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As a Kid I was an avid baseball collector and spent countless hours tracking down baseball cards at shows and my local dealers shop. Yeah, the allure of making some money on these cards was a driving force but more so the simple thrill of collecting the cards and organzing and re-organizing them everyday in my book and of course selecting the lucky few that got put in their own special "Plastic Case" was the Real thrill.
To this date I have an entire closet full of baseball, Football, Basketball, and even Garbage Pail kids at my parents house. I would estimate at one time according to Beckett weekly my portfolio was valued at around $10,000. Now.......probably $75........bad investment but great memories.
Anyways, I stumbled across this article and thought you guys would enjoy. If you were anything like me, and My guess most of ya'll were you hunted through many a baseball card pack in search of this Billy Ripken "Error" card where Fleer happened to miss the "F*ck Face" writing on the ball of Billy's bat. The Error card was like the elusive lottery ticket back in the day. I remember also trying to hunt down a mis-spelled Jorge Bell baseball card. Well, anyways the mystery is solved on the Billy Ripken error card bat. I love how in the article he explains that he wasn't very well liked in the clubhouse.
But, the truth comes out that he actually wrote it on his own bat so he wouldn't forget it was his. He said he was in a rush and couldn't think of anything better to write on it...............how about. B-RIP or BillyR. or something to that effect??????? I bet this has something to do with the fact that he was the younger bro of Cal and not that good so I have a feeling Cal was always calling him F*ck Face cause he was pissed his brother Billy was always tagging along and sucked at sports. I can see a daily conversation at the Ripken household going something like this.....
"Aw Come on Dad, Why do I have to bring Billy to the ball Field again, He Sucks!
Now, Cal someday I will be coaching both of you in the Majors so you better bring Billy so he can practice with the big boys and get better..............
Fine Dad..........Come on F*ck Face let's go!!!!!!
I love it. Any other famous error cards you pursued as a youth or just a card you always tried to find. For me, I was especially jacked to track down Cal's Rookie in Topps, Donruss, and Fleer. But, I also made a significant investment in Mike Greenwell rookie cards and Ellis Burks thinking I would hit the jackpot.............Not the case.....both flops.
Pat Listach, Joey Meyer, Danny Tartabull and Kevin Seitzer were also other rookies I tried to invest in that never really panned out. I think we need to start producing Cobra Kai cards!!!
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11 comments:
Hey who is deleting Comments????
I didn't delete anything.
The most insane baseball card collecting memory I have is when the "Wild Cards" came out. I think they came in both baseball and football. They had black borders with flames on them and if you were lucky enough to get a "Wild Card" in a pack it would have a diagonal stripe on the bottom of the card with a foil number from 5 to 100.
You could then send in that card to get the foil number amount of that same regular card sent back to you from the company. Of course only morons would send the card back to the company because the "wild cards" were the only things in the set that were worth anything.
I'm sure not one of them is worth more than $1 today.
I always wanted the Don Mattingly Rookie Card. I was too broke to buy it. I remember the wild cards set. My friend and I went to a card show and he bought a pack. He actually got the one with 1000 on it and it was a big deal. One guy wanted to buy it from him. right there, for $600. We had to be 15 or 16yrs old. But my friend wanted to keep it. A coulp months late it was worth nothing.
I have a Fantasy Football wild card with Ricky Vaughn on it !
Danny Tartabull is a childhod friend of my brother , funny he was a bust Keith.
DonJuan, Maybe You can get Danny to sign my Topps Rated Rookie card and it will increase in value to $0.18!!!!
$600 for a Wild Card on the spot....man that is alot of money for a 15 yr old. No wonder this industry faded away...probably a good thing.
That is not a good mixture where these degenerate adults were buying and selling cards from kids......talk about an opportunity to rip kids off.
I remember carrying my latest copy of Beckett Weekly around like it was the bible.
I still have a couple of them in boxes. Remember the one with Shaq on the cover......and the back????
Was it really adults ripping off kids? Or the other way around. Like Scotty said, the guy offered him $600 right there. If you were in collecting purley for the money, you could make a ton of dough just going to all the shows every week and reselling the cards/comics to stores or even getting a table at the shows yourself.
But most kids were in it for the collecting and investment, which like all invenstments are a risk. Unfortunately only the most valuable stuff is still really worth anything today. All the gimick cards are worthless.
By the way Scotty, I have that 1984Mattinlgy rookie card. I put it in one of those 2" thick lucite holders with the screws that came with the velvet zipper case. I'll probably never sell it and just give it to my kids someday. I have LT's rooking card in the same setting, but I'm being buried with that one.
I have 2 card related stories to share. One good and one disasterous. I too was a card fanatic, I used to use all of my alloowance money on trading cards.
The first story happened when I was a junior in high school. The company skybox came out with a limited edition set of basketball cards. They claimed that only a certain number would be made and that was it. I spent every single dime on these packs and separated all the rookies, Gary Payton, David Robinson, Kendall Gill, ect. I also asked for boxes of these cards for christmas and my birthday. Each box of packs costed about $60(don't quote me on the exact price). These were the most sought after cards, until the day that skybox decided that they were going to mass produce the cards and not make them limited edition anymore. Within a month, boxes were selling for $25 and today, the entire set is worth about $15. I was so pissed that I stopped collecting cards alltogether.
The second one is positive. I was at a card show during my sophomore year in college (I was helping him run a booth. I wasn't collecting) On that day as I was walking by a table, I heard on some guy's radio that the Packers had just traded for a quarterback from Southern Mississippi, who was a third stringer for Atlanta. Not knowing who he was, I asked the guy at the booth if he had any of his rookie cards. He said "yes" and sold 5 of them to me for 50 cents total, or 10 cents a card. They even had spelled his name wrong. Today those cards are worth upwards of $200 + apiece , the last time I checked. Total luck.
I got one really cool card. In the early 90's the Bulls came into town to play the Magic. Before tip off M. Jordan noticed that his jersey was stolen. I have a card with Nick Anderson making a layup with MJ in the background wearing another number than 23 playing basketball. As a Bull.
I also collected 3 different years of Marvel comic cards. I also collect Desert Storm cards from the war for my brother who was a marine in the war. I gave them to him when he came back from his tour. He seems to stay on that side of the world though, he's back again for another round.
Great stories.....really a great posts everyone......alot hustle and emotion I love it.
Hey is anybody getting concerned about JW? He usually always posts on the dojo and his erratic act on the fantasy site he still hasn't explained. JW where are you??? We are concerned about you....just let us know you are still there and allright.
Koko, that 84 Mattingly rook was one on my list I never got. But, I was very proud of My 84 Boggs. That one could have been the gem of my collection for awhile.
And Regs, the Brett Favre heist is great. However, the value of that card does not matter because something like that I would never, ever part with. Brett Farve??? Who is this hick from Southern Miss???
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