Sports Cards Ftw

[AmScray 355]

When I was a kid, it was during that perfect sweet-spot of the sports card collecting heyday- back when there wasn't a strip mall to be had that didn't have at least one sports card shop (I recall one 20'ish unit mall that used to have three).I lived and breathed for the things as a little kid. I actually retained a bit of interest in them into my teens. When the producers went retarded with multiple brands, inserts, variants, "chase cards" etc, I totally lost interest. In college, I sold most of the collection off due to the 'writing being on the wall' as far as what this strange, new ebay thing was going to do to their prices; got out while there was still getting to be had. . Anyway, here I am now a bit older with a spare buck or two, buying up shit from my childhood (aka- overcompensating for being raised poor). Already went gay with NES cardtridges, so decided to start snapping up cards that I lusted after as a kid... Basically, all major baseball, hockey and football RC's from the 1980's that used to sell for a kings ransom but not can be had for a pittance (with a few obvious exceptions). Also started buying up a bunch of unopened packs from the late 80's and early 90's- the insanely overprinted ones where you can get a sealed box of 36 packs for like $5 or $6. Man, there's nothing more fun than opening those fuckers... The best part is that now, I have absolutely 0 interest in what they're "worth". Just doing it for fun. Anyone else collect them?

[grocery_mony 8]

Yea I remember that era of the early 90's with card shops everywhere. As a kid I would make 20 bucks a week washing vehicles for my dads company and most of it went to cards. I got a 40lb box of cards in my parents basement somewhere that is worth about 5%of what I invested. I remember on our sattelite dish there were shopping channels dedicated to selling that snake oil. I remember a box of unoopened leaf cards from Frank Thomas's rookie year selling for $500.

[AmScray 355]

LOL the 1990 Leaf Frank Thomas... Off to ebay...

[bdc30 0]

http://cgi.ebay.ca/1989-Fleer-616-Bill-Rip...1QQcmdZViewItemftw

[grocery_mony 8]

LOL the 1990 Leaf Frank Thomas... Off to ebay...

lol the boxes are $50 now. Buy for 500 in 1990 hold for 18 years and sell for 50. I remember those ****ing scammers saying "sportscards will only go up in value".

[El Guapo 8]

Conversation we just had a few days ago.

BRAD STORY TIME..........You guys say I never add any content so here ya go...From Army thread....got to talking about collecting cards as kids and this reminded me of this story....I've never told this story before..not sure why.I used to be an avid collector as a kid. Any and all sports. I was really big into basketball and football as opposed to baseball. I even got a job for about a year a local card shop in Tallahassee, FL. The owners got to know me b/c every week 2-3 days a week, I would come by and buy packs, trade, look around etc. Well eventually they offered me a job (part-time after school and weekends). I was 16-17 and b/c of my knowledge and what they saw me do in my trades etc, they let me run the shop. I could make trades, sell cards, buy cards etc. Obv, they gave me a list of what they were looking for but I was in control of some of the smaller stuff. I remember thinking that I loved doing that. Anyway, I did that for about a year and that helped me build my collection up as I got to see alot of the stuff as it first came into the shop. Also was working Taco Bell for alot of hours during the week and at 16, what elsee did I have to spend $$ on, besides gas, which was .85 cents a gallon ($%#@$!). Point of the story.....I eneded up buying my first car by having this private colector come to my house one night and buying most of my collection. He knew me from the shop and knew I had a pretty good stash from getting to know me. He was probably 34-35 at the time. I'll never forget the look on my dad's face.Me- "Dad, I got this guy coming over tonight around 6pm, he's gonna buy some of my cards"Dad- "You know this guy?"Me- "yea, from the shop, he's been coming in a bit and he's pretty well off, His name is Ralph (even funnier cause he was Chinese) hopefully I can sell alot tonight and make some cash"Dad- "Ok, if you know him and trust him"Me- "I do"Ralph shows up....I had all of my key cards laid out on the bed. Several Ken Griffey Jr Rookies, Troy Aikman, Barry Sanders Emmit (All score rookies) which were a hard set to get back then). Several Michael Jordan rookies, Not the really expensive one but the others and a ton of his 2nd year cards. Several full sets with key cards in them. Misc. other stuff.After about an hour and a half of him looking and us talking...we negeotiated and I sold him everything he wanted for $2700. I wanted $3000 but we went down a tad. He wrote me a check, told him I'd see him at the shop and he was gone.I walk into the living room to show my Dad.....Me (grinning ear to ear like a jackass) - "Hey, he's gone, we're done"Dad - "Yea? How much you get?"Me - "$2700"Dad - "HOLY SHIT Brad...Are you serious?"Me - "Ya, (laughing) all that time and $$ you thought I was wasting paid off huh?"Dad - "I guess so....(look of disbelief)"Dad - "You know that check is good? , I mean you just let him go with all your stuff"Me - "Ya, I have seen him spend alot before so I'm not worried"Dad - "ok, good job"I go to my room, look at what I had left of my cards (which I still have today, in a lockbox), and sit for awhile looking at my check.Go to the bank the next day, put the check in my account.....put 2k down on my 1st car later in that week.Brad

So I basically had the same collection as you, and my buddies worked at the local card shop that we hung out at 5 days a week, but unfotunatley I was not smart enought to sell it 15 years ago. About 2-3 years ago I was up at my parents cleaning out the Barn and the Hanger and I found a bunch of my old stuff including about 4 apple boxes full of sports cards.I was all excited to go buy some Beckets and look through them to see if any of the older cards had appreciated.I knew the collectibles market had been decimated by e bay, but I had no idea.The only cards I had that still had value was my Griffey Jr, and guess what, its still $50, same as in 1991. Good appreciation there.My Jerry Rice second year card was worth $6My Chris Mullin/Barkley rookies were less than $50My Gerogre Brett and RObin Yount mini rookies were less than a $100 (IN 1975 Topps made two sets, one normal size, and one mini size, the minis were limited and hard to get, at one time my Brett and Yount rookies were worth over $500 a piece, I have multiple of those sets.)So I was pretty distraught over this, now the cards are back in my attic, and I probably won't pull them out again until my son is old enough to appreciate them.And whats up with Older Asian guys buying thousands of dollars in sports cards, it was that way when I was collecting too. Weird.

[grocery_mony 8]

Remember those retards who were paying $500 for beanie babies?

[El Guapo 8]

Remember those retards who were paying $500 for beanie babies?

Yup, ever card shop had then after awhile too.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

If I ever have a child, one of the primary virtues I'm going to instill in him or her is not to collect useless crap. I waisted more money on "collectable" baseball cards and comics when I was a kid, it's appalling when I think of it now. But hey, I got sweet Barry Bonds, Jose Cancesco, Mark McGuire and Roger Clemens rookies. They will make good toilet paper.

[BigLebowski 0]

http://cgi.ebay.ca/1989-Fleer-616-Bill-Rip...1QQcmdZViewItemftw

Nice. This card is probably the one that brings up the worst memories as a little kid. I stole money from my parents to buy packs to get it, I scammed kids at local card shows by getting one of the first tables inside the door and selling them for $75 and walking down two tables and buying others for $50, etc.Barry Sanders, Aikman, Emmitt '89 Score, Griffey '89 UD, '86 McGwire Olympic, Mother's Cookies (SF Bay Area), Mattingly and Strawberry '84 Donruss, Mattingly '84 Fleer, '91 Topps Stadium Club, '85 O-Pee-Chee, Clemens '86 Topps, Gwynn '83 Topps, Bonds '87 Topps, Fleer, and Donruss, 1987 Fleer Stickers ftw, anything 1990 Leaf, 1992? (i think) Bowman, '81 Topps Montana, '86 Topps Rice, and last but not least the holy grail MJ 86-87 Fleer.I sold all of my baseball, football, and basketball cards to buy hockey cards when the Sharks came to San Jose. WTF was I thinking? The only ones I have left are Nolan Ryan...pretty much everything except his rookie. A few football, basketball, and hockey cards, but none that have much value anymore. I think the best one might be a John Stockton rookie...and I never like him.

[Mercury69 3]

As a kid in the late 60's/'70's, I bought a lot of sports cards, mostly hockey, as I'm Canadian. They all went in the trash. In the '90's I spent way too much $$$ trying to get involved in the so-called resurgence of collectibles, but it was all a big scam. I still love opening packs of cards, but I'm also bitter about where the $$$ went.

[AmScray 355]

Barry Sanders, Aikman, Emmitt '89 Score, Griffey '89 UD, '86 McGwire Olympic, Mother's Cookies (SF Bay Area), Mattingly and Strawberry '84 Donruss, Mattingly '84 Fleer, '91 Topps Stadium Club, '85 O-Pee-Chee, Clemens '86 Topps, Gwynn '83 Topps, Bonds '87 Topps, Fleer, and Donruss, 1987 Fleer Stickers ftw, anything 1990 Leaf, 1992? (i think) Bowman, '81 Topps Montana, '86 Topps Rice, and last but not least the holy grail MJ 86-87 Fleer.

The most profound iconography of my late childhood begins here....and ends here.There's a guy on ebay who is making "rookie card" T Shirts. I think I'm going to get those two.

[outsider13 0]

I still have a huge collection from my childhood. The last time I went through them, basically I was sorting out to see how many McGwire/Sosa/Bonds cards I had. I have a huge collection from late '80s. All of the big ones from when UpperDeck first came out. It's too bad the hobby went to sh!t right about then.

[BigLebowski 0]

I had some 3rd graders bring in their binders of football cards to trade at recess the other day. They didn't have a care in the world what they were worth. They just traded them based on looks and who their favorite players were. I sat back and thought "you know, that's how it should be". They didn't believe me when I told them I used to pay $.25 for a pack of cards and the most expensive packs were like $1.75. Don't they average about $3.00 a pack now?

[AmScray 355]

Yeah, they're stupid expensive now.I definitely agree that's how it should be, however, I would venture that 99% of all 26-33 year olds working in finance today learned huge lessons- very early in life- thanks to the whole "sports cards as a commodity product" mania and their careers are probably much better off because of it. The simple lessons I learned from that time were sort of like a springboard that eventually led to my having a better understanding about higher level economic stuff. A lot of the details might be different, but the general notions remain the same.

[bdc30 0]

You're exactly right BL. I got in to cards again two or three years ago out of the same nostalgia. It's disgusting what they charge now - a pack STARTS at $3, and I've seen some premium packs that sell for upwards of $100 for a pack of FOUR cards....No longer are cards something to be put in your bike spokes or leaned up against a wall to play "knock down". It's really too bad.

[Yoda 1]

The most profound iconography of my late childhood begins here....and ends here.There's a guy on ebay who is making "rookie card" T Shirts. I think I'm going to get those two.

hah so true - except I have the Troy Aikman Rookie of the same year - Griffey Junior 89 upper deck...so key.

[freak2304 0]

LOL. I have the Griffey rookie card, too. I haven't looked at them in years, but back when I last checked (probably arond 1998) I got rid of all my cards but what I considered my top 100 or so. I added it all up at that time, and they were all said to be worth about $5,000ish total. I bet if I took them all somewhere to sell them tomorrow I wouldn't get 1k for all of them. I do have an authographed Brett Favre card that I've contemplated selling this year, as I figured with his retirement, this year would be the most profitable time for it. -shrug-

[AmScray 355]

I do have an authographed Brett Favre card that I've contemplated selling this year, as I figured with his retirement, this year would be the most profitable time for it. -shrug-

If its a 91 Star Pics, LMK.

[freak2304 0]

If its a 91 Star Pics, LMK.

Naw. A guy who was dating the mom of a good friend of mine in high school was from Green Bay and knew some guys who knew some guys who knew Brett. I got a Fleer '95 card that he signed. I just found my box of cards that I haven't opened in years! I forgot what I had in here. The 6 cards on the top of the box go as follows: The autographed Fleer '95 Brett Favre card, the '89 Upper Deck Griffey rookie card, A Mark Brunell autographed card that must've been some kind of promo card as it has no maker/date on it (LOL!), a '79 Topps OJ Simpson card (I TOTALLY remember buying up a few OJ cards during his murder trial thinking maybe they'd go up in price, LOL!), my Michael Jordan Upper Deck Predictor card, & the Score Frank Thomas rookie card. God, this brings back memories...now I'm gonna spend a little time to look through what the hell else is here.Edit: WOW! I just found some Ki-Jana Carter and Errict Rhett rookie cards! Also, I forgot about my complete silver set of the Upper Deck "You Crash The Game" football cards!

[BigLebowski 0]

Yeah, they're stupid expensive now.I definitely agree that's how it should be, however, I would venture that 99% of all 26-33 year olds working in finance today learned huge lessons- very early in life- thanks to the whole "sports cards as a commodity product" mania and their careers are probably much better off because of it. The simple lessons I learned from that time were sort of like a springboard that eventually led to my having a better understanding about higher level economic stuff. A lot of the details might be different, but the general notions remain the same.

You know, now that you bring up what lessons we learned....We used to put together $5, $10, $25, $50, and $100 packs of cards, get a shoebox and roll dice for the packs. Each person got to pick the other persons pack and usually a 3rd party got to pick the number of dice to be rolled. It was a sick ****ing game with huge swings. Now I know where my craps addiction came from. /thread for me says my therapist

[AmScray 355]

Oh, the gambling thing was huge for us too.I mean, that's basically what packs became.One of my most vivid memories: Going to the card shop with $20 birthday cash and buying packs of 1989 Upper Deck Series 1. 5 packs in, I got a Griffey. Life was so, so good.Traded it for more packs (why? Why trade a Griffey for more packs of 89 Upper Deck when the best you can possibly do is to get back what you just traded in? Let's call that a "life lesson")Traded the residual pile of commons and semi stars for more packs...Traded the cards in my binder- the creme of my collection- for more packs...Traded the commons and semi-stars that came from those packs for more 2 more packs... Struck out on those. When it was all said and done, I had nothing. My binder full of cards- the ones had taken me a year to collect, resulting from a compounded series of outwitting my trading foes on the playground- was totally empty, my $20 birthday money was gone... Man, that was such a long walk home, holding that damn binder full of empty PVC pages. It was the first time I realized that I was a gambler. Or how about "blind trading" where you took an 400 count shoebox, filled it with a mix of commons and stars with everyone watching to make sure that it was fair- then each person got to grab 10 cards at random from the other persons box, one at a time, without looking. Lost a 1989 Pro Set Barry Sanders that way, goddamn faggots. SFRigged.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

Oh, the gambling thing was huge for us too.I mean, that's basically what packs became.One of my most vivid memories: Going to the card shop with $20 birthday cash and buying packs of 1989 Upper Deck Series 1. 5 packs in, I got a Griffey. Life was so, so good.Traded it for more packs (why? Why trade a Griffey for more packs of 89 Upper Deck when the best you can possibly do is to get back what you just traded in? Let's call that a "life lesson")

LOL I never thought about baseball card packs as a sort of introduction to being a lottery player.

[grocery_mony 8]

Speaking of fads has anyone seen how many "barely used" poker tables have been in the classifieds lately?

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

Speaking of fads has anyone seen how many "barely used" poker tables have been in the classifieds lately?

lol