most memorable card you got opening a pack

[JollyElm]

Value-wise mine pales in comparison, but since the thread is asking for 'memorable,' how about this experience from 1980? Every single card inside a wax pack I opened was the same, #230 Dave Winfield. All of the other packs I opened that day from the box at the drugstore were normal, but what an anomaly. A stack of fifteen (I think that's how many cards were in a pack back then) Winnies in the same wax cage. What a shame it wasn't filled with Rickey Hendersons! Oh well.

Here's a pic of an old binder still containing the lot (and others)...

1980winfields1.jpg

[LincolnVT]

Unfortunately, for me an 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. tops the list. I remember those foil packs and the feeling of someday making a fortune on the pages of his rookie cards that I pulled from packs.

[BuzzD]

My father had a pharmacy and sold baseball cards. I would take a box and open them all in the basement. 1954 Bowman Mantle was unforgettable, but now long gone as the usual story goes...

[Fetamore]

You guys have incredible memories. Not me. I’ve opened so many packs over the last 64 years with no one player standing out. But one card I won’t forget. Not sure of the year, but about 20 years ago, I pulled a card saying I won 2 tickets to a baseball game. I’m from Philadelphia, so I chose the Yankees. Mailed in the card and did receive two tickets. My wife and I took a train to Penn station and a subway to Yankee stadium.

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by Goudey77

This is amazing in so many ways. I believe I read in another thread that you still own the Mantle.

Hi Martin

Very true....I have a near complete 1952 TOPPS master set which includes this Mickey Mantle from my youth. Here are the two Mantle cards in my set......


Type 1 .................................................. .........……........... Type 2





TED Z

T206 Reference
.

[todeen]

I have two stories. Here's the sad one first. Walked into LCS wanting to buy 1989 Upper Deck (in 1998? I was 12). Couldn't find the box, figured they sold out, so I walked around looking for other options. 3 minutes later, guy walks in, says out loud - "Have any 1989 Upper Deck?" Response was - "Sure do! One pack left!" Man pulled a Griffey rookie. I still don't have one. That one still hurts. I learned a lesson though - speak up!

[todeen]

My second story is in 2001 the All Star game came to Seattle. My dad, bless his heart, agreed to buy tickets to the card show that accompanies it as my birthday gift (he bought two days of tickets).....my dad doesn't collect cards, btw..... We went and had a blast getting autographs, buying cards, and hanging out. That year, Fleer Tradition had a Negro Leagues insert set that included relic cards. I pulled a Jackie Robinson pant swatch that I still have. Just the place, the companionship, and the pull make that the best card pull of my life.

I stopped buying packs at the end of high school. Now I just buy singles and get what I want each month.

[Leon]

I agree. How can it get better than that for vintage? I don't remember my childhood days of ripping packs that much. We just bought a lot of the packs and opened them without giving it much thought, I guess. In my neighborhood we collected mainly teams (the Astros of course) and that was back in the late 60s and 70s....

Originally Posted by Goudey77

This is amazing in so many ways. I believe I read in another thread that you still own the Mantle.

[Donscards]

Well nobody can beat Ted Z. 1952 Topps Mantle, but I did get lucky 30 years ago---I had a 24 count 1955 Topps Cello pack (high #)---I tried to sell it at the Ed Keetz show way back for around $1200---it didn't sell and when I got home, I decided to open it--Well it went well, Berra--Rizzuto--Clemente--Snider and then another Clemente---at the time, I figured around 6K---I sold the 1st Clemente and held on to the second one. But I had a friend who was the sound man for Aerosmith. He purchased the 2nd Clemente for around $2600 and my 2 daughters and I got to meet the band and take pictures at a concert here in Maine---I gave Joe Perry a Larry Bird rookie for his son. Steven Tyler hugged my daughters and they were really nice to us.---Sure wish I had those cards back.---they did come out of the pack mint, the one Clemente was a bit OC---but still nice.

[Rich Falvo]

I don't have any big baseball finds, but I've had my Bird/Magic rookie since pulling it from a pack. It eventually made its way to an SGC 8 holder.

[shagrotn77]

I pulled two of these from packs back in 1986. One graded a PSA 8 and this one got a 9:

[mawitzi]

I found a Mantle auto in a pack of 1991 Score when I was a kid. It was a big deal at the time.

[Collectorsince62]

I have been opening packs since I was 7 back in 1962. Lots of now valuable cards for sure, but my most memorable card was a common from a pack in 1965. Growing up in St. Louis, we were all rabid Cardinals fans. The World Series victory over the Yankees in 1964 elevated our passion for the hometown team immensely. Cardinals cards were highly coveted. But as exciting as it was finding Gibson, Boyer, Flood or the team card with 1st Place - National League, the World Series cards, especially the Game 7 and Celebration card, were on another level. I distinctly remember pulling that beautiful card with the caption "The Cards Celebrate" and will never forget the sheer joy of seeing a card for the first time that still makes me smile, not for its monetary value but for the feeling it gave a ten-year old baseball fan who simply loved the game and cherished his team. It's why I still collect today.

[Writehooks]

Fall of 1966, during recess at Colwood Elementary School in Victoria, B.C. Pulled a Bobby Orr rookie … then promptly traded him to my buddy Mark for Frank Mahovlich and Eddie Shack.

[seattlerainiers]

Originally Posted by Writehooks

Fall of 1966, during recess at Colwood Elementary School in Victoria, B.C. Pulled a Bobby Orr rookie … then promptly traded him to my buddy Mark for Frank Mahovlich and Eddie Shack.

Love it!

[Jgrace]

In 1993, I was just a kid trying to scrape together some allowance money to buy a few packs of cards. I remember being thrilled about buying one pack of each of the common releases that year. I think the dream pull was a Leaf Tim Salmon insert.

Anyway, in those days it was all about Griffey Jr. and Frank Thomas. I remember opening my Topps pack and finding a perfectly crisp Thomas in the middle. I called my friends house over and over until he got home so I could share the good news.

It’s such a humble example, but I remember how exciting it was at the time. And that was the question, right?

[thetruthisoutthere]

This is a great thread!!!

The summer of 1965 I pulled a Tom Tresh (my favorite Yankee of all-time) from a Topps pack.

I can still smell the bubble gum.

Great days starting back in the early 1960's being able to buy a pack here and there.

I also remember pulling a Jake Gibbs "Rookie Stars" card.

[jakebeckleyoldeagleeye]

Originally Posted by thetruthisoutthere

This a great thread!!!

The summer of 1965 I pulled a Tom Tresh (my favorite Yankee of all-time) from a Topps pack.

I can still smell the bubble gum.

Great days starting back in the early 1960's being able to buy a pack here and there.

I also remember pulling a Jake Gibbs "Rookie Stars" card.

That's why I started it. It's not about getting the most valuable card it's the memory of the one that meant the most to you in your lifetime and always hoping you get that card opening those packs and especially before all the subsets.

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by jakebeckleyoldeagleeye

That's why I started it. It's not about getting the most valuable card it's the memory of the one that meant the most to you in your lifetime and always hoping you get that card opening those packs and especially before all the subsets.

Absolutely!!!

Awesome thread!!!

[Yoda]

My story is quite similar to Ted's. I grew up in the 50's in Schenectady, NY, where my Dad worked for GE which basically supported and made the town viable. Schenectady, for what ever reason, was going to be included in the last series of that new, gobsmacking 1952 Topps baseball card set, which had made our gang joyous for the whole summer, particularly we knew that you-know-who had to be included in it. My brand loyalty to Bowman had faded because these new Topps beauties just stole the show. Word reached us that our local general store was loaded and the dash was on. We marched in and bought as many packs as our modest budgets would allow. Soon wrappers flew, gum ingested and we sat down to the real business: Who got what and were they open for trading?
Myself and another pulled Jackie Robinsons. Not bad. Another guy got an Eddie Mathews. Lucky lad. And, yes, one guy pulled the Mick. We insisted he pass it around to his friends (us) with their greasy dirty, rough little fingers. I shudder to think about it. Great card memories.

[NiceDocter]

I had the same thrill that you did with the Cardinals celebrate card with what I still consider to be one of the coolest Topps cards ever made.... the 1967 #1 "THE CHAMPS" with Hank Bauer with his arms around Brooks and Frank Robinson. That card kind of summed up what I as a kid hoped for for the whole country....we are all going to win it together as a team! Still have that same dream......

[SAllen2556]

In 1976 Mark Fidrych was the talk of the town in Detroit, but he had no card in the '76 set - not even a tiny rookie card. So when the '77 set came out every kid was after the Fidrych card. At one point I think I had about 6 of them and you could have traded it for any card you wanted - but no one did.

That was also the first year we discovered the candy distributor in our city. It was in a very nondescript building that sold boxes of candy to stores like 7-11. You could go in there and buy an entire box of baseball cards. That was the most amazing thing to me. My buddy and I would split the cost and divide the packs up between us - it was way cheaper than buying packs from the store. I also remember my mom getting really mad at me when she saw how much the box cost.

[topcat61]

So, 1986, it's my 8th Birthday and my aunt gives me a dozen or so packs of Donruss...In one of those packs I found a Jose Canseco RC! I believe at the time the card was valued at $90. Within 24 hours that card was promptly lost!

It took me about 30 years to get another copy of the card, but this time I got it autographed. That set brings back a lot of memories for me personally, and the Canseco RC especially, but that was the first and only time he sported a mustache and he talks about it in a netflix documentary on cards. Anyway, great set, great design and great memories! Thanks.

[Leon]

That is a great looking Jordan!

Originally Posted by shagrotn77

I pulled two of these from packs back in 1986. One graded a PSA 8 and this one got a 9:

[Babe3Ruth3]

This posting is timely with Halloween just over. I was 14 years old in 1980 and Halloween just ended at our house, not having as many kids come as planned a bag of wax Hockey cards my mother was going to give was extra, so knowing I collected Baseball cards she gave them to me. One of those wax packs had a Wayne Gretzky rookie. I still have all the cards from that bag as well as all the wrappers.

Edit: Getting ready for bed, I realized I left something out about the bag of wax cards. This was a mixed Hockey/Basketball, so along with the Gretzky rookie card I also know one Basketball wax pack had the 1979-1980 Bird scoring leader card and if I remember correctly a Magic Johnson card (not his rookie card but I think a scoring leader too.) Along with all the wrappers saved, I also saved the bag the cards came in. It's really cool looking at the bag the wax cards came in with a price of $1.59...lol (how times have changed)

[55koufax]

I was 9 years old in '64 and can recall switching from buying candy at the Bay Pharmacy in Pacific Palisades, CA to buying Topps 5 cent wax packs....of course being in SoCal and the burbs of LA, I didn't want Mickey, but rather yearned for Sandy. To my chagrin, I can remember that amongst the first few packs purchased I got my wish........#200 with Sandy's smiling portrait gleaming at me. How special, as the prior Fall, was privileged to be at Chavez for game 4 Sandy vs. Whitey. 2-1 Koufax. Complete game for SWEEEEEEEEP over bombers. Total dominance in '63 and in WS. Sandy was the greatest, and pulling his '64 Topps #200 certainly one of my fondest memories.

[SteveMitchell]

In late spring/early summer we visited my grandparents in Orrington, Maine. Part way home (a l-o-n-g distance of 125-135 miles on largely fair to poor roads in those days), my mother (perhaps in an effort to overcome my impatience as I was a poor rider) pulled out two penny packs of 1957 Topps baseball cards. Really, they were highly prized by this then-8-year-old - even only a couple of them. One pack contained a long-forgotten player and small piece of bubblegum while the other hid Topps' numero uno: Ted Williams.

[Yastrzemski Sports]

For me its probably still winter of 1989. I went to penny candy store when 1989 fleer came in. It was limited to 2 packs per person - I think it was $3.50 per pack. I got the Billy Ripken error that was all over the news.

[riggs336]

1958 Topps All-Star Stan Musial.
I was a young Musial fan who had been buying Topps cards since 1953 with no luck finding my hero. I had cut out a magazine photo of Stan and pasted it over Rip Repulski's head on a 1955 Bowman, but that was only mildly satisfying. But late in the (Topps) year in 1958 my wait was over.

[LACardsGuy]

I bought into a 1986 Fleer Basketball break maybe 10 years ago through the PSA chat boards. Pulled a Jordan (BGS 9). Then, stupidly, I opened the OTHER pack and got whole lotta nothin.

[LACardsGuy]

I bought into a 1986 Fleer Basketball break maybe 10 years ago through the PSA chat boards. Pulled a Jordan (BGS 9). Then, stupidly, I opened the OTHER pack and got whole lotta nothin.

[jakebeckleyoldeagleeye]

Originally Posted by riggs336

1958 Topps All-Star Stan Musial.
I was a young Musial fan who had been buying Topps cards since 1953 with no luck finding my hero. I had cut out a magazine photo of Stan and pasted it over Rip Repulski's head on a 1955 Bowman, but that was only mildly satisfying. But late in the (Topps) year in 1958 my wait was over.

That and his 1953 Bowman are two of the best looking cards in history. The guy just loved playing baseball and with that million dollar smile to go with his greatness.

[timfsu2k]

All these stories are why baseball cards are such a national treasure to those of us who collect. It wasn't the monetary value of the cards we pulled in most cases, but the circumstances and the people who shared in the fun is what really makes them valuable.


For me, it was the summer of 1991 and the very first Stadium Club set had just came out. My Dad took me to the flea market and bought me one pack. I believe they were $5 per pack, which was unbelievable back then. Halfway through the pack I found THE most desirable card from the set...Frank Thomas! The guy who sold it to my Dad got crazy excited and gave me a free top loader then passed it around to let everyone see the card. I'll never forget that day and how happy my Dad was to see me get such a great card.