cards back to 1970, before disaster struck. My father and step-mother divorced, and as a casualty of war, the local dump became the owner of not only all my cards, but all my GI Joe’s.

I restarted collecting eleven years later, in the late 80’s like many. I again tracked back catching all sets from 1972-1993, when the “push” toward subset cards drove me away.

The third collecting stint started in 2001, focusing back on my childhood heroes of Johnny Bench and Ted Williams. Collecting Ted quickly led me back to nearly completing a 1955 Topps set and then the T205 and T206 cards caught my attention. I have been nearly an exclusive pre-war collector since 2004 (except for Ted).
There ya go, third times a charm.
Dave
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  #17  
Old 10-29-2015, 02:27 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by unamuzd1 View Post
A highlight of many Christmases, when I was a kid, was finding that one box under the tree that looked like it would contain clothes, but instead contained plastic pages filled with early- to mid-50s Topps and Bowman cards. My dad's collection was stolen out of the storage unit beneath my grandparents' apartment some time in the 70s, and every year he would buy a few lots of cards from the era he remembered, which he would then split between myself and my little brother for Christmas. And every once in a while, he'd go further back, and put in some Goudeys or t-cards.

The cards I can look at and say, "Dad gave me that," are still some of my favorites.
Nice
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  #18  
Old 10-29-2015, 02:42 PM
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David M.
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I started collecting seriously in 1977. The hobby was just starting to become a business and I collected the current set and started working my way back through the Topps sets. I collected steadily until 1990 until the production of all the various sets and subsets got completely out of hand. I just lost interest. But in 2006 I attended the National in Anaheim with a buddy and got hooked again. By this time I had some more money to spend and I decided to just collect what I like, not sets. I've even moved back into prewar, and now it's more fun than ever.
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  #19  
Old 10-29-2015, 03:00 PM
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Nice gesture Sean!

I started back in '83. While rummaging through our garage I came across a box of cards ranging from '74-'76. Inside was a Yount mini rookie and I was instantly hooked. I then begged my mom everyday to take me to 7-11 so I could buy as many Fleer packs as I could. I continued buying Topps, Fleer, Donruss and any other items that included baseball cards.

My hobby story is in June 11, 1990 I went to a big show in SF and my goal was to buy a really nice Nolan Ryan rookie card. So once I got in I began my hunt. I saw many candidates but wanted to make sure I looked at everything before I pulled the trigger so I passed on them. Well the bad news for me was June 11, 1990 happened to be the day that Nolan Ryan threw his sixth no-hitter. Once that news spread the price of his rookie card jumped so much I was priced out. I probably could have bought a lesser condition card but I was honestly ticked off that the price just skyrocketed in a matter of minutes. So I left without a Ryan rookie. I'm still reminded to this day about it by my mom. Whenever I want a card she always reminds me I better get one before they get too expensive! Thanks mom!! Live and learn I guess.

I still have the Yount rookie (pictured below) that sent me down this crazy obsession for these dang cardboard pictures. I also still have a bunch of my original '83-'87 cards as well. It's still fun to break those out and reminisce.

Thanks Sean for having a generous offer.

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  #20  
Old 10-29-2015, 03:01 PM
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When I was an 11-year-old 7th grader, I started a Baseball Card Collecting Club in my Middle School. Got the vice principal to announce it over the PA and everything. Got at least a dozen kids to join. We had a meeting in one of the classrooms after school once a week, trading cards back and forth, playing flippsies or knockdowns with the cards we didn't care about.

We instituted a dues policy and collected enough money to buy a couple of unopened boxes of new releases through an advertiser in SCD that we would split up between ourselves in an end of the school year meeting. This was around Spring of 1982 and Fleer and Donruss were still cool novelties to us.

When they finally came in my "friend" who helped me start the club decided he wanted to keep all the cards for himself. He gave everybody their money back and told them the cards got lost in the mail or they were out of stock or some such nonsense, throwing me under the bus in the process.

Everybody rightly lost interest and it was disbanded shortly after. It was a sad day for me.

Not a happy story I guess, but one I think about a lot concerning my involvement in various aspects of the "hobby" over the years. It was a mistake for me to not stand up to my "friend", and a lesson I hopefully learned from at a young age to carry over into my later life.
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  #21  
Old 10-29-2015, 03:05 PM
jrlebert jrlebert is offline
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My first real card collecting memory was at the old Holiday Inn shows in Torrance, CA, put on by Ed Biegel, who became a friend of the family. I was 6, and could barely see over the tables, but I knew all about cards because of the backs and all their statistics. I loved stats.

Flash forward a few years, and my father and I head to the show. 1993 Pinnacle just came out, and the Team Pinnacle inserts were in there. Frank Thomas had his, and on the back was Fred McGriff. I had to have this card. I was 10, and Frank was the center of my baseball world. As it was, he was the first player I followed over the course of his entire career, and will always hold that special place in my baseball heart. So lo and behold, my dad shells out $100 (!) and buys me the card. Oh, those were the days, before eBay and the like.
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  #22  
Old 10-29-2015, 04:33 PM
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J0hn Raff3rty
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My entry: Always loved opening packs of baseball cards when I was a kid. My dad loved to make things out of wood, so when I had too many cards to fit in a shoebox, he made me a 3x800 card wooden box to store them in. I would spend hours sorting them by team, set, player, etc.
When the '89 Fleer Billy Ripken card got out (I was 10), I showed it to my parents and told them they should invest in this card. It was about $50 at the time. They bought a copy and put it away for safe-keeping. When the card went up to $120 a few months later, I recommended they sell the card. They decided not to. It's still somewhere in their house. I learned the concept of a "fad" and "taking profits" that served me well when Ty Beanie Babies were popular: I made $2000 by buying and selling the retired toys and cashed out when I saw the first down arrow in a price guide.
Dad passed away last year, but I still have the wooden box and store some of my T51 graded card set in it! ;-)
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  #23  
Old 10-29-2015, 05:04 PM
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There was a chubby nine year old kid, who was starting his 1956 Topps collection buying penny and nickel packs not far from home in Clearwater, FL.
In the spring of 1957 he got an autograph book and started going to Phillies spring training games after school. The elementary school was about a half mile from Jack Russell Stadium, where the Phillies were based in 1957. After school he rode his bike to the stadium and if the game was in the fourth inning or later, admission was free. After the game the kid would go to the visiting team's bus and solicit autographs from the players on their way from the locker room to the bus.

One day the Dodgers came from Vero Beach. After the game not one Dodger would sign for the kid on the way to the bus. The kid was dejected standing by the bus when a window opened and a voice was heard, "Hey kid, give me your book." Reluctantly the kid passed the book and ballpoint pen up to the open window. He then waited for what seemed like an eternity. He became convinced that the bus would leave and he would never see his book again.

Then the bus door closed and the engine started. Then the window opened and the book was returned. Imagine the kid's relief.

I still have that autograph book and can share some of what I found inside.















and another catcher



whose signature would change forever in less than a year.
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Last edited by frankbmd; 10-29-2015 at 05:13 PM.
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  #24  
Old 10-29-2015, 06:25 PM
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My collection: https://www.instagram.com/collectingbrooklyn/

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  #25  
Old 10-29-2015, 07:00 PM
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I got started as a fifth grader in the fall of 2005, after seeing a display at a silent auction that had the 2005 Topps card of ever member of the 2004 Red Sox and a picture of them celebrating. A few weeks later, at my local card shop, I met another collector, who gave me Bobby Doerr's address and that got me started on autographs. I was so excited to be writing to a major leaguer and teammate of Ted Williams that I forgot to include a SASE! Mr. Doerr was kind enough to fill one out and send it back to me. I collected for about five years after that, then took a break, and have been back at it for just over a year now.

Thanks for the contest.
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  #26  
Old 10-29-2015, 07:39 PM
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When my grandmother passed away (I was 12) my father took me through his childhood house to clean everything up and put the house on the market. We found a stack of his cards stored away in an old cigar box. 66 Mantle, 62 Mays, 62 Brock just to name a few. I really liked the look of the old cards and we collected together all the way through college. Now that I live on my own, wife, kids, I pretty much do all the collecting. But whenever he comes to visit he wants to see the new stuff that I have gotten.
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  #27  
Old 10-29-2015, 09:44 PM
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I collected a little in the 1950's, but enjoyed playing rather than collecting.
I know I had the bread labels from the ends of bread loafs, but never found them again.

In the 1970's a friend from work showed me a copy of SCD. That peaked my interest. I started to collecting again, amassed a great collection in my opinion in the following years. Bought the 1964 standup complete set for $15.00. I had complete sets that included 1967 thru 1995. I had over 150 Baseball & football bobbers. Complete set of original Hartland Baseball statue, plus many football including the Black face which are very rare.
I bought an original Hillerich & Bradsby bat rack at an antique show for $65.00Sold it for $1000.00 and saw the same bat rack in an auction a few months later for a reserve of $10,000. . Whoops!!!.

When I moved to Las Vegas in 1996 I sold most of the collection that is listed above.

I could go on and on, because those years were great for deals, but that's all folks. Something to say about the good old days.


PS, My collection consisted of mostly Detroit Tiger items, but had a lot of different stuff. Ty Cobb is the man.
Joe
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  #28  
Old 10-29-2015, 10:49 PM
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Mom and dad were divorced before my second birthday. Mom dated a guy for a short time in 1978. He would bring me baseball cards, Fleer WS stickers, and some other stuff to keep me occupied while he courted mom.

In 1980, at 8 years old, I had firmly captured the bug and had a small shoebox of the '80 Topps cards. I had also been introduced to TCMA cards. They had a special that I ordered through the mail that had a bunch of reprints of the all time classics - 33 Goudey's, T206's, Cracker Jacks. I also bought my first price guide and looked in awe at the price of Wagner and Mantle, etc. In that 80 Sport Americana price guide (if I recall correctly) there was a section which had pictures of the Barry Halper collection. It was crazy to think that someone had all of that stuff.

I would take my cards to school and show them off. One day, a teachers aid from the high school named Melanie asked if she could see my cards and I showed her. She told me that she collected as well and asked if I wanted to trade. Reluctantly, I agreed - as they were my prize possession and I wasn't sure what a girl would have for trade.

A few days later, Melanie came over with a shoe box full of baseball, basketball, and football from '71-75. Every star from every year was included. Multiple, Aaron's, Mays', Clemente's, Brett and Yount rookies, Kaline, Gibson, Johnny U, Lew Alcindor, Wilt Chamberlain. She said that when she was younger, her dad would stop on the way home and buy her multiple packs every day. These were some of her doubles and I was welcome to come by and have as many of her doubles as I liked.

Fast forward about 60 days later. There was a card show that came to town. I wanted to go because I knew that my cards were worth something. All I did was collect cards and I was 8 years old - so there wasn't a huge need for money - but I really wanted a complete '80 Topps set. Mom took us, Melanie went along. I took my shoebox up to the first table I saw that said that they were buying. He went though and picked out the best 50-80 cards and offered me $8. He had an '80 topps set for $14 dollars. I asked him to trade for the set, but he was firm on his price. I took it. I then went to the next table and showed my remaining cards. He offered $5. I asked for $6 so I could get the set. Again, he said that his price was firm. I took his $5 and asked mom for $1 so I could buy the '80 Topps set. Amazingly, Melanie never said a word - as she had given those cards to me with no strings attached - but she must have been horrified.

I collected up until I went to college. Buying a ton of '82s when I had a paper route, buying all of the sets from '86 to '90. Then, while in College, I sold my junk wax collection for $250 right before the bottom fell out. I used the $250 plus some other money to buy a big screen TV which was great to have in college.

In 2011, I took the boys to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. They had the baseball card exhibit and I showed them all of the cards that I had and spoke about the old pricing guides and the prices of the super star cards around 1980.

When we got home, I was looking on Ebay at some of those '71-75's. I was lamenting to my wife about selling them all for $13. She had heard this before. She said to me "Stop whining about them and just buy them back.". These were words that she has since lived to regret. At first, I bought the 80-85 sets as a package deal. Then within a week, I had bought back to '75. I quickly bought '74 and '73 and then the prices started going up. I found a guy that sold me '66 and '72. I then found another guy that had near complete sets of '71 and '68 which I bought and completed. By Christmas time I had '70 and '69 and within a couple of months I had completed '67 as well (from which I still have a nervous twitch due to the high numbers). She has reminded me that I can stop now that I have the cards back from my 8 year old cars show mistake, but I have kept going and am getting near complete on my Topps/Bowman run.

I have bought the boys the factory sets from 2006 for baseball and football. I have told them that I will leave them my cards but they have to promise never to sell them. I upgrade my lower condition cards but hold onto the doubles as I have an unhealthy attachment to them and don't want to repeat childhood mistakes. When I complete the run, I will begin getting some of the major stars of the pre-war era and really build out the collection. I am having a blast buying all of the cards that I used to stare at longingly in the display case.

Thanks for the contest - way TMI on my part, but it was great getting a chance to reminisce about it.
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  #29  
Old 10-29-2015, 11:34 PM
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As a kid, I loved collecting baseball cards. I was talking about cards with my dad one time. He says to me "only card I want would be a 1961 Norm Cash because that's the year he won the batting title ." I found one of those "I fill wantlists" ads in SCD and wrote the guy a letter telling him the card I was looking for. Couple weeks later, I got an envelope from the dealer and he'd sent me the card for free along with a nice note. I have it to my dad and he was very excited and touched at the gift. He kept that card next to his recliner for well over 25 years.
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  #30  
Old 10-29-2015, 11:44 PM
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My favorite current story is turning my daughters crazy organizational habits into a very special bond we share with set building/organizing sports(and some Disney) cards. My daughter is 8 and her and I don't always have a lot in common but sports cards/set building etc is one thing that has truly brought us closer together. She is verrrrrrry excited to be attending her first card show next month!
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  #31  
Old 10-30-2015, 10:28 AM
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Dustin
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Default Back in the day

I started collecting in 92 with no intent or direction . I found a card show near my house and that when I really started to put it together . I loved buying sell and trading and that's what hooked me for good . I still go to the same show but now I go with my 3 year son .
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  #32  
Old 10-30-2015, 11:23 AM
tuckr1 tuckr1 is offline
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Default Gregg Jeffries

At 13 years old I was going to invest in my future in baseball cards, I still have 100 Future Star 1989 Topps Gregg Jeffries for sale if anyone is interested!!!!
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  #33  
Old 10-30-2015, 12:05 PM
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I got started by going through my fathers closet and finding full of baseball card albums. I thought I just discovered some treasure but it ended up just being junk wax from the 1980s. Even though it wasn't anything worth anything I fell in love with cards and from the early age of about 10 I collected non-stop.

-Nick
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  #34  
Old 10-30-2015, 12:28 PM
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I got started collecting cards after purchasing a Hygrade Collector's Kit at a school book fair in the 3rd or 4th grade. The kit came with a price guide, a small HoF set that was green bordered and several other reprints of key cards, along with a binder and some 9 pocket sheets. From that point I was hooked and would beg my parents to take me to the store to get some packs of 1987 Topps baseball. I thought it was the greatest thing in the world and felt a since of accomplishment when I completed the set back then. Of course, I can look back and laugh because of the OVERproduction of those cards, but it takes me back in time when I see a stack of 1987 cards and just thumb thru them.
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  #35  
Old 10-30-2015, 12:32 PM
GehrigFan GehrigFan is offline
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I was always a collector, starting at age 5 with coins and comic books. But I was tall, skinny, and totally uncoordinated, so I never really got into sports. When I was 16, I was with my parents at the mall (I grew up in Wyoming so it was a four-hour trip to the nearest mall in Montana), and had a couple hours to spare. My friends mostly collected sports cards, so I dropped in a card shop and decided to buy some packs of 1988 Donruss and a Beckett Price Guide. When I pulled a Gregg Jefferies SP RC and saw it was "worth" $5, and only paid 50 cents on the pack, I was hooked. I went home, placed an ad in the newspaper looking to buy cards, and my first purchase was a collection of 17,000 baseball cards that I spread all across the basement to sort.

Within two years, I opened a small card shop during the summers I was in college, and by 1997 I was working in the hobby full-time (and have been ever since)! Who knew that dropping by a card shop in 1988 would lead to an entire career?

Mark
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  #36  
Old 10-30-2015, 01:14 PM
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My grandmother was always the one who took me and my little brother to card shows and shops. She'd give us 10 or 20 bucks to spend and always buy some for herself. One thing she liked to buy was unopened boxes. Whenever we stayed with her, me and my brother would always want to open the boxes that she had saved, but she would not let us. She said when she died we could split them up and open them. "Well that's great Maw-Maw but who gets what?" So she sat down with a piece of paper and let us take turns picking and made a will for all her cards.

Fast-forward to a couple years ago, some 20 years later, I was visiting her and mentioned picking up some old baseball cards she might like to see. She went into her room and got here cardboard box of cards out and sitting on the top was that will signed by all three of us. We both got a good kick out of it.
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  #37  
Old 10-30-2015, 08:14 PM
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I may have mentioned this before (ok...maybe a few times) that one of my biggest collecting regrets happened when I was a third grader at Immanuel Lutheran school in the far Northwest suburbs of Chicago. The time would have been around 1974 and the setting would be old Mrs. Bickel's third grade class room which was in a classic old school house room with drafty windows and chalk boards all around the walls. It was in this class room that a collecting memory was burned into my young brain, never to be forgotten.

It was known to all of my classmates that I was a huge baseball fan and collected baseball cards. It was not unusual for a friend to bring in a card or two that they found around their house and give it to me to add to my collection. It was on a fall day, right after the World Series had ended that a classmate walked into the room before the first bell rang and handed me a large brown shopping bag and said I could have what was inside. I eagerly opened the bag and my jaw dropped to my cold, wooden desk with a thud. Inside this bag were treasures I had never before laid eyes on. Hundreds of baseball cards thrown haphazardly into a bag with little regard for condition. Cards that were bigger in size than any I have ever seen were now in my hands with names I could only recognize from the many baseball history books I had learned to read a few short years earlier. There was Pafko, Berra, Lockman and some guy named Shoendinst (or at least that is how my young mind pronounced it). There was Aaron and Banks and some guy named Mantle. I could not believe my luck that someone had decided they no longer wanted these treasures and had passed them on to me.

In all my excitement I failed to realize the final bell had rung, my classmates were all in their desks and Mrs. Bickel was standing at the front of the class, taking attendance. With my head still in the brown bag, discovering names I had never before seen I was tapped on the shoulder and brought back to reality. As I looked up to see who could possibly be ruining this incredible moment for me I realized it was the teacher who apparently did not like baseball cards nearly as much as I did because if she did she would have realized the importance of this moment. As I tried to explain my point of view, her old, boney hand reached out and grabbed by treasured bag and brought it to her desk where it hit the bottom of her drawer with a resounding flop. They were gone....all gone. Mickey, Yogi and Andy were now in my teacher's desk. All I could think about was getting those cards back in my hands but it was never to happen. The years have diminished my memory and for the life of me I cannot remember why I never got the cards back. Perhaps it was because this was literally and old school religious school where you never questioned the teacher and I was too afraid to ask. I would have never mentioned it to my parents as they would have probably kicked my back side for not paying attention in class rather than blame the teacher for taking away my prized possessions. Either way those cards are long gone but forever burned into my memory. I loved them for the nostalgia they represented with the color television theme and I loved them for the memory they gave me. I vowed that, one day, I would put that set together and relieve that third grade nightmare I have vivid memories of.

Flash forward to a few months ago. On these boards I saw someone advertising a small lot of '55 Bowman's at a decent price. I knew this was now the time to start putting the nightmare and quickly worked out a deal with the seller. As it turned out the cards I purchased were cards that were recently found at a garage sale and their only owner opened the packs as a third grader and put them aside for decades before selling them this past summer. The cards were even sold in the original Phillies cigar box from that same time frame where these new treasures rested all these years. After hearing this I knew this set was meant for me.

I then purchased another lot from another Net54 board member who graciously held even more cards for me for while I scraped the funds together to buy them. I made a few more purchases from Ebay and have found a renewed interest in collecting that had once escaped me. No shiny refractors or numbered parallels for me. Just musty smelling cardboard with a colored television border and names I had long ago forgotten, staring back at me. Andy, Yogi and yes, even Mickey. Hello old friends. Where ya been?
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  #38  
Old 10-30-2015, 08:27 PM
Republicaninmass Republicaninmass is offline
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I collected as a kid in the 80s thinking one day I'd retire selling my cards. I did focus on older cards, but then gravitated towards the newer ones. I ended up saving some gems, but my "retirement" sat in Craigslist almost a year before I dumped about 30 monster boxes for 1,000$. I'm still trying to figure out where I can retire to with that 1k
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Last edited by Republicaninmass; 10-30-2015 at 08:29 PM.
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  #39  
Old 10-30-2015, 08:39 PM
zachclose21 zachclose21 is offline
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2001 my mom brought home a notebook full of 1986 WWF wrestling cards from a garage sale.
I have been hooked ever since.
I now collect George Brett and love vintage cards. Buy a little sell a little love reading the board and the BST side
Congrats Sean on the success and best of luck in the future
Zach
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  #40  
Old 10-31-2015, 04:19 AM
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When I was a kid, my dad had a whole room full of baseball cards. He collected since he was a kid, and had one of those old glass display cases that light up, and if you push a button, the rows would slowly revolve. I must have spent hours watching the little cards go by.
Sadly, he died when I was 23, and my step-mom sold his collection.

Today, I have my own room full of baseball stuff. And somehow the stuff just keeps on growing...
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  #41  
Old 11-02-2015, 08:23 AM
Sean1125 Sean1125 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by unamuzd1 View Post
A highlight of many Christmases, when I was a kid, was finding that one box under the tree that looked like it would contain clothes, but instead contained plastic pages filled with early- to mid-50s Topps and Bowman cards. My dad's collection was stolen out of the storage unit beneath my grandparents' apartment some time in the 70s, and every year he would buy a few lots of cards from the era he remembered, which he would then split between myself and my little brother for Christmas. And every once in a while, he'd go further back, and put in some Goudeys or t-cards.

The cards I can look at and say, "Dad gave me that," are still some of my favorites.
Congrats, random.org chose you!
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  #42  
Old 11-02-2015, 08:40 AM
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A bunch of great stories guys thank you for sharing.

Here is mine. Back around 1975( I was 6) my much older cousin gave me his stacks of 1960-66 cards before he died at a very young age of a rare brain disorder. I put them in a drawer at my great grandparents house and never touched them for a little over 10 years because I couldn't have cared less for baseball.

Around 86 my little brother started collecting and I told him about my cards and we went and looked at them. I was amazed at how much the Mantle, Mays, and other cards where worth. Well long story short I found a person playing I liked and fell in love with collecting and baseball. From that day on I have been buying Wade Boggs items and whatever else has looked good to me.

I sold and traded most of the cards my cousin left to me except one beat to heck 66 Mantle that when I got it was mint and it is going nowhere.

unamuzd61 congrats on the $250 store credit from Sean!
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  #43  
Old 11-02-2015, 10:22 AM
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I've posted this elsewhere on the forum over a year ago, but I thought it would be appropriate to re-visit for this particular post:

My mom never threw anything of mine out, and she supported me collecting cards (and helped me with my collection as a kid) by stopping at the neighborhood 7-11 back in the mid-1970s to pick up a few 25 cent packs. She even helped me by adding to my "savings" to purchase my first complete Topps set (without buying from packs) in 1979. I remember perusing Hobby publications, and the best price on a new set was from a "Leon Rock" for $9.99 plus shipping (whereas other dealers were $13 and up generally). When the set took a long time to arrive (over 3 months), I remember my mom always giving the seller the benefit of the doubt.

Years later, my mom was cleaning out some of her old purses, and she found an unopened pack of 1976 Topps baseball cards that she had evidently bought and forgotten to give me. This was in the early 90s. It was fun opening a pack of cards over 15 years old!

She passed away May 4, 2013. I still miss her.
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  #44  
Old 11-02-2015, 10:34 AM
unamuzd1 unamuzd1 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean1125 View Post
Congrats, random.org chose you!
Thanks, Sean! This is a great thread. It reminds me why I fell in love with this hobby to begin with, and why I keep coming back to it.

And I know a couple of cards that my dad talked about having in his collection, that I'll be looking for in your store. They obviously won't be "his," but that's okay.

Thanks again!
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