Trading Card Collecting Nerds, Unite!

[Deleted member 16014]

There was a trading card thread a while back, but we never saw one measly picture. It has come to my attention that @wllm , @JT13 , and others may be sitting on gold mines that they should be selling to fund hunts, save the earth, and whatnot.

When my boys were a little younger we liked to trade some cards, which was mostly an excuse to give them mine and talk about old players.

I never had much special…quite a few mid 90’s Jordans, a pile of Jeters, pages and pages of Chipper Jones’, steroid era home run hitters, some Kobe RC’s etc. Unfortunately as a kid I sunk my hopes, dreams, and 10 year old birthday money on Shawn Kemp memorabilia. He was Zion + Ja three decades ago, but too many wild nights and milkshakes took their hefty toll on his career.

I was the type of kid who liked to take cards out, hold them, trade with friends, etc., which doesn’t lend itself to maintaining things in mint condition. One reason that I like euro mounted big game.

So…let’s see a favorite card or two (or stash) that makes you feel like a kid again when you pick it up. @Randy11 you’ve got to have a few great cards of The Kid from yesteryear.

Does not have to be sports, though I’m not promising you Magic and Pokémon collectors won’t be judged harshly by the jocks. Their loss when your cartoon rabid squirrel or whatever is worth a cool $1K.

These were one of the more interesting base card sets from the day IMO, metal, a decent size stack weighs about a pound.



This is probably the highest monetary value card I have, though I’ve never been a Kobe guy. I’d gladly sell it if it wasn’t such a pain to get stuff graded.

 

[TheTone]

I was just talking to my brother about our cards the other day. Most of mine are mid 80’s-early 90’s. Mostly baseball, some basketball, football and pro wrestling. I’m not sure if I’m sitting on a gold mine or some poor fire starter?

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

I was just talking to my brother about our cards the other day. Most of mine are mid 80’s-early 90’s. Mostly baseball, some basketball, football and pro wrestling. I’m not sure if I’m sitting on a gold mine or some poor fire starter?

Mostly fire starter. That was the golden age of card collecting and they made a billion of them. I have a closet full. There is a very small amount of them worth a few bucks but nothing too exciting.

I do miss the days when you could go buy a pack for 50 cents and thumb through them, I wasted a good part of my childhood doing exactly that. I bought a few for my kids for Christmas this year and the CHEAP ones are now $7-8 a for a pack of about 12. Hard for a 10 year old to build much of a collection at that cost.

 

[Deleted member 16014]

I was just talking to my brother about our cards the other day. Most of mine are mid 80’s-early 90’s. Mostly baseball, some basketball, football and pro wrestling. I’m not sure if I’m sitting on a gold mine or some poor fire starter?

Probably the latter, but you might make some future little sports journalist’s day at a garage sale. There’s probably a 10 year old out there who would love to sort them all by career on base % or something equally nerdy.

In my very limited research you can’t sell even obviously great cards for jack unless they are graded by one of the big companies; which is seemingly expensive and cumbersome.

 

[warmer]

Mine are late 60-early 70's. Then started collecting again in mid-late 80's. I'm about 125 cards short of a full TOPP's 1972 set.

 

[Bob-WY]

When my mom passed I got all the cards. They were mine and my brothers , baseball and hockey mostly, most from 70s

No idea if they are worth anything. Anyone know how I can find out?

 

[BirdManMike]

OMG I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY IN THIS TOPIC!

 

[geetar]

I collected a bunch as a kid and early teens. Bought a few later on hoping I might have a son one day. Wife decided she was done having kids after 2 girls so I gave my nephews the bulk of them. Sold a few more valuable ones on EBay and kept 2 for from my first ever pack as a kid just for memories sake. An Upper Deck brand Chipper Jones and Mark McGuire from 1999.

 

[BlakeA]

Oh man......this could be a great thread. I was obsessed for many years growing up and "helped" out (basically worked at illegally as I was paid in pizza and cards for my time lol) at a card shop until my early teens when sports just took over all of my spare time. I started an eBay account (under my moms name) in 1998, age 11, and would buy and sell for years. I rode my bike to the post office daily shipping cards I would sell and had a little desk and operation setup in my room lol....those were the days. I guess I was fortunate to have hit it really hard during the Kobe, Duncan, Manning, Brady, etc era so have have quite a few rookies and inserts that are worth some good coin. Also have a lot of low serial numbered/autograph rookies etc. Not sure when I'll sell them all but I will eventually when I get around to it. Like @SnowyMountaineer said, having them graded helps but you can still sell the rare/good ones in good condition without them being graded. Some advice, if selling online, be sure to take many up close photos of each corner and add it to listing. There has been plenty of instances where the buyer swaps the card with one in worse condition and returns it. I'll take a pic or two of some and add it to the thread.

@SnowyMountaineer, funny, I too have a massive collection of Kemp as he was my favorite. Then Vince Carter. The Sonics were so fun to watch! RIP

 

[LuketheDog]

I have a pile of cards from the late 80'-early 90's, the Griffey Jr./Bonds/McGwire/Thomas era. Ryne Sandberg was my favorite player, I played 2B and wanted to be him when I grew up, so I have at least 100 of his cards alone. We used to stay up for hours and trade like little hedge fund pirates.

My wife gives me a very knowing and understanding look when I say we will retire on them someday. Those of you who say they're worth nothing can take your opinions and...oh never mind...

 

[Southern Elk]

I had a neighbor who's parents would buy him the complete set of baseball cards. Remember the boxes that were as long as a shoe box? My parents never did that for me, but I do have a bunch of old baseball cards, mostly form the early 90s. Never did get that elusive Ken Griffey Jr rookie card.

 

[Mountain Man]

Oh man, I loved collecting cards as a kid! My first Beckett had Will Clark on the cover. Maybe 1989? I still have all of my cards in long term storage. I have no idea if any of them are worth much of anything. Looking forward to figuring that out with my kids in a few years.

 

[MThuntr]

My little brother had stacks of sports cards (any sport) but I never got into it. I went from Ninja Turtles straight into guns/hunting as an expense. Most of his were worthless but I know he had a few that were considered valuable. I think most of his collection went to the round bin or given away when he got older. There's a resurgence of Gen X and Millennial card collectors spending their disposable income on cards. YouTube recently recommended "Junk Wax" where a guy in his 40s opens packs of cards from the peak production years in the late 80s-90s. Nostalgia to the max.

I had a hellacious collection of POGS. I even a "slammer" that had OJ Simpson behind bars that said "Don't Slam the Juice". I'm so mad my mom gave them away when I moved out because I'm fairly certain that it was worth something.

 

[Southern Elk]

Oh man, I loved collecting cards as a kid! My first Beckett had Will Clark on the cover. Maybe 1989? I still have all of my cards in long term storage. I have no idea if any of them are worth much of anything. Looking forward to figuring that out with my kids in a few years.

Will Clark was my favorite player when I was a kid. I have a ton of his cards. I'm a huge Mississippi State fan. My dad, brother and I all graduated from there. I have a complete set of cards from the 1985 Mississippi State team that went to the College World Series. Clark, Palmero, Thigpen, and Brantley were all on that team and we still didn't win the championship.

 

[Mountain Man]

My little brother had stacks of sports cards (any sport) but I never got into it. I went from Ninja Turtles straight into guns/hunting as an expense. Most of his were worthless but I know he had a few that were considered valuable. I think most of his collection went to the round bin or given away when he got older. There's a resurgence of Gen X and Millennial card collectors spending their disposable income on cards. YouTube recently recommended "Junk Wax" where a guy in his 40s opens packs of cards from the peak production years in the late 80s-90s. Nostalgia to the max.

I had a hellacious collection of POGS. I even a "slammer" that had OJ Simpson behind bars that said "Don't Slam the Juice". I'm so mad my mom gave them away when I moved out because I'm fairly certain that it was worth something.

POGS! I still have mine…in my childhood room at my parents house. That was a fun fad!

 

[jryoung]

I need to dig into my collection and see what I have. Nostalgia says keep them, Swarovski NL Pure's say maybe it's time to cash out of all the Ken Griffey Jr rookie cards I have.

 

[TheTone]

The other thing I have way way too many of is hunting and motocross magazines. Most hunting ones from 80’s and 90’s and the moto ones are 90’s-2000’s.

If I could combine that money spent along with CD’s I bought in high school I could pay for some great hunting gear

 

[Deleted member 16014]

The other thing I have way way too many of is hunting and motocross magazines. Most hunting ones from 80’s and 90’s and the moto ones are 90’s-2000’s.

If I could combine that money spent along with CD’s I bought in high school I could pay for some great hunting gear

Side topic, but it's truly insane to me that for the price of about 5 CD's in the 90's, you can listen to virtually any song in the universe for an entire year on Spotify/Apple/Amazon. This is among the greatest technological and cultural advances that I can think of.

 

[Deleted member 16014]

Oh man......this could be a great thread. I was obsessed for many years growing up and "helped" out (basically worked at illegally as I was paid in pizza and cards for my time lol) at a card shop until my early teens when sports just took over all of my spare time. I started an eBay account (under my moms name) in 1998, age 11, and would buy and sell for years. I rode my bike to the post office daily shipping cards I would sell and had a little desk and operation setup in my room lol....those were the days.

This is amazing.
The Payton/Kemp Sonics were so awesome, just bad luck they hit the peak Jordan years.

 

[Mountain Man]

Side topic, but it's truly insane to me that for the price of about 5 CD's in the 90's, you can listen to virtually any song in the universe for an entire year on Spotify/Apple/Amazon. This is among the greatest technological and cultural advances that I can think of.

Agreed, but at the same time it makes it more painful for how much money I wasted on CDs (and DVDs).