Baseball Cards

[GophersInIowa]

Anyone else still have their collection from when they were kids? I grew up buying cards in the late 80's and early 90's so mine aren't worth a whole lot. I'm guessing I have about 20-25,000 of them.

I recently got all my cards from my parents' house where they were being stored. After seeing them again, I really have an itching to go through them and try to complete some of the sets.

 

[cncmin]

Anyone else still have their collection from when they were kids? I grew up buying cards in the late 80's and early 90's so mine aren't worth a whole lot. I'm guessing I have about 20-25,000 of them.

I recently got all my cards from my parents' house where they were being stored. After seeing them again, I really have an itching to go through them and try to complete some of the sets.

Indeed. I look through them every once in a while, but mainly they take up protected space in a closet. Still, it's a part of me I won't let go. I bought a lot of sets back in the day, and about half of them ended up in the display books (polypropylene(?) pages). And I had a bunch of duplicates that I never really knew what to do with them.

 

[GophersInIowa]

Indeed. I look through them every once in a while, but mainly they take up protected space in a closet. Still, it's a part of me I won't let go. I bought a lot of sets back in the day, and about half of them ended up in the display books (polypropylene(?) pages). And I had a bunch of duplicates that I never really knew what to do with them.

Maybe when I go through mine we can make some trades to fill our sets.

 

[cncmin]

Maybe when I go through mine we can make some trades to fill our sets.

Seriously - I'd probably be up for something like that at some time. One note: I live in PA nowadays. I do make it to MN often enough.

 

[GoodasGold]

If you guys still have the gum, I may be interested in that.

 

[bga1]

Anyone else still have their collection from when they were kids? I grew up buying cards in the late 80's and early 90's so mine aren't worth a whole lot. I'm guessing I have about 20-25,000 of them.

I recently got all my cards from my parents' house where they were being stored. After seeing them again, I really have an itching to go through them and try to complete some of the sets.

Nice collection! I envy you. I had a collection, on that order of magnitude, of players from the 50's and 60's collected between myself and some gifted to neighbor kids a little older than me. They were all sorted by team and stacked in old cigar boxes. But I was out of money when in college in the late 70's and sold them off for a semester of tuition. I got ripped off and wish I had them.

 

[GoodasGold]

Nice collection! I envy you. I had a collection, on that order of magnitude, of players from the 50's and 60's collected between myself and some gifted to neighbor kids a little older than me. They were all sorted by team and stacked in old cigar boxes. But I was out of money when in college in the late 70's and sold them off for a semester of tuition. I got ripped off and wish I had them.

50s and 60s!!! Just how old are you

 

[GophersInIowa]

Nice collection! I envy you. I had a collection, on that order of magnitude, of players from the 50's and 60's collected between myself and some gifted to neighbor kids a little older than me. They were all sorted by team and stacked in old cigar boxes. But I was out of money when in college in the late 70's and sold them off for a semester of tuition. I got ripped off and wish I had them.

Unfortunately cards from 1987-1992 (range most of my cards are from) are not worth much.

 

[bga1]

50s and 60s!!! Just how old are you

Old enough that the information I gave you is true. And the source is anonymous....so you can be certain it is true.

 

[GoodasGold]

Old enough that the information I gave you is true. And the source is anonymous....so you can be certain it is true.

Fair enough! I think Hank Greenberg played in the 50s, did he not? Or was it Honus Wagner I'm thinking of

 

[tikited]

I still have tons from the 70's and 80's. None are worth much at all, but I have an art project in mind with them. Especially the Oscar Gamble cards.

 

[GophersInIowa]

I still have tons from the 70's and 80's. None are worth much at all, but I have an art project in mind with them. Especially the Oscar Gamble cards.

I have about a dozen 1987 Frank Pastore cards I can give you.

 

[bga1]

Fair enough! I think Hank Greenberg played in the 50s, did he not? Or was it Honus Wagner I'm thinking of

I had Stan Musial's card, Wille May, those I remember but the card I had the most of was Wally Olds- it seemed like he came out of every pack I opened that year and think I had about 13 of him and couldn't seem to trade him. I know you are joking about those other guys but there was a cool thing , right around 1960 time frame they put out a Hall of Fame series with Babe Ruth, Mel Ott and all of the big names, which was pretty fun.

 

[Costa Rican Gopher]

Seriously - I'd probably be up for something like that at some time. One note: I live in PA nowadays. I do make it to MN often enough.

nm.

 

[Costa Rican Gopher]

If you guys still have the gum, I may be interested in that.

I still have scars on the inside of my mouth from that stuff. It was like eating powdery, bubble gum flavored, razor blades.

 

[Breakin' The Plane]

I've got plenty of worthless Topps cards from the mid to late 80s. My dad has the same story as plenty of people his age, he had boxes of cards that my Grandma burned.
Does anyone remember sticker books? It was kind of like cards, you'd have a book, then you would buy packs of stickers to go in the book. You'd have starting lineups for every team, then pages for All Star or All Pro teams.

 

[BleedGopher]

I was huge into cards growing up - I had tens of thousands from 70s - 90s, all sports. I was fortunate and sold them just as ebay was starting out...I paid for my wife's engagement ring, wedding ring, honeymoon and part of our wedding for the money I made on ebay from the cards. I have since switched to signed memorabilia, but I still follow the "card industry" because my now 9-year is really into them. We go to card shows and actually went to a card shop today (more on that below). Anyway, ebay started out as good for the card industry, but it ended up killing the value of cards from the 80s - mid-2000's. The values absolutely plummeted in large part because of ebay. They became a complete commodity...ebay also killed card shows and card shops that used to be so big in the 80s and 90s. Both card shows and shops still exist, but nothing like they were. Today my son purchased complete sets (still sealed) of 1991 Topps Baseball, 1991 Score Baseball, 1992 Fleer Basketball and 1992 Fleer Baseball for $10 total. Back in the early 1990s, each of these sealed seats would have been $25-$30. That much devaluation is incredible.

Memorabilia shops (such as Fan HQ in the Twin Cities) are much more popular now.

Sadly, two of the last few remaining card shops in the Twin Cities were each victims of a professional heist over the past few weeks. A newer store in downtown Hopkins was ripped off of more than $100,000 merchandise just last month. My son and I were at this card shop today and talked to the store owners...just a sad deal. They have insurance, but won't recover a fraction of what they lost - truly a lifetime of work wiped out in a single night. A store in New Hope was also robbed a week later.

Here are a couple of news stories. I hope they can catch the scum that did this:

http://www.fox9.com/news/249170476-story

http://www.kare11.com/news/crime/thieves-hit-sports-memorabilia-shop/432253461

Go Gophers!!

 

[GophersInIowa]

Yeah it is crazy how low the values have gone. I remember buying the most recent Beckett price guide and getting together with friends to trade cards.

 

[GoodasGold]

Next you'll try and tell me my Beanie Baby collection is worthless.

 

[ruppertflywheel]

What might have been. I had cards from the early 50's . At least 4-5 complete Topps and Boman cards. Also had the cards from the old Post cereal boxes.When I got into my teens I gave them to my nephew. I remember one family outing in Newport where my sister and her husband lived my nephew had used some of the cards in his bicycle spokes for the noise affect.
You would attach them with cloths pins. My brother-in-law, who never threw anything away in his life, made a dump trip one day from Gull Lake and got rid of them after my nephew got tired of them. I don't have to tell you what complete mint sets of early 50's cards are worth.When our kids were growing up we collected together from 1987-92. It was fun filling out the sets and putting them into 3 ring binders.I also collected box sets for myself. ( Football, basketball, hockey etc) Except for the Pro Mint series in baseball , all the vintage cards I collected over the years and all the binders and boxed sets have been sold. In our Vintage Picks business We run into cards a lot from the 70s-80s-90s. Sad that they flooded the market so much.

 

[Donovan]

I collected cards in the 70's and 80's and have some decent ones in that mix. Back in the year that Mark McQwire broke the home run record, I went and pulled out his rookie card (which is still in one of those hard plastic protective sleeves that I use for all my good cards) and stared at it thinking this will now be worth a lot of money! Then the steroid stories came out and the potential value quickly plummeted.

 

[stocker08]

Next you'll try and tell me my Beanie Baby collection is worthless.

Never! Beanie Baby's are gaining value! The Platypus? Priceless.

 

[Breakin' The Plane]

I collected cards in the 70's and 80's and have some decent ones in that mix. Back in the year that Mark McQwire broke the home run record, I went and pulled out his rookie card (which is still in one of those hard plastic protective sleeves that I use for all my good cards) and stared at it thinking this will now be worth a lot of money! Then the steroid stories came out and the potential value quickly plummeted.

I have doubles of that Team USA McGwire card. I had big big plans for that money as the value kept going up. Now, they might be worth $10 each.

 

[GopherJake]

Atlantic article: Why baseball cards are nearly worthless.

https://www.theatlantic.com/busines...of-the-baseball-card/383784/?utm_source=atlfb

 

[tmvander]

I used to collect cards religiously when I was a kid into my early teens. One of my neighbors was in his 30's and was huge into it. Bought boxes upon boxes and was selling them at shows or online. Some of my best memories were going over there and helping him open pack after pack trying to find certain rookie, jersey, autographs, etc.

I thought about starting to do this as I'm now in my 30's and make more than the $5 allowance a week I got as a kid. Let it be known that I'm more interested in landing individual cards as opposed to whole sets. Have you seen some of the prices for boxes of cards these days? I'm sure it was similar 20 years ago, but man hundreds and hundreds of dollars for boxes of the good stuff.

Needless to say I haven't explored the idea since.

 

[BleedGopher]

I used to collect cards religiously when I was a kid into my early teens. One of my neighbors was in his 30's and was huge into it. Bought boxes upon boxes and was selling them at shows or online. Some of my best memories were going over there and helping him open pack after pack trying to find certain rookie, jersey, autographs, etc.

I thought about starting to do this as I'm now in my 30's and make more than the $5 allowance a week I got as a kid. Let it be known that I'm more interested in landing individual cards as opposed to whole sets. Have you seen some of the prices for boxes of cards these days? I'm sure it was similar 20 years ago, but man hundreds and hundreds of dollars for boxes of the good stuff.

Needless to say I haven't explored the idea since.

At the card shop we were at this weekend, one of the basketball card manufacturers (forgot which one, maybe Upper Deck) has a single pack of cards for sale for $100 per pack. The pack comes with 8 cards - you are guaranteed two jersey cards and one autograph card, but it could be a Cole Aldrich autograph card as easily as it could be a Stephon Curry. The game of "can you top this" from the manufacturers drives out young and casual collectors which is a shame.

Go Gophers!!

 

[Bims]

I think anyone who has ever collected baseball cards has a, "my mom threw such-and-such cards out" story.

Anyway, I collected cards in the 90s - which means they aren't worth much of anything today. Good thing I wasn't doing it for the money. Remember hunting down packs, trying to complete your set? Sometimes you would get lucky and see one of the cards you desperately needed just sitting there in the front of a plastic, see-through packaging.

Today, outside of some rookie cards, there isn't much value in cards post 1965.

 

[BleedGopher]

Speaking of opening packs, is there anything more deflating than getting a Checklist card?! What a waste.

Go Gophers!!

 

[Bims]

Speaking of opening packs, is there anything more deflating than getting a Checklist card?! What a waste.

Go Gophers!!

You just brought back a wave of adolescent frustration.

The dreaded checklist card!!!

 

[Donovan]

I have doubles of that Team USA McGwire card. I had big big plans for that money as the value kept going up. Now, they might be worth $10 each.

Yep, that is the card.