Your first Really Nice pull ?

ZiggerZagger · #1 08-20-2015, 06:51 PM

I was in 6th grade, flying to Florida for vacation with my family and my best friend Mike. We were headed down to see Twins Spring Training, back when the players had to walk past the fans to get into the park.

For the flight down, I had saved all of my pennies to buy a box of '91 Donruss cards to open on the way. Just after we started opening them, we hit some turbulence -- nothing big at first, but it really did turn nasty. I was oblivious to it as Mike and I ripped open packs, but my parents later told us folks around us were truly scared.

We got down to the last few and, as I opened one of the final packs, I couldn't really process what I was seeing. The most gorgeous card I'd ever seen was sitting right in the middle of the pack, bronze foil on the front with marbled effect on the back. It was a Rickey Henderson Elite series card -- I'd heard about them, but had never seen one much less held one. Mike and I both were going ballistic, screaming, and all the while my parents trying to calm us down thinking we were terrified of this horrible turbulence.

Pulling that card, really in the days before premium cards were "a thing", was an absolutely formative childhood experience. It's not gem mint, but I'll never part with it!

freakhappy · #2 08-20-2015, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZiggerZagger

I was in 6th grade, flying to Florida for vacation with my family and my best friend Mike. We were headed down to see Twins Spring Training, back when the players had to walk past the fans to get into the park.

For the flight down, I had saved all of my pennies to buy a box of '91 Donruss cards to open on the way. Just after we started opening them, we hit some turbulence -- nothing big at first, but it really did turn nasty. I was oblivious to it as Mike and I ripped open packs, but my parents later told us folks around us were truly scared.

We got down to the last few and, as I opened one of the final packs, I couldn't really process what I was seeing. The most gorgeous card I'd ever seen was sitting right in the middle of the pack, bronze foil on the front with marbled effect on the back. It was a Rickey Henderson Elite series card -- I'd heard about them, but had never seen one much less held one. Mike and I both were going ballistic, screaming, and all the while my parents trying to calm us down thinking we were terrified of this horrible turbulence.

Pulling that card, really in the days before premium cards were "a thing", was an absolutely formative childhood experience. It's not gem mint, but I'll never part with it!

Zig...great story! I absolutely loved those Elite series and Legend series inserts. They were the pull of all pulls back in the day. I remember thinking how tough those were to get and felt like they were impossible to obtain. My buddy pulled a Robin Yount Legend Series and when he sold off all of his cards, I made sure to get it from him...although by that time, it wasn't as upscale as once believed. But I still have the memory of how great they were at one time and how hard they were to pull, so to this day this Yount still means a lot to me and I'll probably never part with it.

Numbered to 10,000 to boot

ZiggerZagger · #3 08-22-2015, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by freakhappy

Numbered to 10,000 to boot

Mike--

Absolutely! To your point, the limited runs on these cards pale to the 1/1 culture in the hobby today, but they were truly tough pulls back in the day!

The only other Elite card I have is the Sandberg Signature Series -- bought it for $100 in the very early days of eBay (sending cash in an envelope, etc.). It has special significance to me as a Cubs fan though...

Numbered 1945/5,000. 1945 being the last year the Cubs won the Pennant. It was true when I bought it in '96, and it's (sadly) still true today!

Sierra79 · #4 08-23-2015, 04:38 PM

Very cool. I too went through pack upon pack of this stuff when I was in middle school, but without ever finding a single one. The only ones I ever came close to seeing were in the advertised by Donruss in the Beckett's. To a middle school kid back in the day they were pretty mythical - a true white whale.

On a side note, I remember a story of my uncle buying two cases of '92 Donruss with a couple of friends looking for the elites and came up empty as well. However, my aunt who happened to be shopping, impulsively picked up a pack for him at the checkout (and then impulsively opened it before leaving). She ended up pulling the '92 Griffey Elite...of which he still has to this day in an overly thick screw-down.

alfredoleal2001 · #5 08-24-2015, 10:25 AM

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