Topic: What is your most powerful and important memory with baseball cards?

[jbsports33]

Happy Friday and collecting, everyone!

There are so many thoughts after over 30 years of being involved.
When I realized when I got my first real job after college, I could start collecting - buying and selling prewar cards. I was in Boston for my first job in Cambridge, did not have that much with a new job – no benefits at all for almost a year. What I learned is I could use my paycheck every two weeks on Friday’s and buy buy buy, what fun it was. Really have never looked past that and to this day I have it as a side job and small business and I am so grateful. This hobby has given so much over the years. Hopefully I can do it at this pace for another 30 years! I have paid for part of my wedding, house, cars with small collections over the years and I have enjoyed it so much. Jimmy

[dbussell12]

Originally Posted by jbsports33

Happy Friday and collecting, everyone!

There are so many thoughts after over 30 years of being involved.
When I realized when I got my first real job after college, I could start collecting - buying and selling prewar cards. I was in Boston for my first job in Cambridge, did not have that much with a new job – no benefits at all for almost a year. What I learned is I could use my paycheck every two weeks on Friday’s and buy buy buy, what fun it was. Really have never looked past that and to this day I have it as a side job and small business and I am so grateful. This hobby has given so much over the years. Hopefully I can do it at this pace for another 30 years! I have paid for part of my wedding, house, cars with small collections over the years and I have enjoyed it so much. Jimmy

that's such a great feeling isn't it jimmy -- when you realize you can start to buy with your money!! its like connecting with that inner child + getting him the best and coolest cards you always wanted. its awesome. i'd love to support your business sometime!! thanks for being here with us in the hobby and community. best thing about it for me is sharing the passion and joy with everyone who cares and loves it just as much.

-- david

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by dbussell12

that's such a great feeling isn't it jimmy -- when you realize you can start to buy with your money!! its like connecting with that inner child + getting him the best and coolest cards you always wanted. its awesome.

+1! Yes, that's another way of putting what I've been doing for the last few decades!

[Brent G.]

My greatest memories of the hobby are going to my uncle's card shop as a kid in the mid-'80s. We lived in a major college town and he was the first shop to open (it swelled to around 10 by the early '90s). He always gave me 50% off, and since I primarily got my money by mowing a handful of cemeteries at $20 a pop, that made a big difference in what I could buy.

I was out of the hobby for 30 years but returned in late '23. My uncle got out of the business 20 years ago and isn't in great health, but we've reconnected through my pickups. I got married two years ago and he gave me a super-clean 1980 Topps baseball set where the Rickey graded an 8. It was my favorite gift.

[Hendu]

Every easter, instead of hiding Easter eggs, my parents hid baseball packs around the house. This was in the early 80s. My older brother and I would see who could collect the most. He always did, but my dad made sure they were always distributed evenly afterward.

And it seemed that he always end up with the better cards, too.

Now, I do it with my kids with a mix of baseball packs and Pokémon packs lol

[samosa4u]

Back in 1947 ... just kidding**

This was back in the noughties and I was working part-time at the factory and also taking part-time courses in college. I bought a 52T Mantle from BMW for around 12k, if I remember correctly. Back then, that was a lot of money for a card and everybody here just freaked out. Anyhow, because I was in my twenties and was more interested in going out, getting drunk, visiting the strip joints, etc., I barely even looked at this card. After a few years, I saw it was around 20kish and decided to get rid of it.

The guy who got it from me was hoping for a PSA 4. He drove to their headquarters and paid them their fee (a thousand bucks, I believe), but they said "no" and boy was he pissed! He did call me up a few times, but everything was cool in the end. I hope he still kept the card cause' it's worth a shitload now!

[JollyElm]

Dateline: Long Island, Spring 1981

Accompanied by a hot, alliteratively named girl after school, I was voraciously driving around Jericho Turnpike in search of stores that might possibly have boxes of Fleer cards in stock.

Only a day before (in this waaaaaaaay before the internet time), I had a 'Come to Jesus' moment when before me on a stationery store counter was a near empty box of Fleer baseball cards.
Looking at these treasures and thinking, "What in high heck are these?????? They're not Topps???? Did I wake up in a parallel universe (which would explain the inexplicability of a hottie joining me to search for baseball cards)??????" I done grabbed the remaining two or three packs quickly!!!!

That day will never leave my memory, and although we probably hit twenty different stores, there were no Fleer cards to be found anywhere.
Did I simply imagine seeing the Fleer box the previous day???
Late at night, I will occasionally think of 'Luscious Lisa' and what a 'keeper' she would've been, but those thoughts quickly disappear when I think of what true love is - the adoration of a man for his baseball cards - and gently glide off happily to sleep.

Either that, or the first time I saw a 1972 Topps Willie Mays. Not sure.

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

This was back in the noughties and I was working part-time at the factory and also taking part-time courses in college. I bought a 52T Mantle from BMW for around 12k, if I remember correctly.

Back in 1982 I passed on a sharp cornered but rather dull looking 1952 Mickey Mantle at Queen's Comics & Collectibles on Queen Street East in Toronto with an asking price of $600. I simply didn't want a 1952 Mantle badly enough....]

[brunswickreeves]

Originally Posted by samosa4u

Back in 1947 ... just kidding**

This was back in the noughties and I was working part-time at the factory and also taking part-time courses in college. I bought a 52T Mantle from BMW for around 12k, if I remember correctly. Back then, that was a lot of money for a card and everybody here just freaked out. Anyhow, because I was in my twenties and was more interested in going out, getting drunk, visiting the strip joints, etc., I barely even looked at this card. After a few years, I saw it was around 20kish and decided to get rid of it.

The guy who got it from me was hoping for a PSA 4. He drove to their headquarters and paid them their fee (a thousand bucks, I believe), but they said "no" and boy was he pissed! He did call me up a few times, but everything was cool in the end. I hope he still kept the card cause' it's worth a shitload now!

You never forget your first 52 Topps Mantle…