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Gaf remembers when Baseball Cards were better than money

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Hehe, my brother gave me that Sanders Score rookie one year for Christmas in the late 90s.

At one of the last card shows we went to I bought a pack of '89 Upper Deck high series for $6 (forgot to get my $4 change from a ten, oops) as we were leaving. I opened it in the car while Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time" played on the radio :P and the last card in the pack was the Griffster, woot! It's easily the best card I ever pulled from a pack, but it almost had to be --- nearly all of my other cards were 89-93 non-premium set packs. So unless I'd gotten extraordinarily lucky and pulled a 1990 Diamond King or a 91 (?) Mickey Mantle autographed Score or something...

I had so many 1992 Topps baseball cards, goddamn. I guess a Brien Taylor Topps Gold would've been a really nice pull there for about 6 months ;) That's what I was hoping for whenever I opened a pack of those. Even though you'd get like 1 Gold card per box and the set was 792 cards... Also, hehe at using a flashlight to cheat the scratch off cards in those packs before Topps caught on. Got a boatload of Gold "winner" cards that way.

Anyway, my brother and I did a PSA membership plan that cost $100 and you could get four cards graded. He just really wanted to get his Griffey UD graded because he thought it had a good chance a getting a 10 (it was in really nice shape, ended up getting a 9). I sent my Griffey and Sanders in because they were by far the best cards I had. My Griffey got a 7, lol. I hadn't noticed some ridging on the side of the card. Oops. Whatever, I still cherish it even if it's worth like 15 bucks.

Cards were good times. It was a great bonding activity for my bro who's 11 year's older than I am (as was going to the local AAA park to be autograph hounds). I'm glad I was too young to sink any significant money into it. I got a box of 1998 Upper Deck Football for Christmas when I was fifteen and completing that damn set kinda killed my interest in the hobby since it used up my "big christmas gift," any xmas monies I got and then some. I had to buy Manning, and then all these other common rookies for a few bucks apiece. I focused on video games after that, thankfully.

*EDIT* Oh, yeah! My brother had the Fuck Face card but he would never let me look at it ;-)


:(
 
I never got a Ripken fuck face card. The corrected variations were sometimes worth more than the original. There was the scribble, scribble with a loop(had this one), black box, and the ultra rare white out version. I never saw one if these but it was rumored to exist and was listed in Beckett as a variation.
 
Shick Brithouse said:
I never got a Ripken fuck face card. The corrected variations were sometimes worth more than the original. There was the scribble, scribble with a loop(had this one), black box, and the ultra rare white out version. I never saw one if these but it was rumored to exist and was listed in Beckett as a variation.
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http://badwax.net/2009/01/01/the-definitive-collection-baseball-edition-1989-billy-ripken/

that's a lot of variations!

*better link* http://www.billripken.com/versions/index.html
 
4WPDH.jpg




had a couple of these when they were worth about $15. It shot up to a couple hundred when he broke the record, didn't it?

also, these players are idiots. Your old pics are on cards for everyone to see...nobody his original size gains that kind of muscle mass in a few years :lol
 
I have so many fond memories of trading baseball cards on my back porch during the summer. My brother and I were like Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross. We straight up robbed people left and right of their valuable cards, trading off mass quantities of cards that looked cool but were actually only slightly better than commons.

I also remember my friends and I judged a player's ability solely on the value of his cards in Beckett.

Also, I pulled a $200 Harmon Kilebrew card from a $2 pack of Upper Deck when I was 6 years old. The owner of the store offered me $100 for it on the spot. He offered a 6 year old boy A HUNDRED FUCKING DOLLARS.
 
oh, Marvel cards got me off baseball cards. My friends and I had arguments forever about the ratings on the back:


KslZO.jpg



(needs a bump of agility to 7, drop stamina and endurance to 0)
 
Anyone else dig up holes in their back yard in hopes of finding a Honus Wagner card? haha

220px-HonusWagnerCard.jpg



"What are you doing?"

"Digging for old baseball cards!"

"I don't think we ever buried any baseball cards back there, honey."

"But maybe grandpa did!"

"Grandpa didn't live here, honey. Your father and I bought this house."
 
Seraphinianus said:
had a couple of these when they were worth about $15. It shot up to a couple hundred when he broke the record, didn't it?

also, these players are idiots. Your old pics are on cards for everyone to see...nobody his original size gains that kind of muscle mass in a few years :lol
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McGwire always looked roided up. Notice how he looks here:

mcgwire87tp.jpg


JUST LOOK AT HOW HUGE HE IS


speedline said:
It's a shame what card collecting has become. They have effectively pushed everyone away with insane prices and very short prints of everything.
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Exactly why I stopped collecting seriously.
 
Seraphinianus said:
Anyone else dig up holes in their back yard in hopes of finding a Honus Wagner card? haha

220px-HonusWagnerCard.jpg



"What are you doing?"

"Digging for old baseball cards!"

"I don't think we ever buried any baseball cards back there, honey."

"But maybe grandpa did!"

"Grandpa didn't live here, honey. Your father and I bought this house."
Click to expand...

Hahaha, hell yeah I remember asking all of my family if anyone collected during the vintage years, I was more than willing to dig through the attic if I could get a chance.
 
there were only a few hundred at the most honus wagner card's made so the odds of you finding one would be pretty low...but if you did you would be set for life.
 
I never collected baseball cards, I did get some NBA ones but garbage players , I wanted Jordan but I assume it was rare as hell

I mainly collected pokemon cards in the 90's, I thought they would have been worth something lol
 
Windu said:
there were only a few hundred at the most honus wagner card's made so the odds of you finding one would be pretty low...but if you did you would be set for life.
Click to expand...

All my life I've wanted that card and I'd still have a hard time selling it despite the value. Common sense would eventually prevail but not until I bragged about owning it and showed it off to everyone I knew.
 
Windu said:
there were only a few hundred at the most honus wagner card's made so the odds of you finding one would be pretty low...but if you did you would be set for life.
Click to expand...



I remember seeing a news story about someone who found one and 8 year old me wanted in on that shit! I'd never have to buy a pack of cards again and could afford ALL the NES games!
 
A few years ago there was a really good baseball card blog, I think it was called "Cardboard Gods"... someone Google it please.

Also someone post Don Mossi's baseball card.
 
I have complete UD sets from 1989 - 1994 and tops sets from like 1985 - 1994.... Roids era catalog! 100% worthless but I didn't collect as an investment... I just really like baseball. Before the internet, cards were awesome for the stats and information on the backs of the cards.
 
Those 93 Topps finest are some of the coolest looking cards of the era. I remember them being like $5-$6 a pack and only ever getting one pack. I think they may have retained some value of the years.

sc00f7a540.jpg
 
xbhaskarx said:
A few years ago there was a really good baseball card blog, I think it was called "Cardboard Gods"... someone Google it please.

Also someone post Don Mossi's baseball card.
Click to expand...

don-mossi-662.jpg

"Don Mossi was the complete five-tool ugly player. He could run ugly, hit ugly, throw ugly, field ugly and ugly for power."
 
My most valuable 'baseball card' thanks to a mischievous worker at Topps in the 70's.

I found it in an unopened pack I bought at a card store for $3 about 15 years ago (When I was feeling nostalgic). I used to buy them at 7-Eleven for a quarter a pack as a kid and only had the 'fixed' version. I was ecstatic when I found it and immediately wedged it in a piece of plastic - perfect 10 condition.

tumblr_l85clqnlY11qc823io1_500.jpg
 
rbenchley said:
http://cardboardgods.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/don-mossi-662.jpg[/IG]
"Don Mossi was the complete five-tool ugly player. He could run ugly, hit ugly, throw ugly, field ugly and ugly for power."[/QUOTE]



holy fuck! :lol

don't talk shit, he'll hear!


i was always a fan of Rollie Fingers:

[IMG]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LJvUULi51sI/Sq8lB6Tmn1I/AAAAAAAAPMQ/Xtyc972Ze1Y/s400/Rollie+Fingers+1.jpg


curleh mustache
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I still have tons of cards from 85-87, a few 84s but most of those were my cousin's rejects. I've tried to sell a few times but everyone says those years are worthless because of over-saturation. It doesn't help that my collection was built around guys like Gooden and Strawberry.
 
I used to collect MLB, NHL, NBA and Marvel cards. I would get so excited whenever I would a hologram card in one of the Marvel packs because kids thought there were worth hundreds of dollars.
 
womp said:
My most valuable 'baseball card' thanks to a mischievous worker at Topps in the 70's.

I found it in an unopened pack I bought at a card store for $3 about 15 years ago (When I was feeling nostalgic). I used to buy them at 7-Eleven for a quarter a pack as a kid and only had the 'fixed' version. I was ecstatic when I found it and immediately wedged it in a piece of plastic - perfect 10 condition.

tumblr_l85clqnlY11qc823io1_500.jpg
Click to expand...

Ha, thats hilarious-- how much is it worth?
 
I have at least 10 shoe boxes stacked full of cards from around '78 - '98.

I wonder if I'm rich? I haven't kept up with Sports card pricing did the bottom really fall out of the market or something?
 
WhatRobEats said:
I have at least 10 shoe boxes stacked full of cards from around '78 - '98.

I wonder if I'm rich? I haven't kept up with Sports card pricing did the bottom really fall out of the market or something?
Click to expand...

You don't want to know. Pre 1980 looks to have holden it's value while everything else bottomed out :/
 
Use to collect for years. Still have my Michael Jordan Fleer RC, Kobe Bryant Chrome RC, Magic/Bird RC, etc. the game used shit is what killed the hobby. Literally. Made every pack shoot up to a minimum of $5-10 because you'd have a chance of an autograph or piece of a jersey card. eBay also helped kill the hobby. I use to love going to the shop and spending $2.00 for a pack in hopes of getting my facorite player. The hobby now is dead.
 
ClovingSteam said:
Use to collect for years. Still have my Michael Jordan Fleer RC, Kobe Bryant Chrome RC, Magic/Bird RC, etc. the game used shit is what killed the hobby. Literally. Made every pack shoot up to a minimum of $5-10 because you'd have a chance of an autograph or piece of a jersey card. eBay also helped kill the hobby. I use to love going to the shop and spending $2.00 for a pack in hopes of getting my facorite player. The hobby now is dead.
Click to expand...

It's really a shame that the hobby went to the crapper like that. My boy still spends a few dollars on basketball cards every once in a while in hopes of getting his favorite players. As long as he likes it I won't discourage it. I will quit telling him that they may be worth something someday. I wonder if that will change his opinion on buying them with the money he earns.
 
For basketball cards, I don't know if it got much goofier than Kurt Rambis on anything.

Also, getting that Shaquille O'Neal "Redemption" Upper Deck rookie card in the mail was really awesome.
 
Lazy Man's Wallpaper said:
It's sad what the hobby has become; I've seen Youtube "box break" videos where eight-year-olds act excited about pulling a 1-of-1 or signature card of some minor league prospect they have never, ever heard of. Not to mention the boxes are like $80 or more now, which does a lot to explain why it seems like a lot of collectors are 50-year-old men now. When you price out young fans, you create a dying hobby.
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I dunno, I've watched a few of those box break videos and they're pretty therapeutic since I could vicariously fulfill a childhood dream watching people open thousands of dollars worth of basketball card boxes.

Quitting the collecting hobby was one of the smartest decisions I've made as a kid. It's an awfully hard habit to break though
 
I have a collection of Upper Deck Hockey cards from when I was in Grade 6 or 7.

I don't know why I collected them. I didn't even like hockey.
 
My childhood contained walking to the nearby card trading shop and staring at awesome cards. In my teenage years I had collected about ~$500 worth of cards that went up or down in value. All of them burned when I was 28 in a house fire along with everything else from my childhood.
LLShC.gif
 
My buddy is into hockey cards and does the ebay thing. Makes some good coin doing bids on box breaks and selling whatever is good that he gets.
 
bengraven said:
Oh, then I got one of these:

CHYVT.jpg



and fucking traded it for a bunch of these:

$(KGrHqN,!i0E4r-nDDdeBOPzOTlE0!~~0_3.JPG


At the time I got my ass kicked by this trade. Not sure now, but I'm assuming my ass is still very kicked.
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Maybe not a wise decision investment-wise, but you got a lot of awesome cards for one boring one.

Loved series like those with actual artwork and creative design on 'em; Those, Donruss Diamond Kings, Skybox's Basketball Cards...

41KEh0y6ojL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


And let's not forget the rad team logo hologram stickers:
ap3Gt.jpg


Man, whatever happened to holograms? That shit was awesome. You'd think with the push for 3D going on they'd be making a bit of a resurgence.
 
I have that Griffey Jr. rookie card BENT TO DEATH. A few years back I found a shoebox with a ton of baseball cards and it and Mark McGwire rookie cards were in it totally ruined. You don't know any better when you're a kid! This box, surely they'll be safe if I stuff it to the brim and tape it up.
 
The boom and bust of the trading card industry in the 90's is almost a mirror image of the comic book industry, it's uncanny. Market bottomed out in the late 90's, early 2000's I believe.

I was into hockey cards since it was my preferred sport. Looking back, there were some truly weird gimmicks in the industry. Cards with game used memorabilia on them, cards cut into certain shapes with die cut lasers, one company - Donruss, started inserting a metal card into every pack. The most ridiculous thing I ever heard of was Upper Deck cutting up the pieces of the section of the floor that Michael Jordan took his last shot on and put them onto a card with Jordan's autograph. Utterly insane stuff.
 
Don't think I have too many sports cards left from when I was a kid though did have a few binders full somewhere. Mostly random stuff like the old WWF set with the matching binder and cards based on the fine programming from ABC's TGIF schedule.
 
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