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**The night I burned over 35,000 1968 Topps bb cards**
summerof68
Posts: 748 ✭
This is a true story I posted a couple years back and I thought I would post it again for the entertainment and dismay of members who have joined the boards since then.
It was back in '68 at the age of 11 that I first started collecting baseball cards. We had one little store in town that sold nickel wax packs but that spring a large department store had it's grand opening and my mother and I both attended. I anxiously asked an employee if they had bb cards and he said, "they are hanging on a rack over there" as he was pointing. I scurried toward my destination point wondering what the heck he meant by "hanging". As I turned a corner I saw hanging before me dozens upon dozens of '68 Topps baseball rack packs. I stood there in amazement as you could actually see the cards through the plastic.
As an avid Dodger fan I found a rack with Don Sutton showing on top and bought that one. I also saw a rack with a player who had an attractive all-star rookie yellow trophy on his card. I had never heard of him but since he had that trophy I figured he must be petty good so I purchased it as well--his name was Tom Seaver. After busting the racks during the car ride back home I became instantaneously hooked on racks. I had a nice sized paper route back then and made about $40 a month which was alot of money for an 11 year-old. So at .29 cents a pop I could afford a lot of racks. I spent the entire baseball season busting racks and hoarding huge amounts of cards. I also had several friends who collected cards as well and we would bust racks together and trade for hours at a time on weekends.
Well the years quickly passed and by 1971 collecting cards had fallen out of favor with all of my friends. I still had some fading interest so I was able to acquire all of my friends' collections for little to nothing. Then by my sophomore year in '73 I no longer had any interest in cards. I had just obtained my drivers license and all my money went towards gas and girls. Unfortunately '73 was the year of the "gas shortage" and gas was rationed in Southern California and getting very expensive. To help pay for gas I came up with the idea of selling my massive hoard of cards. One of my friends had a father who regularly rented a space and sold items at the Chino Swap Meet. So that weekend I borrowed my father's pick up and loaded up several large boxes of bb cards ranging from '65 to '71 with the majority being '68's. I decided it would be too bothersome to have tons of people digging through all the boxes looking for particular players so days prior I put all the cards in 100 card bundles secured by rubber bands.
Well it was the day of the swap meet and I had all the boxes neatly arranged on the ground and I proudly displayed my sign which read, "Baseball Cards: .50 cents a bundle". Since bb cards cost .1 cent each I figured at half price they would go like hot cakes. Well to my disappointment the minutes turned to hours without a single sale. After two hours I lowered the price to .25 cents a bundle and still no takers. I sat there for six hours and didn't sell a single bundle. So in disgust I loaded them all back up and went home.
A few months later on Halloween day of 1973 I decided since the cards had no value I would just hand the bundles out to the kids instead of candy. My mother insisted that we had to give the kids candy so I decided it was going to be a baseball card/candy combo night for the kids--boy were they going to be happy!! Yea right, as soon I began tossing bundles of cards into the kid's sacks I could see displeasure registering in their eyes. Very few of the kids wanted cards because they desired only candy and the cards either weighted down their bags or took up to much room in bags that the kids had fantasized would be full of candy by night's end. I did have a few kids who initially welcomed the cards but their enthusiasm quickly turned to disappointment when they said these were "old cards" and not this year's new cards from '73.
So as Halloween night progressed I had grown thoroughly disgusted with the ongoing inconvenience and frustration these 35,000+ cards were causing me. So while eating candy in front of fire place the warmth of the flames sparked a thought which to this very day I passionately regret--burn them!! That's right and that's just what I did. For the next few hours as my mom handed out candy I threw bundles by the handfuls into the fireplace and actually took pleasure in ridding myself of these worthless, unwanted by everyone, pieces of cardboard. I actually became somewhat agitated when I thought about how much of my hard earned paper route money was invested in this worthless multitude.
By late evening it was over and I had burned over 35,000+ Topps baseball cards ranging from 1965 to 1971 and yes there were copies of Mantle, Mays & Aaron sprinkled throughout all the bundles. I rendered no mercy or prejudice in my carnage.
As hard as this is to believe it is in fact a true story. You have to remember back in '73, at least in my neck of the woods, baseball cards had only sentimental value and no monetary value whatsoever and as my story illustrates you couldn't even give them away. Halloween night of '73 is a day that I regret each and every day of my life and it will forever live in infamy--even more than Pearl Harbor!!!
It was back in '68 at the age of 11 that I first started collecting baseball cards. We had one little store in town that sold nickel wax packs but that spring a large department store had it's grand opening and my mother and I both attended. I anxiously asked an employee if they had bb cards and he said, "they are hanging on a rack over there" as he was pointing. I scurried toward my destination point wondering what the heck he meant by "hanging". As I turned a corner I saw hanging before me dozens upon dozens of '68 Topps baseball rack packs. I stood there in amazement as you could actually see the cards through the plastic.
As an avid Dodger fan I found a rack with Don Sutton showing on top and bought that one. I also saw a rack with a player who had an attractive all-star rookie yellow trophy on his card. I had never heard of him but since he had that trophy I figured he must be petty good so I purchased it as well--his name was Tom Seaver. After busting the racks during the car ride back home I became instantaneously hooked on racks. I had a nice sized paper route back then and made about $40 a month which was alot of money for an 11 year-old. So at .29 cents a pop I could afford a lot of racks. I spent the entire baseball season busting racks and hoarding huge amounts of cards. I also had several friends who collected cards as well and we would bust racks together and trade for hours at a time on weekends.
Well the years quickly passed and by 1971 collecting cards had fallen out of favor with all of my friends. I still had some fading interest so I was able to acquire all of my friends' collections for little to nothing. Then by my sophomore year in '73 I no longer had any interest in cards. I had just obtained my drivers license and all my money went towards gas and girls. Unfortunately '73 was the year of the "gas shortage" and gas was rationed in Southern California and getting very expensive. To help pay for gas I came up with the idea of selling my massive hoard of cards. One of my friends had a father who regularly rented a space and sold items at the Chino Swap Meet. So that weekend I borrowed my father's pick up and loaded up several large boxes of bb cards ranging from '65 to '71 with the majority being '68's. I decided it would be too bothersome to have tons of people digging through all the boxes looking for particular players so days prior I put all the cards in 100 card bundles secured by rubber bands.
Well it was the day of the swap meet and I had all the boxes neatly arranged on the ground and I proudly displayed my sign which read, "Baseball Cards: .50 cents a bundle". Since bb cards cost .1 cent each I figured at half price they would go like hot cakes. Well to my disappointment the minutes turned to hours without a single sale. After two hours I lowered the price to .25 cents a bundle and still no takers. I sat there for six hours and didn't sell a single bundle. So in disgust I loaded them all back up and went home.
A few months later on Halloween day of 1973 I decided since the cards had no value I would just hand the bundles out to the kids instead of candy. My mother insisted that we had to give the kids candy so I decided it was going to be a baseball card/candy combo night for the kids--boy were they going to be happy!! Yea right, as soon I began tossing bundles of cards into the kid's sacks I could see displeasure registering in their eyes. Very few of the kids wanted cards because they desired only candy and the cards either weighted down their bags or took up to much room in bags that the kids had fantasized would be full of candy by night's end. I did have a few kids who initially welcomed the cards but their enthusiasm quickly turned to disappointment when they said these were "old cards" and not this year's new cards from '73.
So as Halloween night progressed I had grown thoroughly disgusted with the ongoing inconvenience and frustration these 35,000+ cards were causing me. So while eating candy in front of fire place the warmth of the flames sparked a thought which to this very day I passionately regret--burn them!! That's right and that's just what I did. For the next few hours as my mom handed out candy I threw bundles by the handfuls into the fireplace and actually took pleasure in ridding myself of these worthless, unwanted by everyone, pieces of cardboard. I actually became somewhat agitated when I thought about how much of my hard earned paper route money was invested in this worthless multitude.
By late evening it was over and I had burned over 35,000+ Topps baseball cards ranging from 1965 to 1971 and yes there were copies of Mantle, Mays & Aaron sprinkled throughout all the bundles. I rendered no mercy or prejudice in my carnage.
As hard as this is to believe it is in fact a true story. You have to remember back in '73, at least in my neck of the woods, baseball cards had only sentimental value and no monetary value whatsoever and as my story illustrates you couldn't even give them away. Halloween night of '73 is a day that I regret each and every day of my life and it will forever live in infamy--even more than Pearl Harbor!!!
"You tell 'em I'm coming...and hell's coming with me"--Wyatt Earp
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Comments
im sure that stories like this were more common place then not back in the 70s
WTB: PSA 1 - PSA 3 Centered, High Eye Appeal 1950's Mantle
Working on the following: 1970 Baseball PSA, 1970-1976 Raw, World Series Subsets PSA, 1969 Expansion Teams PSA, Fleer World Series Sets, Texas Rangers Topps Run 1972-1989
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Successful deals to date: thedudeabides,gameusedhoop,golfcollector,tigerdean,treetop,bkritz, CapeMOGuy,WeekendHacker,jeff8877,backbidder,Salinas,milbroco,bbuckner22,VitoCo1972,ddfamf,gemint,K,fatty macs,waltersobchak,dboneesq
Thanks for sharing.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
Collecting:
Any unopened Baseball cello and rack packs and boxes from the 1970's and early 1980s.
<< <i>By late evening it was over and I had burned over 35,000+ Topps baseball cards ranging from 1965 to 1971 >>
Ouch.
That's 5,000 cards per year. How many sets did you need?!? lol
Bob Gibson, 1973 was where it was at.
Cool story.
buying O-Pee-Chee (OPC) baseball
<< <i>Great story, I grew up in the late eighties and early nineties and have the same feeling about them.
Haha every once in a while I think about using my 10000 '87 Topps cards for kindling.
buying O-Pee-Chee (OPC) baseball
Dimes: 54S, 53P, 50P, 49S, 45D+S, 44S, 43D, 41S, 40D+S, 39D+S, 38D+S, 37D+S, 36S, 35D+S, all 16-34's
Quarters: 52S, 47S, 46S, 40S, 39S, 38S, 37D+S, 36D+S, 35D, 34D, 32D+S
74 Topps: 37,38,46,47,48,138,151,193,210,214,223,241,256,264,268,277,289,316,435,552,570,577,592,602,610,654,655
1997 Finest silver: 115, 135, 139, 145, 310
1995 Ultra Gold Medallion Sets: Golden Prospects, HR Kings, On-Base Leaders, Power Plus, RBI Kings, Rising Stars
Ouch.
Summer stared at the start of the thread that he had posted this story on this board a couple of years back..
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Donato
Donato's Complete US Type Set ---- Donato's Dansco 7070 Modified Type Set ---- Donato's Basic U.S. Coin Design Set
Successful transactions: Shrub68 (Jim), MWallace (Mike)
During my childhood - I don't think I had more than maybe 1500 cards? And I never pulled a Mantle!
Just kidding.
<< <i><< pours out a 40 for the burned homies.... >>
lol...wife wanted to know what was so funny.
Twiley - that's an incredible story. Ever estimate how much went burned up that night? Just the curious CPA in me.
<< <i>Thanks Grote15 for clearing up that complicated matter
Erik
TEN DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i was overjoyed, so i went to toy store and bought stickers. maybe Wacky Packages, or who knows? then i stuck the stickers on my bedroom door and window. they were neat-o.
i bet Mike gets a good laugh about me every time he stares out the window of his 27th floor corner office.
Uncle Bob, maybe not so much.
Still, it hurts to read that story. I went the opposite way, hoarding 87 topps cards thinking they would be priceless treasures. Sadly, burning those would have been much more cost effective than those damn Duraflames.
I remember I'd read the classifieds to look for people selling old baseball cards - I found this one guy who would sell his old cards (from the 60's). Quite a few of them had 'bb' holes in them or Army Sergeant Stripes in marker on them. Yes, I owned "Sergeant Yastrzemski" & "Corporal Aaron” I might have even had a "PFC Rose" in there somewhere.
Sometimes reflecting back to our youth brings back both the good & bad. Thanks for sharing!!
Mike