What Happened to Card Collecting That I Knew?

[Jayworld]

Fred: To answer your questions about my avatar of Randy Jones:

I've been a Padres fan since 1974-75 (go figure; I've lived in Texas all my life). What first attracted me to the Padres was the very unique brown and mustard gold uniforms - unlike any other and very cool (with the coolest cap, in my opinion). I began collecting Padres cards along with the regular cards, and it grew from there. I have the Sports Illustrated 1976 issue with Randy Jones on the cover, and I got to meet him in person in 1994 on my honeymoon in San Diego. He was working his barbecue behind the left field stands at the Murph and was in full (albeit orange/navy) uniform. I got some pictures, he posed with me, and signed a ball and my program. Greatness to finally meet your boyhood favorite. I've corresponded with him on and off through email since, and recently he signed a Spalding brand (circa 1975) NL baseball for me. Randy is awesome, and represents the best of the brown and gold era to me. I've tried to collect all his Hostess and Kelloggs 3D cards. The neat thing is, he'll still sign cards through the mail when you send them to him in care of the team....

From others' posts, it does seem that cards did change in 1989 with Upper Deck coming into the hobby; more for sets; hologram backs of cards, tamper proof packs, Griffey Jr. rookie. Didn't Upper Deck start the "memorabilia swatch" cards as well? Kind of funny now that Upper Deck no longer has a license to produce MLB cards, in a way.