Sports cards

Ndaccountant · Apr 4, 2017

I was reminiscing with my brother last night about baseball cards. This time of year we would be in peak trading mode for baseball cards. It got us talking about our favorite cards, strangest cards we could remember, and those players that we thought were so awesome as kids that turned out to be amazingly mediocre. Many came to mind last night that I will share in time, but thought I would start a thread to see if anyone else remembers these things.

The first one that came to my mind was Billy Ripken 89 Fleer card. For those that aren't familiar, read the bottom of his bat. I didn't know anything about that phrase or card until a few years later, which made it really hard to acquire. After all, what 8 year old boy at a Catholic school doesn't want to have the card with a "forbidden" word on it? One summer in the early/mid 90's, I had to spend two weeks allowance at the sports cards shop to get it, which was a monster sacrifice at the time. Next time I go home I am going to look for this thing.

PANDFAN · Apr 4, 2017

89 upper deck griffy jr

bo jack w/ the shoulder pads/baseball bat

Loved collecting and all of my cards which i had a nice collection of autographs were ruined in a flood

at my dad's house

connor_in · Apr 4, 2017

I really like McLarens...oh, sorry, I thought it said cars

NDdomer2 · Apr 4, 2017

when i was a kid, we all thought the rarest cards were the Jordan 45 Jersey cards.

wizards8507 · Apr 4, 2017

I have complete Topps sets from 1987 - 1994.

ACamp1900 · Apr 4, 2017

I have a ton of cards going back to the 1970s through to about 1992ish... was just thinking the other day of picking up some new packs tho...

GrangerIrish24 · Apr 4, 2017

Kobe autographed rookie card. Sits in my office.

Ndaccountant · Apr 4, 2017

I collected all sports cards. I remember Xmas morning getting sets for baseball, basketball and football. Still have some really great cards, like a Jerry Rice rookie.

One guilty pleasure was Shawn Kemp. There was no reason for a kid growing up in NE Ohio to love Shawn Kemp (before his fat ass made it to Believeland), other than the look of his basketball cards. This was the one that got me hooked....

ACamp1900 · Apr 4, 2017

I have some BBall cards, 1988 to about 1992... have more football, about the same time range.

IrishSteelhead · Apr 4, 2017

What sucks is literally everything made in the wheelhouse years of my time collecting (mid 80's-early 90's) is worthless crap because that's when cards were at their absolute peak and mass produced.

Armyirish47 · Apr 4, 2017

I still love trading cards, I've been chasing this set for years.

<IMG HEIGHT="250" WIDTH="300" SRC="http://i.imgur.com/RBa1VnY.jpg">

Irish2155 · Apr 5, 2017

I have quite a few Carl Yastrzemski cards and signed memorabilia handed down from my dad. His favorite player - named my younger brother Yaz...poor kid. Roger Clemens rookie card though has to be the favorite of my collection.

Irishnuke · Apr 5, 2017

I actually collected until about 2003. That's when I met my current wife and I (she) decided my money was better spent elsewhere. I still have almost all of them in boxes in my garage.

ACamp1900 · Apr 5, 2017

Just bought a pretty decent 1980s lot on ebay for 8 bucks... supposedly unopened... we shall see...

pumpdog20 · Apr 5, 2017

PANDFAN said:
89 upper deck griffy jr

bo jack w/ the shoulder pads/baseball bat

Loved collecting and all of my cards which i had a nice collection of autographs were ruined in a flood at my dad's house

Yep, that Bo Jackson one was the best.

Rack Em · Apr 5, 2017

wizards8507 said:
I have complete Topps sets from 1987 - 1994.

Complete unopened Topps sets from 1989-2017. Thanks dad!

BleedBlueGold · Apr 5, 2017

Ndaccountant said:
I was reminiscing with my brother last night about baseball cards. This time of year we would be in peak trading mode for baseball cards. It got us talking about our favorite cards, strangest cards we could remember, and those players that we thought were so awesome as kids that turned out to be amazingly mediocre. Many came to mind last night that I will share in time, but thought I would start a thread to see if anyone else remembers these things.

The first one that came to my mind was Billy Ripken 89 Fleer card. For those that aren't familiar, read the bottom of his bat. I didn't know anything about that phrase or card until a few years later, which made it really hard to acquire. After all, what 8 year old boy at a Catholic school doesn't want to have the card with a "forbidden" word on it? One summer in the early/mid 90's, I had to spend two weeks allowance at the sports cards shop to get it, which was a monster sacrifice at the time. Next time I go home I am going to look for this thing.

I want to say that I used to have this card, but I'll have to check when I get home (I still have all of my cards from when I was a kid.) Something about this card that is eerily familiar. I wish I could remember my own personal story because I want to say I either traded for it, or traded it for something else.

PANDFAN said:
89 upper deck griffy jr

bo jack w/ the shoulder pads/baseball bat

Loved collecting and all of my cards which i had a nice collection of autographs were ruined in a flood at my dad's house

I collected all kinds of Jr. cards. That UD one I never landed. I have basically every other brand rookie card for him.

Ndaccountant said:
I collected all sports cards. I remember Xmas morning getting sets for baseball, basketball and football. Still have some really great cards, like a Jerry Rice rookie.

One guilty pleasure was Shawn Kemp. There was no reason for a kid growing up in NE Ohio to love Shawn Kemp (before his fat ass made it to Believeland), other than the look of his basketball cards. This was the one that got me hooked....

Totally agree re: Kemp. Something about his cards that made me want to collect them. My best is opening a pack of Skybox Z-Force and landing the Big Man on the Court "Z-Peat" insert. I still have it. It's a "common card" so only worth $15 but because it's a ZPeat it's worth $45. Still not a ton. But what's crazy is that it's 1: 1,120 cards. By far the rarest card I ever got from a pack at the grocery store.

Towards the end of my collecting days I refocused all of my attention getting certain players: Penny Hardaway, Shaq, Iverson, Bryant, Garnett, and Jordan....most of which are Jordan's.

Some of my faves (I have too many Jordan's to narrow down a favorite):

1994-95-emotion-69-anfernee-hardaway-card-cbed4128b4000f3e256669cf8d9e60cb.jpg

Irishize · Apr 5, 2017

IrishSteelhead said:
What sucks is literally everything made in the wheelhouse years of my time collecting (mid 80's-early 90's) is worthless crap because that's when cards were at their absolute peak and mass produced.

You nailed it. I'd say the 88-89 years were when the industry jumped the shark and made all their cards worthless w/ few exceptions. Then it became the Chase cards with jerseys or autographs. Now even the jersey cards are worth little.

I started collecting in 1978 and there was no bigger thrill than going to my first baseball card shop in the early 80s. This was my only true access to quality "old" cards. I love the vintage stuff...the stale smell of 1963 cardboard brings it all back & adds to the antiquity. I've currently been trolling eBay for vintage cards at bargain prices. Cards of HoFers & All-Stars from 1957-1977.

I've also been able to put together a decent collection of vintage football cards of NFL players who played for ND. Most of the names are not household but it simply reminds you of how many Domers played in the League. A lot of the legendary Domers didn't have much of a pro career so they were pretty easy to acquire: John Huarte, Terry Hanratty, Ken McAfee. Plus football cards are quite a bit cheaper than baseball cards. even for the HoFers like Dave Casper & Alan Page.

Irishize · Apr 5, 2017

Irish2155 said:
I have quite a few Carl Yastrzemski cards and signed memorabilia handed down from my dad. His favorite player - named my younger brother Yaz...poor kid. Roger Clemens rookie card though has to be the favorite of my collection.

I believe Yaz attended ND as a student but didn't play baseball there. Don't think he graduated but he did ok with his life regardless. He was one of my favs growing up.

Irishize · Apr 5, 2017

Armyirish47 said:
I still love trading cards, I've been chasing this set for years.

<IMG HEIGHT="250" WIDTH="300" SRC="http://i.imgur.com/RBa1VnY.jpg">

I love that set that UD put out. If you're collecting the entire autographed set, that's pretty impressive & worthy of framing IMO.

Irishize · Apr 5, 2017

I'm convinced that when I enter heaven there will be a grocery story with a long aisle of wax packs & rack packs from 1951-1977. I can't wait to tear into them.

IrishSteelhead · Apr 5, 2017

Irishize said:
I'm convinced that when I enter heaven there will be a grocery story with a long aisle of wax packs & rack packs from 1951-1977. I can't wait to tear into them.

You have to chew every single piece of gum too.

Irishize · Apr 5, 2017

IrishSteelhead said:
You have to chew every single piece of gum too.

No...in heaven there would be no gum to leave stains on those cardboard masterpieces. I'd like to think there'd be no airbrushing either so you could snag a 1977 Reggie Jackson in his Orioles uni instead of an airbrushed Yanks helmet.

Luckylucci · Apr 5, 2017

Started collecting with my father around 1990 and we would buy packs or sets of whatever sport was in season, between football, basketball, and baseball.

Interesting, but traumatic story.

My father has been a life long card collector but has a fairly large gap in his collection. Reason being, when he went off to college, New York to Minnesota, and he didn't make it home very often. After a couple of years, his mother (my grandma) was doing some house cleaning, and didn't really understand what he had. So........ she threw away his entire collection. It was a committed collection of baseball cards from 1950-1970, roughly. Essentially, what any card collector would dream of having.

I can honestly say some of my best memories with my father were through collecting cards, looking them up in beckets, and going to shows. When I have more time I'll post some of my fav, rarest, etc. cards.

Luckylucci · Apr 5, 2017

BTW, great thread!

BobbyMac · Apr 5, 2017

Irishize said:
I believe Yaz attended ND as a student but didn't play baseball there. Don't think he graduated but he did ok with his life regardless. He was one of my favs growing up.

Yaz went to ND to play basketball. Left after one season when the Red Sox signed him.

BobbyMac · Apr 5, 2017

Luckylucci said:
Started collecting with my father around 1990 and we would buy packs or sets of whatever sport was in season, between football, basketball, and baseball.

Interesting, but traumatic story.

My father has been a life long card collector but has a fairly large gap in his collection. Reason being, when he went off to college, New York to Minnesota, and he didn't make it home very often. After a couple of years, his mother (my grandma) was doing some house cleaning, and didn't really understand what he had. So........ she threw away his entire collection. It was a committed collection of baseball cards from 1950-1970, roughly. Essentially, what any card collector would dream of having.

I can honestly say some of my best memories with my father were through collecting cards, looking them up in beckets, and going to shows. When I have more time I'll post some of my fav, rarest, etc. cards.

Unfortunately, same here.

My parents died when I was away in college (late 80's) and my Grandma who was in charge of the will and estate auction gave my cards away to a group of day laborers hired by the auction company. I had some big name 50's & 60's non mint cards bought at garage sales in the 60's - 70's but what really kills me was my Dad would buy a full set of Topps in the in the "cheese box" every year. I had '71-'80 full sets wrapped in celophane that were never opened, never saw daylight, two sets of '74-'76 and ten thousand+ other cards in varying levels of condition.

I like to joke with people that I had a $5000 Schwinn Stingray when I was a kid, they'll reply, Are they really worth that much now?, I'm like... It was when you had George Brett and Robin Yount rookie cards pinned to your forks.

I also had two large foot lockers of Hostess baseball cards on the deconstructed boxes so that the cards weren't cut out. The Hostess Outlet used to take Ho-Ho's and Ding Dong's out of the box and sell them individually so my Pops made a deal with owner to get the empty boxes with the 3 cards on the bottom. Probably had a thousand of them.

I won't get into the Jordan rookie cards, the Payton's, Butkus', '61 Mikita signed (ugh)...

I need a beer bout now.

Armyirish47 · Apr 5, 2017

Irishize said:
I love that set that UD put out. If you're collecting the entire autographed set, that's pretty impressive & worthy of framing IMO.

I am shooting for the whole thing, but I've seen exactly 1 of the Montana autographs show up on eBay over the years and it went for something like $700. If I ever run that one and 4 others down it will definitely be framed and hung up in the man cave.

I LOVE Upper Deck, but I kind of hate that they have the exclusive license for Notre Dame goodies now because I'm not sure when, or if we will we get another release out of them.

Irishnuke · Apr 5, 2017

Luckylucci said:
Started collecting with my father around 1990 and we would buy packs or sets of whatever sport was in season, between football, basketball, and baseball.

Interesting, but traumatic story.

My father has been a life long card collector but has a fairly large gap in his collection. Reason being, when he went off to college, New York to Minnesota, and he didn't make it home very often. After a couple of years, his mother (my grandma) was doing some house cleaning, and didn't really understand what he had. So........ she threw away his entire collection. It was a committed collection of baseball cards from 1950-1970, roughly. Essentially, what any card collector would dream of having.

I can honestly say some of my best memories with my father were through collecting cards, looking them up in beckets, and going to shows. When I have more time I'll post some of my fav, rarest, etc. cards.

That's horrible. I bet that was the case with many people though. Sickening to think how many old cards from the 50s and 60s got tossed out with the trash.

ACamp1900 · Apr 5, 2017

That's what happened with my NES/SNES stuff... held on to it all through high and early college, left the state for a summer job after Sophmore year, came home... everything sold at garage sales....

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