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Your best card as a kid collector
emar
Posts: 697 ✭✭✭✭
Circa '85-86:
1965 catfish hunter. Beckett BV I believe was $60
It was top dog in a bullet proof screw down slab. Probably was ex or exmt at best.
In my mind it was NM for the better Beckett price.
Good times!
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1964 Topps Roger Maris, probably traded half my collection to get it from a friend whose dad found a box of 64's in the attic of a house he was working on.
my first good card was a 1986 fleer cecil fielder rookie for christmas 1990. then the following christmas i got the donruss canseco rookie. i think my parents thought i was crazy wanting them to pay big money for baseball cards
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
<—— see this guy right here? Well back in the late 80’s he had a VG condition’81 Topps Raines rookie card that listed for a whopping nine dollars! I was the King of the playground back then lol.
When I was 12 I saved up and got a Roger Staubach rookie. Paid $60. Book was $125. I still have it. Recently got it slabbed. Not my most valuable, but still my favorite. It's a great looking 4.5.
1954 Topps Willie Mays. Circa 1987/1988. I was way out of my league owning this card. I have no idea what compelled me to buy it, but I knew my 12-year-old self had to have it. It was a siren to my soul. I still own it. It always reminds me of my love for collecting.
Andy
1983....
Purchased a wooden box from my cousin. $8.00_for 500 cards. My 1st collection began.
Within that box was a 1982 Orioles future stars. I knew the guy in the middle was good.
Right then & there I understood the coolness factor of a 1st card of a good player, especially liked 3 players on 1 card.
Wish I would have kept that original ripken that started the whole adventure
My best card as a kid was this bad boy below that was pulled from a .65 cent pack back in '86. At one point back then I had a 9 pocket page filled with nine #57's on one side and nine of his fleer stickers on the other but only 1 of each survived throughout all of the years since.
Eric
Erikthredd’s MJ Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/publishedset/395035
Erikthredd’s Nike Air Jordan Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/basketball/key-card-sets/nike-poster-cards-michael-jordan-1985-1992/alltimeset/408486
As an 11 year old in 1989 I paid $13.00, an "ungodly amount" in my parents eyes, for a 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. My mom eventually threw it, and the rest of my childhood collection, out years later when I moved away.
Wrestling - Danielson - Storm - Tajiri
1991 Upper Deck baseball Michael Jordan. It was my favorite.
Mine isn't as impressive as you guys. I was an older "kid" when my best cards were a 91 Topps Traded Bagwell I pulled out of a set, and a Fleer Shaq rookie I pulled out of a pack. Still have them both.
Yaz Master Set
#1 Gino Cappelletti master set
#1 John Hannah master set
Also collecting Andre Tippett, Patriots Greats' RCs, 1964 Venezuelan Topps, 1974 Topps Red Sox
I liked to hoard three cards - had about eight of each, either through ripping packs from Woolworths in Mattapan Square, or trading with classmates - those were the days...:
1973-74 Bobby Orr
1974 Willie McCovey Washington
1975 Carl Yastrzemski
Bosox1976
I was setting up and selling cards from the time I was 11, and I was told very early on "not to marry my inventory". Therefore I didn't have any cards of value I picked up as a kid that I saved to today. I do remember pulling a Jeremy Roenick 1992-93 Ultra autograph. I traded it at my LCS for a Mark Messier OPC rookie and $50. It was either the OPC Messier rookie or a 1986-87 Fleer pack with a Jordan sticker showing. I was going to open up that pack and hope for another Jordan rookie...
1978 Topps Eddie Murray from a hand-me-down collection... started my love for mid and late 70s!
1959 Topps Charlie Maxwell.
73 Schmidt. It was like holding a diamond to me back in 82.
1975- 1951 Bowman Mays- $9.50 good/vg
1976- 1954 Topps Aaron- $9.00 ex
1977- 1955 Topps Clemente- $6.50- vg/ex
All long gone.
a 1954 Aaron I bought at a flea market sometime around 1984. I was dragged there by my parents but I found one card table which had great cards at prices I could believe. All the major 50s rookies, ex Mantle or Mays. I begged my dad to lend me the $35 to buy the Hank, and paid him back when we got home. Though it had a pen mark on the back, I still couldn’t believe that deal. Got it graded in 2016.
first time I ever spent $100 on one card was on the 1965 Carlton rookie, a year or so later at a card show. That thing was mint. Dead mint. I sent it to be graded in the same submission as the Hank above. Came back a 5, with a ding in one corner that most certainly wasnt there when I sent it in.
1974 Topps Doug Collins RC (still have it)
COLLECTING: 2020 Topps 206 ⚾️
facebook.com/groups/Topps206
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I'm sure i musta HAD at least 2-3 sets of late 60's to early 70's via packs ................ HAD
79 Topps Ryan I got for being in my uncle’s wedding. Still got it.
Nic
Guides Authored - Graded Card Scanning Guide PDF | History of the PSA Label PDF
Oh wow. 1976 Topps Brett and Yount that were in a stack of mid-70's cards that I found while snooping around in a closet at my grandparents' house. They had belonged to my uncle, and he allowed me to keep them.
Not long after, they were both stolen by a friend of my cousin who was looking through my card binders while I was distracted. I still clearly remember the 1988 Topps Brad Arnsberg that was craftily subbed in for one of them (as if I wouldn't notice the difference). When I discovered the crime, I complained to my cousin, but for reasons lost to the mists of time he refused to get involved. Now as they were both 7th graders and three years ahead of me, I had very little recourse aside from getting parents involved, and even an 8 year old knows what happens to snitches.
So I hired some muscle. The biggest kid in elementary school was a Sox fan, and I'm pretty sure it only cost me an 89 Topps Mike Greenwell to convince him to accompany me to the thief's house after school, trick him into showing off his card collection, and then pin him down while I looked for, found and stole back my rightful possessions. I then euphorically sprinted the mile or so home and just barely missed the first pitch of the highly anticipated Blue Jays / A's ALCS game (weekday afternoon playoff baseball!)
Ryan Curtis, if you're out there somewhere, I'm not sure I ever properly thanked you for your service that day. And I still have those cards, although as I noticed last summer when I rediscovered them at my parents' house, they're both VG-EX at best. Never stopped kid me from using the NM price in Beckett though.
I can't remember where I put my car keys, but I can remember clearly seating on my front porch with my best buddy Mike, opening pack after pack of 1959's. I loved the Braves logo and remember getting Ed mathews. But my happiest moment was getting Whitey Ford. I new his name and that he was a great player.( never got Mantle because I did not buy and cards until the 2ed series). Every pack (And I opened about 5 a day for the entire summer) seemed to have a Wayne Terwilliger. I thought that in each pack, you got a stick of gum and a Wayne Terwilliger. I end up with about 17,000 terwilligers and one Whitey Ford. As a 71 year old collector, I now have 15 Whitey Fords and One Wayne Terwilliger.
Great story! I love how life revolved around cards for us kid collectors...trading, hustling, ripping, payments, bribery, etc.
I too was super generous grading my own cards for top dollar inventory.
75 Yount rookie and a 76 Payton rookie. Still have the Yount. Wish I still had the Walter.
In 1986 I was 9 years old. I gave a kid that lived on my street all the money I had for these 3 cards. $6.00
I still have them all..
VERY GOOD 3 1960 Topps 7 Master & Mentor W.Mays/B.Rigney
VERY GOOD-EXCELLENT 4 1960 Topps 10 Ernie Banks
VERY GOOD 3 1960 Topps 316 Willie McCovey All-Star Rookie
The McCovey was my best card till I stopped collecting in 1993.
CDsNuts, 1/9/15
My best card when I was a kid (late 1970's) was a 1952 Bowman Minnie Minoso. I can't remember where I got it but I recall it was a beat up card. The only reason it was special to me because it was the oldest card in my collection. As a kid, my mantra was anything old has to be valuable. I sold it with along all my other "valuable" cards in the 80's when I felt out of collecting. To this day, I regret not keeping that card. Maybe someday I will buy a poorly PSA graded example, crack it out and put in back in my collection.
In 1979, I owned a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle. I worked a lot of jobs and saved up to buy it. I bought it for what was big bucks at the time. Probably would have graded around a PSA 5 to 6. Sold it in 1986 to put a down payment on my first house. I don't have many regrets in life, but I sure wish I hadn't sold that card.
Kingnascar's PSA Sets
Kingnascar's PSADNA Sets
I started collecting in 1987. Don Mattingly cards ruled the hobby, particularly the 1984 Donruss. I got a pack of 1984 Donruss for Christmas and pulled the Mattingly. To this day, my most memorable memory in the hobby as a kid
Donruss Mattingly sure was the White Whale to us kid collectors. 80 bucks at the hobby store.
(Glad I bought mine when I did 3 years ago before the big run-up in price. Memorable purchase)
Not my card but used as an example
"I spent 50% of my money on alcohol, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.
Probably one of the best I had in the early days was a Yount Mini RC. I had "better" cards, but nearly all had condition issues. For example, I had an Alcindor RC with a crease and pin hole and a 53 T Jackie Robinson that was worn well and had a pencil moustache drawn on it. My oldest at the time was a 33 Goudey Hornsby, also well worn.
Best card, hmmm growing up, my parents rarely gave me money to spend on cards or they would buy me things like Nintendo games but that would have to be for an occasion like a bday or Christmas gift so when it came to cards, I never really had anything to good.
The best one I could remember was:
1975 Yount beat up Yount rookie that would have probably graded a 4 today that I got in a trade from my childhood buddy. He went to visit family in New York and came back with a bunch of old cards from the 70’s after one of his family members gave him their cards. It was something I had never seen at the time As a kid but knew the card well. I traded some of my “heavy hitters” for it. Frank Thomas, Griffey cards (none of their rookies because I never really owned those as a child) and after the trade, I remember him then pulling out a double that was in much better shape and then laughing. What a jerk lol
Oh, I also once pulled out a 1990 Leaf Griffey card when it was BV in Beckett at $20. That was really an awesome one. I didn’t have many cards over $20.
This is such a great story. Remember the days when these types of situations seemed like such big problems? Sure, they were hassles at the time, but looking back doesn't it make you wish life could be so simple again?
Thanks for sharing such a cool recollection. It took me back.
Did you return the Arnsberg card to the thief or was that part of the spoils of war?
Here are some of my favorites:
The 1962 Robinson AS was the first card I ever paid $1 for - it was from one of two local antique stores that had cards when I was a kid. Bought that when I was 10 years old. Have since upgraded this one but will never get rid of my $1 treasure!!
The 1956 Aaron was a Christmas present from my Dad when I was 13. He had a lifelong friend, Jim, whose Mom did not throw out his baseball cards. We looked through his collection with him to tell him what it was worth. His best card was an Aaron rookie. He had all the Aarons in his collection as it was his favorite player - he had no Mays cards because those were all traded to my dad and no Mantles because they were all traded to another one of their friends named Rich. Rich's mom and my Grandmother threw their collections out when they were in the service. Jim had two '56 Aarons and my Dad bought them from him for a good price for helping out with his collection. My Dad gave my brother and I each one for Christmas. It was the jewel of my collection for a long while. (My brother's Aaron is actually a bit nicer than mine and would grade an 8). Jim bought a VCR with the money he made from selling his collection. Wish it had been a couple of years later after I started working to buy cards. Would have gladly bought a VCR and traded him!!
The World Series Batting Foes I bought when I was 17. Started working when I was 14 washing dishes and pumped all of my money into cards. Went to every local card show for a few years and this was the #1 card on my want list. It took forever to find a nice one. It will always be among my favorite cards in my collection.
The Arnsberg was mine! It was a duplicate moved from my 88 Topps binder to fill the hole where either the Brett or Yount was. I'm pretty sure this beauty was the other one the thief subbed in:
1981 Montana rookie early 90s that I got for xmas. Had SGC grade it when they first came out an 88. Then 2 years later a 1979 Topps Gretzky and had Beckett graded it an 8 when they first came in the game. ONly beckett graded card I have to date. Card looks more like a 8.5-9.
Easily the '55 Koufax rookie I bought at a show as a teen. No clue what I paid for it but almost certainly less than $100. Graded it around 2005 (PSA 8) and sold it for 20k when the rookie card craze happened a few years ago!
Late 60's and early to mid 70's non-sports
I saved all my paper route money and when I was 10 or 11 I bought a Yaz rookie for $90 at a show my mother drove me to. I still have it 30 plus years later.
Some impressive best cards, koufax , yaz, among others.
Definitely would fuel a long term hobby.
I evolved from the kid years to the bubble & chase card years '90-'98
After becoming overwhelmed by countless sets, sub-sets, which one is the rc (this year's or the one 3 years ago?????)...
I took a long hiatus, only buying occasionally at a flea market or wherever.
Fast forward to 2009:
A new ambition emerges: chases rookies I'd slobber over in the Beckett as a kid - Ryan, Jackson, bench, carew, seaver.
2020: frantically searching forgotten 80s/90s cards before the market reacts
Interesting how collecting as a kid can set a course
saved up my paper route money to get these at the local card store ( long since closed ) not mint but i wanted em.. took me 2 weeks to save up to get them and some other stuff. i replaced the jackson holder.. the original went yellow