Alright, you're forcing me to drag out old, painful memories...
Almost my entire collection of cards was stolen by movers in 2000.
My new company asked us to move from Cincinnati to Atlanta and we used one of the big-name movers. I had just moved all of my cards to new hobby boxes for the relocation, but had the pre-war and star baseball cards in two binders. My idea was that I would put everything in binders and finish those few sets that were incomplete (using this new 'eBay-thing') when we got settled in the new house.
I had started collecting in 1967 and had complete or near complete sets of all the sports (baseball, football, basketball, hockey, even British soccer) from '67 to '72, as well as a large number of star cards from the 1950's Bowman and Topps football sets (things like the Bowman 1952 Large Jim Lansford). There was a very near complete set of 1962 Topps Basketball, a complete set (- #66) of the Ted Williams Fleer cards, some of the good non-sports issues (like the Marvel Super-hero set from 196?)- and on and on. It hurts to even type all these out now.
Like a dummy I let the movers take the cards after being assured by the movers rep on the phone that they had coverage up to $100k for personal property.
I don't know who took them or how but only the "star" binders, which had been packed in boxes with my books made it to Atlanta.
The good news was that the moving company wrote me a check for $20,000, which bought the family a new van (probably the only time in life I'll ever be able to buy a new car with cash!). The bad news was that I wasn't ready to sell the cards and to replace what I had would have cost over $50,000.
I still feel violated and sad to this day. They stole my childhood!!!!
(Ahhh...feel much better now. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest, Doc. How much do I owe you for this session?)
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