does anybody really connect with what they collect??

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Posted By: scott brockelman 

i have been buying and selling and collecting cards for over 30 years if you count my childhood. but as a progressive collector i advanced to issues way before my time, 1st 1950's Topps and Bowmans, which i completed all of them, and then goudeys and playballs(ditto on completion). and then T-cards and E-cards(most of which i have also completed), albeit at a cost of a few hundred thousand. BUT, what do they really mean to us. i have sold many of these off over the years, keeping only the rarest as a knowledgable collector would hope to do, but i have also reassembled my childhood collection, which i sold for $300 in 1980, i have reassembled it in the form of completion, but without all the dupes i used to have, or the well marked checklist's, but also chased the posters and inserts, etc. i have came to the conclusion it means much more to me that these childhood possessions are much more important than most of the high $$ material i also own. in the recent john burk auction i won a large lot of kellogg's 3-d's and received them today. just to sort thru them brought back more memories than any of the t-206 planks, or other rare cards i harbor in a safe, or 52 topps master set that i recently consigned to Mastro, just $200 worth of cards meant more to me than most of the cards i own, is this not what it really is about?? i ate a ton of raisin bran to accumulate my original hoard!

just a trip down memory lane, which is why we all started this in the 1st place i think.

scott

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Posted By: petecld

I've been thinking along the same lines myself lately. The last time I was showing my collection to a friend the most fun we had was going through the darn Star Wars cards I still have from 1970s and 80s - his mom had thrown his out years ago.

I've realized that somewhere along the line I stopped buying because I wanted to and bought because I thought it is simply what was expected. No, I'm not giving up candy cards, just diversifying my collection.

The last really fun time I had collecting was a few weeks ago when my buddy and I opened a box of 2004 Topps Heritage cards I bought. Gum still su**ed but we chewed every last one. His dad even loved them because they looked just like the 1955 Topps cards he had bought when he was a kid.

To quote a Sheryl Crow song - don't laugh - truth is truth:

"It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you have."

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Posted By: JC

The first time I started to collect cards was in 1977. I bought out the local drug store everytime there Topps order came in (paper route money). I can honestly say that I do not get goose bumps while looking at 1977 Topps. What cranks my whistle is learning about items I have no ideal about. Normally it's by over paying and figuring it out later. One thing I have learned is that Minor league cards from the 90's will be worh Mucho $$$ 10-20 years from now due to supply and demand. Many team issued sets were only giving out at the ball parks and limited to under 2000 print runs. The 90's was by far the best baseball decade we have ever had... But that is another thread...

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Posted By: Jeff O

Like JC, my first year collecting cards was in 1977. I grew up in Philadelphia, and Greg Luzinski was my all-time favorite player. I remember my dad walking a friend and I to 7-11 (we were 6 years old) to buy packs of cards, which we took home and opened on the steps of the front porch while dad sat outside with a neighbor... and I still remember opening one of those packs and pulling a 77 Topps Luzinski and being so exicited that I ran over to show it to him.

The story continues... I wrote a number "1" on the back of that card... it was my favorite, and therefore #1. Fast forward to the late 1980s... I'm in college, and my dad now owns a baseball card shop where I work after school and on weekends. One slow afternoon I decided I needed to look for Luzinski cards in our commons boxes for kicks... what do I find in our box of 77 Topps commons? A Luzinski card with two creases, some rough corners, and a number "1" on the back... I still have that card today in a screw down holder on my dresser.

Jeff

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Posted By: Rhett

Well I didn't start collecting in 1977, probably because that was the year I was born, but I still hold a special place in my heart for those mass-produced-worth-less-than-toilet-paper-can't-get-a-dollar-for-a-5000-count-box cards from the late 80's to the early 90's. I began selling at shows at the age of 11, and still have vivid memories of hoping to pull a 1986 Chris Brown, 1987-Bobby Bonilla, 1988-Gregg Jefferies, 1990-Ben McDonald and Eric Anthony's. The best thing about the cards from my childhood is that with a dollar in hand I can buy as many of them as I could EVER need. Seriously, I do bust out a box of cards from that era and, while they don't give me the same enjoyment as looking through Old Judges, they bring back so many memeories of my young childhood that they are irreplacable.
-Rhett

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Posted By: Julie

...was the N43 Ewing (graded 1.5 by SGC at one time) I got from Ben Fisher this afternoon. Can't seem to post it, but it's happily in my 19th centrury album--which i would cheefully die with, except what a waste of cards!

I also started collecting in 1977...

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Posted By: Scott

Don't know if you are still in the Philadelphia area but, if you are, you need to get to the new ballpark where you can take your card of "The Bull" to his barbeque restaurant at the stadium and get it autographed

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Posted By: jay behrens

I can't part with my 1971 and 1972 Topps baseball just for this reason. I still have all the extra cards.

The first cards I remember buying where some 1969 football cards on a trip home from the Twin Cities. I can even remeber some of the cards, Larry Csonka, Jerril Wilson, Jan Stenarude and Gale Sayers.

I also remember using my paper route money to run down to the corner store and buy cards all the time. 1972 was the first time I bought a whole box of cards at the incredible price of $3.60. There are packs of cards that cost more than that now

Vintage cards have always been special to me becuase I've always been into the history of the game. Especially players that captured my interest like Lou Sockalexis, Ken Williams, Clyde Milan and Sam Crawford.

Jay

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Posted By: Jeff O

Alas, I am no longer in the City of Brotherly Love... we moved from there shortly after I pulled my memorable Luzinski in '77, and the closest I ever got to returning was a semester at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsuburgh. That being said, there will always be a soft spot in my heart for the Philly greats - Luzinski, Schmidt, and Carlton... Bobby Clarke and Bernie Parent... Harold Carmichael and Bill Bergey (gotta love the linebackers!)... and of course, Dr. J. It was a great time to be a kid in Philly.

BTW - the Flyers WILL win the Stanley Cup this year. You heard it here first.

Jeff

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Posted By: John(z28jd)

I think the fun thing about collecting the old cards is getting cards of the players i was only able to read about when i was young.I used to just sit down and read a baseball encyclopedia,so for me they actually do bring back some memories.

I do enjoy every now and then looking thru cards from the 80's-90's that i collected as a kid,and since they dont have much monetary(sic?) value theres no reason to get rid of them.

I am a big Pirates fan and last year i bought the team sets from the first 3 years i collected(81-83) for donruss,fleer and topps and then put them in plastic pages and made a display with them,so you could say i was reminiscing then.

Some of the coolest cards i have are ones i just got of my cousins fiance who played for the dodgers in the minors from 1996-2000.I went out and bought all 5 sets he was in.They will probably have sentimental value long after him and my cousin break up,because i sit at family dinners and just listen to him for hours about facing guys who are in the majors now.He owned Barry Zito btw but dont ask about Roy Oswalt

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Posted By: Anonymous

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Posted By: Julie

in the same post!

My interest, my connecting, with baseball cards followed itself backwards, with clusters around historical and baseball historical events, winding up in the 19th century. I still have sentimental attachments to the first card I bought (a '75 mini Brock), and the first serious card I bought (a '55 Robinson), but if something happened to my 19th century cards , photos and woodcuts, it would take many months before I had any real interest in life again. Except for the playoffs, of course.

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Posted By: Patrick McMenemy

Scott's original question, Does anybody really connect with what they collect?" really makes us examine our collecting motivation.

As collectors, we typically fall into two categories:

Collectors that view this as a hobby and collectors that view this as a business or investment opportunity.

Personally, I believe that as one starts to view this hobby more as a business or investment opportunity, the greater the likelyhood that the "connection" with our collections becomes less personal. The activity becomes more like work than play.

I also consider myself a "visual" collector. I enjoy viewing my collection in my three antique display cases. That connection would be lost in a safe deposit box at the bank.

So yes Scott, I do "connect" with the things I collect. Every single day! If I didn't, then I'd move an to another hobby.

Happy collecting, Patrick

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Posted By: jay behrens

My other big collecting passion was action figures and toys. After having sold off my comic and gaming store, my interest has dwindled, but my place is still covered with toys. When you walk in the door, you are greated by various Japanese manga themed toys and the living room is surrounded by The Simpsons interactive play sets. There are also assorted dragons and robots along with a KISS Gene Simmons figure in his classic pose with his tongue hanging out. Whenever I'm bored, I can grab the toys and play them. The interactive wrestling figures are a hoot. McFarland makes some kickass sports toys. I am still trying to track down a Torii Hunter.

Jay

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Posted By: Botn

I started collecting as a kid in the last 70's. In fact not more than a few months ago my Mom found a cigar box that I had filled with 77 and 78 Topps cards. Some had rubber bands that had melted around the stacks and of course the 2 Molitor/Trammell cards were bent in half. I placed the cigar box and contents back into my safe.

My collection primarily consists of high grade Brooklyn Dodger cards, with a very heavy emphasis on Robinson. I have added a good deal of Caramels to the collection as well. Sadly I did not have the foresight, as some on this board, to be buying the stuff when it was affordable between 5 and 20 years ago. The remainder of my collection consists of unopened non sports boxes with an emphasis on Wacky Packs.

The motivation to collect caramel cards was more from being intrigued that cards that were targeted for kids still existed nearly 90+ years later. The Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson and Wacky Packs are things that I feel connected to.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Prices are all relative. I remember cringing, having to pay $12 a card for the t205s we pulled from the packs of HLCs back in 1982.

Jay

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Posted By: halleygator

I started buying wax packs as a small kid in 1973 ... by searching construction sites in the neighborhood for bottles and cans that I could recycle for money!

My first complete set was 1977. My dad ordered it for me from Renatta Galasso for Christmas! Still LOVE that set more than any other. Dale Murphy and Andre Dawson rookie cards ... and at one time these were the two BEST players in the game!

My first acquisition from a real card show has always been my FAVORITE card of all time for several reasons. It was from before I started collecting ... and it had THREE stars on it. I still have that bad boy:

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Posted By: Chuck Ross

I've really enjoyed reading this thread. I read often here, post rarely. I began collecting baseball
cards in 1967 and was obsessed with them to the same extent that I was obsessed with everything associated with baseball in those days. I bought, traded, flipped thousands of cards over the next few years. In the early 70's I began to have some paper route money and began getting price lists from dealers in the back of the Sporting News. Bought some vintage cards, mainly because I loved baseball history. One of the sets that really stood out for me was the '53 Topps set (more on that later). As I moved toward college age I gave up on baseball cards as most people did back then. When I regained interest as a gainfully employed yuppie in the 90's, I concentrated on finishing one of the sets of my youth, the 1970 Topps. I then began work on the '53 Topps. I had always figured this would be impossible, but I found that eBay makes all things possible. When I finished the set, I began to look around for something else to work on.

As I began to look at the various baseball sets out there, I finally had a realization about my connections with the cards. Over the years, with free agency, players changing teams constantly, etc, I had really lost most of my connection with baseball. The things that attracted me to the '53 Topps were the historical connection to a bygone era and the beautiful artwork. Looking back at the majority of baseball card sets that I could potentially be working on, what I saw was an endless stream of photographs of the same players over and over (OK, I'm exaggerating a little). How many portrait photos of Mickey Mantle or Hank Aaron did I need?

It was at this point that I discovered the R cards of the 1933-1942 period (R1-R200, that is, the non-baseball variety). These cards had some features I could connect with: great, great artwork, historical context and they were also from the period in which my dad was a kid, so collecting them was a way of connecting to his memory as well. I have since become a pretty advanced collector of these cards, and I connect with them on a daily basis in the same way that many of you have discussed regarding your cards above.

The other things that turned me off of baseball cards have been hinted at in some of the posts here.
It seems very easy to begin to treat these things as commodities, about as well-loved as a pork future. When you can't actually touch the cards, in fact maybe they're all in the bank and your collection is only a set of images on a disc....are you a collector or a futures trader? The reason that I enjoy reading this board is that many of the posters here DO love their cards, appreciate the history, enjoy talking about the nuances of the sets, etc. These are hobby attributes I can appreciate. Even though many of the cards here involve black and white photos, I like them much more than the photo cards of later eras. The artwork on T206s, though not as varied as that in the era I collect, is quite beautiful. The main things that keep me out of collecting this era are (1) the price and (2) the paranoia over trimming, forgeries, etc.

Anyway, I've rambled on too long. For those of you who really appreciate your cards and everything about them, more power to you...I hope you enjoy your hobby for years to come. If you have the sneaking suspicion that for you the emperor has no clothes and that you are just hoarding pieces of cardboard, I hope you'll take the time to look around and find something to collect that really brings you pleasure regardless of its monetary value.

Chuck Ross

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Posted By: Chris

I started collecting in 1980. My Mom worked at the mall and in the summer I would go there and play video games. While making the short cut to the back of the drug store where the games were I noticed 1980 football packs. I bought a few and opened them up. I was hooked. I then went back and bought as many as I could with the money I had and forgot about the video games. I then started buying 1981 baseball packs. I loved those 1981 Donruss cards back then. After I started collecting my Mom would buy 2 packs of cards for me everyday and bring them home. Packs were .30 then. A parent would go broke today doing that. Then one day while walking around the local flea market with my Dad I fond a guy selling old baseball cards. I was hooked on these "old" cards. The first older card I bought was a 1959 Yogi Berra. I later found another man who sold everything under the sun but the one thing he had was a 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth for $125. I begged my Dad to buy that card for me promising to do whatever it took to pay him back. Of course his reaction was there was no way he was paying $125 for a baseball card. Not surprising I guess considering he thought I was crazy paying $6 for the Berra card I had gotten. Later sold my cards in the late 80's to buy my first car as I had lost interest. Got the bug again in 1991 and have had it ever since. Now my son collects and I enjoy sharing my old stories of some of the cards I had and of course the Babe Ruth that got away.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

although the wife doesn't think I'v ever gotten over childhood...

My 1971 Topps set is an extension of my childhood. It was the first set I really collected as a kid (I still have a few from back then, in atrocious condition, of course. Ditto for the first old card I ever received (1952 Topps Walt Dropo).

I think part of the disconnect some of us may feel with collecting is having to obsess over condition and value. Over the years, the money has taken an ever increasing role in collecting. First I found it necessary to justify my obsession to an unforgiving world with a financial incentive. One day, however, I woke up and realized I had a mid-five-figures investment where a collection used to be, and started thinking about marketing it rather than enjoying it. Believe me, I remain torn over the concept of keeping the valuable ones in the safe deposit box rather than selling them. I recognize that it doesn't make sense to have the expensive ones laying around the house, but if I can't see them, why have them?

Recently, perhaps in view of my looming 39th birthday, I've gotten into some of the non-sports cards I loved as a kid: Kung Fu, Star Trek, Bond, etc. These cards are available so cheaply that I can simply enjoy them rather than worry about them. Also, there are many really nice new "old" sets available. I got virtually every Yankee of my youth on autographed cards with the UD Yankees set, for example.

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Posted By: Mike McGrail

Started collecting in 1975 and I think the multi-color psycho disco cards that Topps put out that year kind of warped me. To this day, I still am not remotely interested in cards that have no color. Black & white and sepia tones just don't get my blood pumpin'. Good for most of you because it means one less collector fishing in the Old Judge pool!

Cards went on the back burner in the 1980's. Got back into the swing of things BIG TIME in 1991 when I pulled the following card out of a wax pack in Saudi Arabia.



Not vintage, but still my all time favorite card. It just has everything! A horizontal card showing a great action scene with one of my favorite players. Check out that look of determination on Pudges' face. The ball is almost at the plate and big Cecil Fielder has got all of those pounds in motion as well. You just know that the upcoming play is gonna be a HUGE one because Fisk didn't back down from anyone. I still wonder what that can of Skoal in Fielders back pocket looked like after the play!

I love my cards!

Mike McGrail

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Posted By: Halleygator

That's not Skoal in big Cecil's back pocket...

It was a full Budweiser tall boy that he put in his back pocket ... forgot about ... and sat on.

Squished it flat.

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Posted By: Peter Thomas

so I began collecting 48 Leafs. I could obtain these in exchange for soda pop bottles which I could pick up on the way to the store. Our neighborhood was rapidly growing after WW2 and the construction workers discarded their bottles (some things don't change). The missing numbers drove me crazy and was the cause of much discussion with my friends. I collected until I entered college and did not like the look of 61 Topps. When my parents retired and moved fron Boston to Florida my mother asked what she should do with the cards and I told her to ger rid of them. When she died 20 years latter and I was going through their house I found all of the cards, including about 30 canceled Goudeys that my grand dad had given me, neatly arranged in three shoe boxes. My son rekindeled interest in cards in the 80's and we have be active since then. Like Scott we are very interested in Ramlys and I am also working on a master E92 set with all four backs. 56 years later I am still messing with the Leafs and now have about 500 cards, including abould 150 from childhood - many with tape marks. I am determined to finish this set this year only DiMaggio and Hermansk to go.

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Posted By: Halleygator

Sounds like the construction workers of American deserve a big "THANKS" for funding the start-up costs of a lot of our collections!!

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Posted By: hankron

As a littel kid, I made my own baseball cards. I discovered that if you errased a a portion of a magazine picture you could draw in your own stuff. So I made a baseball card of Robin Yount and a cartoon charector ... I also was a fan of Walt Disney and had detailed plans in binder for my own version of Disney World named 'Rudd World.' Had all my own charectors (Dochester Duck, Hayes the Rat, etc). Though my older sister objected to use of her name ... Then when I was six or so, I was to enter a local Easter Bunny drawing contest, where the winner would get a silver dollar and have his picture in the neighborhood newspaper. This same sister, who is now a professional sculpter, told me to glue some cotton onto the bunny, as (paraphrasing) the judges would be suckers for 'outside the box' stuff like that. She was right and I won the silver dollar ... I saved newspapers of important world events. However, the assasination of Anwar Sadat with Wisconsin newspaper letterhead, likely has little value ... And when I was perhaps five, I wanted a rubber chicken at a the local mall and my papents wouldn't buy it. I had a temper tantrum, and to this day my mom will say when people are around, "David, do you remember that rubber chicken?" ... And I still have all this stuff (except the rubber chicken of course) in a box in the back of a closet. So, technically, the plans for Rudd World still exist and can be implemented at any time.

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Posted By: runscott

My town was so small that we never saw the high series. In fact, the following year we always saw the leftover cards from the previous year - those drug store owners were devious! My short term memory was bad even as a child - I would almost always buy 2-3 packs from the previous year before I finally remembered what the wax pack design looked like.

But we did get some cool oddball items - I remember the baseball stamps with mini-albums, the Topps "Giants", and also the baseball player super-balls.

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Posted By: Jimmy Scott Elkins

As for what I collected as a kid, my favorites were my "Elvis" cards - I also started around 77-78. The Wacky Packages from 1982 are also cherished by me. However, I only have one of those Elvis cards and a stack of "extras" from the Wacky Packages - when I came back from Basic Training, my Wacky Packages album was gone! I also started collecting Baseball cards in 78 as well, though I really started in 81-82 seriously. The only way I could buy "older" cards was to go to a flea market, since nobody in my family before me had ever collected cards.

I can still remember the day at a flea market when my mother told me that I wasted my money paying $16 for a NM 1956 Sandy Koufax! Another vivid memory was having to pass on EX/MT 1915 Cracker Jacks - Cobb, Mathewson and Wagner. I had to pass at the time because I only had $30 with me and the dealer wanted a WHOPPING $100 each for those. When I went back a few weeks later (after saving $ I had worked out), the Cobb was gone! I also had to pass on a NM Wilson Franks Ted Williams that day, because another dealer wouldn't take less than $35 for it - OUCH! I guess that is why, when I started back collecting, after selling my boyhood collection years ago, I started collecting only Cobbs. I then went to the rare backs and got out of the Hobby a couple years back.

I couldn't stand being "out" of the Hobby any longer and started back last Autumn collecting again. As to Scott B.'s posting - I do relate to what is in my personal collection (the ones not for sale). They are not PSA 8's and 9's of vintage cards, but the players and cards I simply LIKE. They range from caramel Cobbs, Matty's (the Horizontal ones of course) and Cy Youngs to one of my all-time favorite non-vintage cards - 54 Wilson Franks Ted Williams. Heck, I even plan on getting another Johnny Bench rookie and other non-vintage cards for my personal collection - kinda, cards I once had and thought were cool!

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Posted By: jay behrens

I loved those things as kid. I always swore I gonna collect them again, but have never gotten around to it. My school binders used to be plastered with them.

Jay

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Posted By: JimB

I started buying packs in 1975 and continued through 1981. In junior high 80-81 I met some guys who had old cards and who were going to conventions. I remember buying a 1960 Yogi Berra from one for $5 and I was just blown away. I started going to shows and saving all my allowance money for cards. Hank Aaron was my obsession and my goal was to get all of the Topps Aaron cards. When I finally got the '54 card $75 in cash and trade at a show, I was so excited. Then one day in 1981 I wandered into a card shop in L.A. where I grew up. The shop had all sorts of amazing cards from the 1950's and '60s which still seemed incredibly old to me. But what blew me away were two T206 cards: a red background Cobb and Lajoie holding bat. I was stunned! I had heard about tobacco cards, but never seen one. The Cobb was $90 and the Lajoie was $20. I think I traded half my collection for those two cards and treasured them for years. I was an avid reader and knew all about Cobb and Lajoie. I couldn't believe I actually had baseball cards for them. Well, once highschool began, my interest in cards took a back seat. It was not until graduate school in the early 1990's that I popped into a cardshop again to just check it out. That sparked my interest all over again and I haven't looked back. These days it is the turn of the century cards that really excite me - the caramel and tobacco cards - the ones that relate to those old stories of baseball legends that I read about as a kid. Do I really connect with what I collect? Of course! I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't.
Jim

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Posted By: scott brockelman

i never imagined this post would get so many responses, but most are of the same jest. most of us collect pre-war cards for value and investment in vintage cards, but really cherish even more, the far less expensive and lower grade cards we held in our hands as kid! would you sell your childhood collection or your off grade T206 cobb? (hint you can buy another cobb, you can NEVER replace your childhood cards!)

i had lots of non-sports back then as well, mod-squad, gomer pyle, batman, lots of topps goofy issues and they connect to my brain really quick as well. i started buying baseball cards in 1969, they were still a nickel a pack, my grandmother gave me a $1 nearly every saturday at the IGA store, thats 20 packs. most of them were 1st series of course and as a youngster who had little knowledge of baseball, i thought al mcbean was the most famous player in baseball, he was in damn neart every pack i opened, i had a huge pile of dupes and he was 12-15 deep, this is where i was going with the post. what really made our feeble minds and now larger pocketbooks click.

i know a few responded that they can connect to the vintage players we collect, i believe they live in the lives of those players and their accomplishments as well and appreciate their baseball contributions, which is perfectly fine, they are probably well versed in baseball stats and history, which i respest, as i communicate with several SABRE members. my point was to reconnect to us how and why we started.

in a nutshell, we had a great thread, that may have made a few sit back and think or rethink, and really appreciate their childhood cards.

i have no ulterior motive here, i am not out to buy your vintage cards. just wanted to reflect on WHY WE REALLY STARTED COLLECTING CARDS! no one on this board was alive when babe ruth played( julie may have been, but probably not aware of his feat, no disrespect meant). but i bet most can recall where they were when hank aaron broke the record.

call me a nostalgic idiot, but i really enjoy my $5,000 collection of 1960's/1970's cards as much or more than my $500,000 prewar card collection, yet i still bid stupid money on cards i need for the later, call it "i gotta have it syndrom". perhaps we are just a bit removed from reality.

as a final note, i much more enjoyed ready each post on this thread than the endless card grading or ebay scam posts'.

call me sentimental, or just mental

scott

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Posted By: Scott Forrest

just so no one gets us confused.

My first football pack was '67 Philly Gum and it had a Dan Reeves rookie. Being a huge Cowboy fan (hey, don't throw any rotten fruit at me) I was very happy. Over thirty years later I attempted to rebuild my '67 Cowboys subset and discovered ebay. Well, the set is now matted and framed in my hallway, but along the way I met '50s Bowman football, and eventually pre-wwI tobacco cards. I still love the Philly Gum football cards, and the mid-60's Topps baseball, since that's what I grew up on. At some point I would like to own complete mid-grade sets of all of them.

Regarding the off-issues Scott mentioned, I wish we had gotten some of those in hickville where I'm from. I collected the hell out of the "Green Hornet" and "Batman" cards, but we didn't see much other than that as far as non-football/baseball. Heck, we didn't even get basketball or hockey cards until the '70s.

(edited to add following)

We had all those monster stickers and caricature hot rod cards (also with monsters). I'm embarrassed to admit I collected those.

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Posted By: Jimmy Scott Elkins

Well, in the above post I mentioned seeing a 1915 Cracker Jack Cobb at a Flea Market for $100 when I was around 8 years old and I couldn't afford it. This post got me thinking - I remembered there being a 1914 CJ Cobb for sale. Well, after exchanging a few e-mails with Greg at BOTN, I can say I will finally have a CJ Cobb! Hard to believe out of all the Cobbs I have owned, I have never owned one until now (or when Greg gets my $ and ships the card). I guess I had been concetrating on Cobbs that I would eventually re-sell and worrying about future profits and not about obtaining the one I have wanted for 24 years.

Thanks Scott B. for this thread - I now have (or will have) an example of the first real Cobb card I ever saw and have wanted to own ever since! I will have to put this in my safe along with my Elvis card and Wacky Packages! Also, thanks to Greg at BOTN - as always, it is a true pleasure to deal with Greg!!! Scott is right - taking a short walk down memory lane is much more pleasant than bashing each other or some grading company!

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Posted By: Julie

constitutional right to amend it, or their revolutionary right to overthrow it." I wasn't alive when THAT was written, either, but I sure am glad it was!

I was 13 when Ruth died ('48--I think); there's actually a regular, or semi-regular, contributor who must have been 15 or 16 at least in 1948, but none of you have noticed yet. Neither of us, of course, was alive in '29. We remember Jackie Robinson better than Babe Ruth...

I think those of us who love 19th century cards etc. love, not the roots themselves, but the first blossoms, of baseball. The rough-and-ready, and at the same time formal, early heros, with stickpins in their ties for portraits. The way the rules changed. Keefe asking "Where'l you have it?" for the last time in 1887. Catchers who didn't squat, umpires who stood so far away from the action they could hardly see what was going on. A single baseball for a whole game! A handful of black men around whom a particular, sports-oriented Jim Crow grew up, even though their ancestors came from a part of the world likely to produce the greatest of athletes. The commemoration of action at a time when the camera couldn't capture action--with balls on strings and lying still on the ground. AND SO ON!

E5--Nettles' licence plate.

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Posted By: bcornell

Julie posed the riddle about an elder statesman - JohnD had me pegged as a Depression-era baby and I will never forgive him for it, the whippersnapper. I'm only old enough to be the big brother who taught him some valuable lessons.

I started with '74 Topps back in short pants (3rd grade). Hate to spoil the theme, but they don't do a whole lot for me now (of course, I still have them). Had the full 5 series of Star Wars cards, a la Pete. But I bought a T204 back when I was roughly 20 or so, not knowing anything about them, and I still think it's the best card I ever bought.

Bill

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Posted By: Scott

I started collecting with 72 Topps... One of my fondest memories was/is collecting 73 Topps as an 8 year old and wanting to have a "complete run" of the playoff and world series cards.. I remember having the darndest time getting World Series game 4 (Gene Tenace was on the front?).

I must have bought over 100 packs at the darned drug store and had almost given up until one summer day the good humor truck came through our neighborhood and I decided to buy yet one more pack of cards rather than spend my money on ice cream and I finally pulled that card! (I doubt many ice cream trucks carry baseball cards these days but the one that came through our neighborhood did back then)...

While I have found memories of the cards I collected as a youngster I'm probably one of the more lucky members here as I also connected with vintage cards at an early age with my father. We were lucky enough to come across a hoard of Tobacco and Candy cards many of which were stored in original Piedmont and Sweet Cap boxes that I had the priviledge and excitement of opening as a 9 year old.

As Scott B. alluded to, the connection was probably enhanced by the fact that I was already pretty well read (at least at that age) in baseball history and statistics and knew the likes of Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Cy Young, etc...

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Posted By: Richard

Greetings,I have been collecting Baseball cards avidly since 1972.I too can remember my dad purchasing many packs of 1972 Topps baseball cards.I can still remember the thrill of opening those cards.I agree with Scott regarding collecting.When I was a kid I would read any books that I could find on Hall of Fame Baseball players. Not having the internet this was the primary source to learn about the Ruths,Cobbs,Dimaggios,etc.When I grew up and started working and was able to afford cards of some of these great players it was like magic. Having read about them as kids and now owning authentic cards from their playing days was unreal! This is the thrill for me.Since Baseball is the National pastime I think when we collect vintage Baseball cards we are acquiring a little piece of American history. Baseball has always remained constant throughout history. Our nation has had challenges through the decades (God knows) but Baseball has not changed. It is the common thread that we can all turn to in times of distress to forget our troubles. So to sum up I think we should collect for the sheer enjoyment and not for investment purposes. Baseball card collecting for me has many great memories that I shall always cherish.

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Posted By: yazfan08

I primary collect 1965-1976 OPC and 1959-1968 Venezeualan Topps, but I've never been to Canada or Venezuela. Go figure.

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Posted By: Bruce MacPherson

Great topic. I remember my first cards were 1973 Topps. I became obsessed buying those three pack racks from our local grocery store. I would spend all of my allowance every week on those cards. The problem was that after many months of purchasing cards, I never got any cards numbered higher than #264. Therefore I thought I had the entire set. I had no idea that the cards came in series. I must have had 5-10 cards of each low series player but never saw any of the high numbers. I guess my store never ordered any of these series. About five years later I discovered a card store and purchased a 1967 Yaz card which started a brief period of purchasing older cards. I got a Cobb red background in great condition for $10 which is the only card I still have from my youth. When ebay came around, my first purchase was a 1973 Topps set which I still look at from time to time to see the low number series that I remembered and the high numbers that I never saw.

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Posted By: warwshawlaw

Runscott: You didn't get basketball cards until the 1970's because no one else did, either. There weren't any from 62-69. Reminds me of the 1969-70 tall boys. I found a stack in an antiques store around 1974 and begged my parents to buy them, which they did. I got most of the set around ex condition and held it for many years. In 1988 I finished it cheaply at a major show in SF. I got some slabbed (the really nice ones) then panicked and sold it when I was caught short one month. I've regretted it ever since. I did keep a Chamberlain dupe as a remembrance...

Hockey cards held an interest in my neighborhood of NY for about two weeks in the winter. We'd buy a few packs, looking for Orr, Espo or Mikita, then resume arguing Yankees or Mets.

Football cards were nothing to us; the Giants sucked perpetually (Tarkenton for Snead, give me a friggin break) and the Jets fell off the radar after Broadway Joe's knees gave out. I did luck into a big pile of 1971 rack packs in 1977, though, at a local drugstore that used to put all its old packs into a big bin on special. Went back a few years later--the store and the bin were long gone...

In terms of where-was-I-when, I heard about #715 in the living room of my family's weekend home from tv--black and white if you can believe it...I knew none of the racist crap that was going on. Hammerin Hank was the #1 star among us kids...

I always dreamt of owning certain cards as a kid: T206 Johnson, Hank Aaron rookie, 1954 Mays, a Babe Ruth, etc. Much of my adult collecting is getting those damned cards.

Subsets: when I was 10-12 I thought the absolute greatest cards in the world were the 1974 Hank Aaron specials, the 1975 MVP run, and the 1976 all time greats. I dedicated myself to collecting all of the cards depicted in the Aaron and MVP sets. I got all the Aarons, but just about killed myself chasing down the 1955 campanella, 1962 wills...at least until I found out they never existed.

OJ's: I remember turning my nose up at a table loaded with OJ's in the late 1970's at a show. So small, so bland looking. Little did I know...

Seemed like some cards and other items just showed up in what we'd today consider such absurdly large numbers that we thought there was no hurry. I recall a table loaded down with hundreds of Zeenuts at one SF show. I didn't feel like going through it. No hurry to buy those there. Another show a dealer had dozens of Ty Cobb checks. I figured I'd save my $50 and spend it on something else, then maybe get a check later on.

I bought a 1953 Mays in nice near mint condition for $25 at a 1976 ASCCA show in NY. I had to borrow 6 months' advance allowance from my dad to do it. When my mother picked us up, she nearly killed him for letting me piss away $25 on a baseball card. Four years later, when the card was selling for $500, she nearly killed him for not buying more...

I used to comb antiques stores for cards, buy them, then fleece my friends in trades. My next door neighbors had a father who was a professor. His students gave them collections and they in turn fleeced me. Cards were the absolute best business training I ever got.

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Posted By: botn

We had all those monster stickers and caricature hot rod cards (also with monsters). I'm embarrassed to admit I collected those.

As did I and have since gone back and purchased complete unopened boxes of that stuff. Odd Rods, Odder Odd Rods and every other incarnation of the name.

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Posted By: TBob

My first Topps wax pack was when I was a little kid at bought it from Wyberg's Drug Store on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis in the Summer of 1958. Back then all the comic books were in wooden racks and Mr. Wyberg didn't care if you sat down and read them all in his store as long as you occassionally bought one and if you didn't get in the way of customers. The big dilemma was did you buy a nickel pack and get 8 cards and a slab of gum or 5 1 cent packs with 5 slabs of pink gum? Tough call, we did it both ways. I remember the joy of scrounging for those abandoned pop bottles and tirning them in for change to buy cards. I also remember taping balls and driving nails in to broken wooden bats but that's another story for another day.

Thought for the day: Is it any wonder that outfielders in Little League, Babe Ruth, American Legion and High School and kids in general have such mediocre arms now adays? From when I was 5 until I was 16, we played baseball every single day during the summer. We played games on our teams at night and pickup games every day during the morning and afternoon. We'd play makeshift games if we didn't have enough players with one field being out if you hit it there. We THREW the ball all day long and built up those arms. I was a catcher in high school and still shake my head at the lack of arm strength of most high school catchers these days. the kids are busy playing video games, watching tv, doing drugs, hanging at the mall, etc to become ballplayers. Wonder why so many Latin American kids are coming in to the bigs? Wonder why so few African American kids are coming in now? Black youth who play sports are either playing basketball year round with AAU and in the parks during the summer or football which has become a 9 month sport in the South. Sad.

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Posted By: Julie

the quotation was from Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, p. 19 (GOOGLE)--AND not FROM THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, LIKE I THOUGHT (THANK YOU, BOB CRAIK!)

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Posted By: billy

One of my fondest memories is when I was a youngster sleeping on Sunday morning and my dad would come home from getting the Sunday paper. He would wake me up by tossing a couple of packs of cards (probably Topps 1971) onto my bed.

I collected packs and traded and flipped...and even stuck them in my bike tires for the "motorcycle noise". But I would never do that with a card I needed for a set. It didn't matter who the card was if it was a double, but if I needed that number card I would not risk or ruin it. In fact, I recall trading a handful of my remaining Topps 1974 (I think) to get the 1 card I needed to finish the set. It was one of the special cards Topps did each year...a Lou Pinella childhood card.

I also recall visiting a cousin who kept come cards in his drawer. It was so cool to see those 196x cards. He gave some to my brother and myself. One was a 67 Mantle that I still have today.

At some point I got into buying sets complete (someone in this thread mentioned Renatta Galasso and boy did that bring back memories). My thinking was that I liked the cards and I'd love to one day have some child (mine or someone else's) who would go bug-eyed looking at my cards like I would do when I saw old cards.
And because that's why I collected, I decided I would put all of them in albums instead of keeping them in boxes. This way they can easily be looked at. Otherwise, what's the point???
It doesn't matter to me if I have a card valued at a few hundred dollars...I take it out of its case and put it into its album.
I have albums for Topps regular issues (no way I was going to get involved in all the other manufacturers and special gold/chrome/stadium/spend-more issues) for 1971 through 1990...including a few albums that have just the traded/update sets for 74, 76, and then later on when they came each year.
I think I stopped in 1990 because my interest in the game and players was gone. Collecting cards of business men didn't appeal to me.

My favorite album is the one I titled simply "Ooooooooooo". That's the album that has the Mantle, a Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Lou Gehrig, almost every pitcher that pitched a Cy Young. I'm still looking for an affordable Ernie Shore (27 outs of perfect relief) and John Richmond (1st perfect game ever...1880) and Monte Ward (who followed Richmond's 5 days later!).
That's the album that has the cards I look for now. Though I have also thought about finishing the 70's decade by getting a 1970's set via collecting poor condition cards...not buying the set...just like I remember it being done...a few cards at a time.

I also stopped in high school or college, and then got back into it via card shows for a couple of years. I had a blast going to shows and using all the items I had collected that I didn't want to trade for what I wanted. The 1933 Gehrig I mentioned above was a swap for an entire Topps football set (76 I believe with Payton rookie). If I sold something, I'd use that money to buy something. Basically I was using my hobbie to finance itself, and it lasted for a lot longer than I would have thought. Plus I was fortunate that back then there were still shows that had older cards. I went to a "large" show a month ago and found 1 table with interesting older cards. So I may be done with shows...or at least until I can find "vintage" card shows.

Now I look for cards that meet some interest of mine for some theme I made up myself or just for the history of the card or just to recall back when it was a game. As long as it adds "ooooo"mph to my "Ooooooo" album, I might try and find it. I think part of the fun is in the search too.

Enjoy for whatever reason you enjoy it.

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Posted By: Joe P.

Collecting, is not only a feel good, but makes me feel younger.
On the other hand, although the posts on this thread are all interesting, .... they make me feel older, .... but in a good way.

I reconnected with sports cards back in 1982, and that was under protest, because I needed another hobby like the proverbial hole in the head.
I got started with the Valenzuela rookie cards.
Got tired of rookie cards, because they represented more of a stock market mindset.
I wanted the enjoyment of a hobby, I already had a job.
Getting attracted to the cards of my youth, was a no brainer.
I use to buy the 1941 Play Ball for a penny a pack when they came out, and fipped them with the other kids for theirs.
That was my new challenge, and it was fun renewing friendship with my all time favorite outfield of Keller - DiMaggio and Henrich.
It was great replacing cards that I once owned 40 years before.

Before I forget, I never got to see Babe Ruth actually play, but I was in the right centerfield bleachers the day that the Babe made his last appearance at Yankee Stadium.
He was wearing a tan camel hair coat, and you could barely understand, or hear his cancer ridden gravel like voice.
It was sad indeed.
Needless to say, he received a long standing ovation.

Scott, thanks for the thread.
After the 1941 Play Ball (which I still have) the love and history of the tobacco cards were soon to follow.
Never thinking that I would do as well as I did with them.
Not that it is wrong, but in my case, you can count me as one that never ever thought of what can I get for the cards later.

It was my love and sublimation from the actual job.

Joe

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Posted By: AdamBaxter

I was born in the 70's I didn't really come into cards until right in the middle of the 1986-87 rookie class. I was too busy collecting Star Wars figures. I remember that some of the big names then were Mattingly, Henderson, Canseco, Dale Murphy, Davis etc. etc. You were a big deal if you had some of these guys: 84 Donruss Mattingly, Strawberry, 85 Clemens, Gooden, 86 Donruss Canseco. I remember picking up 87 Topps wax packs on the way home from school and trying to pull McGwire, Sierra, Bonds, Bonilla and so on. Those guys were all cool. But Canseco was the guy to have. My favorite rookie back then, who has also remained one of my favorite players of all-time was Barry Larkin. I remember the heated disagreements my friend (who worshipped Eric Davis) and I used to get in over who the real star for the Reds was. Topps was usually the brand to build sets from each year, But Donruss and Fleer usually had the cooler rookie cards. I was also CRAZY into the 1980's O-Pee-Chee Hockey sets. The wax for those were tough to come buy and scoring Gretzky's and other big names like Lemeiux, Roy, Messier and Bourque was a big thrill. Then 1988 came and all the baseball card companies overproduced to the point of ridiculousness and my interest started to wane as there were just too many cards, too many sets and too few cards worth collecting. It just wasn't fun anymore. The first truly pre-war card I ever bought was in 1996. It was a 1934 Goudey Charlie Gehringer at the local card shop for $60.00 and I've been hooked on Pre-War ever since. I've sworn up and down that I'd never get back to the modern stuff, But I have to admit that I do sometimes miss it. I've actually been hanging around the 1980's categories for baseball and hockey on Ebay lately trying to decide if I should use Pre-War card money to pick up some a nice '83 Boggs rookie or '86-87 Roy.

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Posted By: Mark Evans

I collected baseball cards as a kid for only one year -- 1961 at the age of 11. I collected the entire set and happily my mother never threw them out. I have them to this day.

I never collected anything else until discovering ebay in 1998. I have collected a variety of stuff since including some vintage cards. But, none of the newly acquired memorabilia means as much to me as the 1961 Topps set because of the memories it brings back -- trading with friends, flipping cards, buying packs for a nickel at the local five and dime, gum, etc.

By the way, I met several board members in Atlantic City and look forward to seeing you all again, and meeting others, in Cleveland.

Mark

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Posted By: runscott

it was me that had the problem. After the '69 season I decided it was time to "grow up" and I threw out all of my cards - football and baseball in several shoeboxes from '65-69. I still remember the moment when I emptied the shoeboxes into the trash can in the garage - I saved the valuable shoeboxes

There is quite a feeling of freedom when your possessions "release you".

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Posted By: Morrie

I mainly lurk, but this seems as good a way to introduce myself as any.

Like so many of you, my card collecting started with family. Dad loved baseball. He had memories of his own father bringing cards home for him. After a windfall in 1953, my grandfather brought dad home a whole box of the new Topps cards (I don't know that the 52s ever made it to their home town), which they opened together. Dad didn't like them as much as the 1950-53 Bowmans, and all of them got boxed away when he went off to college. They eventually ended up in a communal storage area beneath my grandparents' apartment complex. Someone stole the cards (including I don't know how many 1950-52 Williams cards, dad's favorite player) some time in the 1970s. His collection, less a single 1953 Bowman color Jimmy Dykes (I think) was probably sold at a Nashville flea market before my little brother was even out of diapers.

Dad started us out with 1979 Topps, then 1980. I still remember grabbing rack packs off pegs on the cereal aisle at Giant or Safeway and giving mom my best "You love your kid, right?" grin. I don't know that it worked every time, but it worked often enough. Once I started to really get into baseball history, dad started buying large lots of low-grade cards at local card shows and auctions. We'd get a few select cards for birthdays and Christmases. This is how I got my first t206's, a Mathewson portrait and a Bresnahan batting. That was a good Christmas.

Now, every time I buy a t206, it's like being a kid at Christmas again. So, do I connect with my cards?

Yeah. Yeah, I do.

Morrie

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Posted By: Peanut

My ex husband was collecting cards when we got together and continue to spend money on then throughout our nine years together. I have a very large book called "sports library" of cards. We were together for 2 years before my daughter was born. She is 14 now. But I do remember him saying he finally has the whole series... On different times. so there should be more than just one....... what should i do with them........ how do i find out if they are worth anything........... any help would be great. peanu

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

and one of us is probably close enough to pay you a call, or will at least know someone who can tell you in your neighborhood. Do NOT just walk into a bseball card shop--you'll get at most 50% of the value. Any name that appears in blue or purple at the beginning of a post--all you have to do is click on it, and you will get a feady-to-use e-mail form with their address.