Moms and Cards

[ullmandds]

Having started collecting in the mid-70s… The common theme of “my mother threw my baseball cards away” was already part of The lore of the hobby. She knew not to touch my cards!!

[D. Bergin]

When I first moved out of my parents house to move in with my future wife into a small apartment two towns over, I left all my cards at my parents house.

Not long after, a former "Friend" of the family, broke into my parents house and stole most of my cards, thinking he had hit a gold mine.

Knowing I was moving out of the house with my girlfriend, I had already sold most anything that was worth anything, setting up at local shows. He mostly got stacks of Craig Jefferies rookies and albums full of 70's and 80's stars, that wasn't worth much back then. Might have been something in there that might be worth something now, but not too much back then.

They caught him, but never recovered the cards. Got a little payday from my parents homeowners insurance at about a 1/3rd of the cards value of whatever I could remember was stolen...which wasn't very much, but at the time I was pretty ok with.

[Eggoman]

My Mom NEVER threw my or my 3 brothers cards out! She DID realize how much they meant to us and that they MIGHT BE worth something someday.

But did she EVER throw BOXES OF THEM down the stairs after one (OR MORE) of her sons upset her??? YOU BETCHA SHE DID!!!

[Vintagedeputy]

My dad used to work for the Department of Sanitation at an incinerator where they burned the trash. He was constantly bringing home shoe boxes of cards for me!

[steve B]

Mom didn't throw mine away. She usually brought some home, and sent in for the occasional mail in offer. And picked up a couple Hostess ad signs for me.

When I was very young, she did make me throw out all the coke caps I'd gathered at a party. She didn't want me stuffing my pockets full of "dirty old bottlecaps"

[insidethewrapper]

Not my mother, but my brother burned them all. Why ? He didn't think I wanted them anymore when I was in High School. They were 1957-1962.
My dad had 1933 and 1934 Goudey's and when he returned from WW2 they were gone.

[skil55voy]

My cards (3000) were in a very large box that my mother kept for me. I took them with me to Maryland when I joined the Army.

[cubman1941]

Well, contrary to most of the posts, my mother tossed all of my cards when I went into the Army in 1961. There was not a lot of them just a small box but they were all from 1952-1955. When I finally returned home I looked for them and she said she got rid of them as they were taking up space in the closet. That didn't bother me but what did bother me is she kept two footlockers full of college text books in case my brother (who went one semester) ever went back to school!! These weren't disposed of until my father passed in 1975.

[isiahfan]

Originally Posted by Vintagedeputy

My dad used to work for the Department of Sanitation at an incinerator where they burned the trash. He was constantly bringing home shoe boxes of cards for me!

That's effing great....what's the best thing you remember getting?...time frame?

[Vintagedeputy]

Originally Posted by isiahfan

That's effing great....what's the best thing you remember getting?...time frame?

The time frame was the late 1970s and early 1980s. He had a coworker who also collected so I’m sure that guy cherry picked the best cards and the vintage stuff. I would get shoe boxes of cards from the 70s, 1972 to 1979 approximately..

[ClementeFanOh]

My mom wasn't the villain either. She knew I loved cards and I did a decent
job of hiding them away. My brother- and then I- were the culprits. He knew
how much I loved the cards, and when we fought he would vow to take several
cards from my collection and put them in his, knowing I may not miss them.
My solution was to write my initials on the backs of the cards! That showed
him, didn't it! I specifically recall this phenomenon with mid to late 70s
Topps football. Ah, what a wonderful memory(??)... Trent King