[conor912]

Originally Posted by G1911

This is my favorite Willie Mays item. It has been appraised at $0.

My family loved Willie Mays; my mom's dad owned a jewelry store in the Bay Area that served many of the Giants players families and Willie gave my mother a personalized signed photo when she was a little girl, which still hangs on her living room wall 50 something years later. Willie was as cool as baseball history got in our house. When I was really little, my favorite card was the 1966 Willie Mays, because it was Willie and I liked the 66 design. I got one for like $5 off eBay in its early days, which was over a months allowance money ($1 for trash, the dishes, vacuuming and dusting each week) at the time and a big deal. And so when Halloween rolled around, I told my Dad I wanted to go as Willie Mays 1966 card. Not Willie Mays, but Willie Mays' baseball card specifically. And so my Dad, who is no artist, did the best he could and made this with two pieces of sandwich board. Simplified the back cartoon and cut off the hometown and copyright lines, but everything else is as good as we could make it. ~7 year old me got to run around with this and a sugar high. I was happy. Dad was probably happy he didn't have to do this again and could stop trying to draw. I wore it like 3 halloweens in a row without any sense of shame. I don't think anyone in town got it except the guy who ran the local comic book/card store.

This is what it’s all about. Incredible!