Tell your story about the cards Mom threw away

[orator1]

I'd bet that most collectors have a story about cards that were discarded, lost, or sold by a parent or sibling.

While I was at college my mother had a garage sale and sold a shoebox full of about 1000 cards from the early 1970s for $1.

Back in the 1950s her younger brother collected baseball cards and had a box full of them. When she was about 14 years old she decided her little brother shouldn't waste his time looking at cards, so she threw them out.

For decades he wondered whatever happened to his cards. His favorite team was the Yankees and he said he had several Mantles (not sure which year). My mother finally came clean about it years later when my brother and I were searching every corner of their house for them, thinking they were just lost. The good news is that we found my uncle's comic books from the 1950s and 1960s, nothing very valuable but still nice to see.

I'm guilty as well - my brother and I used to attach baseball cards to the spokes of our bikes to make a "cool" sound as we rode.

If you've got a card story let's hear it!

Paul C.
Pr0726@aol.com

...Reward offered for scan of James O'Rourke N175, H812, N173(throwing), T5 Pinkerton(O'Rourke Jr.)

[alanu]

sold at rummage sales (that's what we called a garage sale in Nebraska), except my 1972 Topps baseball set and a scrapbook of 1968-69 football cards and posters.

[D. Bergin]

I was lucky. My mom never threw any of my cards away, and I gave her plenty reason to. I'd usually have thousands of cards scattered throughout my room and would even build forts with them.

Needless to say they received plenty of wear. Unfortunately I grew up in the late 70's and 80's so no Mantle or Mays Rookies lying around. I do distinctly remember my favorite card being a dog eared 1972 Willie Mays I won in a game of flips. I loved those gaudy borders for some reason.

I was also the neighborhood knockdowns champion, responsible for winning the collections of an untold number of other kids. Later I blamed myself for the declining interest in baseball cards as I got older and it seemed like I was the only one collecting anymore.

I ended up either giving away or throwing away most of my cards myself in the 90's in the midst of many moves and being completely disgruntled with the hobby and modern cards............though I can almost guarantee I have a boxful of 82 Donruss and some HOOPS Basketball laying in a back storage room somewhere.

[Ladder7]

She chucked all of my late 60's BB and much of my hockey. I lost Mantle, Yaz, Longborg, Harrelson, Aaron, and many big bad Bruins, but it was a turbulent time. I was able to save my favorite Bobby Orr card, so I gave back her insulin.

[paulcarek]

When I was old enough to appreciate (sort of) their significance, but too young to properly care for them, my dealer/collector uncle gave me about 8 T206's. Among them, I distinctly remember, were Tinker, Evers, and Chance (can't remember the poses). Every time I return home for my annual visit, I spend a few hours looking for them. So far, no luck...

[drc]

My mom didn't throw away my cards. They lasted in my childhood bedroom closet through college. My mom ran the house and was very neat, but would have asked or given heads up before she threw out others' personal items. I was prudent enough (or warned) to neatly box and stack them on a back shelf before I went to college.

[Anthony S.]

My mom never threw my cards away, but at some point in my early teens, after I'd stopped collecting, one of our cats decided the stack of shoe boxes tucked way in the back my closet made an ideal urinal. Apparently everyday. Based on the price that mid 1970's through 1981 commons fetch nowadays, the cat had the right idea.

[Mark]

Mom didn't throw mine away, either. But when I was in high school, our home was burglarized and the thieves made off with most of my pre-war cards, including about 50 t206's. That, and going off to college, put me off card collecting for a few years. When I finally took a look at the hobby (around 1990), I was amazed at what had happened to prices. Fortunately, I was able to sell half my post war collection and to use part of the sale to back the lost pre-war cards.

[TheBig6]

I had hundreds of 50's & 60's cards, when I went in the service my mother gave them to the kid across the street.

[Doug]

I think the mid to late 80's Topps cards I had as a kid all got thrown out when I moved out several years back.

[bigtrain]

I was away at college when my younger brother was restoring an old Firebird. Needing money for a paint job, he sold all of my cards from the 60s, dozens of Mantle, Mays, Clemente etc. for about a hundred bucks. Then on the way to the body shop to get the car painted, he totalled it.

[drc]

Bigtrain, you were supposed to say your mom threw away his car.

[iggyman]

My mom didn't throw away my cards but unknown to me, she would let my nieces and nephew play with them. I distinctly remember finding her one afternoon, picking-up my baseball cards using a broom and dustpan. At the time, thanks to my raging teenage hormone level, it didn't really bother me at all.

-Lovely Day...

[drc]

One thing my mom did do. I inherited from my grandfather a significant military medal (Patton and Nimitz were awarded the medal). My mom took a scissors and shortened the ribbon so it would look nicer.

[deadballpaul]

My parents never threw away my cards, but my cat pissed & crapped on them for many years. They were in the attic in an open box. He would climb the garage ladder, & hang out in the attic for long periods of time. They all got tossed in one big clump.

[CTDean]

Some Mom's were smarter about cards than they get credit for. I ran card buying ads in Maryland area newspapers during the 1970's and maybe 25% of the collections I picked up were from Moms.

[drc]

As my mom says when the subject is brought up, baseball cards would be worth less today if moms hadn't thrown out cards. I once pointed this out to her, and she adopted it as a defense of moms.

[David W]

My mom was (is) a neat freak, I wasn't. I'd leave stacks of 70's cards on my bedroom floor, dresser, etc...

She'd go through the room every couple of months and just throw stuff out.

My dad would see them in the trash, come and get me and tell me "Don't let your mom know I told you, but your cards are in the garbage again."

I don't know if mom ever knew she threw the same cards away over and over.

[Zach Wheat]

I spent a number of years of thinking my mom threw my cards away when I went to college. Diggin through some of my old stuff, I was pleasantly surpised to find out she had saved them.

My brother and I were always constantly fighting over which cards belonged to whom. However, after flipping through "the find" I knew these had to be mine. "Fortunately", I had written my initials in big bold letters at the top of every card.

[drc]

My mom's take is when the mom threw out the kid's cards, it was probably the kid's fault. Cards thrown out were more likely spread out on the floor or bed or livingroom than neatly filed away by the kid when he was done playing with them. You guys ain't getting no apology from my mom.

[tbob]

Mom didn't touch my cards, I got rid of many complete sets of 1958 through 1962 myself. I remember the first set I collected, 1958 when I was 8, had 5 or 6 Mantles. I had so many 1960 Mantles I used to trade them for commons I needed. Smart, huh? I sold the 58s-62s in "bricks" of 50 for a nickel to buy other things.
Mom did however throw out all my comics including issues 1-50 Fantastic Four, 1-30 Amazing Spiderman, and tons of other Marvels and DCs all in very fine to mint condition. Thanks mom. (I still think you are the greatest though).

[orator1]

When I was little I associated older cards with cards that had wrinkles. I therefore proceeded to create wrinkles in some my cards to make them seem older. After doing this to a few cards it didn't take long before I regretted it. My most wrinkled card is my 1975 Hank Aaron. It might have the dubious honor of being the most wrinkled card in existence.

[btkpath]

Well, this is a great topic for my first post to these boards, as it represents the genesis for me entering the hobby. I have been a long time lurker and have gained tremendous information and insight from following this forum (and its earlier form).

Around 5 years ago, when asked about my baseball card collection from when I was a kid (mostly 70's and early 80's), my mother informed me that she "didn't know where it was and it might have been thrown out!" I had always had visions of turning the cards over to my sons at the right time and that time had come. After my blood pressure returned to normal, I looked into collecting vintage cards in hopes of deciding on a set that appealed visually to me, had some historical significance, was complete-able (no t206 set for me...sorry), was not too esoteric and was something that I would need to collect over time (i.e. I did not have the financial means to write a check and purchase the entire set outright)....and I could involve my kids in this endeavor and eventually turn the cards over to them.

Well, I decided on the 1933 Goudey set and my quest for expensive pieces of cardboard (as my wife puts it) began. I have since completed the 1933 set (yes, all 240 cards) and have started on the t205's and 1914 cracker jacks.

So, in some respects, my mother's comments with regards to my childhood collection were a blessing in disguise (again, my wife does not necessarily share this opinion) as it provided me with the opportunity to enter a hobby that I never really considered previously.

[rdixon1208]

I've left several 3,000 count boxes at my Mom's, my sister's, and even at my father-in-law's house over the years. All these cards are from the late 80's to 90's, so I wish they would go ahead and throw them away, but they won't! They keep saying things like "I'm sure there's some in there that are worth some money!"

[dennis]

every year from 1959 to 1967 i'd buy baseball and football cards and almost complete sets every year. and every year my mom would toss them in the garbage. that was normal then. i never looked for last years cards, they were old,all we cared about was this years model. thats just the way it was back then. i'm really jealous when someone says their mom kept all their toys from their youth. not my mom she threw every thing out so as to not clutter up the house.

I was a kid in the early 50s, can't say how many '52 Topps Mantles went through my hands, but I had amassed at least a shoe box and a half of cards. I clearly remember the Bowman's because of the TV screen. One day we moved and I figured my stuff moved with me...NOT. I aksed my mom one day what happened to my cards, she tossed them. What really stung the most was how my Lionel train set and my TREASURED Daisy BB gun was never seen again.

OH THE HUMANITY!!!!

[Mrc32]

Originally Posted by rdixon1208

I've left several 3,000 count boxes at my Mom's, my sister's, and even at my father-in-law's house over the years. All these cards are from the late 80's to 90's, so I wish they would go ahead and throw them away, but they won't! They keep saying things like "I'm sure there's some in there that are worth some money!"

Robert- I have the same thing at my mother's house. She keeps asking me to get them out of her basement. I wish she would just throw them away. I can't tell her to do it, since most of them came from her shelling over 40 cents a pack. It is mostly her money in those monster boxes.

[Jim VB]

I've told this story before, so apologies in advance to those who have heard it.

In the 1950's through 1966, we lived in Queens, NY (corner of Metropolitan Ave and Woodhaven Blvd. for those who know the area.) Dad worked for the A&P plant at Bush Terminal in Brooklyn, as Superintendent of Shipping. The trash contractor who picked up from the A&P also had the Topps printing plant on his route. He and Dad got to be friends, so he would, almost daily, drop off all the uncut sheets that Topps tossed out. (Remember, this was 1953 to maybe 1964. These sheets were discarded for printing flaws. They had "no value".)

My older brother or I would sit at the kitchen table on many nights and cut them, with a scissors, into individual cards. (I know! I know!) My brother was responsible for most of the 1953-1959 cutting. I took over for the early 1960's.

We always had thousands of cards, all hand cut, many miscut. But... when you have so many of something, at so low cost (free) they have no value. We tossed them every year, as soon as the new cards came out.

Around 1964 or so, the supply seemed to dry up. I never asked why, but a few months ago I was emailing with Dave Hornish and looking at his site and it hit me that around 1964, Topps moved their printing facilities to Duryea, PA.

I had to start to collect in the conventional way and actually buy packs. But each year, I still treated the cards like before. They held no value, as soon as the new year was released.

So, my Mom wasn't the villian here. I was. In fact, the last year I collected back then was 1968. I had nearly the full set. When the 1969's came out I tossed the 1968's and decided I was too old (14) to waste money on cards.

My mother actually pulled that shoebox from the trash and saved it for years, until I came to my senses.

[martyogelvie]

My mom threw out boxes and boxes of 1991 Donruss.

I thanked her for that later...

[Kalineman]

Not only did my mom keep my old baseball cards, she added to them. I was a big collector in 1960 and 1961. My best friend's Dad owned a dime store and in the fall would simply throw out the old baseball cards from that year. So I got all of his extra 1960 and 1961 cards for free. If I wasn't there to get them, he gave them to my Mom when she was in the store. During my high school years, I was more interested in playing sports and dating. So baseball cards took a back seat.
In college, I started doing shows in the mid 70s and dug out the old 1960 and 1961 Topps. Lots of near mint Mantles, Aarons, Clementes. I used those cards to trade for a near complete run of Bowman sets. I later sold those sets to the late Charlie Conlon and used that money to make a down payment in the house we've lived in for 24 years. So I have my Mom to thank for that.

[mets41]

I too was guilty of tossing my childhood cards. I collected heavily from 1960-64 (ages 8-13). When the 65's came out, I said "baseball cards are for kids" and stopped collecting except for buying 1 pack a year to see what that year's design looked like. In 1966 (now in high school) my family moved from a house to an apartment. My parents said I could bring whatever I wanted provided it didn't exceed a fixed amount of space, so I left the cards in the house for the new family's 8 and 10 year old sons.

[Theoldprofessor]

My mom never threw out anything -- I had a kind of rough growing up -- my dad died when I was very young, and I think she knew how much my card collection and my coin collection meant to me in those times.

She was, however, responsible for the loss of my first '50 Bowman set. For some reason she decided I ought to put them in a scrap book. Worse, she decided I ought to GLUE them in a scrapbook with that amber-colored mucilage favored by librarians and other vandals. Now the '50 Bowman cards had no identifier on the front, so it occurred to me only after having spent an evening sticking the things to brightly colored sheets that I didn't know who most of them were. A few, like Ted Williams, I remembered, so I very neatly wrote "Ted W." The others got (some future professor!) "don't no." Hey! I was eight!

I made a set of plywood covers and woodburned, on the front, "Bob's Baseball Cards." I'm happy to report that they were lost in some move or other over the years. I've since replaced them all, of course, even Dick Kryhoski and Johnny Groth and Neil Berry and Dino Restelli. They're not even in plastic, but sit loose in display drawers of a collector's chest I made. In keeping with the circumstance of their original loss, most are in vg-ex at best.

[tedzan]

In any event, when my Uncle Chris died, I convinced my parents to have my Aunt Anna move in with us.
As a teenager in the 1950's, I worked with my Aunt in their restaurant. We had some tense moments; but,
we were family and we always had a great rapport.

Anyhow, when I was in the Air Force (1960-1964), my Mom was on clean-up campaign and started putting
my cards in the trash to be disposed of. My Aunt recovered all of my cards and put them in a safe place for
me. She told my Mom, in her inimitable Greek...."are you crazy sister, Teddy will dis-own us, when he comes
home and cannot find his BB cards".

Many years later in 1977, my young daughters got me interested in BB cards again. So, I went to my sister's
house (she bought our home that we grew up in....Hillside, NJ) and found all my BB, FB and non-sports cards
in the attic. My collection from my youth includes cards from......

1947 Bond Bread
1948 Bowman.....just a dozen cards
1949 Leaf Boxing.....complete set of 49 cards
1949 Leaf BB & FB....many cards (no scarce #s)
1949 Bowman BB.....near complete set
1949 Bowman Wild West
1950 Bowman BB & FB.....near complete set of BB
1950 Hopalong Cassidy
1951 Bowman BB & FB.....many cards (no Hi #s)
1952 Bowman BB.....only the first 72 cards
1952 Topps.....250+ cards, including Mickey Mantle


TED Z

[ChiefBenderForever]

My mom lost it one night in 86 or 87 and went on a rampage and started throwing things all over the house, I had just finished putting together a complete 86 fleer basketball set and had them in a nice stack from 1-132 and she grabbed the whole stack and threw it, they all smashed against the wall and every right hand corner was dinged really bad, from nrmt to ex- just like that. I couldn't be to upset as she bought a box of them for me that xmas and I pulled 5 Jordans out of it so one down the drain didn't end up to bad a few years later when they took off in value.

[voskresensk]

my mom's uncle always claimed he had two T206 honus wagners, one or two babe ruth rookie cards (the sporting news M101-5 I'm assuming), among other things. he said one day his mother took them outside and burned them. I don't remember the reason. this was in the 1940's.

[slidekellyslide]

I sold almost all of my baseball cards around 1989-90 in an auction. I gotta think it was one of the earliest sportscard only auctions in the midwest...Maybe the first in Nebraska?...I made good money and I figure I got out when the getting was good...the only cards I kept were 3 Old Judges, and my Pete O'Brien collection (sidenote: O'Brien was my favorite player and I figure I have probably 200+ different issues of his....I'm still looking for a few that I fear I may never find).

My Dad told me that he had collected cards in the 1950s and he had a whole dresser drawer full of them...he figured that they were still somewhere in my Grandma and Grandpa's house...I searched forever, but never found them...I think perhaps one of his younger brothers took them after my Dad left home. There is still some hope though as I recently was told that there is a bunch of stuff up above the garage that hasn't been looked through yet.

[Old Mill Man]

I had a lot of my cards thrown away and the ones I miss the most were the OPC Hockey Posters as I had a near complete set but I did not listen to the stern warning and they were tossed,Ahh well,my stupidity

[CobbSpikedMe]

I was another lucky one, my mom would never through away any of my old toys or cards. In fact, she recently gave me 2 unopened GI Joe vehicles and 3 unopened GI Joe figures from the 80's that she still had tucked away in her closet from when I was a kid. She said she never ended up using them as birthday or Christmas gifts so they just sat in her closet for the last 20 years. I sold them on eBay and padded my Paypal account rather nicely for more cards.

[WarHoundR69]

In 1962 my father bought a row home in Phila. (331 W. Girard Ave.) The house had previously been owned by a man who worked for Bowman.

In the basement were scores of unopened wax boxes plus tons of loose cards - probably everything that Bowman issued between 1948 & 1955. My father gave them to me. I had a field day opening the packs, putting sets together flipping for cards plus I remember destroying quite a few 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle cards in the spokes of my bicycle.

Probably 75 to 80 % of the cards in that basement were destroyed by me. Hey I was a stupid kid.

What I had left I sold in 1978 for $8,000.00. I was 26 - BB cards were kid stuff. Complete sets of 1948 Basketball, all the Bowman Football & Baseball card sets plus quite a few NonSports sets were in the lot I sold. As best I remember the cards I sold were probably EX/NM or better.

So my Mom never threw my cards away but boy did I destroy a ton of them.

[HOFAUTOS]

Well Im not sure if mom threw them away (which she claims she didnt) or if my sister and her boyfriend took them while living in the house (im going with the latter) . I had 100's of signed cards with the majority of them being HOF'ers on vintage cards. I joined the Marines and left for boot camp. Camp back few months later on leave and the box they were in was no where to be found. My mom and dad had no idea where it was. My sister and her boyfriend moved out about a month before, and I suspect her BF had something to do with it. I still wonder where those damn cards are......tons of hard to get autos of deceased HOF'ers......

[Jim VB]

"I suspect her BF had something to do with it. "

Put that Marine Corp training to use. Hunt down the BF (I presume now ex-BF) and make him talk!