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My indoctrination to the RC thing came in late 1981. One of my elementary school buddies was at my house and we were talking trade for 1981 Topps baseball cards. I needed 3 more commons to complete my set and my friend had all of them. When I asked what he wanted in trade for them, he inquired if I had any of the Los Angeles Dodgers Future Stars cards. I replied that I had three extras of that one and he stated that he would trade the last three cards that I needed for my set in exchange for the 3 Dodgers FS cards. Afterwards, I wondered to myself why someone would want 3 of the same card but I didn't really care, I had just completed my season long journey of putting together a complete 1981 Topps baseball set.

Of course, after eventually looking up that Dodgers FS card in the price guide and seeing that they sold for $3 each at the time as Fernando Valenzuela's rookie card, I quickly realized that there was tremendous value in "Rookie Cards". I caught on pretty quickly though and by early 1982, I was buying unopened rack and cello packs with Cal Ripken Jr., Kent Hrbek, Johnny Ray, etc. on top and quickly became a major player in the rookie card investing game from there.