sports cards

[BayBuck]

My 6th-grade teacher was always looking for up-and-comers to stockpile their cards as an "investment", so he'd convince his students to go in on bulk buys on individual players... which is why I have two dozen John Olerud rookie cards.

Fortunately I had even younger kids to get over on, including the 5-year-old I babysat who traded me two Tony Gwynn rookie cards from his dad's collection. Those are probably still my most valuable cards, last I checked (about 10 years ago) they were well over $100 apiece, I'm sure they're in the thousands by now, right? :tongue2:

And surely the value of that super-rare "Bo black-and-white" combo has come back up? I remember that thing started off through the roof for a new card, at least $10 which seemed like a lot, and pretty soon everyone had a dozen of them and it leveled off at about 50 cents. Seriously, I could probably sell my Becket magazine with Bo on the cover for more than that card nowadays...

 

[holybuckeye33]

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.

+1000, my Mom always used to say that my cards would put me through college one day. If I would have tried to sell my cards when I got to college, they may have bought the books for my first semester. The kids of our generation have lost so much money on sports cards, I bet the figure is unbelievable if it could ever be calculated. I recently walked by a Beckett and looked at the 1984 topps football to see what the Marino and Elway rookies were now listed at...$60 a piece. I remember when they were well over $100. I was more into football cards and really the only card that from that era (late 80's early 90's) that has withstood the test of time is the '86 topps Jerry Rice rookie.

This card was the inspiration for one of my senior pictures in '96. Of course I didn't have the body of Bo, so I had a t-shirt on underneath. Didn't quite look the same.

 

[Dryden]

I used to have a massive collection of baseball cards. I started collecting cards when I was about seven or eight. Back in '81 & '82, before G.I. Joe's and Transformers, every penny I could weasel out of my parents, and every nickel I found in the couch cushions went to the Risch's Drug Store around the block from my house. 4 packs of Topps for $1.00! I really went off the deep end when my older sisters were going through high school, and all their friends would give me their collections. When I stopped collecting (early teens/junior high) I had complete sets of everything Topps from '72 through '89, plus a lot of the Fleer and Donruss stuff from '81 on.

In '93 I sold my entire collection to a sports memorabilia dealer in Columbus for about $400 and used the money to buy my girlfriend at that time a car stereo. Her car was broken into and the stereo stolen two weeks later.

I probably cashed out at the right time. Like everybody else in the 80s I had visions of my baseball cards putting me through college, but the market was completely destroyed by over saturation and counterfeiting in the early 90s.

I wish I would have known then that my toys were what was collectible and the baseball cards were worthless. I would have put my baseball cards in the spokes of my bike and never opened my toys!

1982 Mint Cal Ripken Jr rookie card: $30
1982 Mint on Card G.I. Joe Snake-Eyes with the original straight arms: $1200

 

[Dryden]

Just checked eBay ...

A complete set of 1985 series 1 Garbage Pail Kids fetches $279.
A complete set of 1985 Topps Baseball (McGwire & Clemens) fetches $40.

I had tons of Garbage Pail Kids!

 

[buckeyes_rock]

Just checked eBay ...

A complete set of 1985 series 1 Garbage Pail Kids fetches $279.
A complete set of 1985 Topps Baseball (McGwire & Clemens) fetches $40.

I had tons of Garbage Pail Kids!

Wow, looks like I wasted my money on the wrong stuff as a kid!

For a long time, McGwires olympic '84 Topps card was my prized possesion...I guess I should've traded it to the neighbor kid afterall!

 

[Piney]

In '93 I sold my entire collection to a sports memorabilia dealer in Columbus for about $400 and used the money to buy my girlfriend at that time a car stereo. Her car was broken into and the stereo stolen two weeks later.

I probably cashed out at the right time. Like everybody else in the 80s I had visions of my baseball cards putting me through college, but the market was completely destroyed by over saturation and counterfeiting in the early 90s.

I wish I would have known then that my toys were what was collectible and the baseball cards were worthless. I would have put my baseball cards in the spokes of my bike and never opened my toys!

1982 Mint Cal Ripken Jr rookie card: $30
1982 Mint on Card G.I. Joe Snake-Eyes with the original straight arms: $1200

So funny it is true. I remember right before college in '93 looking to sell my baseball cards and I could only get like $500 for them. So I said screw that and kept them in my mom's attic much to her chagrin. But one weekend I strolled by some collectible show and a guy had a sign about wanting old 80s toys so went home and grabbed all I could.

Brought in my well used Star Wars & GI Joe figures and transformers and got $500 for them. I don't even want to know how much those are going for right now. But they were not even close to being mint so it can't be that much more... right?

 

[jwinslow]

View PostIn '93 I sold my entire collection to a sports memorabilia dealer in Columbus for about $400 and used the money to buy my girlfriend at that time a car stereo. Her car was broken into and the stereo stolen two weeks later.

 

[Piney]

Just checked eBay ...

A complete set of 1985 series 1 Garbage Pail Kids fetches $279.
A complete set of 1985 Topps Baseball (McGwire & Clemens) fetches $40.

I had tons of Garbage Pail Kids!

Gawd damn... I had like 20 sets of those...

Wow, looks like I wasted my money on the wrong stuff as a kid!

For a long time, McGwires olympic '84 Topps card was my prized possesion...I guess I should've traded it to the neighbor kid afterall!

Fuck McGwire, I had 4 of those cards and they aren't worth shit.

 

[Padraig]

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 have a crap load of Tim Couch rookies & 'special' cards I'll trade you. :tongue2:

 

[Wingate1217]

I have probably 500,000 sports cards, highlighted by an authentic Jim Brown signed card....

 

[Dryden]

So funny it is true. I remember right before college in '93 looking to sell my baseball cards and I could only get like $500 for them. So I said screw that and kept them in my mom's attic much to her chagrin. But one weekend I strolled by some collectible show and a guy had a sign about wanting old 80s toys so went home and grabbed all I could.

Brought in my well used Star Wars & GI Joe figures and transformers and got $500 for them. I don't even want to know how much those are going for right now. But they were not even close to being mint so it can't be that much more... right?

Yeah. I found out what my toys were worth in '99 when my first child was born. The basement of my mothers house flooded when the water pipe to the washing machine broke, so she called me to come rescue whatever toys I wanted before ServiceMaster arrived and started ripping the basement apart. Thankfully, all my LEGO (and I had an obscene amount of LEGO) were in two large, watertight Rubbermaid bins. I ended up spending a whole week in '99 picking through literally tens-of-thousands of LEGO pieces and rebuilding every set I had (I had kept the instructions). Some of the classic sets were selling for over $200 a pop on eBay. Selling my LEGO in '99 paid my rent for half the year.

After that I went and dug all my G.I. Joes and Transformers out of the attic of my dad's home and made a good return on those, and there was no way those could have had value to a serious toy collector outside of parts or place-holders until a nicer looking piece came along. Hell, all my G.I. Joe vehicles were crusted in mud, dirt, and had scorch marks on them. We used to shoot bottle rockets out of them in the backyard. Half the figures had dents or cracks in their chests from BBs.

 

[Bucklion]

I have probably 500,000 sports cards, highlighted by an authentic Jim Brown signed card....

I have probably an equal volume, as sports memorabilia has always been a passionate hobby of mine. Though I've sunk way too much time and money into it, it's been enjoyable for the most part, and I have a hell of a sports room

 

[jlb1705]

Gawd damn... I had like 20 sets of those...



[censored] McGwire, I had 4 of those cards and they aren't worth [censored].

I think I'm the only person that I know who didn't have that card.

 

[holybuckeye33]

I think I'm the only person that I know who didn't have that card.

I bought one in '98 for $200 thinking it would be a great investment.

 

[powerlifter]

Seeing the era a lot of you guys collected...One of the funnier cards that came out during that period was the Billy Ripken "fuck face" card..Hilarious

I have a lot of odds and ends memorabilia as well..Couple of the cooler things I have is a 1959 Mickey Mantle store bought glove from rawlings (mm3),and a 1961 reds "picture pennant". I have a pretty good range of cards though..oldest is a 48 bowman(beat to hell). I always had wet dreams of picking up a 52 topps mantle,but had to settle for the 67,that's on the last page.

Grading really turned me off to cards. Anyone ever catch those crazy guys selling sports cards on late night tv many years ago? Those guys were hilarious and probably the worst salesmen of all time,but damn was cool to watch...

I always liked the acting they had going on with it..I believe one of the guys last name was goldmen..They would always act surpised of the deals that they were putting up..

"How can we afford to sell these at this price??? Are we taking a loss on these just because we can??Omg, this is the deal that you will be telling your grandkids about..if you don't get in on this,then they will be disappointed their entire lives.."