"The Most I've Ever Spent on a Card" - A story in 12 parts. What's your story?

[HercDriver]

Originally Posted by jingram058

When I graduated from USAF/USN weather forecasting school (MOAF C-1 School, yes, the Air Force and Navy go to the same weather schools) at Chanute AFB, Illinois in 1988, I re-enlisted in the Navy for a $20k bonus. They gave me $16k in cash; the other $4k went to the IRS. I bought a 1988 Ford Mustang LX hatchback with 5.0 litre V8 and 5 speed manual transmission at Rantoul Ford with cash for the $13,525 sticker price. I still have that window sticker as a souvenir. Same as a GT, but without GT trim. Lots of police used this same car for catching speeders on the expressways.

At Chanute AFB, they had a small shopping mall built in to the front of the base PX. They held card shows there on base on a regular basis. I used to go to them and salivate over all the neat cards and memorabilia.

Well, with the change from the Mustang burning a hole in my pocket, at one of the Chanute AFB card shows conveniently taking place the weekend after I graduated, I bought a 1934-39 official AL baseball autographed by Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Ty Cobb, from NationalPastime with a letter of authentication from Harvey Brandwein. Paid $500 for the ball, and I still have it. I also bought a 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth #144 and Lou Gehrig #160, both cards for $500, also authenticated by Harvey Brandwein. I still have both of them, but I foolishly sold a 1934 Goudey Lou Gehrig #61 and some other cards a few years later when I got into a monetary jam but that is another story. The $1,000 I paid for the ball and 2 cards remains the most I ever paid to this day.

Ha...I forgot about those Chanute shows! I was a student at U of Illinois, down the road a few miles, and in ROTC. We could go up to Chanute with my military ID and get cheap booze for our parties at the Class Six. A few times, one of my roommates and I stopped at that show and would pick up a few boxes to rip open, when nobody was looking. We definitely didn't want to get busted by any of our girlfriends dropping by the house and catch us playing with baseball cards. I graduated in 1990, by which time, Chanute AFB was gone, or at least on it's way out. I remember wondering what was going to happen to us ROTC officers-to-be, after the wall came down and the Soviet Union collapsed, and we started closing all our bases. No more bad guys...we won! I was in pilot training when Schwarzkopf stormed into Iraq, and then spent a twenty year career on a war-time status. Mostly in Kuwait and Iraq, with a halftime show in Croatia for a bit. Your Chanute AFB reference brought all that flooding back...thanks!

Cheers,
Geno