Card shows when you were a kid

What were shows like when you were a kid?

For me, wow were they different than today.

Shows were filled with dealers selling base cards, brick (hundred count lots) of rookies and stars, rack packs and cello packs with stars showing, truly unlicensed cards (aka Broder), $10 wax boxes and $180 wax cases plus tons of vintage. Also, every single person carried a Beckett.

Autograph guests were popular, as today, but cost was completely different.

Mantle for $30, current players for $10 and prospects/ rookies for less than $5.

Graded cards and bargain boxes galore weren't prevalent (if at all).

Obviously, game used and autos weren't around and neither were modern inserts.

For people in socal, it would be the fact that we actually had shows years ago, now we have none. It's crazy and sad.

Shows were few and far between in the early 80's to about mid '87. Then they popped up just about every weekend in ever major city. We was doing shows in New York, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Indy, Atlanta and maybe a show or two in Virginia.

If you paid more than $10 for a pack of cards, its was for a vintage pack, and then, vintage was considered pre 1969. Mattingly, Strawberry, Gooden, Henderson and the occasional Pete Rose card were great sellers. Ripken wasnt considered great yet. The shows were only once every 60 days or so and had to be in one of the big markets already mentioned. Mail order had taken 6-10 weeks to get your order. Cash, check or money order was the only way to pay. If we were at a show, and we took credit cards, we used a carbon sheet to copy the card and then have to mail it into the charge card company, then wait 12-14 weeks to get a check from them.

I can go on and on about some scumbags in the hobby at the time (many are still in it, albeit they live in their mom's basement still). It was a very niche market as you had to subscribe to the collectors magazines to stay on top of the hobby and you actually had a use for Beckett are other price guides.

Fordman

gmsieb said:

For people in socal, it would be the fact that we actually had shows years ago, now we have none. It's crazy and sad.

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This.

When I was a kid we actually had card shows

Seemed like every other dealer had grab bags for 1-3-5 bucks, and I loved them as a kid. I haven't been to many shows in the last ten years, but havent seen those (aside from all of the repack products out there now, which are essentially the same thing but with glossy packaging instead of brown paper lunch bags). I recall dealers putting cards on a board numbered 2-12, and for a buck you could roll the dice and take whatever card was next to the number you rolled. There'd be an Oddibe McDowell at number 5, but a Cory Snyder RC at snakeeyes!

Ah, the good old days. I remember buying a lot of 30-35 1956 Topps for 5 bucks and being happy that it had a few semi-stars in it. My buddy bought a similar stack of 1955 Bowman at the same show. It was so cool for a ten year old to be able to buy stacks of 30-year-old cards for so cheap. I wish kids could (or even wanted to) do that today.

I also got several HOF autos IP at shows in the 80s. I really miss when autographs of stars and even HOFers could be be had for 10 bucks.

I went to several shows as a kid in the early 80s, like 1981-1983. They were at the George Washington Motor Lodge on Route 309, I believe, somewhere outside Philadelphia. I think this was an ancestor of the "Fort Washington" shows, but who knows. Anyway, it was before rookies became the huge thing, and before tons of money invaded the hobby. These shows were magical wonderlands of baseball cards. Before the web, when your only sources of info were other collectors, the guys who ran the card shop in a nearby town, and the semi-annual Baseball Cards magazine, these shows were for me like Disneyland was for other kids. I looked forward to them with tremendous anticipation, as soon as I realized they were regular things. I was even able to save up money from allowance and lawnmowing for them. They had what seemed to be everything. I remember completing my runs of Nolan Ryan cards (got his RC for $7) and almost all of Brooks Robinson (never got his 1950s cards). So many Phillies cards and other items, this being during their Schmidt-Carlton-Rose era of greatness. I remember seeing dealers with uniforms and old non-card memorabilia like Hartlands, pennants, and other ephemera, which I never really cared for and found pretty boring. Much like today, I only cared about cards. This was also before grading became so stringent. I remember digging through big bins of vintage cards and got my first 1952 Topps (Con Dempsey, an obscure Phillie, trimmed) and a T-206 card (I want to say it was a Snodgrass, the player had stripey sleeves) for $1 each. I think I still have the Dempsey. So many amazing cards, many far too expensive for a 12-year-old, but just seeing them was special. I am fairly sure I saw a T-206 Wagner as one of them, but I could be imagining that. And I do remember seeing a 1952 Topps complete set in a literal shoebox. I attended my last one of these shows I think in the spring of 1983. I got, and I think still have, a small 9-card uncut sheet of 1983 Topps League Leaders, basically their 83T cards with an extra little box of text added to them on the front. I thought that was the coolest thing. By the time the Phillies lost that year's World Series, though, I was pretty much done with cards until 1991. Good times.

Vintage cards were cheap in the early 80s at card shows nearby. I would buy Mickey Mantles for under $40, 1975 Topps Baseball set for $100, '65 Topps Steve Carlton for $50, 1961 Topps Willie Mays $4. The rookie card craze was taking off and I would trade Strawberry, Mattingly & Gooden for stars from the 50s & 60s. Those were the days.

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Cards shows in Birmingham at the BJCC was a big deal to me. You could always expect them to have a Hofer, a former Baron that made it to the Majors, or a Atlanta Braves player. I once paid 20.00 for Eric Anthony's autograph the week that 1990 Donruss came out. I normal always had a budget on $30.00 and looked for Bo Jackson cards and old beat up 1970 cards because they were old to me.

One thing I notice on my signed items during this time is at HOfers would sign their full introduction date on all items for free . When did inscriptions really become offered as secondary pricing ?