I would like to start collecting baseball cards again...

The happiest days of my youth were those when I'd come home from school, head to my bedroom to unload my books and binders and find a couple boxes of cards on my bed.

My father and I would spend the next three hours opening the packs, sorting the cards, comparing what we do and don't have and putting them all back together. I was bigger on basketball than baseball, and I always remember trying to explain to him how good Detlef Schrempf or LaPhonso Ellis were. Might have been the only bonding time we ever had.

 

I recently bought the 89 Griffey Upper Deck rookie card on Ebay for $25. That card was the gold standard of baseball cards when I was little. My friends and I always dreamed of opening a pack and finding that card, and we always talked of saving up a year's worth of allowances to buy it back when it was selling for like $100.

 

I remember tearing through a box of '86 Donruss, praying each pack would be the one that finally yielded the coveted Jose Canseco Rated Rookie. When I finally found one, I protected it as if my life depended on its safety. I had dreams about fires and tornadoes, and I always ran through the wreckage looking for my Canseco rookie card.

What's that thing worth now? About 75 cents?

 

I think I have about 10 of those. Should have sold them back in the day. Maybe I'll do it now if I can still get $25.

 

The one card I always wanted but never got was the uncorrected '89 Fleer Billy Ripken card, aka the "Fuck Face" card.

 

I probably have 200.

 

I've got a 300,000+ collection I'll sell you for a penny a card. Rookies, stars, chase, etc.

What I do is look at the boxes at Walmart and find one of the more higher-end sets that I would like to collect and just work on that set.

I am currently working on the 2008 Topps Mayo Football set. I have almost finished a 2008 Allen & Ginter's baseball set.

The $20 boxes at Walmart are good because they're affordable, you can buy one every payday or so, and you have a good chance that they won't be gobbled up. And you still have a chance at cool insert cards.

Topps Heritage, Chrome, A&G, etc., or Bowman's Best, etc., are brands I would recommend. Upper Deck has some, too, but I tend to get a ton more duplicates from UD boxes than Topps.

 

Makes you want to tear through old back issues of Beckett Monthly and put an asterisk next to the $50 listing in the price guide.

 

It warmed my heart when my 7-year-old daughter asked for baseball cards for her birthday. It warms me even more than she enjoys them as I did when I was a kid, as a non-commodity item that exists for fun.

 

Unfortunately, I believe that card is still booked now for what it was in 1990 (about $75).

I worked in a card shop for a few hours to get mine. It completed the set.

 

I have a few Mark McGwire cards when he was on the U.S. Olympic team. They were worth about $20-25 in his first couple of years. Then in 1998, they zoomed to like, $500-1,000 range (or more for some special versions).

Now, thanks to some drugs and a horrific performance before Congress, they are back to the $20-25 range.

But, I really shouldn't talk about the past.

 

3-D action cards from Sugar Frosted Flakes are my pride and joy. Revisit them when I go see my parents.

Willie Mays "In Action" card from early '70s.

Willie McCovey in a DC Padre uniform.

Good times.