Let's go back to when we were kids. Sports cards are now making a comeback. What was your favorite card you wish you had back and what was your most valuable? My favorite was 1968 johnny bench rookie card and my 1974 hank Aaron all time home run leader card or my bird/magic card but my most valuable was probably either 1951 joe DiMaggio 1956 Mickey mantle or 1979 wayne gretzky. Its time to nerd up what was yours? BTW, I sold them all when I got married. Worth it? Yes. Still miss them though

Man, I wish I could calculate the number of hours and dollars I spent collecting and organizing my cards. I have my football and baseball still organized by team and division, with AL, NL, AFC, and NFC all in their own binders. My most expensive card would probably be a Ken Griffey Jr rookie card, but I'm going to sit on that; most of the cards from the 90s were mass produced so the rare factor is lost. I bought a Jose Canseco rookie card that I was hoping would be worth something when he got to the Hall, but well... yeah.

My most cherished cards are the 1995 Score baseball collection. My grandfather worked at 7-11 at the time, and he would routinely buy a pack or two for me. One day his boss told him to just grab a box of them from the back. I think it was 100+ card packs. It was like Xmas come early! Still have those cards, and I think I am still missing one or two cards from the series. Need to check out eBay now that I think of it...

(04-26-2021 04:36 AM)jaybird44 Wrote:  Let's go back to when we were kids. Sports cards are now making a comeback. What was your favorite card you wish you had back and what was your most valuable? My favorite was 1968 johnny bench rookie card and my 1974 hank Aaron all time home run leader card or my bird/magic card but my most valuable was probably either 1951 joe DiMaggio 1956 Mickey mantle or 1979 wayne gretzky. Its time to nerd up what was yours? BTW, I sold them all when I got married. Worth it? Yes. Still miss them though

Back in the 1970s, I collected football cards for a couple of years and kept a few of them. I never collected baseball cards. Also, if you remember around 1990 there was a sports cards boom, and I bought some then. They are all worthless because everyone bought them and there is a forever glut, LOL.

But of the 1970s cards, my favorites, which I still have, are a couple 1975 Walter Payton rookie cards, a 1969 Joe Namath card and a 1968 Gale Sayers card.

I do not know the value of any of these cards, LOL.

When I was a kid it was strictly baseball cards. While other pro leagues weren't exactly in their infancy, they hadn't yet made many inroads on the National pastime. Except for the Rams and 49ers the most western franchises were St. Louis and Minneapolis. MLB had franchises in only 10 cities in America. The NBA had still teams in Syracuse, Rochester and Fort Wayne. There were six NHL teams.

It wasn't until 1958 that the NFL started to really bloom, triggered by an exciting Giants-Colts championship game that caught the nation's attention. And, that year the Dodgers and Giants moved to the west coast and opened up the whole country to professional sports.

The baseball card to kill for was Mickey Mantle's rookie card. But we were so stupid and naive that we didn't just collect cards - we attached them to the spokes of our bikes with clothespins because they made a cool sound when you rode real fast. We had no idea how much a card in pristine condition was worth, and couldn't understand why anybody would collect cards from sports other than baseball. How dumb were we?

I loved my baseball cards. I still have them but they are probably worthless as I loved to make teams and lineups with them, scale them with friends to win and flip them.

People now wait outside target and other stores to purchase an entire shipment of baseball cards. There were no baseball cards this Christmas to give out as gifts.

(04-26-2021 04:36 AM)jaybird44 Wrote:  Let's go back to when we were kids. Sports cards are now making a comeback. What was your favorite card you wish you had back and what was your most valuable? My favorite was 1968 johnny bench rookie card and my 1974 hank Aaron all time home run leader card or my bird/magic card but my most valuable was probably either 1951 joe DiMaggio 1956 Mickey mantle or 1979 wayne gretzky. Its time to nerd up what was yours? BTW, I sold them all when I got married. Worth it? Yes. Still miss them though

I collected in the 60s when I was a kid. I had a Nolan Ryan/Jerry Koosman rookie card and I cut it in half when they got traded to different teams. My nephew was into baseball cards back in the 80s and I think that card would have been worth about 4k.

I gave most of my cards to my nephew. Joe Torre may have been the most valuable one i gave him (he was Yankees manager at the time). I kept the National League West cards. Have Pete Rose and Vada Pinson along with Don Drysdale and Bill Singer. Have a few older cards from my father from the 30s/40s.

(04-26-2021 08:22 AM)AssyrianDuke Wrote:  Man, I wish I could calculate the number of hours and dollars I spent collecting and organizing my cards. I have my football and baseball still organized by team and division, with AL, NL, AFC, and NFC all in their own binders. My most expensive card would probably be a Ken Griffey Jr rookie card, but I'm going to sit on that; most of the cards from the 90s were mass produced so the rare factor is lost. I bought a Jose Canseco rookie card that I was hoping would be worth something when he got to the Hall, but well... yeah.

My most cherished cards are the 1995 Score baseball collection. My grandfather worked at 7-11 at the time, and he would routinely buy a pack or two for me. One day his boss told him to just grab a box of them from the back. I think it was 100+ card packs. It was like Xmas come early! Still have those cards, and I think I am still missing one or two cards from the series. Need to check out eBay now that I think of it...

I traded some really good football player to a friend (might have been Dick Butkus) so that I could get a player from every NFL team. He couldn't believe I made that deal.

(04-26-2021 01:55 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(04-26-2021 08:22 AM)AssyrianDuke Wrote:  Man, I wish I could calculate the number of hours and dollars I spent collecting and organizing my cards. I have my football and baseball still organized by team and division, with AL, NL, AFC, and NFC all in their own binders. My most expensive card would probably be a Ken Griffey Jr rookie card, but I'm going to sit on that; most of the cards from the 90s were mass produced so the rare factor is lost. I bought a Jose Canseco rookie card that I was hoping would be worth something when he got to the Hall, but well... yeah.

My most cherished cards are the 1995 Score baseball collection. My grandfather worked at 7-11 at the time, and he would routinely buy a pack or two for me. One day his boss told him to just grab a box of them from the back. I think it was 100+ card packs. It was like Xmas come early! Still have those cards, and I think I am still missing one or two cards from the series. Need to check out eBay now that I think of it...

I traded some really good football player to a friend (might have been Dick Butkus) so that I could get a player from every NFL team. He couldn't believe I made that deal.

I actually met Dick Butkus in Vegas a few years ago! He signed some stuff for me at a memorabilia show and took pictures with me and, graciously, my friends. Turns out, he had a gag gift hidden in his hand that made fart noises, and I was angry at my friends for embarrassing me by farting in front of Dick Freaking Butkus. He was laughing so hard he was crying. It was great.

I still have my NBA/NHL/NFL/MLB cards. They are in baggies. I'd get primarily NHL & NFL. One of the teachers in elementary school sold packs during lunch, so that's how I got into it.

I still buy the occasional NHL card pack, usually just a couple each season.

My uncle gave me a big box of open - and mostly un-open - late 80s MLB cards, so I have those too.

1968 Nolan Ryan in NM.

I had all the ones from the 80s as I was a dealer back then. 80 Rickey henderson, 82 Cal Ripken, 83 Boggs, Gwynn, Sandberg, 84 Mattingly, Strawberry, Carter, 85 McGwire, Clemens, Puckett, 86 Canseco, 87 Bonds, Maddux, and the rest. My first year of college was 91. I set up at card shows the summer of 92 and that was it. Co-op for the Fed Gov't the summers after that.

I never had much money to buy too many. The gum was pretty crappy too. I didn't abuse them but didn't treat them to the level to be of interest (stored in a shoe box) to middle aged geeks (early 70s Topps cards). Gave them to one of my kids. He sold them to some guy on Craigslist for $50. He doesn't like clutter in his life and I don't blame him. I like to be more minimalist too. That said I had a pretty sweet Roberto Clemente and Pete Rose card.

I had a Thurmon Munson Adirondack Bat stamped with his name and Syracuse Chiefs. He had a cup of coffee in AAA before heading to the Yankees. It was a bat day promotion. Ofcourse what did every kid do? Yeah I used it in Little League. I donated it back to the AAA team a few years ago for their museum.

(04-30-2021 07:39 AM)TexanMark Wrote:  I never had much money to buy too many. The gum was pretty crappy too.

FWIW, I loved that gum, that brittle rectangle that left dust on the cards. I loved the way it broke up when you chomped down on it, LOL.

(04-30-2021 08:03 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-30-2021 07:39 AM)TexanMark Wrote:  I never had much money to buy too many. The gum was pretty crappy too.

FWIW, I loved that gum, that brittle rectangle that left dust on the cards. I loved the way it broke up when you chomped down on it, LOL.

. Secretly me too....