Options
Please read and help me complete my collection - Long childhood story
airjoedan
Posts: 776 ✭✭✭
In advance, sorry for the long post - nothing serious just need help completing a few low-dollar sets that I collected when I was a kid and want to complete. I will add a few sets as time goes on if this thread actually works.
In the past four years I have been working full-time and going to school full-time while enjoying all parts of life except for my lack of sleep. I thought it would be great to graduate - I could finally look forward to just having a job and no school and could finally jump into the type of career I have longed for in the past few years. I have worked in retail during college because it is the only job that could work around my 15 credit class schedule and still offer 40+ hours per week. While I'm not downing retail as some people really enjoy it and can make a good living, it is just not what I enjoy doing and it feels like I am wasting time on the experience side of my resume in regards to my preferred job field.
Well, I just graduated in January and have been unsuccessfully looking to find a new job in that aforementioned "preferred" job field. The unfortunate part is, everyone else is looking for a job and most of them already have the experience within their resume. While I guess I can't complain too much because I do still have a job, it is a rather low-wage job and I'm actually making less per month than the bills I have per month (something that has depleted my savings to now pretty much nothing). I have been selling my high-end cards and autographs in the past few months to make up for the lack of funds and to help pay for the larger obligations like college loans and credit card bills. I worked full-time to keep these bills low and they are a lot lower than most, but they are still a lot and still have forced me to sell most of my collection.
While I am doing just fine and not complaining about anything except for the fact that I'm obviously stuck in retail for a while and I do hate having to sell most of my collection as it took many years complete and I enjoy it. I know a lot of other people on these boards have gone through similar things with their collection and it just sucks to see each thing go - especially when many of them sell for much less than what was originally paid. In sorting through the things I have left the other night, I realized the only things I'm not selling are cards from my childhood because they either aren't worth anything or mean something to me because of how I acquired them.
I'm 23 years old - so the cards I collected were primarily in the 80's and 90's, although I always had interest in vintage. When I was a kid, card shops were everywhere and there was really easy access to finding any common card I needed for a set. My most active years in the hobby were 1994-1998, where I would pretty much spend every cent I had and request any present I were to receive to be some sort of sports card. At this age, I really didn't care how much a card was worth - although I was very aware of what cards were worth in Beckett and that did matter what type of holder it went into, it didn't change how I felt about all the commons of my favorite players or the way I felt when opening a certain product. With that being said, I have fond memories of these cards and never intend to sell them - although most of the cards I collected are barely worth pennies on the dollar as it is.
The reason I'm telling this story in such a long way is not only because I have an hour lunch break and already ate at work, but also because I realized something else - even though I have sold most of my valuable items and will end up selling most of the rest, it is the stuff from my childhood that I lost track of that I enjoy collecting the most. Although I enjoy cards in general, I lost track of the cards that lost value and started collecting stuff that sold for more or had potential. Now that I am sort of back down to zero in a certain collecting respect, I now have the desire to pick up those cards again - organize them, and complete sets like I used to. Since I have ZERO card shops in my area and do not wish to spend a bunch of money on commons online (especially since I am selling to pay bills) I figured I would post what I need to complete my sets on this message board to see if members could help me complete sets. These sets are all for my personal collection and are all sets that I have been trying to complete since the mid 90's (with a 10 year break in between).
First off, I need help with 1982 Topps football - a set which has a neat short story behind it being where I found it was in my own home. I was already a big card collector when I was 7 or so years old and was being nosey and rummaging through my brother's old dresser drawer - I ended up finding an orange Nike shoebox filled with 1980 Topps baseball cards and 1982 Topps football cards. After calling my brother and asking if I could have them, I put them all in order and took them with me on all the long trips to Austin to see his college basketball games. I specifically remember sitting in the backseat of the car and asking my dad up front about players name by name - and I specifically remember picking up one card picturing a quarterback on the phone and yelling up front: "have you heard of Joe Montana?" The very week after that we went to my local card shop in San Antonio and got a neat 4-screw down holder with an engraved "Joe Montana" nameplate at the top (which the card still sits in today). I still have a near 1980 Topps set and I will post my needs for that eventually - but I haven't dug that out of the closet yet - so, for right now, I'm asking for help with the 1982 Topps football set and numbers listed below.
Second, I need help with one more football set and two baseball sets that weren't worth my recent time in sorting them if you consider value - but are worth it completely to me in completing my "kid" collection. While traveling out of town with my dad for what I believe was a job interview, I noticed a sign for a garage sale which read "baseball cards" and got completely excited. After 15 minutes of looking for the sale with absolutely no luck, we stopped at another random garage sale a few miles away just for fun. At the garage sale I was absolutely thrilled to find thousands of baseball cards - mostly 1989 baseball cards already opened and placed in their original wax boxes on and under a table. The lady running the garage sale informed us that her son already took all the good players out and had them in binders inside the house and that he didn't want the nobody players anymore.
While looking through the boxes I noticed two football boxes and picked up a small stack of cards - my heart beat jumped through my head and my hands were shaking when I saw that I was holding two 1986 Topps Jerry Rice rookie cards in my hand (this was 1997 or so). I quickly pulled my dad to the side and was like "LOOK! Oh my god, look at these cards" - he wasn't sure why I liked them so much but told me to make an offer to the lady to buy all the cards. We agreed on $25 and ended up loading the trunk of the card with dozens of boxes of 1989 baseball and two boxes of football cards - 1983 Topps and 1986 Topps. I was able to complete the 1986 Topps set as a kid within a few months and still have it today. Although I made a lot of progress on the 1983 Topps set, I am still missing a lot of cards. The baseball cards I only organized last week and need help with those to complete the sets. All the card numbers I am missing for each set are listed below.
I'm not looking to pay much for commons, I just want to complete my set. I can trade you other star cards for stars that I am missing or can pay you any small amount you are asking. I DO NOT care about card condition, EX condition is fine for these sets as they are solely for enjoyment and half of the cards in the sets already have a dinged corner or two. Please let me know what you have available and PM me with details. Thanks again for reading the post and sorry for the long rant - I had a long lunch with nothing else to do and I couldn't find a way to scale down the story :-)
1982 Topps Football
3 56 67 70 101 107 111 118 141 173 211 212 269 308 311 313 314 323 326 327 329 330 397 402 409 434 435 436 525 526
1983 Topps Football
2 3 27 33 36 38 39 40 42 46 47 51 83 85 91 92 113 114 120 126 127 148 153 158 160 164 168 169 182 189 193 199 203 205 210 214 217 224 228 232 241 243 247 248 250 253 254 257 263 266 273 278 281 292 307 309 329 336 341 352 360 362 371 382 391
1989 Bowman Baseball
6 32 39 40 65 73 76 93 95 109 121 126 145 162 181 188 205 206 216 233 259 319 329 344 371 376 398 399 410 448 451
1989 Fleer Baseball
COMPLETE with the help of "Miconelegacy"
In the past four years I have been working full-time and going to school full-time while enjoying all parts of life except for my lack of sleep. I thought it would be great to graduate - I could finally look forward to just having a job and no school and could finally jump into the type of career I have longed for in the past few years. I have worked in retail during college because it is the only job that could work around my 15 credit class schedule and still offer 40+ hours per week. While I'm not downing retail as some people really enjoy it and can make a good living, it is just not what I enjoy doing and it feels like I am wasting time on the experience side of my resume in regards to my preferred job field.
Well, I just graduated in January and have been unsuccessfully looking to find a new job in that aforementioned "preferred" job field. The unfortunate part is, everyone else is looking for a job and most of them already have the experience within their resume. While I guess I can't complain too much because I do still have a job, it is a rather low-wage job and I'm actually making less per month than the bills I have per month (something that has depleted my savings to now pretty much nothing). I have been selling my high-end cards and autographs in the past few months to make up for the lack of funds and to help pay for the larger obligations like college loans and credit card bills. I worked full-time to keep these bills low and they are a lot lower than most, but they are still a lot and still have forced me to sell most of my collection.
While I am doing just fine and not complaining about anything except for the fact that I'm obviously stuck in retail for a while and I do hate having to sell most of my collection as it took many years complete and I enjoy it. I know a lot of other people on these boards have gone through similar things with their collection and it just sucks to see each thing go - especially when many of them sell for much less than what was originally paid. In sorting through the things I have left the other night, I realized the only things I'm not selling are cards from my childhood because they either aren't worth anything or mean something to me because of how I acquired them.
I'm 23 years old - so the cards I collected were primarily in the 80's and 90's, although I always had interest in vintage. When I was a kid, card shops were everywhere and there was really easy access to finding any common card I needed for a set. My most active years in the hobby were 1994-1998, where I would pretty much spend every cent I had and request any present I were to receive to be some sort of sports card. At this age, I really didn't care how much a card was worth - although I was very aware of what cards were worth in Beckett and that did matter what type of holder it went into, it didn't change how I felt about all the commons of my favorite players or the way I felt when opening a certain product. With that being said, I have fond memories of these cards and never intend to sell them - although most of the cards I collected are barely worth pennies on the dollar as it is.
The reason I'm telling this story in such a long way is not only because I have an hour lunch break and already ate at work, but also because I realized something else - even though I have sold most of my valuable items and will end up selling most of the rest, it is the stuff from my childhood that I lost track of that I enjoy collecting the most. Although I enjoy cards in general, I lost track of the cards that lost value and started collecting stuff that sold for more or had potential. Now that I am sort of back down to zero in a certain collecting respect, I now have the desire to pick up those cards again - organize them, and complete sets like I used to. Since I have ZERO card shops in my area and do not wish to spend a bunch of money on commons online (especially since I am selling to pay bills) I figured I would post what I need to complete my sets on this message board to see if members could help me complete sets. These sets are all for my personal collection and are all sets that I have been trying to complete since the mid 90's (with a 10 year break in between).
First off, I need help with 1982 Topps football - a set which has a neat short story behind it being where I found it was in my own home. I was already a big card collector when I was 7 or so years old and was being nosey and rummaging through my brother's old dresser drawer - I ended up finding an orange Nike shoebox filled with 1980 Topps baseball cards and 1982 Topps football cards. After calling my brother and asking if I could have them, I put them all in order and took them with me on all the long trips to Austin to see his college basketball games. I specifically remember sitting in the backseat of the car and asking my dad up front about players name by name - and I specifically remember picking up one card picturing a quarterback on the phone and yelling up front: "have you heard of Joe Montana?" The very week after that we went to my local card shop in San Antonio and got a neat 4-screw down holder with an engraved "Joe Montana" nameplate at the top (which the card still sits in today). I still have a near 1980 Topps set and I will post my needs for that eventually - but I haven't dug that out of the closet yet - so, for right now, I'm asking for help with the 1982 Topps football set and numbers listed below.
Second, I need help with one more football set and two baseball sets that weren't worth my recent time in sorting them if you consider value - but are worth it completely to me in completing my "kid" collection. While traveling out of town with my dad for what I believe was a job interview, I noticed a sign for a garage sale which read "baseball cards" and got completely excited. After 15 minutes of looking for the sale with absolutely no luck, we stopped at another random garage sale a few miles away just for fun. At the garage sale I was absolutely thrilled to find thousands of baseball cards - mostly 1989 baseball cards already opened and placed in their original wax boxes on and under a table. The lady running the garage sale informed us that her son already took all the good players out and had them in binders inside the house and that he didn't want the nobody players anymore.
While looking through the boxes I noticed two football boxes and picked up a small stack of cards - my heart beat jumped through my head and my hands were shaking when I saw that I was holding two 1986 Topps Jerry Rice rookie cards in my hand (this was 1997 or so). I quickly pulled my dad to the side and was like "LOOK! Oh my god, look at these cards" - he wasn't sure why I liked them so much but told me to make an offer to the lady to buy all the cards. We agreed on $25 and ended up loading the trunk of the card with dozens of boxes of 1989 baseball and two boxes of football cards - 1983 Topps and 1986 Topps. I was able to complete the 1986 Topps set as a kid within a few months and still have it today. Although I made a lot of progress on the 1983 Topps set, I am still missing a lot of cards. The baseball cards I only organized last week and need help with those to complete the sets. All the card numbers I am missing for each set are listed below.
I'm not looking to pay much for commons, I just want to complete my set. I can trade you other star cards for stars that I am missing or can pay you any small amount you are asking. I DO NOT care about card condition, EX condition is fine for these sets as they are solely for enjoyment and half of the cards in the sets already have a dinged corner or two. Please let me know what you have available and PM me with details. Thanks again for reading the post and sorry for the long rant - I had a long lunch with nothing else to do and I couldn't find a way to scale down the story :-)
1982 Topps Football
3 56 67 70 101 107 111 118 141 173 211 212 269 308 311 313 314 323 326 327 329 330 397 402 409 434 435 436 525 526
1983 Topps Football
2 3 27 33 36 38 39 40 42 46 47 51 83 85 91 92 113 114 120 126 127 148 153 158 160 164 168 169 182 189 193 199 203 205 210 214 217 224 228 232 241 243 247 248 250 253 254 257 263 266 273 278 281 292 307 309 329 336 341 352 360 362 371 382 391
1989 Bowman Baseball
6 32 39 40 65 73 76 93 95 109 121 126 145 162 181 188 205 206 216 233 259 319 329 344 371 376 398 399 410 448 451
1989 Fleer Baseball
COMPLETE with the help of "Miconelegacy"
0
Comments
None the less, best of luck. Took me 15 years to finish my 54B and 55T sets, even longer for the sets (too many to list) I'm still working on. The longer it took, the more I grew to appreciate my hard work.
- Joe
I believe!
Good luck in your search to complete your sets. IDK if you're interested, but I have an 89 Fleer and 89 Bowman set that are both exceptionally nice. If you want them cheap, PM me and I'll make you a deal.
Ron
Buying Vintage, all sports.
Buying Woody Hayes, Les Horvath, Vic Janowicz, and Jesse Owens autographed items
Here's what I have for you
11, 17, 34, 44, 68, 85, 124, 145, 175, 204, 294, 302, 315, 319, 320, 321, 383, 394, 410, 425, 433, 460, 468, 481, 498, 507, 521
My Podcast - Now FEATURED on iTunes
- Joe
Simsbury Taverneers
My PSA Sets
Joe ... most of the stuff I had/have were from the early 70s and before. Can't help you with the sets you wrote about. However, I do know that I have, SOMEWHERE in the house, a large group of Topps baseball from 84, 85 and 87 that were put away directly from packs. They are not worth much, but they are probably in close to Mint condition. LMK what baseball sets, other than the ones you listed, that you still need to complete. Even if you don't know what numbers you need, let me know the years so I can see if I have any.
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
ahhh to be 23 again......
Good luck!
Steve
"Live everyday, don't throw it away"
- Joe
Bosox1976
<< <i>I think it would be good if guys looking for new jobs would state what field and what city - somebody might be able to help. >>
Baltimore, Maryland - Degree in Business Administration, management concentration. I'm looking for many types of government jobs (i.e. FBI, NASA, Social Security, etc.), financial investment firms, and/or any job that sounds interesting and offers a steady track of advancement toward management or administration. I really enjoy all aspects of business and the government side of things really interests me....although I'm by no means limited to that specific workforce.
Simsbury Taverneers
My PSA Sets
Joe,
I have a few years on you, but an in a college town I see lots of new grads in my work and social circles. Having worked retail through college, too, I can attest to it's ability to teach you how to work with people (as long as you're not bitter about the retail setting). That's a skill you can never regret learning.
If you're in retail, learn as much as you can about the business and how a business is run. Retail is a tough business in most markets. Again, something that goes with you no matter what your occupation.
You noted the industry you want to be in. Find a way to get experience, even if you have to work for free for a few months. I recently saw a talk by Anthony Bourdain, the TV foodie host of "No Reservations" who advised a young chef to take the job at the best place for the lowest if any, pay to test his love of the job, and the buff out the resume. This fits with advice given a while ago by a venture capitalist - if you are in school you have free pass to talk to any business leader you want, as long as your questions have a purpose. Once you graduate you are just another guy looking for a job. You're out now, but not so far removed that you couldn't "push" that grad date another quarter.
The last idea I'd offer, and the most difficult, is to define your budget and make changes to make it work. To be honest, its something most of us struggle with.
Good luck.
1975 mini's
1954 Wilson Franks
- Joe