What piece in your collection brings you the most satisfaction and joy?

[mouschi]

I've been thinking about this a lot over the past couple of years. Many of our collections are filled with cards / memorabilia that we like, once liked, or just ran into. But then there are pieces that put a smile on our faces each time we see them.

What piece(s) in your collection brings you the most joy/satisfaction, and why?

[larietrope]

Ungraded but I can hold it in my hand. From a simpler time of childhood

[pawpawdiv9]

Before we had cardboard- we had posters!!!

[G1911]

The cards I had as a child that were firsts. The T205 Livingston that was my first tobacco card, the 7 T220 Silvers that were my first boxing cards, the 1955 Bowman Gern Nagler that was my first 50’s card, the 1968 Topps Lamar Lundy that was my first old card, the 1997 Topps Dan Marino that was in the first pack of sports card I ever had, the Fleer/Skybox animated Batman and Toy Story cards that were my first cards of any kind when I was 3-4. The 1971 Topps football set I put together as a teen and was my first completed set.

The cards that bring me the most joy have nothing to do with money, and that realization is why I don’t play in the realm of expensive investor cards. I buy the stuff I wanted as a kid, who didn’t care about creases or bragging rights but about old sets I thought were cool.

Here is mine

[hcv123]

Any one could be favorite depending on the day:

1) 1955 Clemente rookie - still in its original plastic screwdown - the beginning of a 30+ year quest for most things "Clemente". Mom bought it for me (after a lot of begging, pleading and crying - $48 was A LOT of money to her for a baseball card in 1980).
2) 1952 Topps Willie Mays - just one of my favorite cards ever - it is "card art"
3) 1960 Complete Bazooka box with Clemente - it was a 30+ year quest and the only one currently known to exist!

[gonzo]

This T205 Reulbach is a favorite of mine. It's a Piedmont 25 that has been torn and then put back together with a piece of notebook paper on which the biography has been written. I love the thought of some kid umpteen years ago carefully restoring his treasured card.

[Casey2296]

The only card my Dad and I ever bought together. Priceless to me.
_

[KCRfan1]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

The only card my Dad and I ever bought together. Priceless to me.
_

Nice memories Phil !!!!

Beautiful card, tough to find centered.

[jcmtiger]

Hey, it’s 19th Century.

[commishbob]

This does. I got the dig in person on a very memorable day during the lead up to his fight with Jimmy Ellis.

5258D453-79ED-4DA9-84CF-676098136086.jpg

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

The next one, always the next one.

[JollyElm]

I was (am) a diehard Mets fan, but when Reggie came to town, I started quickly switching from Channel 9 to Channel 11 to catch his at-bats each night. Each one was a spectacle of entertainment in its own right. Such excitement during those summer nights!!! Eventually I started sending him fan letters and getting cards autographed, but my jewel is the Reggie Bar wrapper that he autographed for me (I have another one squirreled away somewhere). It's a bit tough to see as it's ballpoint pen on wax paper, but this occupies a huge place in my heart...

[BuzzD]

Glade and Stahl. Someday Niles will join this trio of NYAL beauties

[jingram058]

So far, my album of tobacco cards means the most to me. Many of these I have had for a long time. Big Jim Mutrie was very difficult to find. All of these cards could be had for a fraction of their cost/value as recently as 25 or so years ago. But they don't really go well on display with Goudeys and Play Balls from the 1930s, and certainly not with 1950s/60s Topps and Bowman cards. I have always thought these historic little cards as domething totally apart. Then I remembered a cigarette picture-card album I had. I dug through boxes and bookcases and finally found it. What better place to keep these little cards, as opposed to small sleeves? Yes, this modest little album of cards means more to me than anything in my collection. Not that I don't love my other cards and memorabilia...

[drcy]

One thing your learn collecting is that it's often not the most expensive items you like the most.

[CobbSpikedMe]

This T206 Hannifan is my favorite piece. Not only was it my first T206, but it was my first prewar card and my first Jersey City card. I've since picked up two more of them, but this one is special to me and I'll never part with it.



.

[sflayank]

The mick..die cut

[doug.goodman]

Sorry that I failed you Al.

[guy3050]

Being a lifelong Montreal Expos fan, being able to track down all 5 color full tickets to their 1st home opener April 14th 1969, 1st gamed played outside the USA brings me the most joy

[Casey2296]

Fantastic display Guy.

[CurtisFlood]

Curt Flood 1972

[oldjudge]

Joe-what a great program. I love it.
James-That tobacco album is a beauty. It’s rare to see GQs that nice and you have a few scarce Old Judges in the group.

[CurtisFlood]

[QUOTE=CurtisFlood;2120368]Curt Flood 1972

[jcmtiger]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Joe-what a great program. I love it.
James-That tobacco album is a beauty. It’s rare to see GQs that nice and you have a few scarce Old Judges in the group.

Thanks Jay, got that in a trade with Net54 member

[itjclarke]

That tobacco album is amazing!

My pick is one that I don't see often (in a safe deposit box), but this ball has got to be the most satisfying piece I own. It was taken by my dad to many an Enid Giants class C game, as he collected sigs of his hometown players, but his prize target was always Mantle. He got this signed the year the 18 year old then shortstop hit .383.
Mantle ball.jpg

And for good measure, my dad a few years later, playing for the Enid "Little Giants". I'd never seen this pic of him until 2 weeks ago.
Enid Little Giants.jpg

[darwinbulldog]

This

[Yoda]

No scan, sorry, but my personal favorite piece is a generic advertising piece issued in 1916 by D'ncona Tailors. The front is divided into 2 sections with one a great action shot of Honus, the other all the stats you could want from the season, including Joe Jackson's. It is the back that is the attention-grabber; it shows a small oval picture of all the players on the winning Red Sox team, including a rookie pitcher named Ruth, who just happened to win 2 games against the losing Dodgers. This one, I think, they will have to pry out of my cold dead hands.

[Exhibitman]

When I thought about having a Groucho signed item I thought a Bowman card would be the epitome. Found it!

[Bram99]

Originally Posted by hcv123

Any one could be favorite depending on the day:

1) 1955 Clemente rookie - still in its original plastic screwdown - the beginning of a 30+ year quest for most things "Clemente". Mom bought it for me (after a lot of begging, pleading and crying - $48 was A LOT of money to her for a baseball card in 1980).
2) 1952 Topps Willie Mays - just one of my favorite cards ever - it is "card art"
3) 1960 Complete Bazooka box with Clemente - it was a 30+ year quest and the only one currently known to exist!

1952 Topps Mays? Huh!

[Bram99]

Just these ones.

[Frankish]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

I was (am) a diehard Mets fan, but when Reggie came to town, I started quickly switching from Channel 9 to Channel 11 to catch his at-bats each night. Each one was a spectacle of entertainment in its own right. Such excitement during those summer nights!!! Eventually I started sending him fan letters and getting cards autographed, but my jewel is the Reggie Bar wrapper that he autographed for me (I have another one squirreled away somewhere). It's a bit tough to see as it's ballpoint pen on wax paper, but this occupies a huge place in my heart...

Most excellent! It appears we are of the same generation. While I don't have any signed Reggie Bar wrappers, I do remember Reggie Bars with great fondness.

For my own collection, odd as it is, my 2/3 complete collection of Japanese Jintan Gum cards gives me the most satisfaction. I've managed to pull together all but one of the key cards, but unlike '52 Topps which is a set I greatly admire, it's a matter of finding the lesser cards at all and not so much one of price. Over the time I've collected, I've also found 15-20 uncatalogued variations (which I guess, if I found them all, would be a master set of sorts). Anyway, it's probably no great accomplishment but gives me a great deal of pleasure....

[JLange]

1928 postcard of League Park, Cleveland OH. This is one of my favorite items, with a tantalizing question that beckons me from the past: "How would you like to see a real Ball game in a place like this"

This piece brings me joy, but at the same time sparks nostalgia for a time and place I never experienced personally and never will.

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

When I thought about having a Groucho signed item I thought a Bowman card would be the epitome. Found it!

That is GREAT card!

Congrats Adam.

[tedzan]

I have two....1st my favorite pre-war beauty......

GOODWIN CHAMPIONS album (A36)....12 beautifully lithographed pages.
.

.



And 2nd is post-war......my original Mantle from the Fall of 1952......




TED Z

T206 Reference
.

[jingram058]

The '52 Mantle is incredible, and that single card is why I can't even consider a '52 Topps set...just not for the faint of heart.

But your Goodwin Champions album, whoa, Nelly! Those albums are among the nicest memorabilia of all. Real clear separation of the wheat from the chaff.

[puckpaul]

In baseball cards, my favorite is the 1898-99 National Copper Plate set bound booklet, which includes Anson, Hoy, and the Wagner first card depiction (and bio), among other great cards.


In overall memorabilia, my favorite part of my collection are old NHL hockey wool jerseys, many of which are one of a kind. The first one i purchased, and still my top pick, is Eddie Shore’s jersey from the 1934 all-star game, the initial all star game, that was held to raise money for Ace Bailey, who was severely injured by Shore in a game. Straight from Eddie’s family.

[FrankWakefield]

Nice thread, guys. 1887 scorecard, I'm impressed. I have a bunch of Cardinals scorecards, oldest is 1915, Robison Field. I liked that 1887 St. Louis team.

My friend Ted, Yankee fan that he is, puts that !952 Mantle up there. You guys in the urban areas of the north east coast had an advantage on getting those; the last series of 1952 cards weren't distributed well.

I REALLY like that reconstructed gold border card of one of my favorite players, Ed Reulbach. That's a card I'd care for, if it changes homes.

Groucho!!!! What a rich life he had, he's brought smiles to millions of faces. The Goodwin album is nice, but to me The Cigarette Picture-Card Album tops it. And that 'Dad' playing for Enid...

I share G1911's sentiment and reasoning: "The cards that bring me the most joy have nothing to do with money, and that realization is why I don’t play in the realm of expensive investor cards. I buy the stuff I wanted as a kid, who didn’t care about creases or bragging rights but about old sets I thought were cool."

So for me, it's what I thought was a signed picture of a Yankee player that sat in a frame on my grandfather's dresser. I remember seeing it when I was a little kid, probably age 5 or 6. I saw the NY on the hat and thought it had to be a Yankee. I knew nothing of the AL and NL, and had no concept of teams moving from cities to other cities... Daddy Wake, as I knew him, was born in 1880. In 1947 he lived in Pembroke, Kentucky, just outside of Hopkinsville; he had lived in an adjoining county for years, then moved to Pembroke, and he would be there for at least a dozen more, before he moved to where I lived. In 1947, the Hopkinsville Hoppers of the class D Kitty League had a 20 year old outfielder who was with his first professional team... Dusty Rhodes. Hitting .326 that season had him moving up the ladder through the minors, and he was playing in AA Nashville in 1952, when he signed with the Giants who brought him up to New York.

As a little kid then, I was a bit scared of him. He was tall, slender, and he looked like Kennesaw Mountain Landis without the beard (although I had not seen or heard of Commissioner Landis back then). He told me a tiny bit about the ballplayer, which I promptly forgot. Daddy Wake died in 1965. And I got the picture. It sat on my desk in my room while I was in grade school, and I'd look at the picture when I should have been doing homework.

Eventually I acquired a bit of baseball knowledge. Dusty Rhodes had played with the Giants. But I knew the Giants were in San Francisco, so why was "NEW YORK" across his chest? Ah... Mr. Rhodes was with the Giants back when they were in New York, before the move west. Maybe a few years later I saw a newsreel segment on TV (old TV...) and I see Mays' catch, but then they mention Dusty Rhodes winning the game with a home run. That's the guy who's picture is on my desk!!! Older, more reading... And all was good until I find out I can buy old '50s cards through the mail. I buy a few Boman's, whatever they were... hadn't ever seen any of those. Topps. Those I had heard of, and it was Topp's cards I bought with allowance money and money made from returning Coke bottles. Some mail listing I get shows that card #1 in the 1955 Topps set was Rhodes. Could that be the guy on my desk? Half a month later, in the mail, I have a 1955 Topps #1 card, and not only is Rhodes my Dusty Rhodes, but the card looks like My Picture!!!

Years go by and I'm out of college, finally, and I'm piddling with cards, when I find out that there's this guy named Jack Smalling, and I can get ballplayer addresses from him. A few weeks later I'm writing Dusty Rhodes; and he responds, he's alive and well, living in California. He's answered my few questions, and he's sent me his phone number. Dare I call?

Time out. I take Daddy Wake's picture and a photographer is going to make copies for me so I can send Dusty photos, he can sign two for me (one for me and one for my cousin) and keep a few for himself. When I go to get the copies I'm told that it isn't a photo. What? It looks like an 8x10 b&w photo. My photographer friend tells me it's a PMT- a photo mechanical transfer... it's a bunch of dots. He says he can get copies made, which he does. I send them to Mr. Rhodes, he signs and returns two to me and keeps the rest. I call Mr. Rhodes and we have a good conversation.

He hit .341 in 1954. But it was his World Series exploits that landed him on card #1.

1953 #1 Jackie Robinson
1954 #1 Ted Williams
1955 #1 Dusty Rhodes
1956 #1 Hank Aaron
1957 #1 Ted Williams

4 for 6 in 3 World Series games, 2 home runs, 7 RBI's. He was winning that 1954 World Series with his bat. A 10th inning pinch hit walk off HR, off of a HOF pitcher. Next game a pinch hit RBI, and staying in the game he hits another HR off of a different HOF pitcher... that's why he got a number #1 card that year.

That team... Durocher managing, Willie Mays and Monte Irvin, Al Dark, Don Mueller, Marv Grissom, Wes Westrum, Joe Garagiola, Whitey Lockman, Hoyt Wilhelm, Sal Maglie... they were some ballplayers.


https://www.net54baseball.com/images/attach/jpg.gif

[Aaron Seefeldt]

I got this at the National a couple of years ago… after 25 years of buying/selling/collecting I came across my Holy Grail.

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by FrankWakefield

Nice thread, guys. 1887 scorecard, I'm impressed. I have a bunch of Cardinals scorecards, oldest is 1915, Robison Field. I liked that 1887 St. Louis team.

My friend Ted, Yankee fan that he is, puts that !952 Mantle up there. You guys in the urban areas of the north east coast had an advantage on getting those; the last series of 1952 cards weren't distributed well.

I REALLY like that reconstructed gold border card of one of my favorite players, Ed Reulbach. That's a card I'd care for, if it changes homes.

Groucho!!!! What a rich life he had, he's brought smiles to millions of faces. The Goodwin album is nice, but to me The Cigarette Picture-Card Album tops it. And that 'Dad' playing for Enid...

I share G1911's sentiment and reasoning: "The cards that bring me the most joy have nothing to do with money, and that realization is why I don’t play in the realm of expensive investor cards. I buy the stuff I wanted as a kid, who didn’t care about creases or bragging rights but about old sets I thought were cool."

So for me, it's what I thought was a signed picture of a Yankee player that sat in a frame on my grandfather's dresser. I remember seeing it when I was a little kid, probably age 5 or 6. I saw the NY on the hat and thought it had to be a Yankee. I knew nothing of the AL and NL, and had no concept of teams moving from cities to other cities... Daddy Wake, as I knew him, was born in 1880. In 1947 he lived in Pembroke, Kentucky, just outside of Hopkinsville; he had lived in an adjoining county for years, then moved to Pembroke, and he would be there for at least a dozen more, before he moved to where I lived. In 1947, the Hopkinsville Hoppers of the class D Kitty League had a 20 year old outfielder who was with his first professional team... Dusty Rhodes. Hitting .326 that season had him moving up the ladder through the minors, and he was playing in AA Nashville in 1952, when he signed with the Giants who brought him up to New York.

As a little kid then, I was a bit scared of him. He was tall, slender, and he looked like Kennesaw Mountain Landis without the beard (although I had not seen or heard of Commissioner Landis back then). He told me a tiny bit about the ballplayer, which I promptly forgot. Daddy Wake died in 1965. And I got the picture. It sat on my desk in my room while I was in grade school, and I'd look at the picture when I should have been doing homework.

Eventually I acquired a bit of baseball knowledge. Dusty Rhodes had played with the Giants. But I knew the Giants were in San Francisco, so why was "NEW YORK" across his chest? Ah... Mr. Rhodes was with the Giants back when they were in New York, before the move west. Maybe a few years later I saw a newsreel segment on TV (old TV...) and I see Mays' catch, but then they mention Dusty Rhodes winning the game with a home run. That's the guy who's picture is on my desk!!! Older, more reading... And all was good until I find out I can buy old '50s cards through the mail. I buy a few Boman's, whatever they were... hadn't ever seen any of those. Topps. Those I had heard of, and it was Topp's cards I bought with allowance money and money made from returning Coke bottles. Some mail listing I get shows that card #1 in the 1955 Topps set was Rhodes. Could that be the guy on my desk? Half a month later, in the mail, I have a 1955 Topps #1 card, and not only is Rhodes my Dusty Rhodes, but the card looks like My Picture!!!

Years go by and I'm out of college, finally, and I'm piddling with cards, when I find out that there's this guy named Jack Smalling, and I can get ballplayer addresses from him. A few weeks later I'm writing Dusty Rhodes; and he responds, he's alive and well, living in California. He's answered my few questions, and he's sent me his phone number. Dare I call?

Time out. I take Daddy Wake's picture and a photographer is going to make copies for me so I can send Dusty photos, he can sign two for me (one for me and one for my cousin) and keep a few for himself. When I go to get the copies I'm told that it isn't a photo. What? It looks like an 8x10 b&w photo. My photographer friend tells me it's a PMT- a photo mechanical transfer... it's a bunch of dots. He says he can get copies made, which he does. I send them to Mr. Rhodes, he signs and returns two to me and keeps the rest. I call Mr. Rhodes and we have a good conversation.

He hit .341 in 1954. But it was his World Series exploits that landed him on card #1.

1953 #1 Jackie Robinson
1954 #1 Ted Williams
1955 #1 Dusty Rhodes
1956 #1 Hank Aaron
1957 #1 Ted Williams

4 for 6 in 3 World Series games, 2 home runs, 7 RBI's. He was winning that 1954 World Series with his bat. A 10th inning pinch hit walk off HR, off of a HOF pitcher. Next game a pinch hit RBI, and staying in the game he hits another HR off of a different HOF pitcher... that's why he got a number #1 card that year.

That team... Durocher managing, Willie Mays and Monte Irvin, Al Dark, Don Mueller, Marv Grissom, Wes Westrum, Joe Garagiola, Whitey Lockman, Hoyt Wilhelm, Sal Maglie... they were some ballplayers.


https://www.net54baseball.com/images/attach/jpg.gif

There is one thing I wish I could do: go back in time and go to a game at the Polo Grounds. That unique "bath tub" ball park, painted green with the club house out in cavernous center field, the Eddie Grant monument, has to be my favorite old ball park of them all. Two must have books for anyone trying to conjure up visions of the Polo Grounds:

Under Coogan's Bluff, Fred Stein

The Echoing Green, Josh Prager

and this long-lost but priceless WABC documentary from 1964, Requiem For An Arena:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp0RqfbhNwI

[pete zouras]

combination of having only paid five dollars for this gem and confirmed authentic by third party expert

http://i.imgur.com/rwUvupk.gif

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by jingram058

There is one thing I wish I could do: go back in time and go to a game at the Polo Grounds. That unique "bath tub" ball park, painted green with the club house out in cavernous center field, the Eddie Grant monument, has to be my favorite old ball park of them all. Two must have books for anyone trying to conjure up visions of the Polo Grounds:

Under Coogan's Bluff, Fred Stein

The Echoing Green, Josh Prager

and this long-lost but priceless WABC documentary from 1964, Requiem For An Arena:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp0RqfbhNwI

Hi James

This picture will bring back memories of the Polo Grounds.....





TED Z

T206 Reference
.

[irv]

Without a doubt, these 3.

[TUM301]

Being a Babe fan can be very expensive/competitive so I gravitate towards the St Mary`s Industrial School items when they pop up. Really enjoy this item, it being one of 3 snapshots from Sept. 18`th 1920 depicting the final game between the Babe and Joe Jackson. Babe took the St M`s band on the road at the end of the 1920 season to raise money to rebuild his fire ravaged home where his baseball career started. Another interesting twist with this snapper, it shows members of the famous Black Sox just about 10 days prior to Judge Landis ending all 8 of their careers forever.
Untitled by Hugh Murphy, on Flickr

[Seven]

I think it changes over time, I'd still say that it's my 1952 Berk Ross Mickey Mantle. It was one of the first "Big" purchases I made, and it also represented the first pre-1954 Mantle I would own. It was also first time in a while I made an in person purchase, as it was near the peak of the pandemic.

Chuck was super accommodating and willing to meet me, downtown Brooklyn. We talked a lot and it was really refreshing, at that point to talk to someone in person, that wasn't a family member! I'll own this for the rest of my life.

[mrreality68]

Hi

This is not my "Favorite" but for some reason I enjoy it the most.

[Chicosbailbonds]

Originally Posted by pawpawdiv9

Before we had cardboard- we had posters!!!

Timeless

[bigfish]

Originally Posted by jcmtiger

Hey, it’s 19th Century.

that is fantastic!

[oldjudge]

I spend more time looking at this than any piece in my collection. It is a linen backed composite schedule from Cy Young’s first full year with Cleveland. There are metal bands top and bottom and a hook so it could be displayed in a store or hung at home.

[todeen]

Billings Mustangs team signed ball, and Aaron Boone auto card (in front of the Mustangs jersey) bring back memories of my childhood. I got the team signed ball as a present from a Little League coach. The other card is a Joey Votto team card when he played for the Mustangs. But I had moved by 2003. The 1961 Topps Dodgers cards were purchased by my mother. I looked up longingly at her when I was 8/9 y.o. probably saying I would be a good boy for the rest of my life if she bought them. And she did! As for a pre-war card, the Tris Speaker exhibit was the first I ever bought, maybe around 17 y.o. My grandma lived with us in Billings and told me that Speaker was a distant relative - it's true, too. I've been enamored with him ever since. OT, for something recent, I restored a 120 y.o. family heirloom China hutch that belonged to my great-great-grandfather. He and his wife received it as a wedding gift in 1900, in Iowa. This provides more joy and satisfaction than any of my cards because I did it myself.

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