Father picked this out of a pack when he was 9, he grew up in southern Ontario and supposedly had access to a higher amount of high card packs. He gave it to me the day I was born. :D

Where abouts in southern Ontario, ATX?

My father was born and raised in the Tweed/Actinolite area of southern Ontario and in and around that area is where is got his 52 Topps cards.

Wow, that’s been way too long ago to remember details like that. Plus, I was 10 and very distracted by Space Mountain, Epcot, and all things Disney.

But between your early collection and mine, it sounds like Orlando was a hotbed for readily available Fleer cards in 1985.

Nice Rose by the way. Along with my Royals, I also remember picking up a ‘Ripken in Action’ card that showed Cal swinging frame by frame. I thought it was super cool. Still have that card too I think.

A little town called Listowel. Actually not too far from Tweed.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Li...8gEwC3oECA0QBA

I purchased my first 19th century cards in 1989 at age 15. I was intrigued by Old Judges, cards that had begun and were still turning 100 years old. Emil Geiss was my first for $12 (Southern Cards) but I really wanted Detroit cards. The first opportunity for a Detroit OJ was from Lew Lipset through an SCD add with a $130 asking price. I had virtually memorized Lew's encyclopedia of 19th century cards and was so eager for my first Detroit and so I made it mine. Back then, OJ portraits brought more of a premium than they do today. I still love that card.

http://www.net54baseball.com/picture...ictureid=26970

FWIW, I also preferred '85 Fleer over Topps & Donruss. In '85 I hadn't yet ventured into older cards. I not only liked the Fleer design most but appreciated that they put the Detroit team at the front of the set (having won the '84 World Series). I also liked the '85 Topps stickers as they dedicated a couple pages to the play-offs / WS.

Hey Chris,

Listowel is special to me due to it being the place Cyclone Taylor grew up and first learned to play hockey. Are there any kinds of shrines there to him? Is the home he was raised in known and does it still exist? If there's any traces left of his existence there... I'd love to visit.


Brent

[QUOTE=atx840;1878420]Father picked this out of a pack when he was 9, he grew up in southern Ontario and supposedly had access to a higher amount of high card packs. He gave it to me the day I was born. :D


That is a beauty !

Further away than I thought it was but I guess it proves a lot of these high number cards were available in Canada also or maybe even mainly?

I was 15 years old back in 1976 and my dad took me to the Hotel Roosevelt in NYC. I had $9 in my pocket from snow shoveling and I purchased the T206 Johnson. I remember the dealer wanted $11 and I waited to the end of the show and the card was still there. He sold it to me for $9 after I explained my story. In 1977 we went back to the same location and we purchased the 1933 Ruth for $35. My dad thought it was absolutely crazy to spend so much money on a baseball card. He passed away 18 years ago and he loved to tell the story of how I had to beg him to purchase the card and what it was now worth. In 1978, we went to Montclair State College and I purchased the 34 Gehrig for $20. I was actually very condition conscious as a kid and would never buy a card with even a slight hairline crease. I never minded a little bit of corner wear. You really did not have to worry about trimming or restorations as the only trimming was not done maliciously, but typically to fit a card into an album page. In 1978, I purchased a beautiful condition autographed 1939 Playball Joe Dimaggio (that I still own) at a card store on Springfield Avenue in Union, N.J. In the late 1990's I went to have it authenticated and it turned out Joe's sister had signed the card. She did a pretty good Dimaggio and I guess signed a lot of his mail auto requests. I always set aside a portion of my earned dollars (summer jobs, snow shoveling) back then for cards. I looked for Hall of Fame Allen and Ginter's, Gypsy Queen's, T206's and Goudey's and fortunately saved them all (except for one trade I regret with an adult dealer when I was around 16). I have graded the majority of the cards but I never had the heart to entomb the 3 cards in the scans. The Johnson is beautiful and should grade extremely well. At the time, I never thought of any of my cards as an investment, just a great time with my dad and some great memories.

great cards BOB!!!

Bob—Those are beautiful! What Gypsy Queens do you have?

Jay

Jay-I had Brouthers and Keefe but the Brouthers was actually involved in the dealer trade. I had to trade 2 for 1 in perceived value with him and as a young kid I did not know any better. When I eventually graded the Keefe with PSA it came back as a 5. The Brouthers was much nicer than the Keefe. They were N162's from the Goodwin set

And Bob, I remember meeting your dad about 25 years ago at my dad's house at St. Andrews in Boca Raton, and we spent the day talking baseball. He was indeed a very nice man.:)

Ah, I was thinking the photographic Gypsy Queens. Great cards regardless!

Barry, thank you. He spoke very highly of you and your dad also.

Lefty Grove...
 

This was my first vintage Lefty Grove card. I bought it from the Sports Collectors Digest in 1987 when I was 16 years old.

Ty Cobb
 

Bought a group of about 400 different T206 around 1983. These 4 were part of that lot.

Attachment 353536 Attachment 353537

Attachment 353538 Attachment 353539

Bill, those Cobb's are fantastic!

Not on the level of many of these awesome cards that have been posted but these were packed pulled by nine year old me. I used to like to get the newspaper out every day and look in the transactions section of the sports pages and would write on my cards when the player was traded, released or retired.

While worthless to most people, these are my most prized hobby possessions.

Had this since 1979, the first card in my collection, given to me by a friend. This started it all for me. I will never upgrade this card, it has such meaning to me as the start of my collection!!!

Thanks for sharing your card and your beautiful story, Chris. To PSA it looked like a 3, but with those off-the-chart colors and extra crisp picture registry, you and I would call it a 12, which means priceless!!!!;) --- Brian Powell

A Chris Browne sighting?

CB- shoot me a PM, long time, no speak...Hope you're well, my friend.

E98 Cobb
 

Bought this from Mr. Delong back in 1982 for $20...Jerry

Highest graded white back in the registry. Picked it up in 1975.Attachment 354678

Dust and bones
 

While I may still have a few cards left from my childhood collecting days (75-78), they're likely well loved and packed away... somewhere. They've certainly never seen the light of a scanner, and probably never will. Grover Cleveland was picked up in London in 1980 on a high school trip, if I remember correctly. He's been hanging out all this time, waiting patiently ...

My longest-held T206 and T207 clock in at 29 and 28 years respectively.

Great stories and cards, everyone!

--
Mike