My story: I was born in 1980, and from about the age of 7 - 13 or so baseball cards were a big part of my life. I vividly remember collecting 87 and 88 Topps, spending time with pops over 90 Fleer, and finally collecting 92 Upper Deck at the end. There was nothing like going through the latest Beckett and spending hours just lounging around the local card shop. I just miss spending time with friends who were interested in collecting and, more broadly, just being a fun-loving, carefree kid up until probably junior HS.
It's nice to reminisce about those days, dreaming of getting the seemingly ancient rookies of the early 80s or the hotshot rookies of the present, like McGwire, Jim Abbott, or Todd Van Poppell (
). Nintendo, pizza parties, playing sports, and having fun with friends were important, too, but the memories of baseball card collecting are the most vivid.
Well, I go through regularly occurring spells of nostalgia where I want to spend, oh, $200 to acquire every card from, say, '80 to 92 that I ever dreamed of having as a kid, but these thoughts are seemingly always immediately followed by a strange, depressing feeling. I really can't identify it. It feels like I miss it so much I've developed some sort of psychological or emotional issue about wanting to relive those days. I'm generally happy with my life right now, but I have this longing for the good, ol' days of the late 80s and early 90s.
This post obviously encompasses more than baseball cards post-80, but it seemed fitting to share thoughts here to me, as people interested in cards of this era may have had similar experiences, whether fleetingly or ongoing. I hope reading my short, abbreviated story brings more fond memories of nostalgia than uneasy ones!