Looking back...

[freakhappy]

I was doing my nightly routine...laying with my two boys (6 and 3), waiting until they fall asleep before I leave the room...and during that small window of time, I started thinking about cards and what they mean to me. In the grand scheme of things, they are just pieces of cardboard...but these pieces of history mean so much more than what they really are. I've been collecting pretty heavy for the past five years or so and collecting in general all the way back to when I was a kid (started in '87 when I was 8 yrs. old). Some people get the "bug" and some don't...it stays with some and others not so much, but I think we can all agree that most of us have had it or definitely still do have it and it means so much to us...it holds a special place and connects us to many memories that we have had with friends, family and events that have occurred in our lives. A few things that never gets old are learning things in our hobby and looking at old cardboard!

But the purpose of this thread is for anyone that has a memory or memories that they would like to share with the rest of us that means a lot to them or just a memory that has stuck with them over time (good or bad) that connects them to this wonderful hobby of ours, feel free to do so...I'm sure everyone would love to hear it!

One thing that I remember from my childhood that I loved thinking about was me and my cousin playing "cards for cards". While our parents and others were playing nickel/dime poker, we were in the other room playing poker, for baseball cards. It was so much fun raking that big pot that contained a Ripken, Griffey Jr. and The Big Hurt at the same time! Back then, when we were young it wasn't about money as much, it was about collecting, friendship and having something in common...as it is to a lot of us today

So please share what you have and show pictures if you have them...

[itjclarke]

Like you Mike, I've had the bug since I a very young kid... earliest memories are of my dad buying me 1980 wax packs (I was 3) from his office lunch truck. Within a few years, once I learned how to write my name, I scribbled "Ian" on the backs of all my cards. I still have many and got a handful of them signed at spring training and/or baseball games (gotta love the 1981 Fleer Dusty Baker with his auto on the front and mine on back)... however I traded most away as a kid. Seeing the famous F Scott Fitzgerald stamped T206s makes me wonder if any of my worthless "Ian(s)" are still floating around.. or laying around anywhere right now. If anyone stumbles upon at a flea market, or penny/card box at a show please PM me.. I'd pay 1000 times the actual worth to get any of those back.

[freakhappy]

Originally Posted by itjclarke

Like you Mike, I've had the bug since I a very young kid... earliest memories are of my dad buying me 1980 wax packs (I was 3) from his office lunch truck. Within a few years, once I learned how to write my name, I scribbled "Ian" on the backs of all my cards. I still have many and got a handful of them signed at spring training and/or baseball games (gotta love the 1981 Fleer Dusty Baker with his auto on the front and mine on back)... however I traded most away as a kid. Seeing the famous F Scott Fitzgerald stamped T206s makes me wonder if any of my worthless "Ian(s)" are still floating around.. or laying around anywhere right now. If anyone stumbles upon at a flea market, or penny/card box at a show please PM me.. I'd pay 1000 times the actual worth to get any of those back.

That's an excellent story and exactly what I was hoping would come out in this thread! Thanks for sharing! I think that's awesome how you got some of those very first cards that you signed, signed by pro ball players too...classic move! Paying 1000 times what they are worth would still only bump the price to $.50

Another good memory for me is trade night at Jim's Dugout! Every Tuesday, me and my cousin would grab our binder and rendezvous at the Dugout for some crazy trading with a few dozen other small kids...it was special. The two things that stuck with me during my times there was winning a box of 1988 topps baseball on a raffle (wow that was great when you were only 10!) and trading away my '89 Score Aikman RC for a Jose Canseco Sportflic...I'd like to forget that last one but nonetheless a good memory for me.

[Rickyy]

I wish I had pictures...but whenever I think of cards...it ultimately comes back to memories of child hood friends and wondering what ever happened to many of them... Gary, Robert C and Robert M...we'd spend many a summer afternoons going over to each others houses, eating cookies, drinking soda pop and looking at and swapping cards, before heading out to play ball... Gary especially knew cards...and he always was a tough negotiator when it came to trades..., but he did ultimately give me the 1974 Topps Dave Sells card so I could complete the set...

Ricky Y

[Vintagevault13]

Great thread. My best memories are from 1974 when I was 8 years old and just beginning to collect baseball cards. This is a special memory because I kept them at my grandmother's house (so my little brother wouldn't bother them!). I can remember spending countless hours sitting in the floor at her feet going through the cards and absolutely absorbing the stats on the back. On Saturdays she would take me with her shopping and buy me some packs at the local Woolworth's store. I still remember the anticipation of getting back to her house to open the packs to see what I got. This was a time of pure collecting innocence as I had absolutely no idea that these cards held any value to anyone other than me. It wasn't a business or an investment, it was just a wonderful hobby that let a small boy from Georgia visit ballparks and meet players in my imagination. To this day I almost feel like I personally know the players from the mid-70's because of what I learned about them from these cards. My grandmother passed away last year and these "baseball card memories" have provided me with a wonderful connection that I will never forget.

[dabigyankeeman]

Hey Mike, I have a few things I remember from childhood. I remember even as a kid spending every penny I had on cards. I remember when the 1955 Bowmans came out how neat it was that they looked like little color televisions! This is the oldest set I remember, I was 7 at the time. I remember selling a model ship to another kid and using the money to buy packs of cards. I remember when none of us kids could get a Stan Musial card (we didnt know there werent any) and one kid claimed he had one and we went to his house to see it and he seached and searched but couldnt find the non-existant card!! We flipped them and put them in the spokes of our bikes, had fun with them, all the cliche's are true, we did those things. And of course ultimately my mother threw them away.

I bet a lot of the cards I have been buying the last 30 years are cards I owned as a kid growing up in New York!!! I also wish I had someone to sit and share my cards with, but never had any kids, and none of my friends are into the hobby! Oh well, I love the cards anyway, and have my whole life.