I often wonder.....

[larietrope]

Why we as children paid nickels for cardboard baseball players. Then roughly handled them, put rubber bands around them, put them in bicycle spokes, flipped them, traded them, and treated them harshly.
Now as mature adults, we readily pay hundreds, yea thousands of dollars to recollect the cards of our youth?
I admit my guilt, do you admit yours ?

[jiw98]

Originally Posted by larietrope

Why we as children paid nickels for cardboard baseball players. Then roughly handled them, put rubber bands around them, put them in bicycle spokes, flipped them, traded them, and treated them harshly.
Now as mature adults, we readily pay hundreds, yea thousands of dollars to recollect the cards of our youth?
I admit my guilt, do you admit yours ?

Yep!

[butchie_t]

Because we cannot go back in time and spend 5 cents for a pack of cards and take care of them throughout our lives anymore.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by larietrope

Why we as children paid nickels for cardboard baseball players. Then roughly handled them, put rubber bands around them, put them in bicycle spokes, flipped them, traded them, and treated them harshly.
Now as mature adults, we readily pay hundreds, yea thousands of dollars to recollect the cards of our youth?
I admit my guilt, do you admit yours ?

I wonder why you did those things to them, but I didn't. If everyone abused their cards, there would only be low grade cards available.

[paul]

I used to cut apart rookie cards so I could put each player with their appropriate team. I also drew beards and mustaches on random players.

[CobbSpikedMe]

Originally Posted by paul

I used to cut apart rookie cards so I could put each player with their appropriate team. I also drew beards and mustaches on random players.

So you're one of the guys that made some of my favorite cards. Nice.

[frankhardy]

With me it is more than reliving my childhood. For me it is being able to attach myself to the history of baseball. I was not good enough to play in the major leagues so my only way to attach myself to the game and the history of it is to collect sets every year. It is my personal archive and museum that reflects the game I love.

I did it but only with doubles. We used to do all that and flip them also but never with our good cards. Those were carefully put away in shoe boxes. I took care of my collection from the tender age of 8 but like I said we abused the doubles. Still have all of my childhood cards in good shape.

[Volod]

Originally Posted by rats60

I wonder why you did those things to them, but I didn't. If everyone abused their cards, there would only be low grade cards available.

As young kids, we had no understanding of ourselves as adults, and as adults, we have only dim memories of ourselves as kids...I guess.

[Eric72]

When I was a child, the card backs were as interesting to me as the fronts. In many ways, they still are.

I read (and re-read...repeatedly) the stats, bios, cartoons, etc. I sorted my cards periodically; sometimes by year and number, sometimes by team, sometimes by player.

When the Phillies traded for someone, I went through my collection, looking for cards of the "new guy." When the Phillies were in the playoffs, I would "check out the competition" by looking at the other team's players' cards.

All that handling - in the days before toploaders, Beckett price guides, and professional grading - was done with little regard for condition. The inevitable result was a pile of cards with soft corners and paper wrinkles.

It wasn't until I was around 10 that I started taking some amount of care with my cards. I had those early side-load 9-pocket pages and put together a binder. I hadn't yet lost my fascination with constantly re-sorting, though. So, the cards likely still took damage - from being moved around, page to page.

Around two years later, something caused me to abruptly stop beating the hell out of cardboard. It was an old newsprint periodical that many of you probably remember - Current Card Prices. A "baseball card shop" had opened up near my dad's house. Naturally, I got him to take me there one day. When I first stepped inside, the seemingly endless array of merchandise left me speechless. To my eyes, the place had an absolute grandeur to it.

Among many, many other things, they sold CCP. They even had one on the counter for people to reference, presumably to spur impulse purchases. At one point during my visit that day, I picked up the store copy and checked it out. Hey, look! I've got some of these cards. WOW, check out these prices!! Holy smokes, I have this one, and it's worth more than my whole allowance!!! While flipping through the book, I suddenly felt informed...enlightened...wiser somehow. It was a religious experience.

Of course, the shop owner (a saint of man named Mike...I've still got his business card from all those years ago) made it a point to explain the importance of condition on values. He also introduced me to penny sleeves, top loaders, and a few other things one could use to store their cards.

Since that day, I have always treated my cards with the greatest of care. Obsessively. This approach helped me as a teenager who went to card shows; buying, selling, and trading. It helped me in my 20s when I set up as a dealer at these same shows. It helped me in my 30s and 40s as I pieced together a modest collection of cardboard keepsakes. As I near my 50th birthday, I trust it will continue to help me every step of the way along my collecting journey.


Postscript: I realize the shop was probably not much different than countless others that sprang up in the mid 1980s. It just happened to be the one at which I had an epiphany regarding baseball cards and their values.

[Case12]

Sorta like getting a toy truck for birthday and never playing with it in the sandbox. Or never using the Red Ryder BB gun you get for Christmas. Cards were fun, not pristine collectibles. Rubber bands held them together. (plus some of us bought packs only to get yummy gum strips....yuck). I did have enough excitement for a Bart Starr not to put it on my bicycle - of course he was on the wall of my bedroom using a thumb tack....who knew back then :-)

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by Case12

Sorta like getting a toy truck for birthday and never playing with it in the sandbox. Or never using the Red Ryder BB gun you get for Christmas. Cards were fun, not pristine collectibles. Rubber bands held them together. (plus some of us bought packs only to get yummy gum strips....yuck). I did have enough excitement for a Bart Starr not to put it on my bicycle - of course he was on the wall of my bedroom using a thumb tack....who knew back then :-)

Exactly...Amen!! "Cards were fun, not pristine collectibles". Perfect!!

There are guys here who were collecting back in the 50's. I myself started in earnest in 1968. I, nor anybody else I knew, never gave a thought to condition (at least not in a neurotic sense) or value when we were buying packs.

There's a YouTube channel that I enjoy by a younger collector, who in response to a comment told me that when he was collecting in the 80's they loved the cards too, but they also thought in terms of the potential value of the card. I'm glad that when I was collecting that wasn't an aspect of things.

[jgannon]

Originally Posted by larietrope

Why we as children paid nickels for cardboard baseball players. Then roughly handled them, put rubber bands around them, put them in bicycle spokes, flipped them, traded them, and treated them harshly.
Now as mature adults, we readily pay hundreds, yea thousands of dollars to recollect the cards of our youth?
I admit my guilt, do you admit yours ?

We loved them. And what you're describing is exactly what kids should have done with them. I wouldn't say we handled them "harshly", but I know what you mean. I would say instead, we handled them in an unselfconscious and free way. And we treasured them. As someone who left the hobby for 40 years and came back to it recently, those times becomes more and more precious, and those cards are a link to those times...

[BillP]

As the title goes, I often wonder what all of the cards I had from 65-68 BB and FB that are now molding, when we moved and everything got thrown out, in the Lakeville, Ma landfill. Most specifically if I had the Namath rookie. I don't remember having it but not sure. I know I did not have 66 or 67 high numbers but did have semi highs. Had plenty of 66 phil football.