Originally Posted by pingman59 (Post 2342707)

Having appeared on Net54 in August of 2019, and per Rich Klein's request, here it is:



I was ten years old in 1969 and years later I was given the duty to carry on and tell the story of, "The Only Ernie Banks Card in The World."



Out in Illinois farm country, about 1 1/2 hours southwest of Chicago, Craig O. had the only Ernie Banks card in the world (1969 Topps #20). At least that's how all of us kids thought. No one else had an Ernie Banks card and Ernie was KING in our little neck of Cubs country. Everyone tried to trade for it, but without success. I think Craig got great pleasure from being The Big Man On Campus, keeping the card with him at school and on the bus. He beat it up pretty bad too. It didn't matter.



Six years later, I was buying 1975 packs of cards, building a set, and Craig learned I was still collecting cards. He asked if we could do some trading as he wanted a Mike Schmidt card. We put together a trade and I got the 1969 Banks from him. I was thrilled! This was before I learned there was an organized hobby. All I knew of at the time was the Card Collector's Company.



It wasn't too much longer until I learned about the Chicagoland Sports Collector's Association shows and found a nicer copy of the 1969 Banks.



Brad B., a neighbor down the road, was just getting serious about cards and he wanted the beat-up Banks. So, we made a trade, but he didn't keep the card for long as he upgraded and then traded it to Mark S. The card stayed with him until the late 1990's.



Mark met Ernie Banks at a downtown Chicago appearance and had him autograph the card. Ernie was taken aback, "Do you really want me to sign this card?" Without going into the history of the card, Mark explained that it would mean a lot if he would. And so Ernie signed the card in black ball point pen.



Shortly thereafter, Mark gave the card to me to keep, saying it was only appropriate that I have it as I knew the history of the card going back to the spring of 1969. And so, I'm the keeper of the flame, so to speak. I treasure the card and think fondly of my collecting childhood and The Only Ernie Banks Card In The World.:D



<a href="http://imgbox.com/HT7jFpVQ" target="_blank"><img src="https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/9f/73/HT7jFpVQ_t.jpg" alt="image host"/></a> <a href="http://imgbox.com/Lq0bpboE" target="_blank"><img src="https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/f1/37/Lq0bpboE_t.jpg" alt="image host"/></a>

Originally Posted by mrmopar (Post 2342710)

I don't have any one specific card that has deep meaning for me. Many cards from those early days shake something loose in the old brain. I have all of the cards I collected as a kid and although that was not as long ago as many, it was over 40 years ago now.



Growing up where I did, we had a great neighborhood, filled with kids all around the same age range. We played a lot outside (and sometimes inside as video games were starting to be popular). Wiffle ball, tag, riding bikes, tossing the football, hide and seek and whatever else we could come up with. There are a lot of great memories associated with this time for me and some things that bring those memories into a little bit clearer focus. Things like the RC Cola cans with the baseball players, Marathon bars, just about any card produced in the 78-80 range, sport or not. I used to buy sets each year through the magazines/catalogs starting around 1981. I spent a lot of time wishing I could buy more, filling out order forms i'd never actually send in because I didn't have the money. A few TCMA/RGI sets seem to have made the rounds within my friend group as they were broken up and traded, probably because they were free gifts with orders.



Books too. I used to get to order a few books in the Scholastic order each year and they were always sports related. The annual Weber stars of 78, 79, etc, The Baseball Card, Flipping, Trading & Bubblegum Book and many others. there was a set of sport encyclopedias at school that I wish I could ID now, as I had fond memories of looking through those at school. The elementary school I went to let us laminate some stuff once and I got several cards done, including a 78 Topps Rose that managed to survive. Most of the rest I peeled the lamination material off and ruined the cards.



I had a "Johnny Bench Batter Up" toy, which actually kind of sucked as I kept breaking the large rubber bands that made it work, but I had to buy one not that long ago for the memories. I went to a lot of Mariner games in that era, scrounging for autographs at the foul lines. Those were fun times!



So, here are just a few things that I picked up recently (had most of it already) that help bring those memories back...in no particular order or preference, just things that make me think of my childhood. Some I had then, others I obtained later because I always wanted, but never could find...

Originally Posted by Seven (Post 2342772)

The card definitely isn't worthless, but what I was given for free, certainly tells a story. I'll update this post with a picture, when I am home, from work.

On my first trip to Cooperstown, I stumbled upon a small store, in Doubleday Court. It was then, and forever will be, to me, the perfect baseball hobby shop. The store, which recently closed, was Baseball Nostalgia. It opened in 1974, and was a longtime staple of Cooperstown. I spent so much time in that store on that day, talking to Peter, about all things baseball cards. I was able to scrounge enough money together, with the help of my father to purchase a 1953 Topps Willie Mays. As a bonus, Peter threw in a signed lithograph of Johnny Mize.

It then became a ritual, everytime I visited the Hall of Fame, I would have to stop into Baseball Nostalgia. Many years later, in 2019, right before they closed, I visited the store, for the last time and spoke to Peter again. I bought some cards, one of them being one of my first 1952 Topps, a Warren Spahn, and told Peter the story of my first time in the store. He proceeded to dig around for a little bit, and found one more copy of the lithograph, of Johnny Mize, and gave me a second copy. It was a gesture I thoroughly appreciated and a bittersweet last memory of one of my favorite places to go, when I visited Cooperstown.

Originally Posted by egri (Post 2125658)

https://net54baseball.com/picture.ph...ictureid=30549

When I started my signed 1953 Topps project by writing to the surviving players, I was in college, so it amounted to buying champagne on a beer budget. That meant I had to buy the cheapest cards I could find, and often a difference of a couple dollars determined which card I got. I found #211 J.W. Porter on some site that didn't have pictures but advertised the card's condition as 'Good'. It was $1, with shipping another $2, so I pulled the trigger. It showed up in a plain white envelope, and as you can see (if my picture loaded...) calling it good is a stretch that would put Rose Mary Woods to shame. When I sent it off to Mr. Porter, he sent it back with one of his own signed custom cards, and a note saying he felt so bad about the condition mine was in that he threw in the custom to make up for it.

Originally Posted by packs (Post 2343365)

JW Porter worked security for a spring training camp. I can’t remember which one. Maybe it was the Cardinals? But I do remember this old guy in a security shirt walking around and every now and then someone would show up with a 53 Topps for him to sign and tell everyone who he was. They were always cool moments. There would be this retiree in a yellow shirt just standing around and a person wild go up to HIM for an autograph. Everyone there would be wondering what happened and then the guy would come back and say something like “that guy played with Satchel Paige.” Porter seemed like a really nice guy.