When I became a card addict as a 7-year-old in 1972, the Vida Blue In Action card was the first object of my abject covetousness. I also discovered older cards that year through friends with older brothers. I distinctly remember acquiring a 1966 Mantle and other '66s from a fellow second grader with a brother in junior high school. I got the '69 Bench about the same time in a box of cards from a kid who got them from his brother, didn't care about them, and gave them to me when I let him ride my bike. After that, I was obsessed not only with ripping open new packs of cards but finding older stuff, mainly by targeting neighborhood kids who were entering their teen years and giving up the hobby. The Mantle card here is the same one I acquired 45 years ago; I'm pretty sure the Blue card is as well.
|