Favorite card memory?

Axtell · February 11, 2005 4:07PM

Would love to get everyone's favorite card memory(s).

I'd say mine involve my younger days...my mom would take me to card shows when I was much younger, and we'd walk around the shows (local ones) and there wouldn't be a ton of tables...and I remember seeing that 71 munson...and always wanted one. Finally we find one that is reasonably priced....had whited corners, but I finally had my very own! I also have fond memories of many times before school when the 1984 fleer cards came out, stopping at the little mini mart on the way to school and us busting rack packs together...great, great times.

mudflap02 · February 11, 2005 4:15PM

Posted on another thread, but it definitely fits here - guess I had the wrong thread.

I remember that for Christmas in 1988, I got 5 baseball cards in one box for my main present. They were a 1968 Ryan, a 1969 Ryan, and one each of the Mattingly rookies. I was as happy as..... well a kid on Christmas morning. I couldn't have told you a thing about centering, edges, or surface. I knew that the Ryans were a little beat up, but who cares - they were mine. I also got 2 wax boxes of 89 Score that my dad had somehow found at a gas station- it blew my mind. Without a doubt my best Christmas ever, and probably why I spend as much on cards as I do on rent now.

Great thread - hopefully this one will get a ton of posts. Nice to know where everybody is coming from, and what makes this hobby great in the first place. It's funny how we only now care about centering, etc., instead of having that card. Having a slab of a card is completely different from having that card 10-20-30 years ago. I remember getting a factory set of 88 Topps that same Christmas that same year and hand collating it into order. Good times.

VoteThurmanIn · February 11, 2005 4:17PM

Axtell, if you are Munson fan you might find this website interesting.

VoteThurmanIn · February 11, 2005 4:20PM

{Without a doubt my best Christmas ever, and probably why I spend as much on cards as I do on rent now.}

WOW

mudflap02 · February 11, 2005 4:24PM

For the official record, I live in poverty and my rent is 295 a month.

mudflap02 · February 11, 2005 4:26PM

And great site by the way. I agree - if Fisk is in, Munson should be as well.

VoteThurmanIn · February 11, 2005 4:29PM

mudflap, thanks for the compliment!

$295 rent? I own a home, but where I live an average rental goes for about $1,200 per month. I WISH my mortgage was $295.

mudflap02 · February 11, 2005 4:37PM

I'm not 100% sure Fisk is in right now, but if he's not he surely will be. And for the record, I live in a 1 bedrrom in small town Texas, and 295 is ridiculous for College Station. I didn't say that it was the best part of town, or that my standards were that high. But I can promise you that I have a better PSA Ryan collection than my crack whore next door neighbor.

VoteThurmanIn · February 11, 2005 5:00PM

Yes, Fisk was elected to the HOF in 2000:

Carlton Fisk: baseball-reference.com

His longevity definitely helped quite a bit. Unfortunately ole Thurman didn't get a chance for longevity.

kingraider75 · February 11, 2005 5:08PM

87 Topps Mac, loved to pull that one out of the over sized 87 Topps wax boxes.

Onlypsahockey · February 11, 2005 6:10PM

1971 my weekly allowance was 60 cents. Every friday I'd run to the corner store and buy 6 packs of topps hockey. If I pulled any Dryden rookies I ripped them in half. I hated him at the time. I can still remember walking home opening the packs and eating the gum totally oblivious to the world around me.

Bob

mudflap02 · February 11, 2005 6:36PM

more more more

great so far

jayhawke · February 11, 2005 10:41PM

Well if Fisk and Munson get in then Joe Torre should be in with the stats he had as a player. Too much to list though.

BigRedMachine · February 11, 2005 11:25PM

That's a great story. I tend to remember the bad more than the good. I vividly remember as a young teenager trading a 1968 ryan rookie to a local card shop dealer for a wax box of 1987 topps and a $20. I'm sure I spent that $20 wisely though, maybe a new game for my Commodore 64 computer.

Truth is, I'm just getting back in the hobby. I didn't collect in high school and college because I was "too cool" for cards. But I have a seven year old who has rekindled my desire for cards so my favorite memory now is each time we crack a box together. Sounds cheesy maybe, but that's what it's all about. Maybe I'd lose some of my sentimentality if I pull a true 1 of 1 out of my heritage boxes!!

Oh, and that dealer who gave me the good deal on the Ryan card? He's still in business, but not very educated about PSA or the internet. He sold me a 1989 upper deck Ken Griffey Jr. rookie for $35. I sent it to PSA, it came back a 10, I sold it on eBay for $525. I feel like we're even.

Skinpinch · February 12, 2005 12:02AM

I remember buying topps stickers in 1981 and trying to fill the sticker album. My friends and I would go to the convenient store and buy packs, trade, and try to fill and complete our album. The foil stickers were awesome back then! Kind of like an early insert. Well, I had the album complete except for Julio Cruz. I could not find him. Well before a whiffle ball game we went to the house of a friend, from our other circle of friends, to pick him up for the game. When he answered the door he was holding a small stack of the stickers. Just by chance I asked him if he had a cruz, and HE DID! He just gave it to me. I was excited! I put the sticker in my pocket, went and played whiffle ball for about six hours(no exaggeration), came home and put the sticker in the album. So now whenever I look at that album, I have a complete album with all the stickers in very nice condition, excpet for a badly creased Julio Cruz that is resting in his designated rectangle!

bowdowntome · February 12, 2005 1:58AM

Like many here, my fondest card memories are from my early collecting days. Around 1974 or so, my dad (a woodworker then) was making glass countertop display cases for antique sellers, and started making them for a guy named Steve Brunner (Spelling?), an early baseball card dealer. My dad found out he was sellng cards once a month at a "show" (actually a card club) that met once a month n a high school gymnasium in Orange County. My parents took me and my brother there, we joined the club and started going on a semi-regular basis.
There were probably 10 "dealers" there most of the time and lot's of other people just sitting around other tables buying, sellnig, and trading. There were no plastic pages, no screwdown holders, no card grading companies, none of the modern "luxuries" we have today. Just lot's and lot's of vintage cards, lined up in neatly in various sized shoe-type boxes. The real old and expensive items were neatly piled up in glasstop display cases, no holders. Some of the prices I distinctly remember paying for cards were - 1959 Topps commons - .14 each. T206 common players - .65 each. 1961 Fleer Babe Ruth - $1.

Those were the days! No worries about grades, no one looking at cards with magnifiers, no fraudulant activity going on for the most part.

MajorDanby · February 12, 2005 3:06AM

my fondest memories are busting open boxes. Back then, given the nature of the hobby and the fact that i was a kid, getting any card from a semi star on up was a great treat. I never quite got any "big" cards (you know, the ones you read about in beckett where there is a picture of some 5 year old kid holding a 4 million dollar card), but the common griffey, thomas, gonzalez, ripken and ryan cards were a joy to receive. I remember my 5th grade teacher getting me hooked on the hobby. He gave me a pack of 1991 Fleer Ultra cards (which, along with studio and stadium club, were the high priced items). I pulled a Nolan Ryan card and was ecstatic. The next week, i bought a pack of 1991 upperdeck and pulled a bo jackson and a dave justice...both of which were going for a relatively high price at the time.

tennesseebanker · February 12, 2005 3:17AM

I can remember worrying the heck out of my mom to stop by the card shop on our way through town. I would have about $20 bucks in my pocket on a good day and $2 on a bad day. One good day, I stopped in the shop and the dealer (who dealt more in coins and jewelery) had some older cards in a good size box. Now up until this time I had only seen cards like these in my price guide which only came out once a year back then. I wanted to buy the whole box but was sure it was more than $20 bbucks. So I found a few of the ones I wanted most and gave the guy $40 dollars and asked him if he would save the rest for me, and for the most part he did! That was my first trek into the world of vintage. I dont have any of the cards anymore, but I still remmeber a few. And not a one of these cards would have graded over a seven-- A few I remember are 57 mantle, 55 koufax, 58 aaron, 60 musial, 58 pee wee reese, 54 mays, 54 ted williams, 54 aaron etc etc...............sure wish I had em back.

Stone193 · February 12, 2005 3:35AM

1992 - drove 80 miles to Ft. Jackson from Ft. Gordon to pick up some 92F Cellos that contained the hot Rookie sensation cards. Son couldn't wait and started opening packs in the car - first sensation he pulled was a Scott Leius (now worth 25cents)! He went totally bananas in the car!!! Those are my best memories - the joy of sharing ones hobby with their children! Makes ya proud.

your friend
Mike

VoteThurmanIn · February 12, 2005 4:08AM

{Well if Fisk and Munson get in then Joe Torre should be in with the stats he had as a player}

I agree about Torre. He had awesome stats as a player including a .297 BA. He will no doubt get in as a Manager but he should have been there already.

Lothar52 · February 12, 2005 4:16AM

pulling this card out of my cats rear end..........ITS THE PSA 7 MANTLE KITTY!! LAYING PSA 7 MANTLE's TILL THE COWS COME HOME!!!

Lothar52 · February 12, 2005 4:17AM

STUPID ANGELFIRE!!!!

tennesseebanker · February 12, 2005 4:22AM

Love that old card smell ! brings back memories, Sometimes I will just pickup a handful of my old ungraded cards and givem a good wiffffffffffffffff

Nothng like dusty cardboard and thirty year-old gum to relive nostalgia...................

Lothar52 · February 12, 2005 4:26AM

amen..i got a handful of VG to EX shape 1960 topps cards i sniff....nothing like 45 year old cardboard to send ya reeling into another world.........i think whoever owned them in past smoked a pipe too......its got that sort of a scent to them.

loth

tennesseebanker · February 12, 2005 4:32AM

lol, it may become the new standard of card collecting "vintage smells" Now, how do we package it and sell it on ebay????

Futureman · February 12, 2005 6:13AM

After my parents got divorced in the late-80's, my mom moved me sister and me away from Chicago, back to her hometown. In second grade I was talking to a friend about baseball cards. He told me about a card shop near his house. As it turned out, we lived in the same neighborhood, so I wasn't that far away from it either. I still didn't have any idea about how to get around, so I told my mom about it. She looked up the address in the phone book and took me to the shop. I remember looking at the cards in the cases. My mom looked with me, and I think she might have read me the names of the players. I still remember her asking me if I wanted the Joe Montana card for $1. It turned out it was his rookie, and not $1, but $100 (I didn't get that one). Still, she bought me a 1981 Topps Walter Payton, and a 1989 Pro Set Jim McMahon (in a Chargers uniform) since those were two players I knew. They couldn't have cost more than a couple dollars, but those are probably my favorite cards since they remind me of what a great person my mom is, and how wonderful she is for raising my sister and me by herself (more or less). There are a ton of McMahon and Payton cards out there, but the two I have are irreplaceable.

bengineno9 · February 12, 2005 6:33AM

X-mas time when i was 10.
Dad is a UPS man and he delivered to a card shop everyday on his route.

That X-mas i got some of the hard to find 89 UD HI series cards. Nolan Ryan throwing the football, Jim Abbott motion card, and of course the glorious Todd Zeile XRC. I also can't forget the Justice Leaf RC.

Ben

IndianaJones · February 13, 2005 6:36AM

This is a superb thread and represents what is often near and dear to us in the hobby--our card stories.
First off, I wholehardedly agree that Thurman Munson belongs in the HOF. While the HOF seems to have
degenerated a few times, with the current emphasis on lifetime stats that must meet a lofty status, we all
need to ask, what really does hall of fame mean? Munson achieved a lot in his few years and he was the
one his teammates looked up to; true, you can't put a number on that, but boy did he have the killer-
instinct that drove him and his teammates to several pennants and WS crowns. He reminds me of Jackie
Robinson, Nellie Fox, Ty Cobb, and Roger Maris. None of them were jolly. They all just came to beat
you and ram the bat up your ---. There's something in those kinds of competitors, in all of sports, that
we often love (if they play for our team), or love to hate but deap-down admire (if they play for someone
else. I truly feel Roger Maris belongs in the HOF. No, the lifetime stats are NOT there, but what he achieved
in those few years are among MLB's great memories. I must confess that I started collecting in 1961, and
loved both Maris and Mantle, so my feelings are probably heavily affected from my own background. The
HOF is over-rated, or too messed up, in my own mind. Perhaps for us all the HOFs are too closely tied to
who we collect. Munson, Maris, and Mantle are in "my own Hall of Fame", if you catch my drift, and in the
end that's what counts. This wasn't supposed to go so long. I'm sorry. Let me try another time for the
favorite card memory. I've been very blessed with a few, and sold some that I dearly wish I had back--
not really for the money, though in 2 cases that come to mind, they're both now so expensive that I have
to give up on the idea of getting them again. We probably can all commiserate. Take care guys. Indiana Jones

phreakydancin · February 13, 2005 7:16AM

In the early 90s I was at a card show where the Bure brothers were signing. This was back when Pavel was the hottest thing in hockey, and Valeri was still playing junior with Spokane. The only card of Valeri's in existence was his 7th Inning Sketch WHL card, which I brought for him to sign.

He did a double-take when I presented it to him to sign. He didn't say anything - I don't think he knew much English back then - but clearly he had never seen his then one-and-only hockey card before! He took a moment to admire it front and back before signing it and returning it to me.

dallasactuary · February 13, 2005 8:34AM

Back in the mid-70's my brother and I had a game we played with our cards. We'd think up a rule, it didn't matter what the rule was (e.g., tallest, born closest to July 4th, whatever) and pick out one player from each team that fit the rule. My brother always used his 1969 set, I would use whatever the current set was, we'd each have a stack of 24 cards, we'd mix up the order, and the war would begin - similar to the card game "War".

He'd put out, say, Frank Howard and I'd put out Tommie Agee. Which player has the highest number of runs scored in a season? Loser was out. Next cards. Who has the most seasons of 20 or more doubles? Loser was out, and so on. Last card standing won. We had a set order for the elimination questions, but that order has been lost to old age.

We would kill entire days with these games, and by the end of the season we wouldn't even have to look on the backs of the cards for the answers anymore since we had them all memorized. And we had to use silly rules, because if we picked the best players my brother always one because he had Mantle, Mays and Clemente and I didn't (we started playing in 1974).

Some of the best times of my life.

Favorite card memory?

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