Reliving my childhood

It's no secret that one of the main reasons I collect cards is because they remind me of my childhood. Let's be honest, life was a helluva lot easier when I didn't have to worry about bills, rent, car payments, etc. Recently, I've started to collect some of the cards I grew up always wanting. There are a ton still on my wantlist, but I'm sticking to well-centered SGC 96+ examples. I rarely submit myself, so I have to rely on picking them up on Ebay. I'll give a short explanation on why each card is important to me

BASEBALL

I saw this card in a '94 issue of VCBC and had to have it. It opened up the world of 19th century baseball cards to me. In my opinion, this is the most visually appealing card from the 1800's


I fell in love with Ryno and the Cubs in 1990. We had a choice between the Braves and the Cubs on basic cable. I chose WGN because I couldn't stand the Atlanta announcer. Summers were spent with Harry Caray butchering Hector Villanueva's name and Steve Stone correcting him. I prefer OPC to Topps. Nicer card stock and tougher to find


I always admired McGwire's light tower power, and the HR chase of '98 is still one of my favorite baseball memories. I never picked this card up when I was a kid, and the next thing you know it's $200+. I'd never owned one till recently


No explanation needed. This was THE card when I was a kid. I got $50 on my birthday in 1991 and I spent it on 3 $15 packs of '86 Donruss, hoping to pull a Canseco. Best card I got was a George Brett. I was crushed. This is the first I've owned


Bonds was the most dominant hitter I've ever seen. I always preferred this one over his beekeeper hat rookies. That hat was atrocious


I went to a ton of Astros games as a kid, and Biggio was the first ballplayer to sign for me. I prefer the Score over his other RC's because the border matches the Houston colors


The other guy in the '98 HR race. This is his first MLB licensed card, pictures him with Texas, and most of his '90 cards are pretty ugly


This was my best card when I was 10, until Mark Baker broke into my house and stole it when we were on vacation. Strangely, I never bought another till this one


I'm sure you're thinking "huh?" Johnson was the first draft pick in Marlins history, a key guy in their WS run, and I love the birds-eye view catcher cards.


Another birds-eye view catcher card. I was a huge Delgado fan growing up.


NOMAH!! I miss the days of players having only one RC card. I loved the USA Topps Traded cards


I bought one pack of '93 Finest for $4 the week it came out. All of a sudden, packs were 25 bucks and out of my 12 year old budget. I've always thought the Nolan promo was cool, especially since it looked different than his base all star card


1993 SP was the first "high end" box I ever opened. Got it for Christmas in '93. This and the Jeter are the only big rookies in the set. I've always hated the Yankees and I preferred the picture on Damon's card more. Ironically, they'd meet again in the 2004 ALCS, which is still the greatest playoff series I've ever witnessed. It happened during my happiest times at Texas Tech. All my friends were huge Red Sox fans, and I'll never forget when Damon hit the grand slam in game 7


Arod, along with Nomar, were my favorite shortstops in the 90's. I always preferred the design of the Flair over the SP


Man, I wanted this card SO bad in 1995. I pulled the Bowman Andruw, but never the Bowman's Best. Well, I technically did - my friend and I used to steal cards from Walmart. We'd open them in the card aisle and put the best cards into 1-2 packs. I pulled this....then got caught leaving the store. Got grounded for a month and never stole again.


BASKETBALL

This card, not the MJ, was the one I always thought was the coolest card in the '86 Fleer set. One of the first times I watched basketball, I saw this little pipsqueak out there playing with guys a foot taller than him. He immediately became my favorite player. My friend's dad actually had a VHS of the '86 Slam Dunk championship. I was blown away that a guy that tiny could dunk. It took forever to find a well-centered copy.


1992 was Shaqmania! I didn't see another player that hyped in any sport until Bryce Harper, nearly 20 years later. Classic had an exclusive contract with him until 1/1/93, and this is where redemption cards began. Several companies issued redemptions to be fulfilled after the Classic contract expired. The redemption was the one that said TRADE CARD, but the #1 Draft Pick was inserted in series 2 and was short printed. I wish companies would use the 3x action photo sequence for nostalgia purposes. They were rad


HOCKEY

Before Shaqmania, there was Lindrosmania. Score had an exclusive contract with him, which UD circumvented by putting him on a few World Juniors multiplayer cards in their Hi Number set. I know he never became the superstar everyone thought, but I still love this card. Speaking of UD...


The first hockey packs I opened were from Upper Deck's inaugural release. Yet again, they raised the bar in terms of quality and photography. My dad gave me $10 after I scored the winning run in the Town & Country mustang league championship (Ryan Langerhans, who later played with the Atlanta Braves, was on my team). I didn't carry a heavy bat back then. Down one, I knocked in the tying run on a "line" drive to left center that was probably my 5th hit of the season. We stopped by the card shop on the way home and I bought 5 packs of UD. I didn't even know what hockey was, I just wanted something new. When I got home, my parents told me that my grandmother had cancer. It wasn't discovered until it was too late. They found out that day, but didn't tell me till after the game. She died a few weeks later. The 1990 UD French Hi # set was insanely hot back then. Initially, UD only released 900 cases, and the Fedorov was a $150 card. Then they released 900 more, and 9 bajillion after that, killing the value. It was one of the main focus points of the book Card Sharks. I always wanted the Fedorov, and recently picked up a gem for five bucks. Coincidentally, the Red Wings became my favorite team. Much of my childhood was spent watching them in the Stanley Cup playoffs battling the Avs. I HATED Colorado. When I cleaned out my room at my mom's house this summer, I still had a card of Claude Lemieux with a dart through his head. **** that guy

There you have it. There are still a ton more I'd like to pick up, but I'm trying to be selective


Feel free to share some cards that you enjoyed as a kid

Thank you for sharing this. I REALLY enjoyed the read. It took me back as well. Whatever happened to Mark Baker?

Complete blast from the past!

Awesome and exactly what the hobby is about. I've mentioned it in response to one of your insert posts , but I'm going to going down this road too as I think going backwards is as much fun as going forwards with the collecting.

Ryan

Loved the post esp the Biggio

I call bull**** on 13-year-old Will thinking the 1888 Goodwin was "classy looking"; I'm guessing it had more to do with the endless snickers the name "Glass****" prompted...

cbrandtw said:

Thank you for sharing this. I REALLY enjoyed the read. It took me back as well. Whatever happened to Mark Baker?

Click to expand...

Funny, I was thinking the same thing...

Mark Baker stole, you knew it and he kept your cards? An the only thing I did not agree with here is Eric Lindros DID become the star everyone thought. The Flyers are my home team and Lindros made them contenders every year, made stars out of mid-level guys and the only thing that kept him from playing longer were his concussions. He was dominant.

I love me some Eric Lindros, but I agree he didn't become the star most people expected. Dominant, no question. And in certain stats he is one of the all-time best. But injuries and perception kept him from being in the Gretzky-Lemieux-Howe level pantheon. If he had just been a little humble and played for Quebec, things probably would have gone waaaayyyyy differently. Especially for the Flyers. One Cup finals and one Hart trophy seem like a pretty good career, but for Lindros? I think everyone who saw him play would have expected he'd end up with more.

I really like this post, though. I have picked up a lot of "just because" cards in the past few years. I wasn't in the hobby in the mid-80s when Donruss and Fleer cards were so hot, so I never experienced the $100 Canseco phenomenon, but I did buy one a few years ago at a show for $5. Same with McGwire, Bonds, Mattingly, and others that used to be so hot. I also like the Charles Johnson pick. He was a very good player, and if not for I-Rod, probably would be recognized more for his defense.

I like stories of card collecting pre-Internet. Maybe it was due to my age, but anything rare seemed so much more special in the 80s-90s, when obtaining that last card you needed for a set was a major accomplishment, or pulling, or even seeing a really valuable card was genuinely memorable.

And F Mark Baker.

JEBJJA said:

Mark Baker stole, you knew it and he kept your cards? An the only thing I did not agree with here is Eric Lindros DID become the star everyone thought. The Flyers are my home team and Lindros made them contenders every year, made stars out of mid-level guys and the only thing that kept him from playing longer were his concussions. He was dominant.

Click to expand...

As under-appreciated as #88 is, especially in Philly, he didn't dominate the game the "experts" predicted. He was SUPPOSED to be Gordie, Gretzky and Messier all in one. While he was MVP-caliber, and the "Legion of Boom" were epic, he never reached the legend status. And he never won a Cup, mostly thanks to the weasely Scott Stevens.

Trust me, I had enough Score RCs to wallpaper the Comcast building...

The Federov Young Guns was and still is one of my all time favorite cards from one of my all time favorite players.

Awesome thread. Great cards, interesting write ups. I hope you post more.