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.
― gershy, Saturday, 13 October 2007 22:36 (5 years ago) Permalink
this was at the start of the season, wouldn't expect to find them now
― gershy, Saturday, 13 October 2007 22:46 (5 years ago) Permalink
I'm pretty sure Target sells baseball cards -- packets or boxes (no more wax boxes these days I reckon)
― van smack, Saturday, 13 October 2007 22:59 (5 years ago) Permalink
x-post . yea Target sells them. 7 11 did years ago.
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 13 October 2007 23:07 (5 years ago) Permalink
Sports Authority and Toys R Us sometimes sell 'em
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 13 October 2007 23:08 (5 years ago) Permalink
thanx!
― gershy, Sunday, 14 October 2007 01:02 (5 years ago) Permalink
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?"
"..."
― omar little, Sunday, 14 October 2007 01:32 (5 years ago) Permalink
― Mr. Snrub, Sunday, 14 October 2007 03:06 (5 years ago) Permalink
http://tigerwoodsfistpump.blogspot.com/2008/01/dealing-with-agony-of-once-valuable.html
― the sir weeze, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 13:52 (5 years ago) Permalink
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!!
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 14:31 (5 years ago) Permalink
I never got into this kind of collecting, cert not as an investment.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 14:35 (5 years ago) Permalink
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
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 8 January 2008 14:41 (5 years ago) Permalink
come with us to 1971...
http://thebaseballchronicle.com/personal_stories/1971_topps_baseball
― Indiana Morbs and the Curse of the Ivy League Chorister (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 August 2009 17:34 (3 years ago) Permalink
my dad's collection is at about 40,000. i used to catalog them for him!
― Julie & Julius Rosenberg (donna rouge), Wednesday, 26 August 2009 17:36 (3 years ago) Permalink
i have a mark mcgwire rookie card that he gave me...somewhere...
yr grandma didn't throw them out? xp
― Indiana Morbs and the Curse of the Ivy League Chorister (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 August 2009 17:37 (3 years ago) Permalink
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!
― omar little, Friday, 2 October 2009 19:35 (3 years ago) Permalink
anyone want to buy 5,000 '88-'90 donruss and topps cards, btw? $20.
― omar little, Friday, 2 October 2009 19:36 (3 years ago) Permalink
http://onthescene.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/09/29/the-baseball-card-industry-is-in-a-serious-slump/
― omar little, Friday, 2 October 2009 19:38 (3 years ago) Permalink
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.
― iiiijjjj, Friday, 2 October 2009 19:43 (3 years ago) Permalink
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.
― iiiijjjj, Friday, 2 October 2009 19:47 (3 years ago) Permalink
er, my complete set was 1990 Topps. Apparently they discontinued gum in 1992.
― iiiijjjj, Friday, 2 October 2009 19:50 (3 years ago) Permalink
ya - the gum was staining the cards. boo-freaking-hoo.
― The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall, Friday, 2 October 2009 20:06 (3 years ago) Permalink
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?
― existential eggs (Abbott), Friday, 2 October 2009 20:23 (3 years ago) Permalink
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.
― existential eggs (Abbott), Friday, 2 October 2009 20:27 (3 years ago) Permalink
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
― 6335, Saturday, 3 October 2009 15:26 (3 years ago) Permalink
1909-11 tobacco cards:
http://baseballcards.galib.uga.edu
― A Patch on Blazing Saddles (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 3 October 2009 22:31 (3 years ago) Permalink
had soooo many phil plantier cards
― iiiijjjj, Sunday, 14 March 2010 00:52 (3 years ago) Permalink
http://acidcow.com/pics/12208-the-30-worst-baseball-cards-of-all-time-30-pics.html
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Monday, 16 August 2010 17:45 (2 years ago) Permalink
this one cracks me up:
― ('_') (omar little), Monday, 16 August 2010 17:51 (2 years ago) Permalink
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.
― jaymc, Monday, 16 August 2010 17:58 (2 years ago) Permalink
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.
― Mordy, Monday, 16 August 2010 18:01 (2 years ago) Permalink
In a similar spirit, this is one of the funniest baseball books I've ever read:
It was first published in 1973, long before all the collector insanity.
― clemenza, Monday, 16 August 2010 18:02 (2 years ago) Permalink
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
― Astronaut Mike Dexter (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Monday, 16 August 2010 18:03 (2 years ago) Permalink
i'm almost positive i had that Tom Henke one
― proud teabagger from rim country (arby's), Monday, 16 August 2010 18:06 (2 years ago) Permalink
i had many of those cards morbs linked to, oscar gamble lol
i always remember the ugly dudes
― buzza, Monday, 16 August 2010 18:08 (2 years ago) Permalink
clemenza - I had that book!!! totally hilarious and for a teenager it was this weird direct access to the ancient past
― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Monday, 16 August 2010 18:11 (2 years ago) Permalink
I went downstairs to try to dig it up so I could quote one specific entry, but I couldn't find it. I remember I leant it out a couple of times, so I hope I got it back...Let me give it another try.
― clemenza, Monday, 16 August 2010 18:13 (2 years ago) Permalink
Found it--forgotten that I'd replaced my old paperback with a hardcover edition. The entry I was thinking of is too long to quote in full; it's the one where they look at the text on the back of a Sammy Esposito card and analyze what it really means. Sample: "'Sammy attended Indiana U. for three years'...But as long as they were at it, did they have to throw in the 'three years'? This makes it sound as if Sammy was expelled."
Here's the exact card:
― clemenza, Monday, 16 August 2010 18:33 (2 years ago) Permalink
Well, I guess baseballreference.com blocks their images.
― clemenza, Monday, 16 August 2010 18:34 (2 years ago) Permalink
one of the funniest baseball books I've ever read.
Also (as I've said before) one of the most influential books on my own writing.
This is what my copy look like (the original cover, I think?)
And I can't believe this card didn't make that Top 30 list:
― xhuxk, Monday, 16 August 2010 18:46 (2 years ago) Permalink
Chuck: Mine's without the dust jacket, but it's gotta be the same issue. (It was actually Mike Saunders who sent it to me, at which point I gave my paperback to someone else.) The Zernial card's great; my other favourites are the Bob Cerv card where it looks like he's hitting himself in the head, and the Unitas card towards the end. One thing I never understood--the way the authors clearly hate Bouton, even though their book is so similar to Ball Four in some of its humour.
― clemenza, Monday, 16 August 2010 19:12 (2 years ago) Permalink
Yeah mine's without the dust jacket too. Metallic red type on a dark blue fabric cover, IIRC.
I've stolen so many lines from that book over the years. I'll always remember something to the effect of "Roseboro wore this expression ever since Juan Marichal whacked him on the head with a white-ash Hillerich and Bradsby" which I assumed was a joke for years until I learned it was true!
― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Monday, 16 August 2010 19:19 (2 years ago) Permalink
Johnny Unitas... there's a haircut you could set your watch to!
― ('_') (omar little), Monday, 16 August 2010 19:20 (2 years ago) Permalink
One thing I never understood--the way the authors clearly hate Bouton, even though their book is so similar to Ball Four in some of its humour.
I've got a later edition (early 90s) w/ separate new prefaces by Boyd & Harris. One of them mentions that Bouton had been asked to provide a foreword to the original edition and he declined because he didn't want his kids to see his entry wherein he was called a rat. They replied with what about all the much worse stuff other players kids saw re:their dads in Ball Four. Bouton stopped talking to them.
― Your cousin, Marvin Cobain (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 16 August 2010 19:21 (2 years ago) Permalink
― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Monday, 16 August 2010 19:21 (2 years ago) Permalink
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/images/cards/8510.jpg
― Your cousin, Marvin Cobain (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 16 August 2010 19:22 (2 years ago) Permalink
Why did I make such a terrible post about him?
― Your cousin, Marvin Cobain (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 16 August 2010 19:23 (2 years ago) Permalink
Metallic red type on a dark blue fabric cover, IIRC.
You've got a good memory--exactly.
That Bouton stuff is fascinating. Here's the entirety of what they write next to his card: "Jim Bouton is a big mouth." Yet he was approached to write a preface? I'm guessing that was the publisher's idea, not necessarily the authors'.
― clemenza, Monday, 16 August 2010 19:25 (2 years ago) Permalink
Yeah, they didn't want a forward. They had another story about someone else (i forget) the publisher wanted. One of the guys decided to write the person a letter by hand (to show sincerity). The guy wrote back saying he didn't like hand written letters and whatever $ figure they'd quoted was "an insult".
Joe Garagiola was also approached, but backed out because he was still embarrassed about signing exclusive deals w/both Topps and Bowman in the 50s, and didn;t like that story being retold in the text.
― Your cousin, Marvin Cobain (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 16 August 2010 19:33 (2 years ago) Permalink