Baseball Cards Magazine- Autumn 1981

RedHeart54

This started 3 years prior to Beckett and was published by Kraus, SCD's publisher. Was published by Clifford Mishler. Bob Lemke was an editor.

I'm pretty sure it was still published into the later 80s when I got into collecting. Anyone know what came of it?

RedHeart54

I'll bet I can sell my Mantle cards here..for at least a hundred bucks!

RedHeart54

The definition for a mint card in '81 was quite wide.

RedHeart54

Ah! The introduction to 1981?Topps Traded. Finally a card of Fernando by himself!

RedHeart54

1981 Topps football vending available. Doubt there'll ever be any good rookie cards here...

RedHeart54

Cold hard cash for your '81 Charboneaus! And you're practically robbing me by selling me your '68 Koosman/Ryan cards for four bucks!

RedHeart54

$1200 for a Mickey Mantle card?? Like that will EVER pay off! (On the other hand we can see how in demand the '68 3-D Clemente has always been. $700 in '81 wasn't chump change for a baseball card.)

RedHeart54

The days of selling in small 3 or 4 line ads.

baz518

I was a subscriber to BBCM for most of my childhood, definitely through 1990 or so. Probably a below average price guide with decent articles, but great ads! I used to be infatuated with unopened even back then, used to save all my money to buy old packs from Mark Murphy. If only I would have kept all that I bought.... collected and sold off what I had twice before I got back into it for good about 10 years ago.

grote15

Very cool! Thanks for posting those pics! I do remember that publication and reading it thoroughly. Too bad I didn't stockpile cards back then. Of course, I'd probably have chosen to stockpile Charboneau rookies instead of Ryan rookies, lol..

tennesseebanker

This was one of the magazines I used as a "go by" in the early days of my collecting days. Good to see it again, brought back some memories.

Tabe

I was a subscriber for awhile. Loved this magazine especially the fake cards they'd include, like the 83 Topps Mattingly.

byronscott4ever

It had good articles and seemed to be distributed to non-hobby outlets better than Beckett from what I recall.

dennis07

For the fairly new members Bob Lemke is one of us. He contributes occasionally here.
His work continues at his blog that can be found at (http://boblemke.blogspot.com)

1954

A couple of these cards listed actually sell today what he was paying for 40 years ago.

BaltimoreYankee

I still have the first issue of Baseball Cards. I was a subscriber through the mid-80's. One cool feature was the cards that came with the magazine. They were reprints of actual cards and later, "cards that never were". The Musial and Berra cards were signed through the mail. I always liked the "83 Topps" Mattingly. What a hack job on that Ted Williams! I also remember cutting the Wagner with rounded corners to make it look like a real T-206.

lahmejoon

I loved this magazine as well. I used to find it in the grocery store and would beg my mother to buy it.

jmmiller777

I was a subscriber as well, loved the articles that could be read in 10 minutes. I still have them, many still in plastic, due to my military status at the time. I plan on framing some of them. I really wish a similar production would return to the hobby. Tuff Stuff was never really that good. Beckett never had the articles and the price guide became impossible to read with the -10 font size.

mtcards

My favorite memory of this magazine is an issue, probably early 90's maybe??? The "reader's write" section where they would respond to the letters had a question about something and the letter writer called the writer of an article a "doofus". EVERY single response to every other letter in that issue had the word "doofus" or "doofusses" in the response. I guess you had to read it to think it was funny, but I LMAO every time I read it.

Ironmanfan

A couple times they printed my checklist of Cal Ripken Jr. cards that I had compiled (and Cal was the cover subject both times as well); I'm thinking 1988 & 1991 off the top of my head.

Stingray

@RedHeart54 said:
The days of selling in small 3 or 4 line ads.

I think that add for the 81 Donruss ucut sheets was the one I bought mine from back then!,

lahmejoon

I'm reminiscing some more about this magazine. I'm pretty sure it was this manazine that there used to be a crossword puzzle contest every month, whereby you would send in the crossword puzzle and $1 for the chance to win tiered prizes, depending if you got them all right, one wrong, two wrong, etc. The crossword puzzle was small, but difficult because answers to clues could be one of a couple of things, meaning you could send in a ton of puzzles with multiple combinations to try to hit the right combination. I was a sucker for those too. I won a 1989 Donruss MVP set and thought it was the greatest thing. LOL

mlbfan2

@lahmejoon said:
I'm reminiscing some more about this magazine. I'm pretty sure it was this manazine that there used to be a crossword puzzle contest every month, whereby you would send in the crossword puzzle and $1 for the chance to win tiered prizes, depending if you got them all right, one wrong, two wrong, etc. The crossword puzzle was small, but difficult because answers to clues could be one of a couple of things, meaning you could send in a ton of puzzles with multiple combinations to try to hit the right combination. I was a sucker for those too. I won a 1989 Donruss MVP set and thought it was the greatest thing. LOL

Yeah, I entered one of those too. Then I smartened up and figured out that the odds were not very good. I still have a few of the magazines. Here's one of the puzzles.

lahmejoon

Yes!! Thank you for posting that. Those were good times. It would be interesting to try solving the puzzle now and calculate all of the combinations of possible answers.

bobsbbcards

It's also odd that they want to pay the same amount for 1968 Koosman/Ryan cards as they do for the rookie cards of Judi Dench.

rcmb3220

@RedHeart54 said:
The days of selling in small 3 or 4 line ads.

"Fleer errors - my choice $1" Forget you, Rachelle Wallace.

Let's all remember these ads next time we are going on an ebay rant.

AUPT

The Aug., 1981, issue is actually the "key" to a complete set of Baseball Cards magazines. The order to the printed had to be made before sales results from the first issue were compiled, so issue #2 was significantly short-printed.

I greatly enjoyed creating the concept of a slick color magazine available on national newsstands, and my years of editing it.

Albertdidit

Thats a pretty early autograph signing. Were there any in the late 1970's? Anyone know the first or one of the first times a baseball player appeared at a show to sign?

Cakes

Really cool throwback, thank you.

bcubs

I used to look forward to this magazine and loved the cards inside. Wish I had kept them to reminisce about the "good old days". Thanks for sharing.

symbebekos

My mom got me a subscription to BBCM as a kid, and I was absolutely obsessed. Kit Kiefer's editor's notes at the front were always fun, but my very favorite articles were the ones that focused on old sets, particularly by M.L. Stapleton (1967 Topps) and Ted Taylor. Memories!

Dboneesq

@Albertdidit said:
Thats a pretty early autograph signing. Were there any in the late 1970's? Anyone know the first or one of the first times a baseball player appeared at a show to sign?

I know there were earlier ones, but Mantle signed at a show at Hofstra University here on Long Island in September 1978. His payment at the time was an unheard of $1,000.00 per hour.

Time4aGansett

Fortunately I have every issue produced, and enjoy perusing them from time to time.
How I miss those days!
Thanks for starting this thread!

mikelowell25

@bobsbbcards said:
It's also odd that they want to pay the same amount for 1968 Koosman/Ryan cards as they do for the rookie cards of Judi Dench.

@bobsbbcards said:
It's also odd that they want to pay the same amount for 1968 Koosman/Ryan cards as they do for the rookie cards of Judi Dench.

Nice! Dench was a great catcher who eventually changed his name to Dame Johnny Bench. Nice to see people didn't bother proofreading in 1981 either although its much worse today. Sometimes I think I need an interpreter just to try and read and understand most of the posts on here

RedHeart54

Glad you're all enjoying this thread. Here are a few more images..

The prices of these T-206s and '33 Goudeys ($225 for BABE RUTH) are astounding...even for 1981.

RedHeart54

Anyone ever a member?

RedHeart54

Nice '53 Pafko card-that-never-was based on the original art. (Makes me wonder who now owns the '53 Mantle artwork, which caused a stir in '89 by selling for over $100K.)

RedHeart54

Neat article on uncut sheets. Haven't at least a few of these been publicly auctioned in the last 5-10 years?

RedHeart54

I'll buy all your '78 and '79 baseball boxes for 10 bucks each..as long as you throw in all those worthless '79 hockey and '80 basketball boxes for half price.

RedHeart54

All your most updated prices. Available now!

RedHeart54

A list of the advertisers in this issue. Maybe some familiar names to some of you?

BLUEJAYWAY

@bcubs said:
I used to look forward to this magazine and loved the cards inside. Wish I had kept them to reminisce about the "good old days". Thanks for sharing.

Don't fret too much for the "good old days". As we speak/live we are now making future "good old days".

Tabe

@jmmiller777 said:
I was a subscriber as well, loved the articles that could be read in 10 minutes. I still have them, many still in plastic, due to my military status at the time. I plan on framing some of them. I really wish a similar production would return to the hobby. Tuff Stuff was never really that good. Beckett never had the articles and the price guide became impossible to read with the -10 font size.

I loved Tuff Stuff - but only in the large format. Those seemed really cool back then.

Dboneesq

Halls Nostalgia - They were in Arlington, MA. Lived down the block from them when I was going to Law School in Boston. I remember one of the first things I bought from them ... 2 1983 Topps Updated Sets for $8.00 each (IIRC). They were one of the hottest sets at the time, with the Strawberry Rookie. Still have them today. Nope, didn't make the huge profit we all thought we would on those sets!

byronscott4ever

SCD was great when I barely made it through an issue and next one came and then shrinkage occurred and issues thinned out