Baseball Cards

http://images.collectors.com/Articles/b&bhull2.jpg

All these baseball card auctions on ebay with no bids are depressing.

http://tigerwoodsfistpump.blogspot.com/2007/08/when-baseball-cards-mattered_19.html

Holy shit, remember Brien Taylor?!
http://www.checkoutmycards.com/CardImages/Original/008/989/04F.jpg

I remember reading the entire cover story on the guy, who was basically some high school kid who could throw really, really fast. Never even made it to the majors, but in my mind he was a legend.

Never even made it to the majors,

injured himself in a bar brawl while in the minors and his career was over.

How much do you think 12,000 cards would be worth now? Discounting the "good" cards in them, how much would that many common cards be worth? $300?

I have Orel Hershiser's RC somewhere. I also have a signed Mike Richter (G, NYR) RC at home in CA.

good luck selling that to anyone, Z S

i think most people are too attached to their own collections, and that buying someone else's would kinda be like using their toothbrush

Ha, you're probably right. I guess I was thinking more of selling all of them to some small card shop. I'm sure people in that business get sick of clueless people walking in everyday trying to unload thousands of worthless cards.

this seems like a good place to mention this:

i have a ton of jeff bagwell cards that im irrationally inexplicably attached to
there's a good chance he's going to the hall of fame, at which time his cards would be at peak value (around induction time, if it happens)
i gotta sell all of them at that time, but im anticipating being all.. 'man, i CANT sell ALL of them...' or something
has anyone else dealt with this before?

Yep, with McGwire's cards during the season that he and Sosa were chasing 70.
In retrospect, I made the completely wrong decision.

dude, you're only going to get like 25¢ more for it anyways.

The card worth anything these days is a Bonds card with a signed confession on it.

here's a dumb question, but where do you buy baseball cards these days? i was looking to get some for my son because he's just at that age where he would probably dig them, and i couldn't find them. looked mainly in supermarkets and the big chain drugstores.

this was at the start of the season, wouldn't expect to find them now

I'm pretty sure Target sells baseball cards -- packets or boxes (no more wax boxes these days I reckon)

x-post . yea
Target sells them. 7 11 did years ago.

Sports Authority and Toys R Us sometimes sell 'em

thanx!

asshole card dealers took the fun out of card collecting.

"hey i've got a mint bonds card here, man!"

"ah but is it gem mint?"

"..."

http://www.snopes.com/sports/graphics/ripken.jpg

http://tigerwoodsfistpump.blogspot.com/2008/01/dealing-with-agony-of-once-valuable.html

it's pretty awesome to think about the players everyone was creaming over during the baseball card collecting peak! omg gregg jeffries! steve avery!! jose canseco!! doc gooooden!! future hall of famers WILL CLARK and DON MATTINGLY!!! DAVID JUSTICE and KEVIN MAAS!!!

Kent Hrbek!

Andy Van Slyke!

Glenallen Hill!

I'm gonna be RICH!!

I never got into this kind of collecting, cert not as an investment.

yeah i think the monthly price guides starting getting popular around the mid-80s, it was like the jr. stock market

by the way, the actual baseball card link for sir weeze's article is this: http://tigerwoodsfistpump.blogspot.com/2007/08/when-baseball-cards-mattered_19.html

come with us to 1971...

http://thebaseballchronicle.com/personal_stories/1971_topps_baseball

my dad's collection is at about 40,000. i used to catalog them for him!

i have a mark mcgwire rookie card that he gave me...somewhere...

yr grandma didn't throw them out? xp

baseball card dealers back in my hometown were like these messiah figures to kids, i swear. they had an entire army of 11-14 yr olds at their disposal at any given moment, keeping them loyal with 1989 donruss. it was all a lie!

anyone want to buy 5,000 '88-'90 donruss and topps cards, btw? $20.

http://onthescene.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/09/29/the-baseball-card-industry-is-in-a-serious-slump/

I wonder whatever became of my 1992 Topps complete set that I bought from the Price Club with money I had saved up from helping dig post-holes in my grandpa's backyard. I actually opened all the packs and put them into plastic sleeves for access to the gum. No regrets.

My dealer had $5 grab-bags on the wall - little manila envelopes on hooks labeled 1-30. You'd stare at them for 10 minutes or however long it took you to determine which one had the luckiest aura, then throw down your $5 and roll the fukken dice. OCCASIONALLY it was something worth more than $5 but for the most part it was some borderline decent card and a handful of no-name loser crapola. Scamming pre-adolescent boys, woop woop.

er, my complete set was 1990 Topps. Apparently they discontinued gum in 1992.

ya - the gum was staining the cards. boo-freaking-hoo.

one out of every 1000 or something would have a card with a REAL BASEBALL JERSEY sewn into the card!!!!!

Like, a wee couple-of-centimeters tall jersey? Or a scrap of a regular-sized baseball jersey?

Viceroy has some Chris Chelios card(s?) displayed in our windowsill for the lols. I realize this is hockey but it is a sports card nonetheless.

still have 50,000+ cards stacked in boxes in mom's basement. sorry, mom. they will be there until the end of time

also have a 2500+ will clark collection

1909-11 tobacco cards:

http://baseballcards.galib.uga.edu

had soooo many phil plantier cards

http://acidcow.com/pics/12208-the-30-worst-baseball-cards-of-all-time-30-pics.html

this one cracks me up:

http://acidcow.com/pics/20100809/the_30_worst_baseball_cards_of_all_time_16.jpg

No Kent Tekulve?

This feature also reminds me that I had a dream recently in which I was astonished to discover that Doug Drabek was still active.

There's still a part of my brain left over from highschool that could get back into collecting baseball cards tomorrow if I let it. That obsessive collect the whole set, find my favorite players, etc gland. Dangerous, dangerous stuff. I dare not let it out.

In a similar spirit, this is one of the funniest baseball books I've ever read:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a1/Great_American_Baseball_Card_Book.jpg

It was first published in 1973, long before all the collector insanity.

There's still a part of my brain left over from highschool that could get back into collecting baseball cards tomorrow if I let it.

^^ cosign

i'm almost positive i had that Tom Henke one

i had many of those cards morbs linked to, oscar gamble lol

i always remember the ugly dudes
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_kynWiBKxeYU/TD3GGv_F-_I/AAAAAAAAA5k/Nm4emmvNc2k/Andy_Etchebarren_77.jpg

clemenza - I had that book!!! totally hilarious and for a teenager it was this weird direct access to the ancient past

No Betts or Trout or Pujols or Cabrera, unfortunately.

Card show! Toronto has a big one at the International Centre twice a year--made the drive in today to meet my collector friend for dinner (he helps one of the vendors there) and buy lots of junk. First one I've gone to in a few years.

Should have brought my camera; there really is kind of a Hunter S. Thompson in Las Vegas feeling when you step inside, a universe unto itself. The three most expensive things I saw, all the same vendor: game-worn jerseys from Tim Horton and Rocket Richard, both $150,000 (I'd say half to three-quarters of what's in there was hockey-related), and a Nolan Ryan rookie card for $130,000. I know it would require a miracle for someone to steal this stuff, but why would you even risk that? Are you hoping for a walk-up sale on such items? ("$130,000? Sure--is there an ATM in here?")

Gretzky rookie cards everywhere, graded from 1 ($500) to 9 ($30,000--except I swear it didn't look like it was in that great shape...do people counterfeit grading?). In the scoundrel department, an O.J. rookie card (5.5) for $750, and an issue of Playboy with Trump on the cover for $450. Every booth had its name displayed. Best one: Vandelay Industries.

And then there are people like me who are there to buy cheap stuff no one wants (often found in boxes under the tables with the expensive stuff). Some of these were $5, some 2/$5:

1) Blue Jay sets (30 or 40 cards each) put out by Oh Henry! Bought seven, from 1995 to 2001. Not sure if that's all of them--if not, I know I'll start obsessively looking for the others.

2) A nice Blue Jay set put out in 2002, can't figure out by who. Halladay and Delgado are in there.

3) Minor league sets: 1987 Bakersfield Dodgers (best player: Juan Guzman), 1995 Charleston River Dogs (Fernando Tatis), 1992 Calgary Cannons (Bret Boone, Andy Hawkins, pitching coach Ross Grimsley), 1993 Ottawa Lynx (Matt Stairs, Blue Jay broadcaster Joe Siddall!), 1985 Utica Blue Sox (literally no one...Ken Brett was manager, though), and a 50-card Southern League All-Star set from '91 (three Frank Thomas cards, also Luis Gonzalez).

4) Two K-Mart sets: 1990 Super Stars and 1982 20th Anniversary AL & NL MVPs.

5) Other stuff: two Barry Colla sets, Frank Thomas and the 1992 All-Star Game (Colla's a photographer who used to put out his own specialty sets); 1994 Topps Stadium Club "Members Only" (it's embarrassing to even type that...); a McDonald's/Donruss MVP set from '92.

6) 10 loose Topps Heritage cards, including Cabrera on the Marlins, Maddux on the Padres, Beltre on the Mariners and Red Sox, and Rogers Hornsby and Mel Ott.

7) Two unopened decks of Toronto Maple Leafs playing cards. That one's really mysterious.

Also two books, $10 each: Sayonara Home Run! The Art of the Japanese Baseball Card and The Card (about the Honus Wagner T206).

Somewhere in the building, today or tomorrow: Dennis Rodman, William Shatner, and some wrestler (couldn't tell you who).

Good thing I'm two hours away, else I'd probably be back Saturday.