left a skid mark on a cobb as a teen. still feel it at 49

[Bliggity]

Not exactly prewar and not exactly damaging a card, but I'm still kicking myself over this one. When I was in 4th or 5th grade in the late 80s, we would all bring our cards to school to trade and show off. At one point, some kid started stealing cards out of other kids' cubbies. I took it upon myself to figure out who it was and bust him. So I set out a couple cards in plain view at the front of my cubby, including an '84 and '85 Donruss Nolan Ryan. Now, mind you, those were hot cards back in that day, and gave a person major hobby status on the playground. Well, I set the trap and waited around the corner patiently for the thief to come. I waited for what seemed like all afternoon (it was likely 5-10 minutes), and then had to run to the bathroom. When I came back, of course the cards were gone, and my soul was crushed. Along with my aforementioned hobby status on the playground.

[JeremyW]

I'll try make this long story short. Back in the early eighties I was in second or third grade. A friend of mine & I were taking our cards to another friends house to do some trading. We were walking & it was about a 1/2 mile walk. We went up the hill (where the older kids lived), and not surprisingly they were there. Our boxes of cards ended up flying through the air, flying everywhere. We picked up the cards & headed towards our buddy's house just happy that we didn't get our asses kicked. Through no fault of our own, the condition of the cards suffered, but we didn't care back then. The trading went down as usual. I miss those days.

[PolarBear]

I accidentally destroyed a common T205 ($50), cracking it out of an SGC slab.

[Centauri]

I got a 1973 Hank Aaron when I was a 10 year-old collector in the late 80's. It was easily the star of my collection, and it was the talk of the neighborhood. It was pretty good shape, but it has a small wax spot on the front. My 10 year-old self thought it would be better with no wax, so I pulled out a steak knife and scraped the wax off. Ended up with smeared wax, and several knife cuts to the picture. Still have the card...

[MacDice]

This summer, I decided to get a new safe and combine two safes into one. Apparently I forgot to double check one of the safes and tossed 9 signed cards in my 1957 set including a Frank Robinson and Don Drysdale.

[Eggoman]

Originally Posted by Centauri

I got a 1973 Hank Aaron when I was a 10 year-old collector in the late 80's. It was easily the star of my collection, and it was the talk of the neighborhood. It was pretty good shape, but it has a small wax spot on the front. My 10 year-old self thought it would be better with no wax, so I pulled out a steak knife and scraped the wax off. Ended up with smeared wax, and several knife cuts to the picture. Still have the card...

I ALMOST did the same thing with a '73 Topps Clemente as a 11 year old...We were NOT allowed to touch knives, so I used a paper towel to rub the wax off...folded the card into thirds when my hand slipped off and I caught the edge of the card...I can still see me doing it!!

[bnorth]

Sadly I was a 45 year old kid last year when I bought a nice 61 Roger Maris blank back. The card was sheet cut with huge borders that where cut very badly. I figured I would take my old guillotine paper cutter and square it up nicely. Trimmed up both sides and the bottom. Then as I was making the top cut the cutter slipped and I made a horrible cut that went down into the card. I actually felt sick to my stomach because I was in a hurry and did not put a towel down so the cutter would not slip on my marble tile topped kitchen island.

I put the card and piece of card away and when going through some stacks found it again a few weeks ago and put it together and finished squaring it up.