Favorite

[puckpaul]

Collected cards as a kid in the 70’s, but when i popped into a Long Island card show in 1989 and saw this on a table, I became smitten with pre-war vintage cards. Still my favorite card and i have several copies now.

[Exhibitman]

So, anyone here used to be a member of the West Coast Card Club here in Los Angeles? We used to have meetings/card shows in the San Fernando Valley. One of the features of these early card club meetings was the auction. Live, no commission, take the card home with you, auctions. I won these signed 1953 Bowman cards at one of them, must've been some time between 1977 and 1979:




I also got this Musial at one of the meetings:



Had it signed a decade later at a show in the Moscone Center in SF while I was in law school.

This is the best insert I've ever pulled from a pack:

[piecesofthegame]

In early 1996 I went to the local card shop downtown and saw this T201 Mathewson. I had literally never seen a card that old before and desperately wanted it, but the dealer wanted $250 for it. I came home and asked my dad (not the least bit interested in sports or cards) if I could borrow a couple hundred bucks to buy it. I was not surprised when he said no...and forgot about it. A few months later in June 1996 I graduated high school. At my graduation party, my dad (an avid reader) gave me a Christy Mathewson biography. When I opened the cover the T201 Mathewson was inside. He had gone down to the card shop and purchased it as my graduation gift, unbeknownst to me. It’s the only baseball/card related experience we ever shared. It was a lot of money for my parents to purchase it and started me on the vintage addiction. They may have overpaid for the card but it’s priceless to me.

[Cmvorce]

Now that’s a good story.

[todeen]

Originally Posted by piecesofthegame

It’s the only baseball/card related experience we ever shared. It was a lot of money for my parents to purchase it and started me on the vintage addiction. They may have overpaid for the card but it’s priceless to me.

I am really fascinated how all of the stories are: "My dad helped me buy..." or "My mother surprised me with...."

It's a common theme nearly all of us share.

The All Star game came to Seattle in 2001, and I begged my father to buy tickets to the FanFest so I could attend a card show. The ones in Spokane never wowed me, so I wanted to go to a big city show. I wasn't into vintage yet at that time - I was chasing Ichiro and Pujols rookies. He has told me since that he wished he had bought tickets for the games and card show. I told him "Dad, I have never had any regrets!" He stood in line with me to get autos from the free IP signings for two days! The most popular was Branca and Thomson. We waited forever. On our feet on concrete. We were both super tired at the end of the second day. But that day always shows me how much he loved me. I purchased the 2001 Fleer Traditions box and pulled a Jackie Robinson pant relics card in the convention center. They had Negro League inserts that year. That is perhaps my best insert I ever pulled, and every time I look at it I think of my dad.