Welcome to the site!
Mine were burned. Well, they werent mine, but they would have been mine a decade later
My father (born in 1955) collected DIE-HARD as a kid. Every extra penny he had went to buying cards. During his high school years he was in a perpetual argument with his brother (my uncle) .... and yes it was over a girl
One afternoon the argument got extra heated so my uncle took all dad's cards out to the burn barrel and they met a wicked demise. Fast forward about 10-12 years ...... i'm 8 years old and dad bought me the 1984 Topps set (since he didnt have his own cards to give me). That started it all for me right there.
I put all those 84's into nice shiny new pages and in a beautiful blue binder. I still pull that binder out from time to time and flip through the pages.... although not the most valuable monetarily, they are my sentimental favorites.