Collecting Baseball Cards

Does anybody out there still collect baseball cards? My grandfather collected baseball cards for me and my cousins. He started from our birth year until he passed away. For me he started in 1985. It was when baseball cards were produced like crazy. To my knowledge there are not too many “rare” cards from the late 1980’s. I collected cards on my own when I was a kid as well. Every once in a while my dad would give me some money and take me to the card shop and I would buy as many packs as I could. When you’re that young you don’t really understand collecting. The cards would get bent up. Occasionally end up in the spokes of my super high speed Huffy bike. You know what I’m talking about! I would put the cards in little plastic cases but I always pulled them out to show and trade with friends. I had this giant poster type thing in my room that held baseball cards to display on my wall. I put all my favorite players on there. Cecil Fielder, Alan Trammel, Kirk Gibson, Cal Ripken Jr., Ken Griffey Jr., Bobby Higginson are the ones that instantly jump out at me when I think about this memory. My family would also buy me special balls and card packs. I remember I had a Cy Young gold baseball card as well as a ball with his face on it. I remember I cherished the Babe Ruth gold card. I didn’t really know who Babe Ruth was, like the kids from “Sandlot” I just knew that he was one of the greats.

The reason I bring this up is I recently started collecting baseball cards again. When I came home from Afghanistan I had been working on this Road Trip for quite some time. I was feeling a little nostalgic about my baseball past so I decided to buy a few packs. Since then I have been buying a pack here and a pack there. I forgot how much fun it can be to collect something. To finally get that card that you’ve been missing. I have collected all of the 2011 Topps Series and I am working on the 2012 series. It’s a pretty simple thing to collect but it has brought me a lot of joy recently. While I’m organizing a new pack of cards I imagine my grandfather sitting there organizing all the cards that he would one day give to me and my cousins.

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Comment by Paula Vaughnn on March 21, 2012 at 12:04am: Good to see there are other card collectors here. I, like so many others, lost all the cards I collected when I was a kid (in the 70's) when I moved out to attend college. I started back up for a few years on the 80's, but like you said, they were printing them like crazy and are just about worthless except for the memories. I didn't get back into it until I moved to Phoenix just days before the Diamondbacks Innagural game and for a good ten years, attempted to get my hands on every Diamondback card produced -a lofty and impossible task! Every few years, in the months between the World Series/Arizona Fall League and the start of Spring Training, I will pull them out, try to organize any new cards I acquired, and pretend I'm a kid again. Except that now, I know not to clip them to my the spokes on my bike.

I will save my insanely neurotic method of organizing my collection for another time, but will mention that I have a good contact for anyone interested in "team" specific collections. I have a buddy who buys every conceivable set and then sells off cards for all the teams he doesn't collect. I buy all of his Diamondbacks cards at a lofty discount off the Beckett's guide pricing. He also sells individual cards for those looking to complete a set. If interested, drop me a line.

Comment by Scott Heaton (12) on March 14, 2012 at 5:16pm: I know exactly what you mean. I started to buy packs for my 5 year old about 2 years ago. We spend about $10 a week on cards to see what we pull. Target has had the 2012 Topps for a few weeks now and we buy them. I pulled out all of mine from the attic and we have spent many hours organizing them and putting them into binders for him and my 2 year old! It does bring back memories from the early 80's!

I have been collecting signed baseballs for years. I have over 2,000. My son has also enjoys doing this. This is awesome because now I can send him to the players that are hard to get as they don't sign for adults (ARod) and its better than spending $500!!!!