I'm dreaming of a cardboard Christmas

mouschi

The best memories I have of Christmas past have to do with baseball cards.  As a child, the only thing that would rival the excitement Topps, Fleer or Donruss under the tree would bring me was maybe Super Mario Brothers 2 for Nintendo.  At $60, it was a HUGE price tag for my family, but to this day, ask me if I'd rather play something on the PS4 or Super Mario, I'll probably go with the moustachioed plumber.

There is nothing quite like learning from Super Mario Brothers 2 that it is okay to play as the princess (when no one was around) because of her sustained jumping abilities.

Let's be honest, though.  Christmas for me (and maybe you as well) was about baseball cards.  My parents would complain about my Christmas list being all about baseball cards.  Here is what one such list may look like:

1986 Donruss The Rookies complete set
1987 Donruss Barry Bonds & Bobby Bonilla rookies
1987 Fleer wax packs (these suckers were expensive!  $7 a pack!)
1988 Score complete set
1988 Fleer Update complete set
1989 Fleer wax box
1991 Topps wax box
1992 Donruss wax box

Notice a certain 1986 Donruss rated rookie not being on the list.  Not because I already had it, because I didn't.  It was simply too expensive to even dream about.

Ahhhh, the possibilities!  Imagine pulling a sweet 1987 Fleer Kevin Mitchell out of one of these.  (I did pull an '87 Fleer Kevin Mitchell out of a vending machine from a swim park - it completely made up for the fact I had almost drowned an hour earlier.)

The list above was a pie in the sky wish list.  Back in 1992, you were probably looking at $200 to get all of those items.  Nowadays?  About $30 total, if you aren't counting shipping.

I even asked for back issues of Beckett Monthly I did not yet have.  Back then, aside from our friends (who ALL collected baseball cards) magazines like Beckett and Tuff Stuff were all we had to hold us over through the cruel off season until Spring Training.  The only time my Christmas present snooping proved to be fruitful was when I found a small stack of Beckett magazines in my parent's closet.  (Note to children out there:  do not rummage through your parent's stuff - it could scar you for life!)

No, I did not keep a pile of these for the past several decades.  I picked up the spread shown above several months ago for some projects I have ideas for.

Y'all - we need a time machine and ASAP.  Check out what I found inside this bad boy:

Flip to the 1952 Topps page and ....

1952 Topps Mickey Mantle for $3,000 in NM condition!  I figured this would be a fun way to commemorate the reason we need that time machine:

So many childhood memories of mine are attached to cards and Christmas.  Like the time my family went to dinner and I found a sealed box of 1992 Donruss in the back seat of our car.  Dad snapped at me for finding it - he rarely did this, so it stuck out.  Regardless, that beautiful, mouth-watering 1992 Donruss wax box was in my mind for the next week until Christmas.

My brain would dance with possibilities of what could be pulled.  Forget about the 5000 personally autographed verbiage on the front - it was just background noise to me as I knew darn well hitting one of those would be less likely than winning the lottery without purchasing a ticket.  It is funny to think that while Donruss got a significant quality upgrade in 1992, there was still literally nothing good to be pulled for the average Joe.  Those Diamond Kings though...  they were definitely beautiful!

I also remember waking up early and seeing a 1987 Donruss Barry Bonds rookie card peaking out of my stocking.  To my parents, it was a piece of cardboard.  To me, it was a prized possession - an artifact that somehow connected me with one of baseball's best players at the time.  A status symbol.

"Tanner, do you think Bonds is good?"

"Barry Bonds?" (I say in a cool tone.)

"Yeah, I think he's good."

<pauses>

"I have his ROOKIE card."

<Walks away like a boss>

What memories do you have of Christmas and baseball cards?

sinoth23

Nice write up - a trip down memory lane with the cards and Becketts. Two Christmas card gifts stick out in my mind...can't recall the years, but I got an 84D Mattingly and a 85S Ewing. 2 great Christmas memories - and I still have both.

Loyalty32

Impossible not to click once you see a post by, mouschi! Never a let down either!

Thanks
Craig

flcardtrader

Creative and compelling as usual!

I have a couple of Christmas memories that make me reminisce and smile.....

In 1977, I had only been collecting for a few short months - maybe a year by then - and my Mom bought a starter pack of vintage cards which included 5 Topps cards from each year 1952-1976. I had never held anything this old and had really only seen vintage from afar at the few shows I had gone to. At 10 years old, I knew then I was onto something exciting and never would have imagined building those same sets over the next 40 years.

The next memory was the year following. My Mom had purchased a ton of stuff through mail order for Christmas. I devised this plan where I could open and re-seal the boxes to see what goodness she had gotten. Well, this plan worked like a charm outside of the paper cut I gave myself opening the boxes. It wasn't a very big cut but it was significant as it left a tiny blood trail against every box I touched. Worst part is, at 11, I was oblivious to the cut and the signature I was leaving on the boxes. Suffice to say, Mom didn't have to be Perry Mason to figure this caper out - I was cold busted! Those presents became Birthday presents for the year after as there was no way I was getting them for Christmas. Turns out, the majority of the items she bought were storage boxes, sheets, and albums.

To this day, Mom still buys me cards for Christmas. I know I am getting a factory set from this year and another pack of cards with a note that says, "thought you might like these". How do I know that? Because Mom has been doing something similar for the past 20 years and I wouldn't want it any other way.

mouschi

I love reading your stories - thanks everyone for sharing!

erikthredd

Good stuff! I never asked for cards as presents growing up but i do have a story about my son when he was about 9-10 at the time. He absolutely loved Yugioh cards and the one card he always wanted was the Red Eyes Black Dragon foil card that was always popping up on ebay in the $80+ range which i wasn't going to spend on one card for a 9yr old. BUT he was persistent asking for it the months leading up to Xmas so i found one for about $100 shipped from Canada and waited the 2-3 weeks for it to arrive at the time. Gave it to him Xmas morning and he was so happy after wanting it for so long......then 2 days later he traded it to his friend next door. I think I pretty much threatened his life to go get it back,which he did and that was probably the last cardboard Xmas in my house.

Stone193

Hiya Tanner

Thanx for the trip down memory lane.

By today's standards?

You bet. Those look like cheap prices.

But, in '87, I was a Major in the Army and could barely afford a house for 125K.

3K for the Mantle? Was like a million bucks. Wish I had the dough but even an 87T set was a big investment when I couldn't afford to spend more than 50 to 100 bucks a month.

But it's always fun to dream. Merry Christmas buddy.

SumoMenkoMan

Complete set of Topps baseball cards under the set every year! Great memories!!

Nathaniel1960

Christmas 86' was one Donruss Rookies Set and one Sportflics Rookies Set. Also, $60, which I used to buy an 86 Donruss Factory and 86 Fleer Factory Set. I had $15 left over and saved it until April when 87 Topps came out. Card store owner tried to talk me into buying his 86-87 Fleer BKB boxes for $9 each, but I insisted on the 87 Topps box for $15. LOL. The TG&Y near me was selling CASES of 86-87 Fleer BKB for $100 later that summer. My friend spoke to the store manager, and he talked him into selling him 87 Donruss boxes for $5 each, which by 1988 we thought was the steal of the century.