The 1980's...

[jb217676]

Originally Posted by FUBAR

Jeff, your Canadian, you need the Leaf version of the Mcgriff!

Jim, you were laughed at if you had a Leaf instead of a Donruss!

[FUBAR]

id rather have the Leaf, little more rare then the Donruss.... i might have an extra u can have....id have to look though

[cdn_collector]

Originally Posted by jb217676

Jim, you were laughed at if you had a Leaf instead of a Donruss!

Yup....Even the 'best' card would lose a bit of it's luster if it was the Leaf or OPC equivalent and not the Donruss or Topps version.


Regards,

Richard.

[JasonL]

not quite as sought after, and certainly ended quickly, but I recall chasing after Fernando Valenzuela, Tim Raines, Kal Daniels, Cory Snyder, and Juan Samuel rookies in their respective years...

[Beatles Guy]

Here's one of my favs.

[FUBAR]

when i was a kid, no one even knew the difference, nor really cared..... all you could buy where i was was OPC and they were in limited supply... when you seen them, you usually bought as many as you could convince your parents to buy you.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by FUBAR

when i was a kid, no one even knew the difference, nor really cared..... all you could buy where i was was OPC and they were in limited supply... when you seen them, you usually bought as many as you could convince your parents to buy you.

Makes sense to me. In 78 my family took a camping trip cross country with some time in Canada. Niagara to sault St Marie, and the Canadian side of Glacier Natl park. In the east I bought a bunch of 78 OPC baseball But in the natl park they had 1977s! When I commented that they must not sell many cards because they'd been there a year the staff was puzzled. Then a bit amused/mad when I showed them that the cards were a year old. Apparently they'd just gotten them in that week.

Steve B

[FUBAR]

reminds me of a story that happened when the card boom happened in the late 80's early 90's

There was a little chinese store in the town i lived in, and when the boom hit, he decided to pull out all the old unopened cards he had in storage, that never sold over the years. He sold them for face value. So guys were buying early 80's OPC hockey cards for 25 cents per pack and such. By the time i heard, someone had bought them all, i went in and asked the guy and he told me one guy bought the 30 cases or so he had. Sigh.. right place, wrong time...

Baseball cards weren't as popular here, but i still collected them cause there was no hockey cards to collect during the off season.

BTW Glacier national park is a nice drive.... it has gotten kinda touristy now but still nice!

[mantleman]

Originally Posted by JasonL

not quite as sought after, and certainly ended quickly, but I recall chasing after Fernando Valenzuela, Tim Raines, Kal Daniels, Cory Snyder, and Juan Samuel rookies in their respective years...

HAHA the good ole days, I remember searching through rack packs looking for 87 Topps Rookies.

[David W]

Originally Posted by JasonL

not quite as sought after, and certainly ended quickly, but I recall chasing after Fernando Valenzuela, Tim Raines, Kal Daniels, Cory Snyder, and Juan Samuel rookies in their respective years...

I thought I would be a teen age millionaire because I had several "Fernand" Valenzuela error cards from 81 Fleer (I think).

[GoldenAge50s]

Anybody want to buy a stack of Andy Benes RC's?

[nfbuckeye]

Luis Medina and "Bam Bam" Meulens.

[DaClyde]

Originally Posted by Wite3

Busts...

Early '80s was Lonnie Smith, Baines, and Charboneau. They were really hot for awhile.

Charboneau was so hot, he even had a song written about him. What happened to those days? People used to write songs about players all the time and they actually got radio play and sold copies. These days, with the "democratization" of the music world on the Internet, where are the dozens of YouTube stars singing about Stephen Strasburg?

Originally Posted by nfbuckeye

Luis Medina and "Bam Bam" Meulens.

And what's wrong with Hensley "Bam Bam" Meulens?

The Hensley Meulens Gallery

[JasonL]

Originally Posted by GoldenAge50s

Anybody want to buy a stack of Andy Benes RC's?

You might try giving the Benes home a ring...

[GoldenAge50s]

You might try giving the Benes home a ring...

I already did---They said "No Thanks"!

[Rob D.]

Originally Posted by GoldenAge50s

Anybody want to buy a stack of Andy Benes RC's?

This made me laugh out loud.

I know it won't help the value of the stack of RCs you have of him, but for what it's worth, I don't think I ever played with or against anyone who was as dominant as Benes was for about a four- to six week stretch his first year as a professional.

After he signed as the first pick in the 1988 draft he was assigned to Class AA Wichita in the Texas League for the '89 season. I played outfield (and also rode the bench) for that team, so I had a great view of just about every start he made. He was 8-4 in Double-A before being promoted to Class AAA Las Vegas and then the Padres (where he went 6-3 as a 21-year-old.) But more than his record was the way he just overmatched hitters and sometimes just seemingly toyed with them.

I can't tell you how many times I'd be in center field and Benes would get ahead of a hitter 0-2. Then he'd work on his change-up two pitches in a row, miss with those, then maybe throw a curve that would miss badly ... and then blow the poor guy away with a fastball or exploding slider. It was like he knew he could get a hitter out whenever he wanted to by going back to the good stuff. During this one stretch he won three or four starts in a row, and I think he struck out 10 more more in just about every start.

I wouldn't have blamed anyone who saw him pitch that first year for investing in his cards. Heck, one game Bill James drove from Kansas City just to see Benes pitch. (The highlight of that season for me was meeting James in the clubhouse and telling him I was a huge fan of his work. He looked surprised, then looked at my stats listed on the insert of that night's game program and said, "Hey, you've got a good secondary average.")

Benes, by the way, was a good guy, too. His nickname in spring training was "Andy Bonus," and he took it just the way you should and never copped an attitude. Probably because he knew he was earning interest.

[Robextend]

Good stuff Rob.

And for the record even though he might not have lived up to his full potential, Benes still had a very solid major league career. I remember him having a couple very strong years early on with the Padres and then kind of rejuvenated his career with the Cards in the mid-nineties.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by jb217676

Jim, you were laughed at if you had a Leaf instead of a Donruss!

I was there for it! Nobody wanted Leaf, OPC baseball or Canadian Score Hockey!

This thread is not complete without at least mentioning Gregg Jeffries! The '88 Score was stellar!

[FUBAR]

Originally Posted by JBirkholm

I was there for it! Nobody wanted Leaf, OPC baseball or Canadian Score Hockey!

Wow, we must be different out west.... no one wanted score american where i was... why would you want something that costs the same to buy but has half the value once opened? Air must be different in the east, god thing i moved from there in 77

[GoldenAge50s]

--Glad I rekindled a nice memory--That's a great story and Benes certainly had the stuff to be a winner--at least I thought so!

Don't know why he faded & didn't last longer or do better, but my stack of RC's didn't cost much at all when I got them, so I'm not out anything!

In fact, I never was one to "invest" in RC's in the '80's & '90's, but I somehow thought he was worth taking a flyer on so I grabbed a few anyhow.

[bender07]

of Kevin Maas and Ben McDonald yet?? I remember my brother and I only needing Kevin Maas to finish the 1990 UD set (yeah a year late to jump on the UD bandwagon). We ended up plunking down $20 for it! Yikes.

[Robextend]

Originally Posted by bender07

of Kevin Maas and Ben McDonald yet?? I remember my brother and I only needing Kevin Maas to finish the 1990 UD set (yeah a year late to jump on the UD bandwagon). We ended up plunking down $20 for it! Yikes.

YES!!! Kevin Maas!!! I remember that 1990 UD Maas was like gold when he hit all those home runs.

One year later I remember a minor stir being caused by Todd Van Poppel. His 1991 UD rookie card was going for at least $5!!

[David W]

I was at a small flea market a couple months back. A vendor there had everyone of these cards all marked at 20 year old prices.

He had Juan Guzman at $5, Kenny Lofton rookies, Ben McDonald, Eric Davis, the "rare" Juan Gonzalez reverse negative he tells me for $10, the works.

I don't think the guy had bought a card since about 1995. I don't think he has sold a card since about 1995.

[arexcrooke]

Originally Posted by Robextend

YES!!! Kevin Maas!!! I remember that 1990 UD Maas was like gold when he hit all those home runs.

One year later I remember a minor stir being caused by Todd Van Poppel. His 1991 UD rookie card was going for at least $5!!

I bought two packs of 90 Leaf when they came out for $1.50 a pack iirc. I hit on a Maas Rc and the shop owner, who was a very nice fella, offered me 3 packs for it. I took it, and pulled another from the following packs. I declined his offer for more after that lol

[TexasLeaguer]

Originally Posted by jb217676

Jim, you were laughed at if you had a Leaf instead of a Donruss!

I can take your slings and arrows, so laugh it up.

[curch]

oh wow, this is an awesome thread. Just last year I went back and purchased the following sets. 84 Donruss and Fleer, 86 Donruss, 89 Score football, 90 Leaf and 92 Bowman baseball, football and hockey. Ok, so not all were from the 80's but some of my favorite cards were in those sets back when I was younger and just starting to collect. Couldn't afford them then, so it was fun to get them now. Oh yeah, and I was also able to pick up a Jordan Rookie for next to nothing. Not in the greatest shape, but still fun to have.

Joe

[JasonL]

Originally Posted by curch

oh wow, this is an awesome thread. Just last year I went back and purchased the following sets. 84 Donruss and Fleer, 86 Donruss, 89 Score football, 90 Leaf and 92 Bowman baseball, football and hockey. Ok, so not all were from the 80's but some of my favorite cards were in those sets back when I was younger and just starting to collect. Couldn't afford them then, so it was fun to get them now. Oh yeah, and I was also able to pick up a Jordan Rookie for next to nothing. Not in the greatest shape, but still fun to have.

Joe

please share a scan!
It is fun to go back and buy a few things that you couldn't afford to do back then, isn't it?
My latest example was re-discovering the 1986 Fleer Star Stickers, and buying 3 unopened boxes for like $12-15 each and going nuts opening packs!
My sons loved it too, even though they only knew to look for Ozzie Smith and Kirby Puckett.

[FUBAR]

I have a few Jordan rookies.... Bryan Jordan unfortunately!

[curch]

I think he was in the 80's....or early 90's. Its all good.

[Irwin Fletcher]

It's funny how a bunch of these ultra-hyped rookies of the '80s kind of flamed out and then ended up having pretty good careers. Rob mentioned Andy Benes. I remember, as other posters have mentioned, the incredible hype machines for Mark Grace, Todd Zeile, and Gregg Jefferies in 1988. They all seemed to not live up to the hype, but in retrospect were pretty good, especially Grace, who had an excellent career. Someone told me he had the most hits in the 1990s and he finished with almost 2450 hits. Zeile had over 2000 career hits and Jefferies had two excellent seasons with the Cardinals (two top 20 MVP finishes).

But I guess when it comes to hyped rookies in the late 1980s, for every Mark Grace, there were 10 Ricky Jordans.