New Member...

[Harliduck]

...first post!

Name is John, and I am one of many I have noticed at the shows and shops who collected as a kid, got disinfranchised with all the "new garbage", and have now come back to Vintage.

Open my first packs in 1978 (8 years old, allowance money!) and put the set together. Did the same through 1990, bought last pack in 1991, yuck. I remember seeing Donruss and Fleer in 1981 show up at the local convenient store, bought them, hated them, but collected them. By 16 I had a few older people give me their collections and was sitting on 500,000 plus cards. I became the local "go to guy" for commons to the local shops for cards 52-current. Hand coalated a 1969 Topps set from 12 years old to finding the final card, Jim Northrup, on my honeymoon in Oregon. Last card I bought. New wife hated cards, but loved the fact I sold a 55 Clemente and Koufax to furnish our new house, and a 65 Namath for the down payment on the house. Moved in, cards stayed with Mom, lol.

5 years later she talked me into selling my prized possesion, the 69 set, for a down payment on a piece of land. Ironically, that piece of land payed for my divource another 3 years later! I bet you saw that coming. Donated my entire collection to the local church and they sold them off piece by piece, which raised a couple thousand, and I won't tell you what was sold. Mom wanted them gone.

Re-married, (still VERY happily mind you) and after three daughters I had a son in 2005. The only card I had left was a 54 Jackie I couldn't part with (not including the 69 Aaron and Mays I have had in my wallet since I was 14, still carry them!), and feeling nostalgic one afternoon, made the decision on a whim to piece together another 69 set to give to my son. Things had changed! After 6 months of ebaying and hitting shops (all the shops dissapeared!) I had a much cleaner 69 set and felt MUCH better about one of my biggest regrets. Being a die hard Harmon Killebrew fan I got all his cards. Then decided I missed all those 80 sets, bought them all 80-90. Found a box in the attic that didn't make it to the church event, my actual 79 set from my childhood (I still don't know how that happened!) and decided to do all the 70s. I have the 78, 77, 76, 74, 73 done. Brought all my 73 doubles to my little brother who used to collect too, and he got the bug. He was born in 73. He now has 15 cards to go...

Got the bug HARDER...went after the 66 set, which seemed impossible in my youth. I now just need the Twins and Tiger team cards (still looking for the right deal!) and need only 80 cards for the 70 set. Chipping at the 72 set, need 125ish. Also chipping away at 54s, unbelievable set, got the Hoyt W card today! Brother dug deep too...his childhood dream was 65s, now needs about 85 left. I also need 22 63 Fleer cards..and am pondering which set will be next, maybe 64s? 67s?

So I don't have the store room full anymore, but just nice neat blue binders of all my years now of sets, and collect with my son, who is now 7. He loves Killebrew too, and his 59 card is his favorite.

Anyhow, sorry to bore...I am just really excited to find this sight and go back read everyone's set quests. I absolutely LOVE it...and I find it pretty cool to see all the guys my age coming back to the hobby. My story seems to be replicated all over the place...and still chuckle I can get an 86 Donruss Conseco for 3 bucks on Ebay...HAHAHA...

[tonyo]

Hi John,

Welcome.... I enjoyed reading about your card journey and all the post war sets. Particularly happy about your 7 year old Killebrew fan.

I came back to the hobby in 2009 and started in prewar then. So much to learn from this site on both the pre- and post war sides.

Enjoy!

Tony

[Leon]

Hi John, welcome aboard. Great story. I got back into collecting after collecting as a kid in the late 60s and early 70s, about 17 yrs ago. I have been addicted ever since. I do type card collecting from 1900-1949 and love every minute of it. We have a a lot of very friendly folks on here and many of us have know each other for a lot of years. I mainly post on the pre-war side but venture over here sometimes. I have a few oddball miscut and freakish post-war cards. Good luck in the hunt and happy collecting!! (Be sure to participate in the contests on the main board, we have them very often and someone always wins). Let me know if I can ever help.

[hangman62]

Welcome John,
You got me thinking..I might use this Mantle card as a down payment on a house .

[CobbSpikedMe]

Welcome back to the hobby John and welcome aboard here at N54. You'll find a wealth of knowledge here. But be careful, if you venture to the prewar side you may get hooked on that as well.

Best of luck to you with your collecting adventure.

AndyH

.

[ALR-bishop]

Welcome, John

[Paul S]

Howdy, John -- and thanks for sharing your story

[Harliduck]

Thanks for the welcome!

I have been looking at the pre-war stuff and you aren't kidding. Wow. That is what is really cool about collecting now verses 20 years ago, the internet has made these cards accessible to buy, or even just to see. All I had when I was a kid was some old books, and when I got a beat up 59 Jim Perry when I was around 10, I thought I had something out of King Tuts grave and was the hero of the neighborhood...now I can scroll around and find Old Judge cards...just crazy. I've seen cards here in the last few days that quite frankly belong in museums, just awesome. The knowledge and the collections the folks here have are simply unbelievable.

As for the downpayment on the house...my first house as a 19 year old in 1989 was $69K. Sold all three of those cards for just under $2k at the time. This was long before grading, but they seemed pristine at the time, easily 7's I would guess. I would say it was a good investment because I sold that house 3 years later for $122K, which means the sold money did better than the cards. I have no idea what those three would sell for if they were all 7s today? I can tell you hangman, I would have traded anyone of those 3 cards for that 66 Mantle back then, HAHA...well, maybe not...

[novakjr]

Welcome aboard John...

Great story, and I like the 59 Jim Perry/Tut's Grave comment...I think we all had that 1 card in our youth.. As embarrassing as it sounds, for me it was a 66 Jim Lefebvre.

And while we're all posting pics of our dogs...

[Bocabirdman]

Originally Posted by hangman62

Welcome John,
You got me thinking..I might use this Mantle card as a down payment on a house .

That card would only work south of the equator...

John..Welcome back to the hobby. Good luck in your search.

[ValKehl]

John, welcome back to the hobby and to Net 54. I truly enjoyed reading your collecting history. I have a gut feeling that before too long, you'll get the itch to dive into pre-War cards (gotta stay one step ahead of your brother!).

I met Killebrew once, at a local card show c. 1990. After his signing commitment was finished, he didn't just disappear like most signers do. Rather, he roamed the aisles of the show for a couple of hours, chatting with collectors and dealers and answering all the questions that were thrown at him. He came across to me as one superduper-nice person. Funny thing is, I was not a Killebrew fan when he first came to the Senators, my home-town team, as a "bonus baby" in the mid-1950s - I thought the Senators made a huge mistake because he struck out so much in his early days. I was a Little Leaguer at that time, and it was a Cardinal sin to my Dad whenever I struck out, because Dad always preached contact hitting to me - consequently, my/our heroes were the .300 batters who hit mostly singles! Besides, I was a skinny kid who managed to hit only one home run during my entire Little League career!

I, too, got back into collecting as an adult, in the 1980s. Fortunately, Mom didn't throw out my 1955 - 1960 childhood collection (yes, I still have my Killebrew rookie card from my childhood days). I had no idea that bb cards existed long, long before WWII until I discovered bb card shows and went to a couple of them. After a few years of working towards completing my 1955 - 1960 Topps & Bowman sets and starting some earlier 1950s sets and later 1960s sets, I went to Bill Huggins' (now Huggins & Scott Auctions) shop one day and traded him some of my 1960 Topps dupes for a T207 Walter Johnson - this is when the bug hit me to focus on pre-War cards, which I have done ever since.

Hope this dissertation hasn't put everyone to sleep!
Val

[BruceinGa]

Welcome!
My story is similar to yours. I started collecting in 1960 then grew tired of it in 1964. In 1988 I started again, along with my 12 and 15 year old sons. We bought early 60's and my younger son concentrated on the 63 fleer set. We lost interest in the new cards and gave it up. My younger son called me a couple of months ago, explaining PSA and card grading.
We're both back into it, me with 61 topps and he with 83 and 84 Topps.