The 1980's...

[jb217676]

The "holy grail" thread got me thinking. Since I'm a kid from the '80's, I'm starting a thread dedicated to holy grail cards from my early collecting years (1980-1989), the cards I always wanted growing up. I consider these four cards I own as the most important from the big four sports. So dudes, let's see your totally gnarly '80s cards!

[Robextend]

I totally agree with Jeff, those are definitely the premier cards of their respective sport for the 1980's. Being primarily a baseball card collector, besides the Griffey, these are my favorites that I own.

[jb217676]

I was too young to buy 1980 Topps when they were released, but I bought a bunch in the mid-to-late '80s. Only ever pulled one Rickey Henderson RC and I remember the centering was pretty bad.

[JasonL]

think you need to add the Marino rookie to the football list for collecting focus back then.

And there was no craze like the Mattingly rookies...

[Doug]

I don't own one, but I was always fond of the '85 Topps Mark McGwire USA Baseball Team card. The first packs I ever bought as a kid were '85 Topps and I remember that card standing out based on how the '84 USA team cards had a different design than the regular '85 Topps cards. As a five year old I didn't know anything about baseball and I thought being the first baseman meant you were the best player on the team. I actually based that theory on the '85 Topps Pete Rose card listing him as the first baseman/manager. Being a kid in the Cincinnati area, Pete Rose was the first player I remember ever hearing about so when I saw that card I remember thinking "He's the first baseman and the manager! That guy must really be good!" Using that logic I figured if Mark McGwire was the first baseman for the USA Baseball team he must be the best player in the country!

[JasonL]

Originally Posted by Doug

I don't own one, but I was always fond of the '85 Topps Mark McGwire USA Baseball Team card. The first packs I ever bought as a kid were '85 Topps and I remember that card standing out based on how the '84 USA team cards had a different design than the regular '85 Topps cards. As a five year old I didn't know anything about baseball and I thought being the first baseman meant you were the best player on the team. I actually based that theory on the '85 Topps Pete Rose card listing him as the first baseman/manager. Being a kid in the Cincinnati area, Pete Rose was the first player I remember ever hearing about so when I saw that card I remember thinking "He's the first baseman and the manager! That guy must really be good!" Using that logic I figured if Mark McGwire was the first baseman for the USA Baseball team he must be the best player in the country!

skills as a 5 year old!
makes total sense.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by JasonL

skills as a 5 year old!
makes total sense.

Yeah, I always had a suspicion that I was the inspiration for Dr. House on the Fox TV show.

[ALR-bishop]

I have all the Topps 80s sets. Some Topps 80s sets that were tough for me:

1980 Coins
1982 Blackless
1984 Encased Proofs
1985 Minis ...in blank back and regular back...and partial red back
1988 Cloth

[Doug]

Originally Posted by JasonL

And there was no craze like the Mattingly rookies...

This was probably a regional thing, but there was a huge craze here over 1985 Topps Eric Davis rookies. I remember people thinking he was the next Willie Mays and they were going to make huge fortunes off of those cards. I hope they had a backup plan...

[k-dog]

Cool thread. I was not a collector until the early 90's, but here are a few of my favorite cards from each sport:

[David W]

Originally Posted by Doug

This was probably a regional thing, but there was a huge craze here over 1985 Topps Eric Davis rookies. I remember people thinking he was the next Willie Mays and they were going to make huge fortunes off of those cards. I hope they had a backup plan...

Our local card dealer "Snyders Coin Shop" had a sign on his marquee back in the day "Buying Eric Davis rookies $10".

The interesting thing was back in 87 or so when they were hot, people really only wanted Topps, now looking back Fleer and Donruss were a lot tougher to find.

[Doug]

I guess this excerpt from Wikipedia explains all of the hype back then, but the last sentence pretty much explains why not to "invest" in these hyped up rookies. Kinda like that Strasburg guy that's already been on the DL twice.

When Eric Davis first appeared in 1984, his physical talents gave him the potential to be one of the most exciting players in the game. He was a rare five-tool player with home run power as well as sheer speed on the basepaths. He made a habit of robbing home runs and elicited comparisons to Willie Mays.

Unfortunately, he was also highly injury-prone, never playing more than 135 games in any season.

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by David W

Our local card dealer "Snyders Coin Shop" had a sign on his marquee back in the day "Buying Eric Davis rookies $10".

The interesting thing was back in 87 or so when they were hot, people really only wanted Topps, now looking back Fleer and Donruss were a lot tougher to find.

When I was a weekend warrior in the late 80's and early 90's my partner and I sold a ton of Eric Davis Topps rookies in the $12-15 range, Topps Boggs rookies for about $30 and some others like unopened Donruss as Canseco after his 40/40 season enabled us to get a lot of $ for unopened packs, which we had hundreds of and had paid ten cents each for when they got blown out in discount stores after the season.

Everyone bitches about worthless, overproduced 80's cards today but if you had them at the right time you could do well. We had picked everything up at retail or cheaper as collectors at the time of issue and I remember we knew the runs for the Boggs rookie in '83 so picked up a zillion supermarket tray packs and always hit. All I can say is if you see a Tony Perez peeking thru a clear cello pack in 83 Topps, Wade Boggs will be under it!