Sentamental Value

[almostdone]

Let me introduce myself to all. My name is Drew and I am new to the site. I have spent much time reading and enjoying this site over the last few days. I wanted to put out a questin that I always ask when discussing cards with other friends and collectors. What card (or cards) are the most sentamental in your collection. Otherwise meaning it doesn't matter the money someone offers you won't get rid of it.
I'll go first.
About 20 years ago when I first started really collecting more than just popping packs I met and worked with a man who had collected for years. As we got to know each other he gave me a 1968 Topps Micky Mantle from his own collection. It is pretty beat up with writting on the back. It wouldn't sell for more than maybe $20 bucks but he gave it to me because he said every collector needed a Mantle.
About 10 years later after he had moved on I found out he died from cancer. My collection had grow by leaps and bounds since then but I won't ever give that old beat up '68 Mantle up because it is a reminder of an older collector helping a young one.
Hope to hear your stories! If not thanks for taking a moment to read mine.
Drew

[Ease]

Great story and welcome Drew! I have 2, both Mantles that belonged to my dad. A nice 60 topps that he probably pulled from a pack and a 64 topps with pinholes and writing on the back. I have all of dad's other cards from when he was a kid, but those two are my favorites.

[almostdone]

Thanks for the response. The other card in my collection I got much more reciently. A while back my mom wanted to buy me a card. She knew nothing of cards and very little of baseball. I told her a card I thought she could track down easily and for not much money. A 1990 Leaf Sammy Sosa RC. (Back when he was still loved). Much to my surprise I recieved a PSA 8 one! I didn't even know she knew how to use a computer let alone win something on ebay.
My mom passed away 2 yeas ago without knowing anything else about Sosa or his reputation. While it wouldn't resell for anything much I couldn't ever part with it.

[Ease]

Wow, there's absolutely nothing better in the universe than a mother's love. They would have to bury that Sosa with me!!

[CW]

...

[scottpt99]

The card for me would be a 1960 Roberto Clemente that my mom gave my grandpa for his birthday about 15-20 years ago. When he passed away I recieved the card.

However, the most sentimental item was something that I don't think anyone really knew about. We were cleaning out his desk and we found and old score book. When we looked inside it was a complete score book from the 1960 World Series that my grandpa had filled out. He had also clipped newspaper articles and the printed box score from the newspaper. As well has his standing room only ticket to Game 1. It was a very interesting piece to look at.

[albrshbr]

Some great responses already. Here's mine (copied and pasted)

I've got 2. They are 1979 Topps Clint Hurdle and Mike Krukow. Both are in pretty bad condition, so there's no chance of anyone else even wanting them. I started collecting in 1977, and finished my first team set (Orioles) in 1978. In 1979 I was just 2 cards short of finishing the whole set. I checked with other kids in the neighborhood, but no one had the cards. I went to a local card shop (yes...there was one near me in 1979), and there were 2 other collectors who already had them on their "need" lists, including 1 who also only needed these 2 cards. I then went to visit my grandparents for a week, and brought my cards with me. Everyday my grandfather and I would walk to the store and buy 5 to 10 packs. Still no luck. The day before I went home, my grandmother came back with an entire box. I broke them open, and found my 2 treasured cards. My first set was complete. My grandmother died in 1981.

These cards will be buried with me.

[steve B]

Some wonderful stories here.

My card is a 69 Reggie Jackson. In 69 I bought one pack, the 5c was my entire penny candy budget for that trip. (Old fashioned town, with an old fashioned pharmacy that carried all sorts of penny candy wonders. Plus a grocery where Marilyn sometimes had shopped)

Getting back to the car after another errand or two dad asked what players I'd gotten. When I showed him he remarked that Reggie was pretty good.

I pretty much forgot about the card, and somehow didn't buy any in 70, maybe one pack in 71, and another in 72. The cards ended up in the toybox, and about the only thing I kept track of was the 71 coin, which was usually in the toybox, but sometimes in the typical boys box of interesting stuff.

Forward to 74, we're in a new town, and I got into cards in 73 right after we moved. The Hank Aaron specials are making me interested in older cards. Remembering the other cards I had a "search" was on. (Probably started with the toybox, so a brief search) I found the coin, and most of the cards. Including the Reggie Jackson. It's pretty beat from the 5 years it spent in a box with tonka trucks, Hot wheels, lincoln logs and a bunch of whatever else I'd gotten, but I still think of it as my first card.

Steve B

[scmavl]

The first card I ever remember owning was an '81 Donruss Ron Oester. I'm sure my mom must've bought a pack of cards for me (I would've been 4 at the time) but I don't really recall. I just remember that card floating around my room for years as a kid, pen marks all over the back. Unfortunately, I have no idea where that card is, as we moved in the late 80's and I'm certain it didn't make the trip with me. But I did recently buy an entire '81 Donruss set just so I could get that card (as no one sold it by itself).

The first "good" card I remember buying when I got into collecting in around '89 was an '84 Topps Mattingly rookie. I still have that card it the screw down holder I put it in back then thinking it would be worth a fortune. It may be worth $5 now.

Some great stories guys, keep them coming.

[jezzeaepi]

That is a great story CW. I think I have something in my eye...

[Volod]

Great stories all. I can only add that mine came some years ago, as I was cleaning out my parents' basement after my mother's death. Some of the last items I dug out to throw away included a hoard of ancient cigar boxes that my old man had apparently hidden back behind the musty, spiderwebbed lower shelves. I didn't really want to open any of them, maybe fearing what might be lurking there, but couldn't resist a moldy Garcia ' Vega box because it had been my father's preferred brand. Inside the box, which likely hadn't seen daylight in more than 50 years, under a random assortment of strange trinkets, was a pack of 1950 Callahan HOFers in the original, but very yellowed, package. I knew right off that it had to have been from the only trip we took to Cooperstown back in the early '50's. I have always retained nostalgic memories of that trip as one of the few things my dad took time out to enjoy with me when I was a kid, and finding that pack of cards was probably the most emotional impact that my parents passing had on me back in the 1990's.

[ThoseBackPages]

My favorite card of all time:



i still have most of the ones that i pulled from the countless packs i ripped in 1985

such strong memories to this day tied to that Gooden rookie

[campyfan39]

Great stories.
On my 13th birthday in 1986, my parents gave the the greatest gift I would ever recieve...a 1956 Mickey Mantle. They paid $35 for it; bought it mail order from Kit Young.
Later in life I gave it to my dad on Father's Day. He was also a collector but never spent that much on a card for himself. He passed away in 2003 and I have the card agian. I will pass it on to my firstborn; hopefully many years from now.

I am in the research stage for a book about collecting with my dad and recently I was able to speak with Kit Young. I informed him I bought a 56 Mantle in EXMt from him for $35. He said, "that's brutal, that's brutal," haha

If anyone has any stories about collecting with their father or connections with cards (particularly 50's-80's) and you would allow me to include them in my book I would love to hear what you got and consider it for inclusion. Thanks in advance!

[Doug]

The first packs of cards I ever got as a kid were 1985 Topps wax packs from the town drug store. At the age of 4 I didn't really know anything about baseball so I started looking through my pack for cards of Cincinnati Reds players to see if I recognized any of them. Sure enough in my pack was a 1985 Topps Pete Rose card. That name sounded familiar so I proceeded to defy the theory that there's no such thing as a dumb question by asking my dad if that Pete Rose guy was any good...

[cwazzy]

Great stories in this thread! My 1953 Topps Campanella is the most important card I own. I started collecting with my dad in 1987 and collected with him through about 1993. In the early 1990s we set up at a show with a couple family friends. One of the other gentleman there had the '53 Campy at his table and I couldn't stop looking at it the entire show. I loved how big the card was and the huge smile on Campy's face and I didn't have the foggiest idea as to who he was at the time. A couple of months later I opened one of my Christmas presents and that Campy was smiling back at me. It has remained with me to this day and not only started my interest in vintage cards but also my interest in baseball history and a love for the Brooklyn Dodgers. I have since completed the basic Campy set on the PSA registry and have added some great looking cards but none will ever mean more to me than the '53 Topps Campy.

[k-dog]

Good stuff here folks. I didn't really care about collecting cards until the 90s and I was already an adult, but the first card I remember buying at a card store was the 1988-89 Fleer Basketball John Salley RC. Probably would cost a few bucks in Mint condition....but the one I have is EX at best and essentially worthless. But to me, it started me in this great hobby! I paid .05 for it in 1992. The guy wanted .10...but I only had a nickel and a $5 bill in my pocket at that time so he just took he nickel!!!