dream card of your childhood.

craig44

As a young collector in the late 80's an early 90's nolan ryan was the man and his 68 rookie was my holy grail. with my collecting budget as a 12 year old I may as well have been after the Wagner. It was definitely my dream card. I remember waiting for the beckett to arrive every month to see how high the ryan had climbed. He seemed like superman and his rookie was my dream card. Now I have a few of them. So how about you. What was your dream card?

dberk12

I grew up and collected in the mid 80's. The cards in the "expensive case" at the local card shop that always caught my eye were: '69 Reggie Jackson, '68 Nolan Ryan, '68 Johnny Bench, and the '63 Pete Rose. Mowing lawns and doing a paper route never got me on the road to purchasing any of those cards. I was side tracked by the "modern" RCs like the '84 Topps traded Gooden, '84 Donruss Mattingly, and the '84 Fleer update Puckett.

I have since returned to the hobby and am still after the Ryan and Rose. Too bad that "expensive case" is long gone because my local card shop closed 15 years ago

bishop

The Topps 1959 Musial, a long time coming for a St Louis kid in the 50s. The 58 AS card was ok, but 59 was the real deal

MrNearMint

I'd have to go with the Michael Jordan fleer rookie. Like any others, I could never afford one but I always loved staring at them when at my lcs. I even remember seeing one that was in this hard plastic case that had the letters "PSA" on the top.

I now own a few. And the card doesn't seem nearly as untouchable as it used to but still an awesome card to have!

addicted2ebay

T206 Wagner. I still have never even seen one in person.

Bliggity

Any Mickey Mantle card, didn't matter which one. In my wildest dreams I never thought I'd own one.

bishop

In 59 when I was looking for Musial , I kept getting Mantles instead . He was in the first series and everywhere.

But I do wish I had saved more of them

54topps

Mine was always a Hank Aaron rookie card. Still don't have one

jmaciu

Mine was a Johnny Bench RC. My grandmother got me one when I was a teenager. I still have it and here it is. It will remain raw:



Too bad the Ryan is "trimmed."

Darin

Our Dad bought my brothers and I our first wax packs in 1970, I remember we got a Tommie Aaron instead of Hank and being pretty disappointed about that. So maybe I'll get a nice 1970 Hank Aaron card someday.

bishop

That Bench is not "raw", it is in it's natural state...as it should be. Very nice card too

RookieWax

I had always been attracted by the rarity and mystique of the 1990 Topps NNOF Frank Thomas, beginning when I read about it in SCD around 1991. Being a four figure card, even at that time, I didn't think I would ever own one. I now own 7 of them.

LarkinCollector

63T Rose rookie, I now own every other basic Topps and lots of oddballs, but really have no desire for this card any more. The floating heads design is just awful and I can't bring myself to spend the money on a decent one for that ugly of a design.

hyperchipper09

I'll hit the big four sports for mine

Football: 1963 Fleer Lance Alworth RC
Hockey: 86/87 OPC Patrick Roy RC
Baseball: 1955 Topps Roberto Clemente RC
Basketball: 83/84 Clyde Drexler Star XRC

jgrigali

Growing up in Baltimore in the mid/late 80s and early 90s the dream card(s) were any Cal Ripken Rookies. Also the 1990 Topps Frank Thomas NNOF and George Bush cards struck a fancy as well.

Now that I'm a big kid it's the 1952 Topps Mantle.

Nathaniel1960

<< <i>63T Rose rookie, I now own every other basic Topps and lots of oddballs, but really have no desire for this card any more. The floating heads design is just awful and I can't bring myself to spend the money on a decent one for that ugly of a design. >>



+1 on Rose Rookie - an EX version was the main attraction at the local card shop circa 1986.

jmb

This is a great topic and this will probably be my longest post ever.

My main collecting years as a kid were 1975-1981, though I still purchased baseball cards until 1984 when girls and my first car took over.

I was very lucky to have a Grandfather who bought me 2-4 packs of cards a week. He also gave me a $2-$3 week allowance. In the summer I cut as many lawns as I could but could never get the paper route as my cousin had it for our neighborhood. I also had a neighbor who was about 10 years older than me who gave me 64, 65, 66 and 68 Mantle cards. He had pages upon pages of Mantle cards in the later part of the 70's.

I have always been drawn to the older players and older cards. The hobby shop in town I used to ride my bike to was where I got to see and purchase the great, older HOF players. As a 10-13 year old I bought 51 Bowmans of Rizzuto & Spahn, a 55 Killebrew, 61 Billy Williams, a 68 Ryan rookie (later traded this for a 53 Topps Mantle), etc. I even had an entire section of my room dedicated as a mini Hall of Fame. All of the money I saved went to the older cards while my Grandfather was buying me, at the time, present day cards.

Well, the one card the hobby shop had I never could quite afford was none other than a 33 Goudey Ruth #144. I remember the price tag ............ $100 (it was probably about a 3 condition wise).
Not until I was 22, in 1990 did I finally get to own one.

MULLINS5

Always wanted Wayne Gretzky's rookie. Didn't matter between Topps or OPC, I just wanted one. My dad bought me a couple of the Topps at a Gibralter, MI card show in the 90s. Kept them raw for about 10 years and then around 2004/5 I sent them in to PSA. One ended up being trimmed and the other got a 6. Sold both while in college and desperately needed the cash. I check every PSA 6 that hits eBay hoping to find it again.

I also wanted a Thomas NNOF for the same reasons RookieWax states. Haven't picked one up, yet.

Big80s

1986 Fleer Jordan. And I still don't have a keeper for the collection.

craig44

I agree that the thomas nnof was a magical card. Still is in my opinion. It was more of a mystery to me though. It wasn't a dream because in those pre internet days I greatly underestimated its rarity. I really thought I could waltZ into my lcs and pick one up. It was listed in beckett right so they should be available I thought. Wrong. I now have 2 nnof and still think they are super cool.

graygator

When I started collecting in 1986 the Rose was a biggie. A friend's Dad had one and I really wanted one, but I wouldn't say it was the dream card. Same with the Ryan rookie. The Wagner and 1952 Topps Mantle were dreams, but in a hobby-hype kind of way and not in a real-desire-to-own kind of way.

Then, in 1989, Bowman came back, and had all the reprint inserts with the contest to win the actual card. That was the first time I figured out that the 1951 Bowman was the real Mantle rookie, and I decided that was the Mantle for me. I wanted so badly to win it in the contest because I knew I could never talk my parents into that one! So for me, that's the dream card of my childhood. But there weren't any great shops in my town, and we hardly went to shows, so I have, as of today, yet to hold one in my hands.

BaltimoreYankee

Not really my childhood but when I first got back into collecting as a young twenty-something (1980's), I the two I coveted were 1965 Topps Steve Carlton and '68T Johnny Bench.

Beck6

1985 topps Eric Davis. Growing up in Cincy no one was hotter than Davis around 1988 or so. I had my aunt in Indiana buyer kraft macaroni and cheese with Eric Davis on the back because you could t find it in Cincy but the topps rookie was still the holy grail. I got it for Christmas wrapped individually.

Statman

I started collecting in 1974 at age 8 - after getting a little older and going to shows in around 1980, my two cards that seemed untouchable were the 1967 Topps Brooks Robinson and the 1970 Topps Johnny Bench. I had always heard how tough these cards were to find and to a 12-15 year old, they seemed impossible. I've had the Bench before, but still haven't gotten the Robinson.

LarkinCollector

<< <i>1985 topps Eric Davis. Growing up in Cincy no one was hotter than Davis around 1988 or so. I had my aunt in Indiana buyer kraft macaroni and cheese with Eric Davis on the back because you could t find it in Cincy but the topps rookie was still the holy grail. I got it for Christmas wrapped individually. >>


Agreed, Davis had an incredible couple year run with Cincy and was one of my favorites in the 85T set (first set I ever bought). I targeted the Rose mac 'n cheese boxes, but got quite a few Davis' as a consolation when they were out of Rose

Bill82

The cards I traded to get as many Eric Dickerson rookies as possible.

kingnascar

1953 Stahl-Meyer Mickey Mantle