Did You Throw Out Your Baseball cards?

[dgridley]

I can remember preferring to buy Civil War News and Mars Attacks cards in the early 60's instead of the baseball and football cards my friends were buying.

In the early 70's, I passed up an enormous collection of sports cards at a garage sale to buy a vintage Pepsi Cola coin-op soda dispenser. (Still kicking myself on that one).

Since then, I've had literally 100's of thousands, if not millions, of cards and related items, including single-signed Babe Ruth and team signed baseballs and more pass through my hands..

I just got an auction catalog yesterday from Memory Lane for one of their past auctions which features a PSA 9 Mickey Mantle Topps #311 rookie card which sold for ... well, read my post:

http://www.lookwhatdavefound.com/2007/01/12/memory-lane-inc-psa-9-mantle-rookie-sells-for-240500/

BTW- I'm sure I owned at least one Mantle rookie at one time or another.. of course, in those days, there were only worth what you could get for them.. sorta like domains!

 

[Broker]

Had 2 Pete Rose rookie cards when I was kid. Gave them away at that time and have no idea if they are worth anything today givin the scandal.

 

[dgridley]

They are.. I don't recall how much off the top of my head.. that year's design (Topps) was one of my favorite card designs and still is. Even the forgery Rose rookies have value today.

Topps had team insert posters in their packs one year (forget which one) but I can remember getting the poster with Rose on it at a flea market once for ... one penny! :lol:

Had 2 Pete Rose rookie cards when I was kid. Gave them away at that time and have no idea if they are worth anything today givin the scandal.

 

[franchise]

Back when I was a kid...baseball cards were for trading, flipping, playing card games (stat vs stat) etc. I managed to keep a bunch from the 70's maybe a couple hundred cards.

I haven't checked any of them lately...still have them in a bundle in the closet. Those were some good memories though. I was a Cleveland Indians fan back then.

 

[dgridley]

I hear ya.. geez, was just looking at the prices on single-signed Babe Ruth baseballs (I've had 3, plus a Ruth on a team signed ball) and they are running around $20k or so! I got $300 for my last one years and years ago!

I once bought a Carl Yazsremski rookie card at a flea market in a box of "commons" for 25 cents and sold it that night for $300. Don't think they're going that high these days tho, haven't checked.

And don't even get me started on comic books... I've had 1000's upon 1000's!

Back when I was a kid...baseball cards were for trading, flipping, playing card games (stat vs stat) etc. I managed to keep a bunch from the 70's maybe a couple hundred cards.

I haven't checked any of them lately...still have them in a bundle in the closet. Those were some good memories though. I was a Cleveland Indians fan back then.

 

[dgridley]

Sounds good! If condition is good, you could really have a treasure or two!

Is '53 Ford's rookie year?

A friend of mine was friends with Yogi Berra.. is he still alive?

I just found my 1953 Whitey Ford, along with some other older cards. I have a 65 Yogi Berra and some other oldies. I have so many cards packed away in draws and in my closet. A lot of autographs and game used cards too. Some day I will have to go through them all.

 

[.X.]

some how all mine made it through the years,my grandfather gave me all of his aswell,he used to send off for those nabisco promotions and all,they used to send him like a four card set...autographed...I have the duke snider - micky mantle set autograped and a bunch more,i have a dizzy dean signed baseball he gave me aswell.

 

[dgridley]

This is how stupid I was.. some time back Canadian Club released some promotional baseball cards all signed by Hall of Famers.. I forget how many were in the set but I bought 350 of them from a garage sale some years ago for $15. I sold 50 of them to the guy I was with to get my $15 back and then sold the remainder for $1 a piece straight across to a dealer later that week. Wish I'd kept at least half of them!

some how all mine made it through the years,my grandfather gave me all of his aswell,he used to send off for those nabisco promotions and all,they used to send him like a four card set...autographed...I have the duke snider - micky mantle set autograped and a bunch more,i have a dizzy dean signed baseball he gave me aswell.

 

[whitebark]

I was a huge collector of cards as a kid until I was 20. I have literally thousands of baseball, hockey and football cards. They are a pain to move and store as they take up plenty of room!

Being Canadian I cherish my dozen or so mint Wayne Gretzky rookies the most. But I have every major hockey player's rookie card from the 60's until the early 90's.

I also used to go garage sale hopping and buy up what I could. Amazing that people would take such care of cards from the 40's and 50's then sell them for nothing. Their loss was my gain!

Mine are all destined to be passed on to my children... but I have to have some first!

 

[000]

I collected cards up until a few years ago. I quit because the sports card industry is destroying itself by printing thousands of various jersey/bat/stick/ball/pants/shoe/helmet/autograph sets, bringing the value down to almost nothing. There's really no point in collecting newer cards in my opinion, and if I ever get back to collecting cards, I'll definitely be focusing on the 50's.

 

[dgridley]

I can remember looking for Gretzky rookies way back when.. I've had several but gave them to a girlfriend also collecting at the time. I was never much of a hockey fan. I collected "money", lol!

I was a huge collector of cards as a kid until I was 20. I have literally thousands of baseball, hockey and football cards. They are a pain to move and store as they take up plenty of room!

Being Canadian I cherish my dozen or so mint Wayne Gretzky rookies the most. But I have every major hockey player's rookie card from the 60's until the early 90's.

I also used to go garage sale hopping and buy up what I could. Amazing that people would take such care of cards from the 40's and 50's then sell them for nothing. Their loss was my gain!

Mine are all destined to be passed on to my children... but I have to have some first!

 

[whitebark]

I collected cards up until a few years ago. I quit because the sports card industry is destroying itself by printing thousands of various jersey/bat/stick/ball/pants/shoe/helmet/autograph sets, bringing the value down to almost nothing. There's really no point in collecting newer cards in my opinion, and if I ever get back to collecting cards, I'll definitely be focusing on the 50's.

Yeah they sort of ruined collecting. Too many companies making too many products in too large of runs. They started that in the late 80's and by the early 90's it wasn't worth collecting anymore as you say.

O-Pee-Che and Topps only!

Did anyone who bought cards back then actually like the gum?

 

[dgridley]

Hm, I hate to admit I even actually used to chew that gum!

I kind of like the variety of inserts and the like available today but I hate the high prices of the packs and boxes (a long ways from 5 and 10 cents a pack) and miss the old wax wrappers (used to have a huge collection of sports and non sports wrappers.

Yeah they sort of ruined collecting. Too many companies making too many products in too large of runs. They started that in the late 80's and by the early 90's it wasn't worth collecting anymore as you say.

O-Pee-Che and Topps only!

Did anyone who bought cards back then actually like the gum?