Beginnings, Personal Drummers and Adult Card Hobby Preferences...

[Volod]

Very interesting and thought provoking thread. On the specific subject of "All Time Great"-type issues, my only encounter with such cards happened to be maybe the most poignant of all of my collecting memories. When I was nine years old, my father made time to take a road trip to Cooperstown, about fifty miles from our home. He took my brother and me along, perhaps only grudgingly when my mother requested it. After walking through the HOF, I can recall noticing a display of souvenir items for sale, one of which was the Callahan HOF set in a small box. Since my brother and I had been collecting Bowman cards for a year or more, I pointed the Callahans out to him and we both probably expressed great interest. This apparently caused my father to spring for the cost, likely just a few bucks at that time, but it is one of the fondest memories I have of stuff that my old man ever handed to me. Of course, like so much other childhood memorabilia that evaporated in the next few years, that rather obscure set of cards was lost and forgotten until about fifty years later when I stumbled upon it at a card show in Strongsville. Looking at the set later brought back a flood of memories, of my father, brother and my own early fascination with baseball and little pieces of pasteboard.

[JollyElm]

The 'All Time Greats' stuff just went into my brothers' and my junk piles (along with checklists and other non-specific-team oriented cards), and I've never forgiven Topps for using the exact same picture for both of Ty Cobb's entries in the 1973 set. C'mon Topps!!! That's lazy.

Later on, though, I became a bit fascinated with those 1973s as well as the ones from 1976. When our school had those days...were they called Scholastic Learning or something?...where mom gave you money to buy really cool books, I started grabbing ones about the All-Time Greats, and began reading up about ancient players like Pie Traynor (His name is Pie, really???) or Rogers Hornsby (Is his first name misspelled? Did I discover an error??). So those cards were a springboard to looking back over the history of the game.

Like Marty a couple of posts up, I absolutely love the sets Robert Laughlin created - virtually (or actually) all of which are of the look-back variety, with rarely a 'current' player being included. That stuff is WICKED COOL to me and I'm on a non-stop voyage in trying to upgrade my 1967 Laughlin World Series set.

No one within a country mile of me inside of my own family collects or appreciates baseball cards these days.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

The[B] That stuff is WICKED COOL to me and I'm on a non-stop voyage in trying to upgrade my 1967 Laughlin World Series set.

No one within a country mile of me inside of my own family collects or appreciates baseball cards these days.

I think that Laughlin card where Mantle breaks the WS HR record in '64 is wicked cool too. It was issued when he was still an active player. I just can't bring myself to pay what they go for anymore.

Nobody in my family cares about cards either, Jolly. I feel you.

[laughlinfan]

OK, different collecting venue, but same vibe. This meme has different conversations, but this is generally how it goes when I talk to my wife about my latest cool find...

I have to say that I have little interest in many of the post career sets like you pictured in the first post, but there are some that the quality/aesthetics/character pull me right in. 1961 Golden Press. Rold Gold/Kelloggs 3D All Time Greats. Some of the Upper Deck Masterpiece cards of former players. I even like the TCMA stars of the 50s and 60s sets with the 53 Bowman-esque pure card fronts (one of which was in the first post). And, of course, the Laughlin sets. I don't mind one bit that many of the cards and Stand-ups he created were of retired players.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by laughlinfan

OK, different collecting venue, but same vibe. This meme has different conversations, but this is generally how it goes when I talk to my wife about my latest cool find...

LOL, exactly. I sent this meme to a Rush fan friend of mine just last week!

[D. Bergin]

Two of my favorite cards I remember having when I was a kid.

1976T Ty Cobb - Just look at that shot! There isn't a clearer shot in the entire 1976T Set, unless you count the Traded Cards, which I hated. Look at that pose! It's Ty freakin' Cobb. I'll never have a Ty Cobb card otherwise.

Not to mention the almost crazy and fantastical stats listed on the back of the card.

I know Babe Ruth was in that set...and I was a huge Yankee fan...but he just looked...I don't know...not prime. Just a boring Babe shot.



The other card:

1979T Jack Chesbro/Cy Young card - Not for the Cy Young, though that was cool for his 500 something wins...which in those days was like reading that Noah lived to be like 900 years old or something...and you're like "No way is that true, man...no way!"

...but for the Jack Chesbro. I was in the throes of Ron Guidry mania when the 1979's came out...and he had just had one of the greatest seasons for a pitcher in baseball history (or at least Yankee history). I remember opening up a pack and seeing that card and knowing who Cy Young was...and thinking to myself...who the hell is Jack Chesbro, and why is he on the same card as Cy Young. Imagine my surprise when I looked on the back, and saw he was a Yankee. Why had none of my extended family who had indoctrinated me into Yankee culture since before I was even old enough to walk or talk, never mentioned Jack Chesbro to me? How the hell did he win 16 more games then Ron Guidry in a single season...and how come nobody cares about that anymore?

It really sent me into a spiral.


Anyways, don't have much of a connection to those kinds of cards anymore...but back then, they certainly helped nurture my obsession with baseball and sports history in general.

[Exhibitman]

I think I get the gist of the OP. For me, it was three issues that got me interested:

1973 Topps all time leaders. Reading the top 10 on each card back was an education.

1975 Topps MVPs. To this day I still get a bit of a buzz from them.

1976 Topps ATG subset. I worked so hard to finish that set that year.

Then there was what turned out to be a 1961 Golden Press Cobb. I got that in a collection and thought it was really special.

Right now, I still pursue SSPC and TCMA cards, various Laughlin cards, the 1961 GP cards, and the 1960 Fleer ATG cards. The ones from the 1980s leave me cold. By the time they started flowing I'd already departed the scene not to return until the late 1980s, so I have no warm fuzzies of them.