Baseball cards

1984 Donruss Cards are beautiful... 87 Topps are also classic-looking cards.


Post-1988 was things started to go to shit - after the successful introudction of Score to the market the floodgates opened.

 

The 1984 Donruss cards were great... What's funny is that set was worth more in 1986 than it is now...

I loved Donruss from 1984 to 1986. Fleer was good from 1984 to 1988. The last year I really remember liking the Topps cards were 1985 or so, but I really loved some of their older sets. The 1979 cards were always a favorite of mine. It's probably not a coincidence that that was the first year I really collected, but I loved how the all-stars were stripped across the bottom of the card. I always thought that was really cool.

 

The 1984 Donruss Don Mattingly is my holy grail of cards. I saved forever to buy the card. I can't remember if I paid $50, $75 or even a $100 .. Of course it's nowhere near that now.


I also like the 84 Donruss for their unsual pictures the Jay Johnstone and Pine Tar Incident Cards. Also the San Diego Chicken cards.

 

I own probably around 15-20 thousand cards (mostly hockey). It was my childhood hobby, going to the card store every Saturday afternoon with my dad and buying packs and seeing if I would get a Gretzky or an Yzerman. Good ol' days...

 

I remember at one point, the Donruss Mattingly was worth $90. I remember when the 1986 Donruss Canseco was over $100 and I tried to sell every one I had for $75 apiece because I knew how absurd that price was.

I haven't picked up a Beckett in a couple years, but I wonder if either card is worth over $5 these days.

 

Have you ever been to the national memorabilia show? It's the saddest display you might ever see.

 

Bill Simmons had a big gallery of pictures from the one he went to this year, and I'm sure that's just a fraction of the sad.

 

Awesome! You should include the girls, too. I still hold in high esteem the teenager who gave me my first pack as a kid.

Also, Pringle, does your kid have a favorite player, maybe someone who has been in the league a while? It's easy to collect a single person across all the variations of cards and brands, and makes the hunt at the card shops/shows that much more focused.

 

I tried to do that with Mark Grace when he first came in the league. Was convinced he was going to be a hall of famer and his rookie cards would rival the price of Mantle's.
I made it through about 1990, had all the main cards and even a few oddballs, before it just got to be too many to keep up with. I'd get all his cards when the sets first came out, then around March or April somebody would release five more sets. Way too many cards.

 

My favorites are these 3-D cards that came in the Kellogs Frosted Flakes boxes in the early 70's. I still remember trying to eat extra bowlfuls at night so I could get another box.

Willie Mays
Roberto Clemente
Hank Aaron
Willie Stargell

I still fawn over them and my boys wonder what all the fuss is about.

 

I have a buddy who is very wealthy and we went to one in Cleveland a few years ago. He said he loves Sunday because that is when he picks at their rotting carcasses because they need money to get home.

What is even sadder is seeing the wives at these things.

 

I was like that with George Brett. I would bet that with the exception of a few cards made during the final season of his career, when I was in college and not really collecting, I'll bet I have damn close to every card of his ever made.