OT: Sports cards......

[K2C Sooner]

How many of you collected baseball and football cards in your youth or maybe even today? What was your most treasured card? Did you trade with your friends? You get the gist of my post. Let me know........


I had a rookie card of Pete Rose. Average condition and it was valued at 600.00 at one time (Prime) I also had a Ernie Banks rookie card emblazed in gold. BTW, RIP Mr. Banks.

In the late 50's and early 60's every kid wanted a Mickey Mantle Topps card. I have never seen one and I'm not sure they ever made one??? I did have a few from Kelloggs or Post Corn Flakes that included them on the box.

I once traded a toy for some very early tobacco baseball cards and I can't remember the names, from a friend. I'm talking Ty Cobb era. As many of us, my mom threw them out when I left home.

I have cases of unopened Pro-Set Football cards from 1990 -1991. They are supposed to have Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman rookie cards in each sleeve, but I never have broke the seals. I don't think they're worth much.

Well, I'm rambling.................

 

[pssooner]

I have a 1971 opening day program for the Washington Senators. My sister and her boyfriend took me to RFK, we kept the score and all inside. I went into the air force and got stationed out here in Ca. in 1983 and forgot about it. went to an Angel game around 85/86 and talked to my mom the next day and told her I got to see Reggie Jackson strike out twice in the game and loved it (we both hated Reggie) about a week later she sent me the program I got in 71. much to my suprise I started looking at it and sure enough I had already seen Reggie strike out 3 times!!!! and had not realized it..... the names in that program are amazing. Ted Williams,Nelly Fox,Vida Blue, Curt Flood and on and on............ can't forget Frank Howard (my favorite Senator)
This post was edited on 2/11 10:12 PM by pssooner

 

[K2C Sooner]

Who did the Senators play? Must have been Oakland? I think Ted Williams finished up there? I know Vida Blue was on the Oakland team. Nellie Fox surprised me. I thought he finished his career with Chisox in the 60's.

 

[pssooner]

Originally posted by K2C Sooner:

Who did the Senators play? Must have been Oakland? I think Ted Williams finished up there? I know Vida Blue was on the Oakland team. Nellie Fox surprised me. I thought he finished his career with Chisox in the 60's.

yes they played Oakland. Ted was the Senator manager and nellie was a coach...... and it was Reggies rookie y
ear I believe.
This post was edited on 2/11 10:25 PM by pssooner

 

[pssooner]

The next year they moved to Texsa and became the rangers, I believe Ted managed that team also.

 

[K2C Sooner]

If you can, post some names off that Oakland team. I think that was about the time of their dynasty. It might be fun to see some of those names, Catfish Hunter?

I once let an employee off for a day to work the beer cart for a charity event in Broken Arrow Ok. Warren Spahn was sponsoring the event. I gave her the day off, but asked for all the celebrative ball players sign me a baseball. I got a ton og Braves and Dodgers, but she couldn't get Sandy Koufaxs signature. He his well known to not sign unless he is paid. He finally traded a signature for a beer off the cart.

I also have Johnny Bench, Lou Brock ,Hank Aaron and Willie Mays signature balls. I have some others, but I would have to dig through my basement to find all of them.

 

[WhyNotaSooner]

I collected cards. I guess the most treasured is the rookie Nolan Ryan, and his 2nd year cards. In fact, I have a tremendous amount of Nolan Ryan collectibles. Also have a Joe Morgan Colt 45 rookie card. I also have the opening day program of the Astrodome from 1965. I gave all the cards & collectibles to my son at Christmas. At age 32, I think he'll hang on to them for awhile. I bought two of the Astrodome stadium seats close to two years ago.

On a side note, on a long weekend trip to NYC in 1999, my son & I while walking around in upper Manhatton, ventured into a sports bar/restaurant and Johnny Bench was there signiing his newly released book.... wait for it.... Baseball for Dummies. I thought it was hilarious when Tulsan suggested I purchase Football for Dummies. If he only knew. Speaking of football, I have the rookie Aikman and Emmit too.

I used to travel throughout the country for biz and I would always stop at one card shop per trip. I've found that card dealers price the local sports cards much higher due to demand/supply. I could buy Ryan stuff pretty cheap in the midwest and flip them back in Texas pretty easy. The same for Cub, Bears & Packers. Buy them cheap in Texas and flip them in the midwest.

For the record though, my most prized collectible is a bit more personal. It isn't worth anything, but at age 11, I caught a foul ball in the air during a game at the Astrodome and the usher (girls in space suits) came over spoke w/ my dad and then brought me a Honary Houston Astros Player's Contract. It was dated and such. I have it framed and displayed in the man cave beside the bar.

Recently I sold a six pack of Dale Sr Coca-Cola bottles on Ebay. I have no idea why, but I find myself looking for vintage Bourbon decanters. I've purchased a few in the past year. The workmanship and quality of some of these things are really nice.

 

[Salt City Sooner]

There's a new show on Fox Business Network called Strange Inheritance, & it's first show was about a guy who was going through a deceased relatives belongings & came across a pristine baseball card collection (IIRC around 800 cards or so) that blew away anything in existence to this point. They replay those shows quite a bit so I'm sure it'll be shown again if you get the channel & DVR it. If not, just google Black Swamp Find & there's several articles on it. VERY cool show.

As for mine, I haven't gone through it in quite a while, but off the top of my head I know I've got several Montana Topps rookies, a Randy Johnson when he was with Montreal, & a Kobe Bryant when he was still in high school, to name a few.

 

[coe8189]

Didn't collect cards, but have quit a few programs form OU. Most prized program is one with Bosworth and Aikmen names right next to each other.

 

[stuck in del rio]

I collected for years after I joined the USAF and had a steady income to devote to it. I had complete sets of all card companies from 1991 up to 2002. I also had the first complete sets of both Donruss and Fleer, and some other small companies like Bowman, Upper Deck, etc.

That was one part - the part I enjoyed best was going to various card shows and having a chance to get items signed and/or purchase signed bats, balls, etc. plus all the vintage cards you could get. My two best cards were an Al Kaline (Detroit 1B) rookie card and an Early Wynn card from when he was with the White Sox - I also had some other minor cards.

There is a Mickey Mantle Topps Card - his 1952 is the king of the market and goes for about $13,000 now. Used to be well over $100,000 before the sports card market collapsed. What's funny is the 1952 Topps is not the first Mickey Mantle card issued - there is a 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle card that beats Topps by over a year, but because Bowman was so small at the time (later gobbled up by Topps) the 1952 Topps is considered Mickey's first card. These are cards from the era when they didn't use photography - the pictures are more like cartoons of the players, on the front.

I had more than 100,000 cards, many duplicates, and not just baseball. People would give me cards just to get rid of their collections lol. I would get football, basketball, hockey, etc. I never collected non-sports cards although my son when younger did some collecting of Yu Gi Oh or whatever those little anime japanese things are. I had a baseball bat and ball signed by David Justice the year he won Rookie of the Year for the National League - I thought at the time he was going to be the next Reggie Jackson lol - guess I was a little off. I had other pieces of minor memorabilia, not counting any of my OU stuff...

Sadly when I went to Osan Korea for my 15 month tour, my wife decided while I was gone it would be a good time to file for divorce, sell the house, and move the kids to Cleveland...she sold my entire baseball collection for a hundred bucks. And kept it. lol. She also got rid of my OU stuff and my collection of vintage audio gear, tube amps, speakers, etc.

For the poster that had unopened boxes/crates of football cards - I would hang onto those, if you can. You never know when the market will come back (if it ever does), but unless you have to, I wouldn't get rid of them now. Or open them. Leave them sealed.

 

[Soonersincefitty]

Yeah, I dabbled in the cards back in the early 90s.

Mainly baseball and football. I was always after the hand signed cards.
I guess my biggest scores were a hand signed Ken Griffey Jr. and also a hand signed Troy Aikman.
Both of them paid off pretty good back then.

I got 500 bills for the Aikman at a silent auction, and around 300 as I recall for the Griffey...sweet!

 

[DallasSooner]

1989 Upper Deck Griffey #1 card.

Man the card market then was hot; even in a little town like Ada we had three baseball card stores. That's crazy. They destroyed that market with over producing cards and variations. It's a great study for business classes.

Also OT; if anyone has any old Star Wars from the 70's and 80's send me a pm or email and I'd probably buy them.

lhsooner@yahoo.com

 

[anon_5z68cgtvj4ggn]

Originally posted by DallasSooner:
1989 Upper Deck Griffey #1 card.

Man the card market then was hot; even in a little town like Ada we had three baseball card stores. That's crazy. They destroyed that market with over producing cards and variations. It's a great study for business classes.

Also OT; if anyone has any old Star Wars from the 70's and 80's send me a pm or email and I'd probably buy them.

lhsooner@yahoo.com

That card was it. The first complete box of packs I ever bought was 1989 Upper Deck. I collected all sports and ended up with over 100,000 cards before selling them all and that card was my all time favorite. I probably go into a card shop once or twice a year now and I always look for '89 Upper Deck wax, just for old times sake.