Favorite worthless card...

[novakjr]

This kinda got started in the BS listing thread in the pre-war forum. But I thought it might be fun to see what everyone's favorite worthless(or nearly worthless) card is. You know, the one you just had to have growing up, and nowadays is virtually forgotten, but every-time you see it, you can't help but get somewhat nostalgic.

For me it has to be the 1985 Topps Cory Snyder Olympic card..

[ALR-bishop]

The first set I finished was 1959 Topps. My favorite card was Curt Raydon. It was worthless then and is worthless now ( and I never had any other expectations), but I still like it for some reason

[scmavl]

1981 Donruss Ron Oester

It's the first card I remember owning, I guess when I was 5 or so. I bought a complete '81 set last year just so I could get that card again, as no one had it individually.

[vintagetoppsguy]

The 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco. It was the first year I started collecting, but I didn't get one in '86. It became extremely popular a couple of years later when he was the first player to make the 40/40 club. The card was going for over $100 at one point and I actually bought one for that price.

It still brings back memories every time I see that card. I was at the TriStar show in Houston this past weekend and one dealer had a bargain box with several of them. Jose's birthday is a couple of days away (July 2nd).

[Robextend]

1987 Topps Don Mattingly...it is the first card I ever remember caring about!

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

The 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco. It was the first year I started collecting, but I didn't get one in '86. It became extremely popular a couple of years later when he was the first player to make the 40/40 club. The card was going for over $100 at one point and I actually bought one for that price.

It still brings back memories every time I see that card. I was at the TriStar show in Houston this past weekend and one dealer had a bargain box with several of them. Jose's birthday is a couple of days away (July 2nd).

Definitely a good choice. I think the perspective on the '86 Canseco all comes down to when it was acquired. Had I bought that card when it was over $100, it probably would've topped my list as well. However, I didn't get one 'til a few years ago, and I think I might've payed $4 or so..

One of the first things I did when I got back into collecting was that I started to pickup the 80's cards that I always wanted as a kid but couldn't afford. The kind of cards that once seemed ridiculously expensive, that can now be had for under $10. Basically, the big investment killers. The main ones that come to mind are...

'83 Topps Traded Strawberry
'84 Donruss Joe Carter
'84 Topps Traded Gooden
'85 Topps McGwire
'86 Donruss Canseco
'87 Classic Green Bo Jackson
'90 Leaf Frank Thomas and Sosa

[ALR-bishop]

A more modern card I chased was the 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken variations. I ended up with the obscenity, big black box, small black box, scribble with loop, scribble without loop, white out( probably fake), paper stock ( fake), white scribble ( some of these did come in packs) and several of the above with cut outs ( some likely fake but I think there were some legit ones). Another was the Littlefield reverse negative. I am sure if I could add up what I paid for all of them I would be lucky to get 15 % now

[Ejm1]

1982 TOPPS Carlton Fisk in Action, he was my favorite when I was in little league and the card just looked cool.

[novakjr]

Aside from the Cory Snyder. If I were to do a top 5, I think I'd also have, in no particular order, the 1989 Topps Mark Lewis and Jim Abbott, the 1990 Leaf Albert Belle and the 1992 Upper Deck Shawn Green. With an honorable mention going to the '90 Donruss MVP Smoltz(glavine error).

[hunterdutchess]

My top 3 are:

1. 1989 Topps Gregg Jeffries (My old man bought a few boxes trying to get some $50+ each)

2. 1986 Topps Cecil Fielder (Back in 91 here in Detroit they were going for $40+)

3. Stadium club dome Brian Taylor. (Have no idea what that cost but if it was over a penny it was too high)

I still have all three and I can think of many more like these but those three had me and my Dad on the hunt and now I could not trade them for a pack of gum.

[hangman62]

I recall getting carried away with the 87T trd set... Oh..you have to have the Kevin Seizter card !... and then 89 T ( ?) Gregg Jefferies..had a non collecting friend who insisted he wanted to buy 50 to 100 of them.. the Mets had just called up Jefferies...and he was batting something like .350- .400 !!...
Lucky for him..he never did buy the cards

[sycks22]

'65 Topps Carlton rookie, but probably in a 1 or 2 at best. It would go for around $10 on ebay. It was my best card as a kid and still own it to this day. That's a keeper. I think my dad got it for me for $80 at a local shop back in the '90's

[brob28]

1975 Topps Dick Allen. In the field with a batting helmet on - when I was a kid I thought that made him cool. Still like the looks of the card.

[wheels56]

Loved this card.

[wheels56]

this one too...

[k-dog]

As a person who enjoyed the times that Michael Jordan was NOT spectacular...this has to be one of my all time favorite action shots card!



(image courtesy of checkoutmycards.com!)

[bbcard1]

I have two, both are minor league cards.

One is Dave Bresnahan. He is the catcher who tried to fake our a base runner by sneaking a peeled potato on to the field and throwing it over the third baseman's head. He held on to the baseball and "tagged the runner out" coming in from third. The runner was declared safe and he was released the next day never to be heard from again.

I also have a Scott Boras minor league card, which I am not sure is completely worthless.

[bradmar48]

I collected my first card 58 years ago. They were 1953 Red Man Chewing Tobacco cards that the man next door gave me. I kept them in a King Edward
cigar box. Yes I still have them. Except for some 1954 Bowman football cards
with players using white footballs the 56 Topps baseball are the first cards I actually purchased. My favorite cards which I saved in my box were Ed Roebuck,Clem Labine, Elmer Valo,Hank Sauer (on the back it said he used the heaviest bat in the majors 40 ounces and a card #79 of a guy who struck out 14 batters in his 2nd major league start, (the cartoon showed the batters with holes in their bats). He had a funny name Koufax.

In 1957 my favorite card was #91 Mack Burk a Phillies catcher. He's the only guy I've ever seen that had a batting average of 1.000 for the previous year. I saw one on E-Bay this week graded 8.5 with an asking price of $400. Two other 57 favorites were collected because of their cool names, Rocco Colavito and Gino Cimoli.I can remember saying many times in my youth when something exciting happened "Holy Cimoli Gino" The not so cool thing I did in 1957 way cut the top right corner off of my 57 cards so my older brother would not claim them. I finally complete a nice EX-M to Nr Mint set a few years ago but I have those with the corners cut off in the back of the binder.

In 1958 I saved Von McDaniel cards because I thought he was going be be the greatest Cardinal pitcher ever and a cool looking card with a gold background of a Cleveland outfielder named named Roger Maris. I sent one of his cards I saved to Beckett for grading several years back and it got a 7.0 grade. Finally in 58 Topps had a card of Stan the Man and I saved every one I got.

I also collected a large number of another cool named player Rip Repulski.

The one "Because it's so cool" card that I have not added to my collection yet is the 1952 card #31 of Gus Zernial with 6 baseballs nailed to his bat.

My generation knew nothing or thought nothing about the value of cards. We just collected our favorite team, player or cards with cool fronts or backs.

[Blackie]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

The 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco. It was the first year I started collecting, but I didn't get one in '86. It became extremely popular a couple of years later when he was the first player to make the 40/40 club. The card was going for over $100 at one point and I actually bought one for that price.

It still brings back memories every time I see that card. I was at the TriStar show in Houston this past weekend and one dealer had a bargain box with several of them. Jose's birthday is a couple of days away (July 2nd).

David gotta agree with ya... Still love the 86 donruss

[jthorst75]

Originally Posted by wheels56

Loved this card.

Me too. I remember my dad and I went to a local card shop and he dished out $15 for one. I decided to buy a pack that same time and got one in the pack; to this day he always reminds me of that moment. I also loved the 87 Green Classic Jackson; I bought one a couple years back and its signed also. Of course it is much less than the $100 is was going for back in 90.

[almostdone]

I had one of the Score Bo Jackson cards just over 20 years ago and used it in a trade for the card I'll never get rid of now. It was me first card that "booked" over $10 and of my favorite player both then and still. I got a 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. for the Bo Jackson.
Over the years I've seen the Griffey soar and finally settle but if someone offers someone else a Bo for Griffey straight up I'd bet noone would take the deal.
Drew

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by k-dog

As a person who enjoyed the times that Michael Jordan was NOT spectacular...this has to be one of my all time favorite action shots card!



(image courtesy of checkoutmycards.com!)

I was sitting in the front row of the student section at Nebraska when Harold Minor lit up the Cornhuskers for 40+.

[slidekellyslide]

1984 Topps Pete O'Brien...Pete was my favorite player when I was a kid...I have probably 200+ different cards of his...and believe it or not I still need a few, but I stopped looking a few years back. I had to buy a lot of team sets to get his cards.

[CobbvLajoie1910]

Originally Posted by Robextend

1987 Topps Don Mattingly...it is the first card I ever remember caring about!

Ditto. Only mine was the 87D. 1987 Topps, Donruss, & Fleer get a lot of flak (and deservedly so) -- but, all 3 remain among my all-time favorites.

This thread should should crack a smile for the tenured collecting guard; the are a lot of us (late 20's/mid 30's) that look forward to picking up the hobby torch.

I have no problem admitting to having a thin Gregg Jefferies binder standing alongside my 1920's Exhibits.

Looking forward to the National.....

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by CobbvLajoie1910

Ditto. Only mine was the 87D. 1987 Topps, Donruss, & Fleer get a lot of flak (and deservedly so) -- but, all 3 remain among my all-time favorites.

This thread should should crack a smile for the tenured collecting guard; the are a lot of us (late 20's/mid 30's) that look forward to picking up the hobby torch.

I have no problem admitting to having a thin Gregg Jefferies binder standing alongside my 1920's Exhibits.

Looking forward to the National.....

I completely agree. BTW, I still have my Bo Jackson binder right with all my pre-war stuff. Although it's not that valuable, it's just as important to me as anything else in my collection..

[D. Broughman]

This card is not that old but I picked it up at a card show and still don't know why but I like it.

[JasonL]

1984 Fleer Juan Samuel
1984 Jay Johnstone - the umbrella hat
1993 fleer basketball card of some Orlando player I can't recall - because it shows Jordan with the number 12 jersey he ahd to wear after someone stole his #23 before the game...
1984 Topps Keith Moreland
1982 Topps Mike Easler

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by JasonL

1984 Fleer Juan Samuel
1984 Jay Johnstone - the umbrella hat
1993 fleer basketball card of some Orlando player I can't recall - because it shows Jordan with the number 12 jersey he ahd to wear after someone stole his #23 before the game...
1984 Topps Keith Moreland
1982 Topps Mike Easler

The card with Jordan was a 1990-91 Hoops card of Sam Vincent. It was pulled from production and replaced with an alternate photo of Vincent, because they didn't want Jordan to be pictured in the 12 jersey. A pretty decent amount of them did make it out though.

[Wite3]

1981 Topps Mickey Hatcher...had a complete set and the only card my dog at the time ate was the Hatcher...Took me about three months to pull another at my little league games. Since then, I have managed to acquire a small hoard of those (about 300)...of course if we are going by hoards of cards, I have nearly 1500 1981 Bob Boone cards...great pic, great catcher, great team.

Joshua

[BradH]

1983 Fleer Ron Kittle. I was a diehard White Sox fan and it "soared" to about $5 that summer. I actually bought it (as a 13-year-old) at a card show one weekend instead of a few extra tobacco cards that could have been had for a buck or two apiece.

Since then I've never purchased a card based on what it might be worth later. I just buy what I like.

[Brendan]

1959 Steve Korcheck
2006 Preston Wilson Fleer Ultra game used jersey piece

I keep good care of my cards even if they're low grade. The Korcheck is simply awful. It's all creased up, a corner is missing, etc. For some reason I just like it- maybe because I can forget about its value and actually enjoy it.

I used to just collect shiny new crap, before I knew there was anything prewar except T206. The 50's and 60's didn't really appeal to me and neither did these boring old T206's. The Wilson was the first 'jersey card' I 'pulled.' I was really happy, even though it's probably worth $1.

[Iwantmorecards77]

Big Mac! Actually, one of these isn't so worthless, believe it or not. lol

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by Iwantmorecards77

Big Mac! Actually, one of these isn't so worthless, believe it or not. lol

The blue chip is quite nice. Does anyone know approximately how many of these from that estate sale made it out into the public?

[Iwantmorecards77]

Thank you, David!

I have no idea how many of the Blue Chips there are. I've done a little research and all I know - they were never supposed to be released and apparently, like you said, were sold from an estate sale.

I'm a pretty big McReynolds collector and I saw the card on Ebay 2-3 years ago. I've never seen one before so I bid! I found it a bit odd that the opening bid was $10, but that was the first time I had ever saw one, so I didn't mind. As it turned out, I was the only one that bid on the card. That was fine with me!

Todd