Meaningful Worthless Card Stories

[orioles70]

Ok…here is the other story I have on a totally worthless but meaningful card that I have displayed in my office.


It is a 1957 Topps Sal Maglie and it looks like it was run over by a truck…several times. I am sure it is the worst condition card that I own. But I will never get rid of it.


As a 16 year old In 1976 activities like playing high school sports, flipping burgers to save for a car and girls took all my collecting time and money…but before that I was a card collecting fiend from 5th grade thru 9th grade getting all the current Topps cards I could from the years 1970-1975 and trading for cards from prior years concentrating on Orioles.


I had 2 class mates during those years that were also avid card collectors. Mickey was a Yankee fan and rode my bus so we could even trade on the way to and from school. Bruce was a Mets fan who sat in the desk in front of me and liked to rub the 1969 World Series in my face every now and then. I count both of them among my best friends of the last 50 years and still see them several times a year.


The 3 of us would wheel and deal cards as often as possible during school and I don't ever remember us fighting or squabbling about our deals…and that is where the 1957 Topps Sal Maglie comes in. He was the equalizer in many deals. Let's say I was making a deal with Mickey but he was unsure about the trade…if I had the Sal Maglie card…even in that condition…I would say “Mick, how about I throw in Maglie” and it would cinch the deal for many reasons. For us a 1957 card was a really old card…it was issued 3 years before we were born. And Maglie was a pretty good pitcher with a cool nickname, The Barber, and pitched for all the New York teams…Giants, Dodgers and Yankees as well as the Indians and Cardinals. Having played for all those teams is why somebody erased the team name on the front…I don't recall who did that. All 3 of us owned the card multiple times and somehow I ended up with it. I have it on display in my office to remind me of my youthful card collecting days with childhood friends that became lifelong friends.







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[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by orioles70

Ok…here is the other story I have on a totally worthless but meaningful card that I have displayed in my office.


It is a 1957 Topps Sal Maglie and it looks like it was run over by a truck…several times. I am sure it is the worst condition card that I own. But I will never get rid of it.


As a 16 year old In 1976 activities like playing high school sports, flipping burgers to save for a car and girls took all my collecting time and money…but before that I was a card collecting fiend from 5th grade thru 9th grade getting all the current Topps cards I could from the years 1970-1975 and trading for cards from prior years concentrating on Orioles.


I had 2 class mates during those years that were also avid card collectors. Mickey was a Yankee fan and rode my bus so we could even trade on the way to and from school. Bruce was a Mets fan who sat in the desk in front of me and liked to rub the 1969 World Series in my face every now and then. I count both of them among my best friends of the last 50 years and still see them several times a year.


The 3 of us would wheel and deal cards as often as possible during school and I don't ever remember us fighting or squabbling about our deals…and that is where the 1957 Topps Sal Maglie comes in. He was the equalizer in many deals. Let's say I was making a deal with Mickey but he was unsure about the trade…if I had the Sal Maglie card…even in that condition…I would say “Mick, how about I throw in Maglie” and it would cinch the deal for many reasons. For us a 1957 card was a really old card…it was issued 3 years before we were born. And Maglie was a pretty good pitcher with a cool nickname, The Barber, and pitched for all the New York teams…Giants, Dodgers and Yankees as well as the Indians and Cardinals. Having played for all those teams is why somebody erased the team name on the front…I don't recall who did that. All 3 of us owned the card multiple times and somehow I ended up with it. I have it on display in my office to remind me of my youthful card collecting days with childhood friends that became lifelong friends.







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Very cool story.


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[bmattioli]

My favorite is this wrapper.. I found this hidden in the barn on my grandparents land probably when I was 7 or 8 years old. Amazing this has been with me al these years as I traveled the globe while in the USAF and the countless moves and places I have lived. It has always been displayed and will never leave me..

[Chris-Counts]

I regretfully sold off a very nice collection of cards by the time I was 18. But the one card I kept was a beat-up 1948 Bowman Pete Reiser. I was always impressed by how hard he played, even if it meant wrecking his career by running into walls. About two decades later, I discovered eBay, and I've been rebuilding the collection ever since. But one card occupies a unique place in it, not only because it's in worse shape than any other card I have, but because I've had it longer than any other.

"I bought this card, raw, from Mike Berkus at one of his Anaheim CA shows in the 1970s. Either Memorial Day or Thanksgiving weekend. It cost me $12, which was a lot for me at the time, but I wanted a WaJo. The slab came many years later."

Adam, my original collection came mostly from SoCal shows in the 1970s. I'll never forget walking into my first show at the Disneyland Hotel in '73 or '74, and seeing John Parks selling T206 singles for $1 each and HOFers for $3 each. There were hundreds, and all were high grade. Those were the days!

[jimtigers65]

Originally Posted by bmattioli

My favorite is this wrapper.. I found this hidden in the barn on my grandparents land probably when I was 7 or 8 years old. Amazing this has been with me al these years as I traveled the globe while in the USAF and the countless moves and places I have lived. It has always been displayed and will never leave me..

Bruce, you ever have any issues with the movers? I served 26 years in USAF at 9 different bases. I would always stress when the movers packed up my collection. I was lucky and never lost or had any cards stolen.

[jchcollins]

It’s not much, but this is one of my very first vintage cards. I had thought all of these were long gone, but found this one in a box I had forgotten about in the basement last night. This is from probably 1987 or 1988 in Cornelius, NC - and an antique mall in our small town had several boxes of older cards for sale, and others that were just on display. I later learned the cards were from the collection of former Milwaukee Braves catcher Paul Burris, who lived in the area. The “1954” stamp you see on the bottom of this card was put on there by him. I picked out a generous helping of cards that were for sale, which Mom allowed me to take home. The cards that I remember that were there but NOT for sale, included a 1954 Topps Ted Williams and a 1933 Goudey Gabby Harnett.

Especially with the onset of the holidays after the loss of my mother earlier this year, I find myself turning to the cards as tangible survivors of a childhood that was steeped in my parents love and tender care. We rarely realize how lucky we are while we are experiencing such moments, but it’s funny how things can come back to hit you later in life and let you know for sure. Happy Holidays, folks...