Tell your story about the cards Mom threw away

[rdixon1208]

I've left several 3,000 count boxes at my Mom's, my sister's, and even at my father-in-law's house over the years. All these cards are from the late 80's to 90's, so I wish they would go ahead and throw them away, but they won't! They keep saying things like "I'm sure there's some in there that are worth some money!"

[dennis]

every year from 1959 to 1967 i'd buy baseball and football cards and almost complete sets every year. and every year my mom would toss them in the garbage. that was normal then. i never looked for last years cards, they were old,all we cared about was this years model. thats just the way it was back then. i'm really jealous when someone says their mom kept all their toys from their youth. not my mom she threw every thing out so as to not clutter up the house.

I was a kid in the early 50s, can't say how many '52 Topps Mantles went through my hands, but I had amassed at least a shoe box and a half of cards. I clearly remember the Bowman's because of the TV screen. One day we moved and I figured my stuff moved with me...NOT. I aksed my mom one day what happened to my cards, she tossed them. What really stung the most was how my Lionel train set and my TREASURED Daisy BB gun was never seen again.

OH THE HUMANITY!!!!

[Mrc32]

Originally Posted by rdixon1208

I've left several 3,000 count boxes at my Mom's, my sister's, and even at my father-in-law's house over the years. All these cards are from the late 80's to 90's, so I wish they would go ahead and throw them away, but they won't! They keep saying things like "I'm sure there's some in there that are worth some money!"

Robert- I have the same thing at my mother's house. She keeps asking me to get them out of her basement. I wish she would just throw them away. I can't tell her to do it, since most of them came from her shelling over 40 cents a pack. It is mostly her money in those monster boxes.

[Jim VB]

I've told this story before, so apologies in advance to those who have heard it.

In the 1950's through 1966, we lived in Queens, NY (corner of Metropolitan Ave and Woodhaven Blvd. for those who know the area.) Dad worked for the A&P plant at Bush Terminal in Brooklyn, as Superintendent of Shipping. The trash contractor who picked up from the A&P also had the Topps printing plant on his route. He and Dad got to be friends, so he would, almost daily, drop off all the uncut sheets that Topps tossed out. (Remember, this was 1953 to maybe 1964. These sheets were discarded for printing flaws. They had "no value".)

My older brother or I would sit at the kitchen table on many nights and cut them, with a scissors, into individual cards. (I know! I know!) My brother was responsible for most of the 1953-1959 cutting. I took over for the early 1960's.

We always had thousands of cards, all hand cut, many miscut. But... when you have so many of something, at so low cost (free) they have no value. We tossed them every year, as soon as the new cards came out.

Around 1964 or so, the supply seemed to dry up. I never asked why, but a few months ago I was emailing with Dave Hornish and looking at his site and it hit me that around 1964, Topps moved their printing facilities to Duryea, PA.

I had to start to collect in the conventional way and actually buy packs. But each year, I still treated the cards like before. They held no value, as soon as the new year was released.

So, my Mom wasn't the villian here. I was. In fact, the last year I collected back then was 1968. I had nearly the full set. When the 1969's came out I tossed the 1968's and decided I was too old (14) to waste money on cards.

My mother actually pulled that shoebox from the trash and saved it for years, until I came to my senses.

[martyogelvie]

My mom threw out boxes and boxes of 1991 Donruss.

I thanked her for that later...

[Kalineman]

Not only did my mom keep my old baseball cards, she added to them. I was a big collector in 1960 and 1961. My best friend's Dad owned a dime store and in the fall would simply throw out the old baseball cards from that year. So I got all of his extra 1960 and 1961 cards for free. If I wasn't there to get them, he gave them to my Mom when she was in the store. During my high school years, I was more interested in playing sports and dating. So baseball cards took a back seat.
In college, I started doing shows in the mid 70s and dug out the old 1960 and 1961 Topps. Lots of near mint Mantles, Aarons, Clementes. I used those cards to trade for a near complete run of Bowman sets. I later sold those sets to the late Charlie Conlon and used that money to make a down payment in the house we've lived in for 24 years. So I have my Mom to thank for that.

[mets41]

I too was guilty of tossing my childhood cards. I collected heavily from 1960-64 (ages 8-13). When the 65's came out, I said "baseball cards are for kids" and stopped collecting except for buying 1 pack a year to see what that year's design looked like. In 1966 (now in high school) my family moved from a house to an apartment. My parents said I could bring whatever I wanted provided it didn't exceed a fixed amount of space, so I left the cards in the house for the new family's 8 and 10 year old sons.

[WarHoundR69]

In 1962 my father bought a row home in Phila. (331 W. Girard Ave.) The house had previously been owned by a man who worked for Bowman.

In the basement were scores of unopened wax boxes plus tons of loose cards - probably everything that Bowman issued between 1948 & 1955. My father gave them to me. I had a field day opening the packs, putting sets together flipping for cards plus I remember destroying quite a few 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle cards in the spokes of my bicycle.

Probably 75 to 80 % of the cards in that basement were destroyed by me. Hey I was a stupid kid.

What I had left I sold in 1978 for $8,000.00. I was 26 - BB cards were kid stuff. Complete sets of 1948 Basketball, all the Bowman Football & Baseball card sets plus quite a few NonSports sets were in the lot I sold. As best I remember the cards I sold were probably EX/NM or better.

So my Mom never threw my cards away but boy did I destroy a ton of them.