Baseball Cards

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coolhandgopher said:
If you go onto Twitter, there's a few really fun sites, I can't access them right now (the Great Firewall of China), but they have names likes Sport Card Backs or Baseball Card Backs, they certainly fire up the nostalgia for the early '80s when I lived and breathed baseball cards.

I've been developing a theory as of late, that one of the reasons that MLB has faded into relative obscurity (compared to the NFL and NBA) is not only due to the explosion of fantasy football since the '90s, but also due to the demise of affordable baseball cards. About the time I got out of the "game", was when Upper Deck joined the likes of Topps, Donruss, and Fleer and the price of a pack got jacked up from 50 cents to $1 (ah, I recall the days of quarter packs). After Upper Deck came along, I recall things going bonkers with prices and easy, cheap access was gone. Much of my knowledge about baseball players came from the backs of those cards and when I would turn on the Saturday or Monday night games of the week (back in those halcyon days), I had a familiarity with the players that I don't today. I'm sure it's quite simplistic, but baseball wasn't exactly a fast game back in the 80s and there were other distractions (albeit not as many as today), but those cheap baseball cards provided a familiarity and accessibility to the game that seems to be missing nowadays.
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I share almost the same experience. I, too, quit collecting as baseball card prices skyrocketed with the advent of Score and Upper Deck, and how the others followed suit. If it had just stayed at, say, Upper Deck as an uber-quality card maker, and the others stayed as they were, I think the card industry would have been just fine. They outpriced the market for the average consumer. Some of my fondest memories as a child were riding my bike to the store to buy a pack of baseball or football cards for about a quarter; or heading down to the card shop and plopping down a few bucks for a whole bunch of cards. It's a shame.
 
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justthefacts said:
I really need to go through my cards and just pick out one small box full and sell the rest on Craigslist for $10. I have a box that's about 18" cubed. It doesn't take up that much space, but it's wasted space. Like you, most of mine were acquired between 1984 and 1990.

One thing that baseball cards were very good for during that period: gifts. I wish my kids collected something.
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One day your kids may enjoy those old cards. Just a thought.
 

coolhandgopher said:
If you go onto Twitter, there's a few really fun sites, I can't access them right now (the Great Firewall of China), but they have names likes Sport Card Backs or Baseball Card Backs, they certainly fire up the nostalgia for the early '80s when I lived and breathed baseball cards.

I've been developing a theory as of late, that one of the reasons that MLB has faded into relative obscurity (compared to the NFL and NBA) is not only due to the explosion of fantasy football since the '90s, but also due to the demise of affordable baseball cards. About the time I got out of the "game", was when Upper Deck joined the likes of Topps, Donruss, and Fleer and the price of a pack got jacked up from 50 cents to $1 (ah, I recall the days of quarter packs). After Upper Deck came along, I recall things going bonkers with prices and easy, cheap access was gone. Much of my knowledge about baseball players came from the backs of those cards and when I would turn on the Saturday or Monday night games of the week (back in those halcyon days), I had a familiarity with the players that I don't today. I'm sure it's quite simplistic, but baseball wasn't exactly a fast game back in the 80s and there were other distractions (albeit not as many as today), but those cheap baseball cards provided a familiarity and accessibility to the game that seems to be missing nowadays.
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There's something to this. I watch a ton of Twins games, but when they play inter-league games like they are now, I find I don't recognize 2/3 of the players on the other team.
 

howeda7 said:
There's something to this. I watch a ton of Twins games, but when they play inter-league games like they are now, I find I don't recognize 2/3 of the players on the other team.
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I gave a bit more thought to this after my original post and I just picked a random year (1984) took a look at the National League standings and at some of the also ran teams who wouldn't have been featured on Games of the Weeks (it was still years before I'd have cable access and be able to watch virtually every Cubs and Braves games). That particular year the Giants, Pirates had the worst divisional records in the league. If you look at their rosters, there are non-All Stars like Johnnie LeMaster, Steve Nicosia, Randy Lerch (Giants); Marvell Wynne, Johnny Ray, and Rod Scurry (Pirates). I can instantly recall their faces and even tell you that Nicosia previously played with the Pirates and Lerch with the Expos. All because of my baseball card collection.
 

justthefacts said:
I really need to go through my cards and just pick out one small box full and sell the rest on Craigslist for $10. I have a box that's about 18" cubed. It doesn't take up that much space, but it's wasted space. Like you, most of mine were acquired between 1984 and 1990.

One thing that baseball cards were very good for during that period: gifts. I wish my kids collected something.
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cncmin said:
One day your kids may enjoy those old cards. Just a thought.
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+08

If it takes up no space...you may as well hold onto them as a keepsake. You may regret throwing away something that can easily be stored away.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 


coolhandgopher said:
If you go onto Twitter, there's a few really fun sites, I can't access them right now (the Great Firewall of China), but they have names likes Sport Card Backs or Baseball Card Backs, they certainly fire up the nostalgia for the early '80s when I lived and breathed baseball cards.

I've been developing a theory as of late, that one of the reasons that MLB has faded into relative obscurity (compared to the NFL and NBA) is not only due to the explosion of fantasy football since the '90s, but also due to the demise of affordable baseball cards. About the time I got out of the "game", was when Upper Deck joined the likes of Topps, Donruss, and Fleer and the price of a pack got jacked up from 50 cents to $1 (ah, I recall the days of quarter packs). After Upper Deck came along, I recall things going bonkers with prices and easy, cheap access was gone. Much of my knowledge about baseball players came from the backs of those cards and when I would turn on the Saturday or Monday night games of the week (back in those halcyon days), I had a familiarity with the players that I don't today. I'm sure it's quite simplistic, but baseball wasn't exactly a fast game back in the 80s and there were other distractions (albeit not as many as today), but those cheap baseball cards provided a familiarity and accessibility to the game that seems to be missing nowadays.
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I remember how big of a deal the jump from $.50 to $.60 was for me.

Anyone else save up money and buy a box (36 packs I believe) once in awhile? That was like Christmas morning for me. The clear packaging 3-packs they came out with were pretty cool too. Since it was clear I would look through them all to find a good player on the outside before buying.
 

justthefacts said:
I really need to go through my cards and just pick out one small box full and sell the rest on Craigslist for $10. I have a box that's about 18" cubed. It doesn't take up that much space, but it's wasted space. Like you, most of mine were acquired between 1984 and 1990.

One thing that baseball cards were very good for during that period: gifts. I wish my kids collected something.
Click to expand...

If you do decide to sell them, I might be interested. I'm especially looking for cards between 1987 and 1992.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I remember how big of a deal the jump from $.50 to $.60 was for me.

Anyone else save up money and buy a box (36 packs I believe) once in awhile? That was like Christmas morning for me. The clear packaging 3-packs they came out with were pretty cool too. Since it was clear I would look through them all to find a good player on the outside before buying.
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Never did the box, but a big day for me was when I bought the '85 Topps complete set, straight from the factory. At the time, was a pretty big deal-rookie cards of Puckett, Clemens, McGwire. Was a big letdown, actually, since the idea behind factory sets was to just let them sit there in the tightly fitted box. What was the fun in that?

A few years later, I put together the '88 Donruss set purely through buying wax packs (that was the Gregg Jefferies rookie card mania year). Spent a ridiculous amount of my paycheck from the grocery store on the endeavor, but made it happen-still remember that I got the final pack with Jefferies and a few other cards around his number while ducking out of a cousin's wedding reception. The achievement was blissful.
 

I got "addicted" for a little while in college buying baseball and football cards; racked up some credit cards going to the card shop and buying packs. The big ticket packs were the 1989 Score football cards, obviously particularly the rookie cards from that year. Packs were going for quite a bit just a few years after they came out in the early 90's.

It was like buying a lottery ticket; buy several packs for what for me at the time was a lot of money, hope to find in there somewhere a Barry Sanders or Troy Aikman or Deion Sanders rookie card. And the major disappointment when you got zippo. For me at the time it was about the closest thing to gambling that I was doing.

I still have a cardboard box with some unopened boxes of packs somewhere but nothing expensive; 1990 Score Baseball packs I think, like 3 boxes of packs, and some other cheaper stuff. At the time I bought them, I figured they would HAVE to be worth something 20-30 years later, right? Not so much.

GophersInIowa, maybe I'll throw them your way if you're interested!
 



Ogee Oglethorpe said:
I got "addicted" for a little while in college buying baseball and football cards; racked up some credit cards going to the card shop and buying packs. The big ticket packs were the 1989 Score football cards, obviously particularly the rookie cards from that year. Packs were going for quite a bit just a few years after they came out in the early 90's.

It was like buying a lottery ticket; buy several packs for what for me at the time was a lot of money, hope to find in there somewhere a Barry Sanders or Troy Aikman or Deion Sanders rookie card. And the major disappointment when you got zippo. For me at the time it was about the closest thing to gambling that I was doing.

I still have a cardboard box with some unopened boxes of packs somewhere but nothing expensive; 1990 Score Baseball packs I think, like 3 boxes of packs, and some other cheaper stuff. At the time I bought them, I figured they would HAVE to be worth something 20-30 years later, right? Not so much.

GophersInIowa, maybe I'll throw them your way if you're interested!
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Yes I would be interested.
 

While cleaning out my parents house a couple of years ago, I found my old baseball cards (mid-60's to early-70's) which I thought were gone forever. Some of the more valuable ones include 1964 NL ERA Leaders (Koufax/Drysdale), 1964 HR Leaders (Killebrew/Powell/Mantle), Joe Morgan rookie card '65, Nolan Ryan and Roberto Clemente '72 (the year Clemente tragically lost his life), Mike Schmidt/Ron Cey rookie card '73, and the Seattle Pilots team card, a team that only existed in '69 before going bankrupt and becoming the Brewers. I also found my Odd Rods/Odder Rods cards from the late 60's. No gum though.
 

A buddy of mine took his old cards and hung them on his kids wall as a decoration tool. It was a great idea for a kid who loves baseball.
 

monk10 said:
A buddy of mine took his old cards and hung them on his kids wall as a decoration tool. It was a great idea for a kid who loves baseball.
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There was a sports bar in PA that I used to go to to watch Vikings games, and in one of the rooms it had a bar where the stand was a freshwater tank with fish, and on top was a glass surface, underneath loaded with front-facing sports cards, some I knew to be quite valuable. Unfortunately, the light coming into the bar during the daytime faded the card surfaces over time, and by the time that room was remodeled, I presume that all of the cards lost substantial value. So, displaying cards out in the open can be really cool, but may destroy their value at the same time.
 



GopherVotary said:
While cleaning out my parents house a couple of years ago, I found my old baseball cards (mid-60's to early-70's) which I thought were gone forever. Some of the more valuable ones include 1964 NL ERA Leaders (Koufax/Drysdale), 1964 HR Leaders (Killebrew/Powell/Mantle), Joe Morgan rookie card '65, Nolan Ryan and Roberto Clemente '72 (the year Clemente tragically lost his life), Mike Schmidt/Ron Cey rookie card '73, and the Seattle Pilots team card, a team that only existed in '69 before going bankrupt and becoming the Brewers. I also found my Odd Rods/Odder Rods cards from the late 60's. No gum though.
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Sweet. So, if you ever want to sell them....
 

cncmin said:
There was a sports bar in PA that I used to go to to watch Vikings games, and in one of the rooms it had a bar where the stand was a freshwater tank with fish, and on top was a glass surface, underneath loaded with front-facing sports cards, some I knew to be quite valuable. Unfortunately, the light coming into the bar during the daytime faded the card surfaces over time, and by the time that room was remodeled, I presume that all of the cards lost substantial value. So, displaying cards out in the open can be really cool, but may destroy their value at the same time.
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I'm guessing he is hanging Alvaro Espinoza, Frank Pastore, and Tom Nieto type of cards on his kid's wall. At least I hope he is.
 

Yea I'm pretty sure my friend's kid has a wall full of Gibson type cards not Trouts hanging up.
 


GophersInIowa said:
Kyle Gibson stole your girlfriend when you were young, huh?
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And took my spot on the baseball team, so I am stuck behind a desk instead of in the majors! Coach's kid got to play scenario. You know how that is.
 

monk10 said:
And took my spot on the baseball team, so I am stuck behind a desk instead of in the majors! Coach's kid got to play scenario. You know how that is.
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I can totally relate to that. All 5'7" of me would be in the NBA right now if it weren't for the coach's kid.
 

What year of card is considered "vintage" and collectible? I've heard new stuff is worthless, but what is old stuff? Mid 70's?
 

I look around on ebay once awhile and pulled the trigger on a box (36 packs) of 1987 Topps. I was like a kid again opening those things. I got excited whenever I pulled a "good" card. I tried a piece of the gum and it actually wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be. The gum did do some damage to the card it was touching for 30+ years.

If you were into baseball cards and haven't seen the netflix documentary Jack of all Trades, I recommend it. At times it was more a personal story but they hit a lot on the baseball card boom of the late 80's and early 90's. Some good interviews mixed in.
 

coolhandgopher said:
If you go onto Twitter, there's a few really fun sites, I can't access them right now (the Great Firewall of China), but they have names likes Sport Card Backs or Baseball Card Backs, they certainly fire up the nostalgia for the early '80s when I lived and breathed baseball cards.

I've been developing a theory as of late, that one of the reasons that MLB has faded into relative obscurity (compared to the NFL and NBA) is not only due to the explosion of fantasy football since the '90s, but also due to the demise of affordable baseball cards. About the time I got out of the "game", was when Upper Deck joined the likes of Topps, Donruss, and Fleer and the price of a pack got jacked up from 50 cents to $1 (ah, I recall the days of quarter packs). After Upper Deck came along, I recall things going bonkers with prices and easy, cheap access was gone. Much of my knowledge about baseball players came from the backs of those cards and when I would turn on the Saturday or Monday night games of the week (back in those halcyon days), I had a familiarity with the players that I don't today. I'm sure it's quite simplistic, but baseball wasn't exactly a fast game back in the 80s and there were other distractions (albeit not as many as today), but those cheap baseball cards provided a familiarity and accessibility to the game that seems to be missing nowadays.
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They were the first to have a Ken Griffey Jr card. That really changed things. The cost went through the roof. The rumor has always been that Upper Deck started mass producing the Griffey cards. The card shops would play along and act like the card was hard to get, but the reality was they probably had a few hundred of them in the back.
 

LesBolstad said:
What year of card is considered "vintage" and collectible? I've heard new stuff is worthless, but what is old stuff? Mid 70's?
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What is old stuff? Honus Wagner 1909 is old stuff, and if you ever come across one PM me. I’ll pay you several hundred dollars for it!!
 

Bumping this thread again. Recently I found a guy selling nearly 100 Kirby Puckett cards for like $40 so jumped on it right away. Almost all were different cards so hardly any doubles. I probably had about half of them already but was able to get some more obscure ones. Pretty cool find. Since then have bought some more on ebay. Up to about 150 different Puckett cards now. I can't wait to show my aunt sometime all the cards as she was obsessed with Kirby back in the day.

Also wanted to give a formal shoutout to @Ogee Oglethorpe who did send me his cards a little while back for free and wouldn't even accept money for shipping. There wasn't a lot of great finds in the box but it was still fun to look through. Thanks again!

​

 

I have a 1969 Killebrew autographed card. I’ve never had a card graded or an autographed authenticated before. Anyone that knows more about that stuff think it’s worth getting authenticated and/or graded? Who is best to use?
 

GophersInIowa said:
I have a 1969 Killebrew autographed card. I’ve never had a card graded or an autographed authenticated before. Anyone that knows more about that stuff think it’s worth getting authenticated and/or graded? Who is best to use?
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If the condition of both the card and signature are crisp, then yes, it's worth getting graded. PSA is the most reputable grading company, with Beckett in 2nd. The grading companies were VERY backed up in the heart of COVID, and I think it's much better turnaround now, but worth getting a realistic timing from them.

While Killebrew's signature is one of the best in any sport from any athlete, he also signed a TON the last 15 or so years of his life which has moderated the value of his autographed items.

Good luck!

Win Twins!!
 

BleedGopher said:
If the condition of both the card and signature are crisp, then yes, it's worth getting graded. PSA is the most reputable grading company, with Beckett in 2nd. The grading companies were VERY backed up in the heart of COVID, and I think it's much better turnaround now, but worth getting a realistic timing from them.

While Killebrew's signature is one of the best in any sport from any athlete, he also signed a TON the last 15 or so years of his life which has moderated the value of his autographed items.

Good luck!

Win Twins!!
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Thanks for the info! I’m not looking to sell it right now or anything but I’m assuming it’s also better protected, the autograph and the card, when I get it graded?
 

GophersInIowa said:
Thanks for the info! I’m not looking to sell it right now or anything but I’m assuming it’s also better protected, the autograph and the card, when I get it graded?
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Yep, you get a very hard snap case when the card gets graded...that is all the protection you should need, it's very well packaged at that point.

Go Gophers!!
 

Going through the closets I found a box of brand new baseball cards from 1972 including a lot of unopened "packs of 5 cards" with the bubblegum stick still inside (the pack you'd buy from stores back then). So, it's a mystery as to what 5 cards are actually in the wrapper. Ever heard of that kind of deal going up for sale - I wouldn't know what specific cards I was selling (other than for sure mint condition cards from '72) and the buyer wouldn't know what they got unless they open up the pack.
 

BleedGopher said:
Yep, you get a very hard snap case when the card gets graded...that is all the protection you should need, it's very well packaged at that point.

Go Gophers!!
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Thanks again. The card and autograph are in good shape so it's something I'll probably end up doing.
 

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