Baseball Cards

I collected sporadicly in the mid-70s, and I have some interesting cards but nothing that's worth anything among my 250 or 300 cards. I have some funky cards, like the guy who threw no-hitters back to back.

With pre-teen lust I got into collecting Charlie's Angels cards for a time. Every card had an exclamation point at the end of whatever phrase they wrote on them, and even as a kid I thought that was stupid. Finally had one card that went for the correct period at the end of a sentence; I think it was a Kate Jackson card.

 

Mint Condition is a great book, it reminded me of some cards I collected for a while as a kid in the mid-'70s: Wacky Packages

 

A few months back, I unloaded some unopened packs of Star Wars trading cards from 1977 on ebay. I didn't get that much, but it was in the midst of the mania for the new SW movie and I figured it was probably as good a time as any to sell.

 

My daughter apparently just found out that some of her Harry Potter books are worth quite a bit.

 

Pretty sure I still have the one from June (?) 1990 with Bo on the cover. There was some big flap with that cover photo, but I can't remember what at this point.

 

Is that the one that had Bo with the bat behind his neck and the shoulder pads?

 

Oh man does this take me back. I remember going to a card shop on Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago, and they would have freaking anything you were looking for, with cards, Starting Lineup figures, autographed items, old programs, old unopened packs from just about every year, etc.

It felt like you were stepping into about 1975 when you went through those doors. I'm sure it's long gone by now.

 

I loved cards when I was a kid in the 70's; I traded them, flipped them, but most importantly cherished them, inhaling the stats on the backs of the cards and pretending I was sliding into home just like Willie in the "action" card.

I also got football cards and cherished the "All-Pro" cards for guys like Alan Page and Joe Greene.

My favs are my 3-D baseball cards from the Frosted Flakes boxes, I inhaled those every night so I could get closer to the next box and the next card. My Mays card is my fav of all-time.

I saw youngsters fuel the boom in the mid 80's and was so disheartened because it was all about "worth" and so little about the actual card itself. It was always about the next "young stud", Jeffries, Canseco, whatever. Everyone speculating as to who the next HOF'er would be and basing their collections on that speculation (I recall several buddies just loading up on Mattingly).

 

The national convention was in Rosemont last year. It's still incredible.

 

I have a collection of about 350,000 cards I would like to unload.

I began collecting in 1976 and stopped around 1981. Didn't have money for the "good" years, but picked back up in 1988 when the industry turned into mass-produced starter logs. I quit again in 2011.

I have some damn nice stuff, but it seems nobody wants it.

Among my most prized cards: rookie cards of my all-time favorites -- George Brett, Joe Montana and Julius Erving; a Cal Ripken Jr. Donruss 5x7 card I got autographed during spring training; an Allen & Ginter's Misty May Treanor I got autographed when she was leaving Kauffman Stadium with her hubby one night; a Joe Montana autographed card; a Johnny Damon colelction of about 1,200 cards; a Mario Lemieux complete 25-card set of the Donruss Canadian Ice Scrapbook.

My best complete sets are a 1978 Topps baseball hand-collated; the Allen & Ginter's that has the May-Treanor card; and the 1989 Upper Deck baseball all come to mind.

 

Probably my favorite card of all time. I have a friend who still carries one in his wallet.

 

I'm stunned that I have yet to read a mention of what, in my mind, were the holy grail of baseball cards: Donruss Diamond Kings. I LIVED to collect those "rare" cards back in about 1988-1992.
I also loved SkyBox bball cards; they could make Kurt Rambis resemble an action hero.
You all are bumming me out by noting that cards are worth next to nothing these days. I saved all mine, and I assumed they'd be worth something down the line.
Another observation, after reading this thread: it seems like virtually every guy in America stopped collecting cards at the same stage in their youth -- right about the time they discovered girls. I was a RABID card collector in 5th grade. Then, by 6th grade, I discovered a few pairs of blossoming boobies roaming the halls of Novak Intermediate School and I was outta the game for good...