Here is a fairly recent story. I bought tons of packs of cards before I ever got into vintage collecting and I'm sure I pulled some great cards but one thing I was never able to do was pull a Griffey rookie from a 89 Upper Deck pack. I am a huge Griffey fan and have always wanted to but for some reason never picked the right pack or even box.
Flash forward to this past summer. Myself and five others, including my 20 year old son, went on a road trip to Cooperstown to see the Hall Of Fame. Being it was Griffey's induction year it made it fitting. I bought a box of 89 Upper Deck from a board member to split up and break while we were up there. Each of us got six packs to open and we ended up making up a game of what we pulled. In the back of my mind I was hoping that I might be lucky enough to pull the Griffey but the odds were against me.
We sat around a table at the hotel after going to the HOF on day one and discussed how to pick the packs. My son says "I think we should go oldest to youngest" trying to give me the honors of first pick. I replied "No. Youngest to oldest" letting him go first. He pulles out a pack opened it up and the third card in pulls the Griffey. He shows it to me then apologizes knowing how much I hoped I could get one. I couldn't be happier.
My son and I are very close and share a lot of interest but he isn't much of a baseball fan and never collected cards. That pack was the very first one he ever opened and he got a Griffey!
I know you can get raw examples for very little but the fact that he is the one that pulled it and then thought of me before him makes me so proud of the man he is becoming.
Besides collecting baseball my other hobby is building display cases. I told him I would design and build a case for him containing memories of our trip including tickets, pins (which he collects), and of course the Griffey. I'm looking forward to making it and giving it to him.
Drew
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Drew
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