What To Do With Cards From the 80s and 90s?

[zljones]

target practice on a dart board. Extra points for a head shot.

[Exhibitman]

Some hospitals and charities won't take accumulations of cards. I used to donate cards to the childrens hospital at County USC hospital here in L.A. They first demanded that the cards be boxed up a certain way [clean new 600 count boxes], then finally told me they were swamped and didn't want any more unless it was unopened original material.

I tried to sell modern cards at a garage sale. I put out two "shoeboexes" at $20 each, took $20 for the pair and was happy to get it.

I tried them at a local card show where I set up for a day. No one even looked through them. I did business all day from my vintage junk boxes but the shiny crap was like kryptonite.

[frankbmd]

Build a giant house of cards in the back yard and wait in the basement for the tornado.

[CardTarget]

Wallpaper?

I've thought about doing this with a wall just to see how it would look... just take random cards and glue them to the wall in a random pattern. I bet it would look interesting and cool when done.

[travrosty]

in 1989 i bought 50 ken griffey jr. donruss rated rookie cards from an ad in a magazine for about 2.5 dollars apiece, 125 dollars as i thought he might do something in the big leagues because his name and the fact he was getting some hype.

i thought i would get rich when his hof career ended and each card would be worth 5o-75 bucks or more.

they reached about 7 or 8 dollars at their peak, then fell back down to about 2.5 dollars again as there are millions of them out there.

A guy can hit over 600 homers and have a rookie card worthless. his upper deck rc, which went over 100, came crashing back to earth too.

I sold these 50 for a loss as I got about 125 dollars, but had to throw in a 89 UD set and a Griffey San Bernadino Spirit minor league set and a 1989 fleer set too. I couldn't give them away. I listed them about 10 times on ebay before I got one lonely bid. They made millions of these cards.

I remember the hobby publications back then had full page advertisements showing a kid holding a griffey rookie advertising "The Ken Griffey Jr. college fund"! They were pushing their card brand with Griffey leading the way. Insinuating that if you stocked up on their Griffey rookie cards when your kid was young, your kid would be in the catbird seat when it was time to go to college. Harvard, here we come!

college fund - Maybe if you plan on attending the college of hard knocks. Sad.

[zljones]

Originally Posted by travrosty

in 1989 i bought 50 ken griffey jr. donruss rated rookie cards from an ad in a magazine for about 2.5 dollars apiece, 125 dollars as i thought he might do something in the big leagues because his name and the fact he was getting some hype.

i thought i would get rich when his hof career ended and each card would be worth 5o-75 bucks or more.

they reached about 7 or 8 dollars at their peak, then fell back down to about 2.5 dollars again as there are millions of them out there.

A guy can hit over 600 homers and have a rookie card worthless. his upper deck rc, which went over 100, came crashing back to earth too.

I sold these 50 for a loss as I got about 125 dollars, but had to throw in a 89 UD set and a Griffey San Bernadino Spirit minor league set and a 1989 fleer set too. I couldn't give them away. I listed them about 10 times on ebay before I got one lonely bid. They made millions of these cards.

I remember the hobby publications back then had full page advertisements showing a kid holding a griffey rookie advertising "The Ken Griffey Jr. college fund"! They were pushing their card brand with Griffey leading the way. Insinuating that if you stocked up on their Griffey rookie cards when your kid was young, your kid would be in the catbird seat when it was time to go to college. Harvard, here we come!

college fund - Maybe if you plan on attending the college of hard knocks. Sad.

What shocks me is that the 89 UD Griffey still has some value despite being heavily produced in millions/billions. A PSA 9 still goes for $50 a piece, I know I had to shell out $50 when I bought mine last year.

[rdwyer]

I'm a teacher at an Elementary school in Long Beach, Ca. We're always looking for donations of any type of cards. We use them to motivate our students. Might be willing to pay shipping costs, if the cost is low. If you're local, I'll pick them up.

[Runscott]

I had a huge box full of miscellaneous cards from the '70s through the '90s - football and baseball. Gave them all to a friend who deals in '50s cards and hands stuff like mine out to kids for free at the shows. He ended up selling some of the good stuff and a 'surprise' check arrived by mail one day

Thanks Cy - you're a helluva good member of this hobby!