On Coming Full Circle
jimmyg
Posts: 139 ✭✭
I began collecting in 1981. My dad was big into horse racing and bought me a pack of '81 Topps with his Racing Form one evening when we stopped at the King Arthur liquor store. I was in my first year of T-Ball, a stellar second baseman/ rover/ right fielder and a California Angel. Thus, I was an Angels fan. I tore open the pack and looked first at the hats in the corner of each card, searching for Angels. About half way through, I still didn't have an Angel, but I did see a Dodgers' hat. I looked at the whole card. Even at 5 years old, I knew how lucky I was to get a Bill Russell card.
'Bill Russell!' I shouted as we drove home.
I was so excited that I almost missed the card tucked behind him. I saw an Angels' hat. I held my breath as I slid Bill Russell away. My eyes widened. It was my hero. The Russell was something special, but the Bobby Grich hooked me and I was a goner. After all, we were both Second Basemen for the Angels.
I got two dollars a week allowance then, my pay for taking out the trash or setting the table. Saturday rolled around and I begged to go to the baseball card store: World Series Cards on Sherman Way. We went once every three weeks or so. My six dollars could buy eleven 35 cent '81 Topps packs and one '79 Topps pack (the '79 pack came with clear wrapping and more cards; I loved the pink checklist cards from '79, though I didn't really know why Carew was in a Twins jersey that year).
'81 gave way to '82 and my collection grew. I started foregoing lunch at school to save the 50 cents a day. I got both the Pete Rose and Pete Rose In Action card in one pack. My parents gave me a Beckett annual price guide and I looked up every card I had. I checked them off in the book (if I had two of one card I put down an extra checkmark.). I sorted my cards monthly, usually by team, though sometimes by numerical order and once by player's last name. I learned to look for the cards that ended -00 or -50, those were the superstars.
'83 rolled around and my parents' bought me the complete Topps set for my birthday and the complete fleer set for Christmas. While the Topps set had the Super Veteran cards, they couldn't hold up against the Fleer Speed and Power cards which, if you held them next to each other, made one big card with both Reggie Jackson and Rickey Henderson.
In '84, I got my first baseball card album (along with a complete '84 Topps set and a new Beckett). I put all of my good cards in the nine pocket pages: I had a page of just Pete Rose. I had a page with just superstars like Fred Lynn, Chili Davis, and Davey Lopes. And of course, every Bobby Grich I had, I put in there.
My collecting and baseball interest waned a bit in '85. Instead of the complete set for Christmas that year (the year I learned there was no Santa), I asked for just an '85 Pete Rose. I got that, a Beckett, and a new album. The new nine pocket pages I had forced me to go through my collection again to look for worthy cards. I found Phil Garners and Bill Matlocks, Bob Boones and Ron Ceys. I even found a couple of Gary Carters. It took me two weeks to decide which of my cards were album worthy.
I went back to school after Christmas break in January of '86 and was bragging about my card album to some kids in my class. I learned that one of the new kids collected cards, too. He invited me to spend the night at his house that Friday. I'd bring my cards and we could trade.
I showed up that Friday night, album in tow. We passed each other our albums and started flipping pages. He was a Nolan Ryan fan. He had three full pages of him. I had quite a few Nolan Ryans but Ryan wasn't really good enough to be in my album. He got about three pages into my album and asked me, "Why do you have all these common cards in here?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, look at this, you have four Griches here. He's a common."
"A common? He's a great player. All those guys are."
He kind of smirked. He pulled out a magazine. "Look at this." It was the first Beckett Monthly I'd seen. Don Mattingly was on the cover along with a picture of his '84 Topps card (a card I had thanks to my '84 Topps Complete Set, but another card that wasn't good enough to get into my album).
I looked at the prices. I noticed that many cards were missing. "This isn't full, there're lots of cards with no prices."
"Yeah, they're commons."
He showed me how to use the price guide, how the commons were listed at the top with a price of 5 cents.
I looked at '84 Topps. I saw the price of Don Mattingly. The next morning I asked to borrow his magazine for the weekend.
As soon as I got home, I tore through my cards looking for the Mattingly rookie. I put Mattingly and Ripken and Boggs and Ryan in. At first, I just put the valuable cards on the back side of my nine-pocket pages, doubling the capacity of each page. Even then, my album became too crowded. I had to make a choice. Out came Matlock and Boone and Garner. I bought more packs from '86. In went Clemens and Yount.
Then one day, after opening a three packs of '86 Topps, it happened. The packs were full of Pete Roses. I got four in just the three packs. There was also a George Brett. And a Nolan Ryan. My album was full. I had to make room. Out came my Griches. First my '83 Topps All-Star. Then my '83 Topps. Then my '82 Topps. And finally, when I could hold onto it no longer, my '81 Topps Grich that started me all those years ago.
My collection grew by leaps in the late '80s. I bought boxes instead of packs. I bought minor league cards (every card was a rookie). Score came to town and then Upper Deck. I expanded into football and basketball and hockey. My good cards went form the Album to toploaders. I had piles of Greg Jefferies, Mark Graces, Matt Nokes, and Cameron Drews. I added up the value of my cards at one point (using my trusty Beckett Monthly which I now subscribed to). My collection was worth upwards of $8,000.
The early nineties brought the National to Anaheim. I had over 200 promo cards. I had eight Eric Lindros rookies. I had four Super Pro magazines. I subscribed to Front Row. I bought glossier, more expensive cards. I had three 5,000 count boxes. And they were full.
And then, gradually, I lost interest. I stopped buying boxes. Then I stopped buying packs. I finished high school. And college. I moved away for the military. And I got married.
Last weekend, while home for Christmas, I decided it was high time to get all of my stuff out of my parents' house. My wife and I flew in and rented a truck to drive back. I wanted my desk and bookcases. Old photo albums and pictures.
There, under my snowboard, I saw the three boxes of cards. I knew right where the albums were. I grabbed those too. I packed them all away. I still have the Graces in toploaders. Really though, I couldn't care less about them.
Now, now I'm going through the 5000 count boxes. The cards are in no particular order. I'm searching 15,000 of them. I'm looking for one card. One card to start my new album: The '81 Grich.
'Bill Russell!' I shouted as we drove home.
I was so excited that I almost missed the card tucked behind him. I saw an Angels' hat. I held my breath as I slid Bill Russell away. My eyes widened. It was my hero. The Russell was something special, but the Bobby Grich hooked me and I was a goner. After all, we were both Second Basemen for the Angels.
I got two dollars a week allowance then, my pay for taking out the trash or setting the table. Saturday rolled around and I begged to go to the baseball card store: World Series Cards on Sherman Way. We went once every three weeks or so. My six dollars could buy eleven 35 cent '81 Topps packs and one '79 Topps pack (the '79 pack came with clear wrapping and more cards; I loved the pink checklist cards from '79, though I didn't really know why Carew was in a Twins jersey that year).
'81 gave way to '82 and my collection grew. I started foregoing lunch at school to save the 50 cents a day. I got both the Pete Rose and Pete Rose In Action card in one pack. My parents gave me a Beckett annual price guide and I looked up every card I had. I checked them off in the book (if I had two of one card I put down an extra checkmark.). I sorted my cards monthly, usually by team, though sometimes by numerical order and once by player's last name. I learned to look for the cards that ended -00 or -50, those were the superstars.
'83 rolled around and my parents' bought me the complete Topps set for my birthday and the complete fleer set for Christmas. While the Topps set had the Super Veteran cards, they couldn't hold up against the Fleer Speed and Power cards which, if you held them next to each other, made one big card with both Reggie Jackson and Rickey Henderson.
In '84, I got my first baseball card album (along with a complete '84 Topps set and a new Beckett). I put all of my good cards in the nine pocket pages: I had a page of just Pete Rose. I had a page with just superstars like Fred Lynn, Chili Davis, and Davey Lopes. And of course, every Bobby Grich I had, I put in there.
My collecting and baseball interest waned a bit in '85. Instead of the complete set for Christmas that year (the year I learned there was no Santa), I asked for just an '85 Pete Rose. I got that, a Beckett, and a new album. The new nine pocket pages I had forced me to go through my collection again to look for worthy cards. I found Phil Garners and Bill Matlocks, Bob Boones and Ron Ceys. I even found a couple of Gary Carters. It took me two weeks to decide which of my cards were album worthy.
I went back to school after Christmas break in January of '86 and was bragging about my card album to some kids in my class. I learned that one of the new kids collected cards, too. He invited me to spend the night at his house that Friday. I'd bring my cards and we could trade.
I showed up that Friday night, album in tow. We passed each other our albums and started flipping pages. He was a Nolan Ryan fan. He had three full pages of him. I had quite a few Nolan Ryans but Ryan wasn't really good enough to be in my album. He got about three pages into my album and asked me, "Why do you have all these common cards in here?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, look at this, you have four Griches here. He's a common."
"A common? He's a great player. All those guys are."
He kind of smirked. He pulled out a magazine. "Look at this." It was the first Beckett Monthly I'd seen. Don Mattingly was on the cover along with a picture of his '84 Topps card (a card I had thanks to my '84 Topps Complete Set, but another card that wasn't good enough to get into my album).
I looked at the prices. I noticed that many cards were missing. "This isn't full, there're lots of cards with no prices."
"Yeah, they're commons."
He showed me how to use the price guide, how the commons were listed at the top with a price of 5 cents.
I looked at '84 Topps. I saw the price of Don Mattingly. The next morning I asked to borrow his magazine for the weekend.
As soon as I got home, I tore through my cards looking for the Mattingly rookie. I put Mattingly and Ripken and Boggs and Ryan in. At first, I just put the valuable cards on the back side of my nine-pocket pages, doubling the capacity of each page. Even then, my album became too crowded. I had to make a choice. Out came Matlock and Boone and Garner. I bought more packs from '86. In went Clemens and Yount.
Then one day, after opening a three packs of '86 Topps, it happened. The packs were full of Pete Roses. I got four in just the three packs. There was also a George Brett. And a Nolan Ryan. My album was full. I had to make room. Out came my Griches. First my '83 Topps All-Star. Then my '83 Topps. Then my '82 Topps. And finally, when I could hold onto it no longer, my '81 Topps Grich that started me all those years ago.
My collection grew by leaps in the late '80s. I bought boxes instead of packs. I bought minor league cards (every card was a rookie). Score came to town and then Upper Deck. I expanded into football and basketball and hockey. My good cards went form the Album to toploaders. I had piles of Greg Jefferies, Mark Graces, Matt Nokes, and Cameron Drews. I added up the value of my cards at one point (using my trusty Beckett Monthly which I now subscribed to). My collection was worth upwards of $8,000.
The early nineties brought the National to Anaheim. I had over 200 promo cards. I had eight Eric Lindros rookies. I had four Super Pro magazines. I subscribed to Front Row. I bought glossier, more expensive cards. I had three 5,000 count boxes. And they were full.
And then, gradually, I lost interest. I stopped buying boxes. Then I stopped buying packs. I finished high school. And college. I moved away for the military. And I got married.
Last weekend, while home for Christmas, I decided it was high time to get all of my stuff out of my parents' house. My wife and I flew in and rented a truck to drive back. I wanted my desk and bookcases. Old photo albums and pictures.
There, under my snowboard, I saw the three boxes of cards. I knew right where the albums were. I grabbed those too. I packed them all away. I still have the Graces in toploaders. Really though, I couldn't care less about them.
Now, now I'm going through the 5000 count boxes. The cards are in no particular order. I'm searching 15,000 of them. I'm looking for one card. One card to start my new album: The '81 Grich.
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Comments
My Registry Sets
I grew up in the same time period and, like you, Beckett changed the way I collected and how I thought about my collection. I still have my first cards from '78. Maybe I'll post them.
Life goes in cycles, and the more things change, the more they remain the same. Usually this is a bad thing, but sometimes it's the only alternative to building a time machine.
Raw: Tony Gonzalez (low #'d cards, and especially 1/1's) and Steve Young.
Fun story!
thank you so much for taking the time to tell it.
WTB: PSA 1 - PSA 3 Centered, High Eye Appeal 1950's Mantle
Just kidding of course, but I bet it has not been the same since.
Thanks for the interesting read.
Steve
Bobby Grich was a killer to the A's no matter what uniform he wore. We used to call him something else (change the Gr to a
He was also awesome in terms of signing autographs.
He could hit and field well.
It's rare that I read posts as long as yours. It was worth it. Nice read! Thanks.
Anyhow, I really enjoyed looking through my collection and then enjoyed it a lot more when I started getting some of my favorite cards autographed. Now I'm back interested in cards again after many years.
Here's an address for Bobby Grich in case such a thing might interest you:
31 Madison Lane Coto De Caza,CA 92679-5012
I enjoyed your recount.
I wish there were more threads like this one.
The "Beckett" may have been the beginning of the end for the casual collector - we didn't know from "commons" when I was a kid. If one were to do the Yankee team set, Bobby Richardson or Jerry Lumpe were just as important as Mickey Mantle in completing back in 1957.
IMO - from experience - I collect what I enjoy and let my 401K fund my house on the beach.
-Jimmy
With all I bought and sold and traded over the last few years since I rejoined the hobby, the most cherished are my 1977 topps (kids condition) they are worn, the set is still incomplete but they are still here in the box I put them in back in the early 80's. They are not for sale (they aren't worth much either), but I look through them every so often and remember what it was like to open a pack and find a Cincinnati Reds card inside. I still open packs today, hoping for an auto/gu superstar, but if they aren't in there chances are a Cincy reds player just maybe. If so that Reds card has a place in my son's album and maybe one day when he's picking through all my stuff I left behind, he'll remeber when we looked through cards as they came out of the shiny packs, he'll keep a box under his desk to remember when he was a kid too.
Of course, while you were enjoying your Grich, all of us advanced collectors were out looking for the Fleer "C"raig Nettles error back in 1981.