Trading Cards

Does anyone or did anyone at one time collect cards; baseball, basketball, whatever? I used to collect mainly football and hockey cards, but now the price of packs of cards are ludicrous! I used to buy a pack of 12 cards, with gum for like $.50 - $1.00, now you can buy a pack of 3 cards for $5 and God Forbid you want to buy a box of cards that will cost you about $50 for 10 packs. Anyway, what are some of your favorite cards that you've collected over the years? Hear are just a couple that I happen to have in my apt. right now.

1985 Topps Steve Yzerman, 2nd year;


1992 Upper Deck Dominick Hasek, All Rookie Team;


I work with the daughter of one of my favorite Defense Men ever to play the game and he was nice enough to sign my card of his and he was really cool and gave me his 2002 Olympic card, also signed. Now I just need to meet him in person, my lady did I was really jealous.

1984 Topps Phil Housley, 2nd year Autographed;


2002 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team Phil Housley, Autographed;


More to come. How about anyone else.

I collected Marvel comic trading cards in the early 90's.

I collected baseball cards from around 1979 till around '86 or '87 I think. As far as I know, they are still in my parents basement. I probably have some good stuff in there. Is there a decent market for baseball cards? Do people still buy/sell/trade/collect them?

I still got pokemon cards somewhere...

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I collected baseball cards from around 1979 till around '86 or '87 I think. As far as I know, they are still in my parents basement. I probably have some good stuff in there. Is there a decent market for baseball cards? Do people still buy/sell/trade/collect them?

Oh yeah there is still a huge market for them.

I 've collected sports cards my whole life. I was especially into it in the 80's, to the point that I didn't really keep up with 80's music very well.
However I got out of it and back into music because I could see that it was turning into a pretty dirty hobby, which it in fact did. Not only were there a lot of cards being manufactured in the 90's that had artificial value (they were expensive but not actually rare in any way...Bonds and Griffey rookies and that sort of thing). Even worse forgery of older cards and especially autographs became rampant. Some of the most expensive cards that have been auctioned for hundreds of thousands or even miliions of dollars are widely believed to not be what they were represented to be when they were sold.
Two recent books "The Card" and "Operation Bullpen" detail the history of these collecting scandals. Pretty interesting but depressing.
The only good thing that I got out reading about the scandals is that I enjoy my old cards more now, because they tend to be beat up and not all that "collectible". But I know where they've been and where they came from and that they are legit. I've got a 1933 Babe Ruth, a 1957 Mickey Mantle, and quite a few others. But like I say they are beat up and not very "valuable" expect to me personally.
At this point I wouldn't invest in an autograph or any kind of expensive "mint" card. It's a really good way to get ripped off nowadays. A huge percentage of autographs are fake, some high end cards have been altered or restored, and the "certification" companies are not dependable and sometimes corrupt. However there are still a lot of fans that are just looking for distraction and ignore the problems in collecting just like they ignore the steroid issue. They just don't want to have their fun spoiled by hearing about all the corruption, so they pretend everything is OK or they just don't care about the scandals. I have some sympathy as it's only entertainment after all, it ain't church or anything.
I still collect some sports stuff, but I avoid spending much money on anything. I just get very old stuff cheap, and just for fun. I've been ripped off on small scale just a few times collecting CDs, but in my experience it's a much "cleaner" hobby than cards.

sam wrote:

I still got pokemon cards somewhere...

I bet I've got more.

i got some superman: the original movie trading cards, some black hole cards and some battlestar galactica cards. I also have a boatload of baseball cards from the early 80s....

Alex

I'm not a sports fan, but as a young boy, you're pretty much obligated to own a few baseball/basketball/football cards.

My big passion was comic book trading cards though. DC & Marvel had some great sets. I was also big into WWF trading cards (which sadly disappeared long ago, thrown out by my parents no doubt).

I still have all my comic book trading cards.

I am an avid collector of Steve Garvey baseball cards. I go for the hard-to-find stuff and really enjoy it, although it's sometimes hard to justify spending that kind of money on a piece of cardboard, especially with a young 'un on the way. It's provided YEARS of great fun and I suspect will continue to during those rare moments when I have excess funds.

Here are a few I have acquired over the years:




























These are some of my favorites! There is another board member who collects, but I'm not saying who.

I did the same thing with Harmon Killebrew ("our" first-baseman) that you've done with Garvey. I have all his Topps and other old cards, and a bunch of other odd items. Luckily I got his rookie card when I was only about ten years old, and I think it cost me $2!
Even though I've gotten cynical about the hobby I haven't let it ruin my fun. One just has to be patient. I finally got a 1935 Lefty Grove last year. I had been waiting my whole life to get that card at an affordable price, and I finally got it.

Very cool cards SteveGarveyFAn. I myself don't quite understand the grading factor and how they can skyrocket prices, but I know it can get expensive. There have only been one time that I bought an individual players card and that was a Fran Tarkenton card that I can scan in later. I don't collect any one person in particular I just open packs and take what's cool. I haven't bought a pack of cards in forever though.

SAHB I know what you are talking about, the rip offs and what not. I don't collect one player in paticular and all the cards that I do have, like John Elway and Dan Marino Rookie cards I got from opening packs of cards that my dad was kind of saving. I would never buy a Patrick Roy or Gordie Howe Rookie or anything like that for hundreds or thousands of dollars that's ridiculous and a waste of money. The one thing I used to do was buy a box of cards at K-Mart for like $9.99 and open them up and just have fun getting players or teams that I enjoy.

I called a collectors place today that still sell packs of cards and boxes and asked what their cheapest box of hockey cards were and they told me that they only had one box of 2009 Upper Deck Hockey cards for $79.99!! I couldn't believe it. I used to buy boxes for $10 and they had like 35 packs of 15 cards now they sell for $80 for 10 packs of like 6 or 7.

I have said here a few times that I have a huge football card collection. I collected from 1989-2007. Since April of 07 I have been dissolving said collection and building up my music collection. I had, at one time, a complete 1955 Bowman set and a complete 1957 Topps set; I have sold both to a friend recently. I used to have a run of complete sets from 1967 - 2006. I have sold 67-75 thus far and will sell off the rest to that same friend soon. He has a run from 1949-1975. In the late 80's when I seriously started collecting, I did all 4 major sports, but as time went on and the prices of packs went up I sold off my Hockey, Basketball, and Baseball collections to concentrate on Football. I still have 2,300 different Patriots cards; 1,750+ Brett Favre cards (including 100+ jersey pieces); a small Torry Holt collection; and 150+ complete football card sets. I have been buying cd's and cassettes since the early eighties but when I got into collecting in 1989, the music buying took a backseat. That's why there is so many albums I missed out on getting them on cd, cuz all my disposable cash went to cards. I am glad though that I have cards to sell off to purchase cds with. In fact, I sold a few Patriots auto's to a kid at work tonight. LOL. Peace.

i have hundreds of Garbage Pail Kids cards. does that count?

mc666 wrote:

i have hundreds of Garbage Pail Kids cards. does that count?

Yes

mc666 wrote:

i have hundreds of Garbage Pail Kids cards. does that count?

Absolutely!

My brother and I collected any cards we could get our hands on as kids -- baseball, football, hockey, basketball, movie/tv shows, you name it, we probably had it. Most of them are gone now (due to the ravages of time and the general mistreatment that little kids deal out to their property, haha) but I still have an album at home with a couple of hundred random ones that I saved when I moved outta my parents' house in the 90s. I know I've got a bunch of the Marvel and DC Universe cards from the late 80s/early 90s, plus some oldies like Battlestar Galactica, the 70s KISS trading cards (a complete set of series #1!), lots of random ball players, and other odds and ends.

I also have some Hustler Magazine trading cards that I picked up at a flea market about ten years ago ... I couldn't resist.

Quote :

However I got out of it and back into music because I could see that it was turning into a pretty dirty hobby, which it in fact did. Not only were there a lot of cards being manufactured in the 90's that had artificial value (they were expensive but not actually rare in any way...Bonds and Griffey rookies and that sort of thing).

That's when I lost interest as well. I collected baseball cards as a kid because it was a fun thing to do. When it became a "business" and the card companies started manufacturing all these gold foil, embossed, 3-d holograph cards, it was too much. They did the same thing with comic books.

Speaking of baseball cards, a little old lady just made a nice chunk of change selling an 1869 (!) baseball card that she found while cleaning her attic:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Baseball-granny-cashes-in-big-with-sale-of-rare-?urn=mlb,140821

mc666 wrote:

i have hundreds of Garbage Pail Kids cards. does that count?

those are probably worth more than baseball cards!!!!

Alex

What about the 1909-1911 T206 Honus Wagner PSA 8? It has sold numerous times for well over $1MM and two or three times for over $2MM. There are several more with values in the hundred of thousands. I own quite a few of those: zero to be precise.

I grabbed a few cards from my parents house today

1984 Topps Steve Yzerman Rookie Card:


1985 Donnruss Kirby Puckett Rookie Card:


1985 Topps Mark McGwire USA Rookie Card:


1985 Topps Roger Clemens Rookie Card:


1984 Topps Dan Marino Rookie Card:


1984 Topps John Elway Rookie Card:


1984 Topps Don Mattingly Rookie Card:


1988 Topps Brett Hull Rookie Card:


1973 Topps Terry Bradshaw:


1981 FLEER Nolan Ryan:


1981 Topps Nolan Ryan:


1978 Topps Nolan Ryan:

spiritoradio wrote:

I grabbed a few cards from my parents house today

1985 Topps Mark McGwire USA Rookie Card:


1985 Topps Roger Clemens Rookie Card:

Steriods on parade!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alex

Quote :

This reminds me of an Elway card I used to have. Dunno how many of ya know this but before John Elway chose to make the NFL his profession, he played minor league baseball for a year or two in the Yankees organization while trying to decide which sport to play full time. He played for the Yankees' minor league team in Oneonta in Upstate NY (circa 81-83). My grandparents lived about 30 minutes from Oneonta when I was a kid and we used to go see a couple of games a year out there. At one of those games my bro and I got a pack of trading cards of everyone on the team (I forget now if we bought them at the souvenir stand or if they were a giveaway that night), and Elway's card was in there (even though to the best of my knowledge he'd already moved on by that point and wasn't on the team roster anymore). I wonder what happened to that damn card. I don't know how much $ it would be worth now but it was an interesting conversation piece.