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Countdown to retirement baseball card set
markmac
Posts: 412 ✭✭✭
I’m a public school teacher with around 800 more days of teaching. Mostly I love my job but sometimes I feel I’m getting too old for this. With that in mind, I’m thinking about taking a 1988 Topps 792 card set {I paid $2 for the set at a recent show) and ripping a card every day until the box is empty. Maybe that would be motivation for me
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Sounds like great motivation.
I'm also a teacher who can't retire until 2021 at the earliest, but may have to keep going until 2024. I think it would be better to add to the collection each year as you'll have more to look at when you retire rather than rip a card to signify your impending retirement. Better yet, if you have to get rid of a card a day, give it to a different student on a daily basis. Then you'd be counting off your days while giving something positive to someone else.
Good idea. I gave about 200 football cards to the special needs class last year and they loved it. I’m looking at 3 and a half more years. I taught AP Calculus for the first time this year and it just about did me in. I enjoyed teaching and learning the material but the time spent working problems every night and weekend were tough.
I've been in the office working on "special assignment," basically administrative stuff without the title. The position closed this year and more than likely I'll be returning to the classroom. Once I taught a summer session Econ class and I was in a similar situation, I did hours of prep daily and boy, was I tired at the end. Good luck!
Please be nice to Glavine.
Best of luck on retirement - it'll be 3 yrs this Sep for me and I never looked back!
Tearing a card each day reminds me of a short timer's calendar overseas - all my military buddies know what I'm talking about.
I've got 8 more years to go in public ed - I still love my job, but due notice I get more tired by the year - it really is a young person's profession. My hope is to go part time for the last four years.
Just did the calculation and I have 1464 days to go - that's one BIG set!
Nice to know there are more educators on this board. When I teach logarithms I do a mini finance lesson in which I bring in cards to explain stocks to my kids. I always bring the PSA 1985 McGwire and 1987 Fleer Bonds to explain how some stocks can tank. I told them I sold a PSA 8 McGwire for $150.00 and a PSA 6 for $80 during the streak. When I tell them they are maybe worth $10 and $5 now they can’t believe it. It’s also funny how they can’t fathom that I spent $800 on a 1962 Fleer PSA 7 Wilt Chamberlain. When I told them it was worth around $2200 now they still were not impressed. They think I’m crazy for spending that much on a piece of cardboard. I did have a couple of kids that shared that they collect wrestling figures and shoes. No one seems to care for cards anymore. I thought of doing a penny a day but that would still be almost four times the cost of the 1989 set. Ha. I won’t be ripping the stars so Glavine will be safe.
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I am on the one more year train as well. There have been lots of changes in the 37 years. I have somehow become the oldest on staff...that's odd.
Here's a question; since those of us who are responding see retirement looming sometime in the not too distant future, will it affect your collecting budget? I know it probably will mine.
Me too...don't know how that happened. I now get the comments from my students that I look like their grandfather...ouch!!!
Probably not...I'm a trickle collector now...have most of what I want.
I’ll be 51 so I’ll start a new career. I’m pretty frugal so I think my card budget will remain about the same.
I'm not a teacher, but I'm 61 and retirement can't be too far off. My budget for cards collapses at retirement. I see myself keeping most of the cards and just enjoying them in retirement. I have about 90% of what I need and 1% of what I want.
Best of luck to all you teachers. Much respect for a profession that I feel is undervalued by too many.
I will probably have a gradual sell off of my collection, but save what I want/like/cherish.
Thank you for the kind words (to all) originalisbest.
My mother was a teacher for 26 years. She loved it. But the school system was the pits.
Good on teachers for positively affecting many (many!) lives, even when the system is arcane or the pits. Who doesn't have a favorite teacher(s) they remember well?