What card are you thankful for? (See what I did there?)

[JollyElm]

You don't have to own the card or anything, but in celebration of Thanksgiving, what is one of your favorite cards of all time and why? Post a scan.

mays.jpg

1972 was the first year my brothers and I collected cards and Willie Mays was suddenly traded to our beloved Mets early on in the season. My dad was extremely excited and he would regale us with many stories about how incredible a player he was and that he started out in New York on the Giants before they hightailed it to the west coast.

My friends and I instantly became obsessed with getting as many of these cards as possible!! And to this day I smile every single time I see one, thinking of my dad and those long summer days of my youth. And, hey, it's a great picture with that packed house in the background.

[HRBAKER]

From a sentimental standpoint this has always been my favorite. In 1967 I was eight years old, this was the first year I really bought a whole lot of cards (mostly 6 pack wax trays at the A&P), and my favorite team the Cardinals were on their way to the Worlds Championship. This card had my two favorite Cardinals on one card - hard to beat!

[Samsdaddy]

Musial.jpg

Back in 1982 at the age of 15 I am watching Hart to Hart on TV and this card pops up on the tube. I always loved All - Star Cards and this card started my pursuit of collecting all the 1958 All - Stars which ended about eight or nine years later when I picked up the Ted Williams All - Star card for about $10 at a local card show.

Now, I do not have a scanner so this is not my personal 58 Musial All - Star card but it represents the card I am most thankful for.

[JollyElm]

I'm just loving the Hart to Hart reference!!!!!!!

[pawpawdiv9]

i have yet to have it. As a home town GA boy, i always dreamt about Hammerin Hank Aaron and followed the Braves in the late 80's/early 90s, thats when i picked up card collecting.
At xmas, my Ma got a Sears baseball card collection for me and my brother to share.
It had all the greats. I think they are called immortals by TCMA or something. I still have it stored away in the closet in those 9-pocket binder pages.
Thats when we started collecting all sorts of cards and stored them in those long cardboard boxes. However we stopped when we made it to HighSchool.
Now that we have jobs and are able to afford some of the cards we always wanted to have...however i never got to the Hank Aaron RC yet, or yet find one centered for my needs.

[Exhibitman]

I was 9 the year he broke the record. Hank Aaron was THE MAN as far as I was concerned and this card and the subsequent Hank Aaron Special cards from the set were the first group of cards I can recall actively chasing.

Pulled this one out of a pack in 1976 in New York City. Slabbed it years later, obviously:



When I was 12 after we'd just moved from NYC to LA, my parents took our family to some friends' house. They had grown kids so I had nothing to do but when I mentioned that I collected cards, the mom said that they had a big box of them in the attic and I could take what I wanted. I spent the rest of the day gathering 1950s-1960s HOFers from the box, baseball and football. At the end when we were ready to go they just gave me the box. It was about 2' x 2' and mostly filled with cards randomly thrown in. I dumped the whole lot onto the floor of my room that evening and started sorting. When I reached the bottom of the pile I found one of these, which I later upgraded. Man, was I excited. Still a favorite card:



This has always been my favorite Clemente card, no reason, I just like it:



I realize I am posting a prewar card but I do love the colors on it, even more than the T206:

[JollyElm]

Adam, are you from New York? Because your Aaron cards reminded me that when I was young, you were either a Mets fan or a Yankees fan and either a Willie Mays fan or a Hank Aaron fan. Never both.

And that Clemente is awesome! Coupled with his 'in action' shot, that's the best pair of cards of a single player in a single set ever!!

[Samsdaddy]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

I'm just loving the Hart to Hart reference!!!!!!!

Yea, the episode was that an associate/friend of the Harts died and left his young son a great, vintage baseball card collection that a relative stole. The Harts won the cards back in a flipping contest. This card was one that was flipped off the wall and when I saw it I was hooked on the 58 All Star cards.

[Jerry G]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

I'm just loving the Hart to Hart reference!!!!!!!

"Jonathon, move your foot!"

[JollyElm]

By the way, my name is Max. I take care of both of them...which ain't easy; 'cause when they met, it was murder!

[Samsdaddy]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

By the way, my name is Max. I take care of both of them...which ain't easy; 'cause when they met, it was murder!

LOL

I watched that particular episode again on the baseball cards and noticed something I did not as a young kid. When they were flipping cards off the wall, Jonathon's wife would hand him a baseball card to flip. If you looked closely, she was handing him 1982 Topps Baseball cards, probably commons. But, when they showed the card against the wall, it was always a vintage superstar such as the Musial I saw.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

Adam, are you from New York? Because your Aaron cards reminded me that when I was young, you were either a Mets fan or a Yankees fan and either a Willie Mays fan or a Hank Aaron fan. Never both.

And that Clemente is awesome! Coupled with his 'in action' shot, that's the best pair of cards of a single player in a single set ever!!

Yep. I was a Yankees fan, hated the Mets. But I was 8 when Mays came back to NY so I was young enough to be happy anyway. They handed out posters at my school celebrating it and I had one on my closet door. Years later I found this pin with the same art:

[Exhibitman]

Also thankful for the 1952 Topps Zernial

[CW]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

By the way, my name is Max. I take care of both of them...which ain't easy; 'cause when they met, it was murder!

Originally Posted by Samsdaddy

LOL

I watched that particular episode again on the baseball cards and noticed something I did not as a young kid. When they were flipping cards off the wall, Jonathon's wife would hand him a baseball card to flip. If you looked closely, she was handing him 1982 Topps Baseball cards, probably commons. But, when they showed the card against the wall, it was always a vintage superstar such as the Musial I saw.

Classic! I remember that episode when it first aired. IIRC, they also showed an '82 Fernando Valenzuela (I searched high and low for that card after seeing it on Hart to Hart).

I'm going to have to dig it up on YouTube....

[CW]

The card I'm most thankful for is this one, as it reminds me of my Mom, and can sometimes evoke that feeling of being a kid again...



and a card for which I'm simply thankful it exists, whether I own a copy or not, it's this one. Not much description is needed -- it is simply a card that defines coolness

[71buc]

A couple of years ago I found these boxes of unopened basketball cards for $20 a box. I sold them for many times more than that and purchased the rookie cards of my childhood heroes as well as other baubles I had dreamed of owning. Years of searching and finally pay dirt. I am still very thankful for that find and the cards they netted me.

[MattyC]

Obtained in 86 at a local Brooklyn show, attended by me, my little brother, mom, and nana. I was 10. It just did not get any bigger in 86 than the Mets. I would wind up having tequila shots with Straw 25 years later, and tell him the story of when he told the show's security to screw off and signed my extra 86 Topps card "To Matt," when they wanted me to pay extra for the second signature (he'd signed another card for me just seconds earlier).

[71buc]

Cool story. I was never a Mets fan but thought both Strawberry and Gooden were tragedies. I never understood how the Mets front office handled them. They had to know fueling a 19 and 21 year old with a wad of cash and celebrity and setting them loose in New York without adequate supervision was a recipe for disaster. I believe in personal accountability but the Mets were negligent with those two young men. You would think that they would have assigned chaperones or mentors to protect their investment in those two talents from predators and their own immature self-destruction. God only knows what their careers might have been if the adequate support system had been put in place. I think back to my own college days and am embarrassed by my own stupidity and debauchery. Although it would have been to fun to find out, I'm certain had I been in Strawberry's or Gooden's shoes at that same age I would have suffered a much worse fate than academic probation and unexplainable grass stains in my underwear.

[SPMIDD]

I am thankful for my '53 Mantle. I love this card!

[stlcardsfan]

Originally Posted by 71buc

A couple of years ago I found these boxes of unopened basketball cards for $20 a box. I sold them for many times more than that and purchased the rookie cards of my childhood heroes as well as other baubles I had dreamed of owning. Years of searching and finally pay dirt. I am still very thankful for that find and the cards they netted me.

Very cool. What year were the basketball cards?

[hcv123]

It was about 1978. I was 11 years old and heavy into collecting comic books. I "flipped" baseball cards. The owner of the comic book store(The Incredible Pulp in Baldwin NY - Larry Deleo) I went to had rented space to a baseball card dealer and I was intrigued by the old cards. I bought a few cheap ones. Soon after my Mom dropped me off at the Colliseum Motor Inn baseball card show. To say I was a kid in a candy store would be an understatement. I was quickly overwhelmed by all the fantastic cardboard! While looking around - I found a dealer who had a whole bunch of 1955 Topps cards in his display case - the cards really stood out to me. I looked up the 1955 set in my newly purchased ccp(cpu?) and saw that the Clemente rookie was the most valuable in the set having a listed value of $86. The one in the case was marked only $68 - A HUGE value (at the time I hadn't spent more than $3-$5 on any single card)! I waited for my mom to arrive and the process began. Please...........it will be my presents for a year.......I will never ask for another gift again........anything, mom, what do I have to do..........Spending money on baseball cards was a foreign and silly idea to mom (at the time). The dealer saw the struggle and dropped his price to $48 - I couldn't contain myself. After a half hour of begging and pleading, Mom finally caved. My Roberto Clemente collection was born. Years of joyful collecting and great friendships began that day. I still have the card. It would probably grade a 4-4.5. Far from the most valuable card I have, but for sure the one I am most grateful for.

[Samsdaddy]

Originally Posted by hcv123

It was about 1978. I was 11 years old and heavy into collecting comic books. I "flipped" baseball cards. The owner of the comic book store(The Incredible Pulp in Baldwin NY - Larry Deleo) I went to had rented space to a baseball card dealer and I was intrigued by the old cards. I bought a few cheap ones. Soon after my Mom dropped me off at the Colliseum Motor Inn baseball card show. To say I was a kid in a candy store would be an understatement. I was quickly overwhelmed by all the fantastic cardboard! While looking around - I found a dealer who had a whole bunch of 1955 Topps cards in his display case - the cards really stood out to me. I looked up the 1955 set in my newly purchased ccp(cpu?) and saw that the Clemente rookie was the most valuable in the set having a listed value of $86. The one in the case was marked only $68 - A HUGE value (at the time I hadn't spent more than $3-$5 on any single card)! I waited for my mom to arrive and the process began. Please...........it will be my presents for a year.......I will never ask for another gift again........anything, mom, what do I have to do..........Spending money on baseball cards was a foreign and silly idea to mom (at the time). The dealer saw the struggle and dropped his price to $48 - I couldn't contain myself. After a half hour of begging and pleading, Mom finally caved. My Roberto Clemente collection was born. Years of joyful collecting and great friendships began that day. I still have the card. It would probably grade a 4-4.5. Far from the most valuable card I have, but for sure the one I am most grateful for.

Great story Howard. The cool thing is you still have that card 35 years later.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by stlcardsfan

Very cool. What year were the basketball cards?

They look to be 76-77 Topps.

[71buc]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

They look to be 76-77 Topps.

Yes, that is what they were.

This is mine