This cartoon from today's Wash. Post ...

[z28jd]

My dad had his cards thrown away by my grandmother before I was even born and he still talks about it to this day. I think the part that bothers him the most is that he not only asked her to save them, they were on a shelf in the back of their finished basement and the shelf wasn't being used for anything else. He didn't have many cards, maybe a shoebox full, but he also had comic books he kept in great shape and 100+ ticket stubs from Yankee games in the late 50's-60's. The shelf was built for his stuff and it was so far out of the way, there was no reason the stuff couldn't have stayed there.

One item that luckily was kept from the scrap heap was a Mickey Mantle Day program from 1965 with signatures from Tommy Henrich, Phil Rizzuto, Jerry Coleman, Joe Garagiola and Dizzy Dean. They were all broadcasters at that time, though not all for the Yankees.

[kcohen]

Yes, my Mom either threw out or gave away my cards, she couldn't remember which, that I bought in the late 50s at the check-out counter of Peoples Drugstore (now CVS). And I gave her some mild grief over the years. However, the loss is merely sentimental, not financial. We played with our cards, flipped them, put them in our bike spokes, etc. A protective sleeve was unheard of, at least by me. So they would not be worth much anyway. Nonetheless, that cartoon really hits home.

[hoot-owl]

My mom suffers from PackRatitis as do several other members of my family--so it must be a genetic trait. I don't think she would have been capable of tossing the thousands of cards my two brothers and I bought--primarily from 1965-the early 1970s. I toted them around from western NY to WDC to Boston and back to the WDC suburbs.
So I still have a boatload of those cards--although most of the doubles have been shipped off to my OBC friends.

[ZachS]

I was born in 1980 so I didn't start collecting until the late 80's/early 90's... I almost hope my mom did throw away my cards. I know there are a couple of boxes in a closet at my parent's house. Maybe one day they'll be worth something but I doubt it.

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

Originally Posted by ZachS

I was born in 1980 so I didn't start collecting until the late 80's/early 90's... I almost hope my mom did throw away my cards. I know there are a couple of boxes in a closet at my parent's house. Maybe one day they'll be worth something but I doubt it.

I feel ya on this. I am in the same boat.

[Howe’s Hunter]

I started collecting in '72, and had complete sets built the old way (ten cards and a stick of gum) from '72-'74 (wish I had never thrown away all the dupes, but hey, who needed them when you were trying to build a set?)

Flash forward ten years and when I came home for Christmas that year (first year out of college), there were four like packages under the tree for me. My mom had bought the complete set of '84 Topps, and taken my three year collection to a teacher where she was the secretary who was a collector, who boxed them up properly, without all the rubber bands, etc. Told me she always enjoyed watching me collect when I was younger, but it was time to get those things out of her house. They were mine, take them and do what I wanted to with them, but if was time for her to have the closet space back.

I took them, saved them (for almost another 27 years), filled in the years I missed and finally parted with the collection in 2011. 39 year run of complete Topps sets that were sold to fund my Howe-stamped addiction.

Thanks, Mom.

[tachyonbb]

My mom kept all the 3 by 5 note cards I wrote as study aids for English, History, French and Greek but tossed about 1,000 baseball cards from the mid 50's to early 60's. Of course I had traded away all my Mickey Mantle cards and other Yankee cards as I was a Cardinals fan. One Mickey Mantle for a Ray Sadecki card anyone . So it goes.

[t206blogcom]

My parents kept all of my cards from the 80's and 90s. I WISH they had thrown them all out!

[MyGuyTy]

Originally Posted by ZachS

I was born in 1980 so I didn't start collecting until the late 80's/early 90's... I almost hope my mom did throw away my cards. I know there are a couple of boxes in a closet at my parent's house. Maybe one day they'll be worth something but I doubt it.

In your same boat, lol. It was both a good time and a bad time to be getting into the hobby. Good time because it introduced our generation to this hobby as a whole which has lead to my vintage tastes today. However it was bad in a sense that so much money was wasted on the current players (at that time) which were obviously way over-produced and are now basically worth squat. Live and learn