sports cards

[jlb1705]

This past weekend I went to my mom's house to clean out her attic for her, and I came upon some of my old baseball and football cards. I stopped collecting when I was 15, but many of these cards are around 20 years old now.

A lot of HOFers & future HOFers & assorted greats (Cal Ripken Jr, Ken Griffey Jr, Barry Larkin, Mike Schmidt, Dennis Eckersly, Randy Johnson, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Eric Davis, Tony Gwynn, Ryne Sandberg Ozzie Smith, Frank Thomas, Orel Hershiser, Nolan Ryan, Rickey Henderson & BrettFavre to name a few).

Also, a lot of guys who turned out to be rather infamous (Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmiero, Jose Canseco, Brady Anderson (?) & Steve McNair)

There were several interesting rookie cards in the bunch - Jeff Bagwell, Fred McGriff, Chipper Jones, and several from Eddie George & Terry Glenn.

I remember back in the day, I started off by collecting 1987 Topps baseball cards. They're the ones with the woodgrain border on the front. After soccer games, I'd get a dollar to spend at the concession stand, and instead of candy I'd buy a couple wax packs. It always pissed me off, because no matter what I never seemed to get any cards of Reds players. Finally, toward the end of that season - my first one. It was Dave Concepcion, and I found that card last week too.

The really strange thing was, about 95% of what I found was cards from good to great players. I had the 3x3 pages, and they were full of good ones, except I'd stumble into a Ricky Botallico or a Rondell White here or there. I don't know how those guys got into that collection. I've decided to hold on to those too, since they might yet do something stupid or famous someday that makes them worth something, like if one of them becomes president or cuts down the Gateway Arch with a torch or something like that.

I don't think I'm sitting on a gold mine or anything, but I am gonna pick up a Beckett just to see how some of the values may have changed over the last 15-20 years. Maybe I can pass them down one day when I have a son - though these days I can't imagine too many young boys really giving a crap about baseball, let alone baseball cards.

Does anybody else have some cards they picked up as a kid sitting around? What kind of stuff do you have?

 

[NFBuck]

Pretty similar story here. Started collecting baseball and football cards in '87...same wood border Topps along with Fleer, Donruss and later Upper Deck. They're still at my mom's. Lots of valuables. I was one of those kids that collected multiple cards of my favorites, so I'm loaded up on all the guys that came up around then. I think I have 10-15 each of Barry Sanders, Troy Aikman, Deion Sanders, etc. rookie cards. I also dipped back into older stuff and have rookie cards of Mike Schmidt, Ripken, Rickey Henderson, Gwynn, Mattingly, Jerry Rice, Marino, Montana, etc...hope to help with kids college funds someday.

 

[starBUCKS]

I loved collecting cards and still have boxes and notebooks filled with cards in my closet at home. I even had a box I called "the coffin" where I kept all the players that died in... kinda weird. A lot of times when I go home I'll look through them and it's a walk down memory lane. The McGwire USA rookie card, Jordan Fleer 85' I think, Shaq, Elway, Marino, then the randoms like Vai Sikahima, Hensley Bam Bam Meulens, and Craig Hodges. I use to line all my cards up on my floor and have my own drafts, I'd pick Captains and then draft full teams... I would have like 30 teams and then would some how have them play each other for the championship.... and then do it all over again at the end. We didn't have tv's in our rooms back then.

My favorite spot that still exists was Dublin Baseball Card store on High/Bridge Street, I use to go in there as a kid all the time and just stare at the cards, and buy what I could with the change I had. I'd even go to some local baseball card shows and walk around to look at all the different cards.

I think there became so many card companies that the market just tanked. The values were unrealistic and were controlled by the card companies production. Now I think everything is based on grades... I stopped collecting by early high school, there really weren't any PSA grades yet then. I will continue to keep them, just because I don't want to part with my childhood. But, i think like everything else, they will become popular again one day, trends come and go.

 

[powerlifter]

I think there became so many card companies that the market just tanked. The values were unrealistic and were controlled by the card companies production. Now I think everything is based on grades... I stopped collecting by early high school, there really weren't any PSA grades yet then. I will continue to keep them, just because I don't want to part with my childhood. But, i think like everything else, they will become popular again one day, trends come and go.

Yea,the market for sports cards is terrible. If you have anything of sentimental value,it's just worth holding on to. I honestly can't remember what age I started collecting but it was pretty young. I have a ton of vintage stuff..it's cool..Haven't bought a pack or card,since 8th grade though.

 

[Mac]

I've got more than 1 of those Rubbermaid Tubs (the BIG ones) full of baseball/football cards...I was obsessed.

I've got some good ones. Last card I bought was Mike Doss rookie jersey patch/autograph card.

 

[TooTall]

My most prized card is a Lebron rookie jersey card... That I pulled from a $20 box from Wal-Mart... Best pull ever.

Also have an original Walter Payton and OJ Simpson card... I've got quite a collection.

Worst pack of cards I've ever bought was a pack of Sage squared that included... A Mike Hart/Chad Henne combo (Hart/top is auto'd) and a Adrian Arrington/Jake Long dual auto... 2 autographs of scUM players? EW!

 

[TooTall]

A few of my favorites:

The Lebron:

A few others:

Top: Larry Johnson pop out auto
2nd row left: Ickey Woods auto/jersey
2nd row middle: Roy Williams, Larry Fitzgerald, Kellen Winslow Jr. rookie jerseys
2nd row right: Michael Jenkins auto misprint (under his name, he's listed as a cornerback)
3rd row left: Archie (Bengals) autograph
3rd row middle: Michael Jenkins sleeve patch #'d to 50.
3rd row right: Peyton Manning freeze frame jersey

I've got a Peyton Manning GU football card from the Pro Bowl QB Challenge with the Blue chalk (that's used to locate the hits on the targets) on it... Pretty sick card.

 

[Mac]

I've got a pretty cool story....I was big into autographs when I was younger. Well i would find teams addresses and send players mail asking for an autograph picture. I did this for David Boston, and he sent me 3 different Autograph football cards (all regular football cards that he personally signed). I thought that was pretty awesome.

I've got some good Rookie Cards...Peyton Manning, Derek Jeter, Jerry Rice, and some other pretty good ones

 

[Mike80]

This past weekend I went to my mom's house to clean out her attic for her, and I came upon some of my old baseball and football cards. I stopped collecting when I was 15, but many of these cards are around 20 years old now.

A lot of HOFers & future HOFers & assorted greats (Cal Ripken Jr, Ken Griffey Jr, Barry Larkin, Mike Schmidt, Dennis Eckersly, Randy Johnson, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Eric Davis, Tony Gwynn, Ryne Sandberg Ozzie Smith, Frank Thomas, Orel Hershiser, Nolan Ryan, Rickey Henderson & BrettFavre to name a few).

Also, a lot of guys who turned out to be rather infamous (Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmiero, Jose Canseco, Brady Anderson (?) & Steve McNair)

There were several interesting rookie cards in the bunch - Jeff Bagwell, Fred McGriff, Chipper Jones, and several from Eddie George & Terry Glenn.

I remember back in the day, I started off by collecting 1987 Topps baseball cards. They're the ones with the woodgrain border on the front. After soccer games, I'd get a dollar to spend at the concession stand, and instead of candy I'd buy a couple wax packs. It always pissed me off, because no matter what I never seemed to get any cards of Reds players. Finally, toward the end of that season - my first one. It was Dave Concepcion, and I found that card last week too.

The really strange thing was, about 95% of what I found was cards from good to great players. I had the 3x3 pages, and they were full of good ones, except I'd stumble into a Ricky Botallico or a Rondell White here or there. I don't know how those guys got into that collection. I've decided to hold on to those too, since they might yet do something stupid or famous someday that makes them worth something, like if one of them becomes president or cuts down the Gateway Arch with a torch or something like that.

I don't think I'm sitting on a gold mine or anything, but I am gonna pick up a Beckett just to see how some of the values may have changed over the last 15-20 years. Maybe I can pass them down one day when I have a son - though these days I can't imagine too many young boys really giving a crap about baseball, let alone baseball cards.

Does anybody else have some cards they picked up as a kid sitting around? What kind of stuff do you have?

I have 40,000-ish baseball cards in my parents attic. This thread makes me want to go to their house and pull them out to see what I have

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

I've got a number of baseball cards, including complete sets which I intend on giving to my son. Off the top of my head, my sets include 1982 Topps (Which I acquired pack by pack), 1984 Topps, 1989 Bowman, 1990 Bowman, Upperdeck, Score, Topps, 1991 Upperdeck, Score, Topps.

The 1982 and 1984 sets are opened. the rest of my sets are still sealed. I was collecting them with the idea of handing them down. I figure they're still pretty much the same value as when I bought them...

Oh well, my son will have some really old cards one day (old to him, of course. )

 

[Mac]

My dad told me a story that when his parents moved out of their apartment when they were moving into a house after he got married...his mom threw out his baseball cards that included Mantle, Robinson, Ruth, Mays, Dimaggio, etc. To this day, it still makes him sick. What a shame.

 

[jwinslow]

Are cards worth as much these days, now that all of us have kept our collections in hopes of some big value someday?

On a sad note, I stockpiled Rick Mirer rookie cards. I didn't even like him, but thought they'd be worth something someday

 

[jlb1705]

I have 40,000-ish baseball cards in my parents attic. This thread makes me want to go to their house and pull them out to see what I have

I probably never had that many, but I definitely had more than the 250 or so I was able to find. I remember right around the time I stopped collecting, my mom had a friend from work and she'd let her friend's shithead kids come over to hang out. One of those kids stole a lot of my better cards at that time. I probably threw out or lost track of a lot of the nobodies over time too.

I wish I had taken better care of some of this stuff. A lot of it is still in better condition than I could have hoped - given that most of them were in 3x3s or in 25 & 50 ct. snap cases. When I got 'em home last weekend I bought a bunch of toploaders and sleeves so they stand a better chance of surviving the next two decades.

BTW, buying those cases and sleeves online was a chore. If I'd try to buy 8 packs of toploaders the vendor would want to ship them individually, making it almost total out to almost $60 for items that should cost about $3 ea. I ended up finding the stuff on eBay, and should be able to load up the last of my cards tonight.

 

[jlb1705]

Are cards worth as much these days, now that all of us have kept our collections in hopes of some big value someday?

On a sad note, I stockpiled Rick Mirer rookie cards. I didn't even like him, but thought they'd be worth something someday

I ended up with a bunch of Patriots cards. When the Browns moved, I became a Pats fan for a while because of Terry Glenn. I have him, Curtis Martin, Drew Bledsoe, Ben Coates, and some others in a snap case.

I also had a David Barr rookie card. That's right, David Barr, not even David Carr. He was apparently a QB and a mid-round selection of the Eagles. I'm keeping that just in case it's rare. I figure I'm the only one besides his mom who actually kept one of those things.

It sounds like cards in general are not worth as much these days. Even though I don't plan on parting with anything, I'm still curious to find out.

 

[Piney]

Pretty similar story here. Started collecting baseball and football cards in '87...same wood border Topps along with Fleer, Donruss and later Upper Deck. They're still at my mom's. Lots of valuables. I was one of those kids that collected multiple cards of my favorites, so I'm loaded up on all the guys that came up around then. I think I have 10-15 each of Barry Sanders, Troy Aikman, Deion Sanders, etc. rookie cards. I also dipped back into older stuff and have rookie cards of Mike Schmidt, Ripken, Rickey Henderson, Gwynn, Mattingly, Jerry Rice, Marino, Montana, etc...hope to help with kids college funds someday.

Scary how similar in age we are then... same here. Started heavily collecting in 1987 and was actually involved in a collectors club and was a part-time retailer. While I went through and had tons of stars and future hall of famers... we are screwed because ...

Yea,the market for sports cards is terrible. If you have anything of sentimental value,it's just worth holding on to. I honestly can't remember what age I started collecting but it was pretty young. I have a ton of vintage stuff..it's cool..Haven't bought a pack or card,since 8th grade though.

Or worst yet, late 80s early 90s was the worst time to collect cards in the history of collecting cards. Everything was mass produced and most of the cards aren't even worth the paper they are printed on. Even cards that should be worth alot, aren't. Mainly because there are so many out there and plus the steriod era killed any remaining value.

I had thousands of cards that over the past few years I finally dumped. I sold the remnants of good value cards for $1,000 first (mainly from cards from the 70s I bought back in the late 80s/early 90s) then had a hard time dumping the rest as they were the mass produced sets of the day that are worth pennies. My mom kept telling me she would throw them out and I kept telling her to go ahead. She never did. But then my brother had a huge garage sale and sold them there. He ended up squeezing about $400 out of it. I told him to keep $300 and just give me $100.