Moms and Cards

[JackR]

When I was away at college (“WE ARE!”), my Mom told me I’d better come home and get my baseball cards. In a cleaning frenzy, my Dad had put them out with the trash. The good news: my Mom brought them back.

In all, my Mom saved about 4,000 cards mostly from 1957-1961. I still have some of them today.

So here’s my question: did your mother save your cards, or did she trash them?

[jchcollins]

My folks saved all my cards, but it was the mid 90's when I went to college, and by then of course everyone knew you weren't supposed to throw away baseball cards. The bulk of my vintage collection got temporarily stored in a safety deposit box when my folks moved around 1998, but I rescued the cards shortly thereafter.

My mother in particular was always a champion of my collection, from age 10 or so on. I rarely heard "no" when it came to cards. From junk wax at the grocery store, to my first true vintage prize (a '66 Koufax) and even Mantle cards - Mom would spring for me and then even endure it when my Dad would say "You spent HOW MUCH on baseball cards?" She was a special lady in that regard and I miss her very much...

[JackR]

Here’s to Moms everywhere who did what yours and mine did!

[riggs336]

I had an army foot locker full of cards in my closet. When I left for college in 1965 I asked my mom to keep them safe. "They might be worth something some day."
I didn't pick them up until 1972 and, not coincidentally, that's the year I got back in the hobby for good.
Thanks, Mom.

[pete zouras]

just a handful worthy of safe deposit cost/protection. my beer can collection didn't survive due to crickets inhabiting them at some point their chirping amplified throughout the house via the vents

[ullmandds]

Having started collecting in the mid-70s… The common theme of “my mother threw my baseball cards away” was already part of The lore of the hobby. She knew not to touch my cards!!

[D. Bergin]

When I first moved out of my parents house to move in with my future wife into a small apartment two towns over, I left all my cards at my parents house.

Not long after, a former "Friend" of the family, broke into my parents house and stole most of my cards, thinking he had hit a gold mine.

Knowing I was moving out of the house with my girlfriend, I had already sold most anything that was worth anything, setting up at local shows. He mostly got stacks of Craig Jefferies rookies and albums full of 70's and 80's stars, that wasn't worth much back then. Might have been something in there that might be worth something now, but not too much back then.

They caught him, but never recovered the cards. Got a little payday from my parents homeowners insurance at about a 1/3rd of the cards value of whatever I could remember was stolen...which wasn't very much, but at the time I was pretty ok with.

[Eggoman]

My Mom NEVER threw my or my 3 brothers cards out! She DID realize how much they meant to us and that they MIGHT BE worth something someday.

But did she EVER throw BOXES OF THEM down the stairs after one (OR MORE) of her sons upset her??? YOU BETCHA SHE DID!!!

[cornhusker]

My parents never threw anything away. They even helped add to my collection. Every Spring, the Easter bunny would hide a couple boxes of wax packs around the house with his colored eggs for my sister and I to find.
Bonus- dad hooked me up with his silver age comics before grandma got a chance to toss them. About a short box worth of cowboy and classic illustrated books with only 2 marvel books. Those just happened to be a Spiderman 1 and Daredevil 1.

[Prof]

My grandma was the stereotype in these stories.

She tossed all of my dad's stuff the second he went to college in the early 70s. He didn't even leave town for school, and would've taken it to his apartment if she'd have asked.

As far as I know, he didn't have many cards. But, he had runs of mid-60s and early 70s comic books that would be worth a chunk of money now.

I have a handful of his that she missed, including a Conan #1 and Dr. Strange #3. Too bad the most high dollar ones are gone.

[GasHouseGang]

Usually you read about how Mom gave away someone's cards. In this case, my cousin's Mom gave away his cards to me! They weren't anything great, but they were older than anything I had, and included 1961 - 1963's. He never asked me for them, so I guess he was okay with it.

[yanks4]

I am seventy years old now and had collected 1961 and 1962 Topps... with some Three Stooges, Phoney Ads, Ted Williams Fleer (which I disliked then). I was also given shoeboxes full of cards from the the 50s from neighbors who had older boys....I can still see them in my mind 57 Mantles etc. etc.....They just disappeared except for the Yankees I had scotched taped to a booklet I made with a Yankee photo pack that I had sent away for ...I still have them all with of course paperloss from the tape...She did save the 4 Hartland Statues my brother and I had Mantle, Mays, Fox and Banks which are in great shape..along with pieces of my Alamo set..and Blue and Grey Confederate plastic soldiers. Little League uniform is long gone. I still have my dads stamp collection from the 20s...among a few of his other toys. I wonder if he collected Goudeys? I remember my mom saying to me in the mid 60s that a Mantle card sold for $35 and she was astounded!!

[ValKehl]

As a youth, I collected from 1955-1960. In the mid 1970's, when I was married with 4 rug rats, Mom called one day to inform that she and Dad had come across my cards while cleaning out their storage area. Thankfully, Mom asked if I wanted them, or if should she trash them. Thinking that at least 1 of my 3 boys might collect cards when they got older, I asked Mom to save them for me to pick up the next time I visited. None of my boys got interested in collecting, but I started collecting again in the mid-late 1980's and have been at it ever since.

[robw1959]

Originally Posted by yanks4

I am seventy years old now and had collected 1961 and 1962 Topps... with some Three Stooges, Phoney Ads, Ted Williams Fleer (which I disliked then). I was also given shoeboxes full of cards from the the 50s from neighbors who had older boys....I can still see them in my mind 57 Mantles etc. etc.....They just disappeared except for the Yankees I had scotched taped to a booklet I made with a Yankee photo pack that I had sent away for ...I still have them all with of course paperloss from the tape...She did save the 4 Hartland Statues my brother and I had Mantle, Mays, Fox and Banks which are in great shape..along with pieces of my Alamo set..and Blue and Grey Confederate plastic soldiers. Little League uniform is long gone. I still have my dads stamp collection from the 20s...among a few of his other toys. I wonder if he collected Goudeys? I remember my mom saying to me in the mid 60s that a Mantle card sold for $35 and she was astounded!!

That $35 Mantle card was likely a '52 Topps issue. I remember how you could buy the '50 Mantles all day long in the mid-70s for around $10 at the most (and that was for a ''53 Topps). By the mid-70s, the '52 Topps Mantle had crept all the way up to around $150 in price.