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Collecting Baseball Cards

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EGannon55

New member
Sep 27, 2019
29
0
Otsego County NY
Hello,
I am a disabled, and terminal, US Navy veteran. I'm permanently bedridden and am looking to rekindle my baseball card collecting. My collection that I had 45 years ago is long gone, so I thought I would start again to relieve my boredom and anxiety over what awaits me.
I know that my strong love of the game of baseball, and a rekindled
desire to resume the collection of baseball cards, would be enough therapy to overcome my constant depressing thoughts.

I also want to have something to leave to my grandson when I'm gone.

My question for you is, what is the best way to start? Do I look for cheap sets to purchase or send someone to yard sales in search of inexpensive cards? I have a small fixed income and after the bills are paid I am left with very little for luxuries. I'm not looking for cards of value. Just basic cards to start my collection again.

Any suggestions or direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time,
Erwin Gannon
 

tramers

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
23,286
2,287
hickory nc
for a few dollars you can buy many cards at flea markets / yard sales - IF condition not important . Do you like a team or player will be a price factor . Tons of older cards real cheap , newer buy now sell now for return on money .
 

finestkind

Well-known member
Aug 17, 2008
3,986
901
Massachusetts
Erwin Welcome to the site ! Thank you for being a veteran and serving our country. I very sorry to read of your illness. I have a small part of understanding about dealing with a chronic, catastrophic illness. My wife just passed away a few days ago after dealing with chronic progressive MS for 30 years. Her hobby while confined to bed was her laptop computer. I was the baseball card guy. :D I would buy a cool card I like and show her. She would just look at me with that look, if your happy honey. I'm happy for you. I would suggest as the other members did, have someone buy cards for you at flea markets / yard sales or sports card shops that are getting rid of their unopened junk wax boxes. Or look on Ebay for cheap sports card boxes or cards sold as lots. If I can be of any help, send me a personal message. Best of luck.

Dave
 

gt2590

Super Moderator
Aug 17, 2008
38,657
3,246
Near Philly
I moved this to the Main baseball forum board so more people could see it...

Welcome to the site!

Great, but cautious, members here, I hope you enjoy it...
 

Pinbreaker

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
10,131
287
Laguna Niguel, CA
Erwin Welcome to the site ! Thank you for being a veteran and serving our country. I very sorry to read of your illness. I have a small part of understanding about dealing with a chronic, catastrophic illness. My wife just passed away a few days ago after dealing with chronic progressive MS for 30 years. Her hobby while confined to bed was her laptop computer. I was the baseball card guy. :D I would buy a cool card I like and show her. She would just look at me with that look, if your happy honey. I'm happy for you. I would suggest as the other members did, have someone buy cards for you at flea markets / yard sales or sports card shops that are getting rid of their unopened junk wax boxes. Or look on Ebay for cheap sports card boxes or cards sold as lots. If I can be of any help, send me a personal message. Best of luck.

Dave

Sorry to hear of your loss.. I lost my previous wife to Muscular Dystrophy and she was confined to her bed and used her laptop to play the Sims and other online games..
I used to get some boxes from time to time to let her open them as she knew how much joy it brought to me.. I'm still collecting, but I am now retired, so I am thinning out my collection so when I move to
Palm Springs area, I won't have to move too much..

********************
Erwin, welcome to the site. As far as collections, you can have someone go to the Goodwill or other discount store to get some older cards or you can find some older boxes from the late 80's that are cheap to get..

Hope you enjoy the site..
 

jeffv96masters

Well-known member
Aug 14, 2008
2,095
1,223
Provide your address I can send items your way. Would you like a book about cards as well ?? Let me know. Jeff
 

EGannon55

New member
Sep 27, 2019
29
0
Otsego County NY
Thank you Jeff! I would greatly appreciate that!
My address is:
Erwin Gannon
462 County Hwy 48
Oneonta, NY. 13820

Again, thank you for your kindness.
 

finestkind

Well-known member
Aug 17, 2008
3,986
901
Massachusetts
PinBraker Thank you for the kind thoughts. Chronic illnesses like Muscular Dystrophy and chronic multiple sclerosis is a horrible thing for a person to deal with and their families. My wife was confined to bed also. But, I was still able to take her out for short rides occasionally. She had her laptop and the Gameshow channel on cable. tv.

Dave
 

EGannon55

New member
Sep 27, 2019
29
0
Otsego County NY
My neighbor told me he was going out to find garage sales today, so I gave him $3 and asked him to look for baseball cards on sale. He just came back with my $3 and said he had found an apparently complete set of 1988 Topps. They were asking $45 for the set. However, he told me that the box was crushed and torn and some of the cards appeared to have gotten wet at some point!!
 

walt_altmen

Member
Aug 1, 2019
168
2
are you more interested in cards from your youth or getting into modern players that you and your grandson enjoy watching?
 

gracecollector

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
6,559
215
Lake in the Hills, IL
The best way to start would be to watch a postseason game on TV with your grandson and talk about baseball cards during the game. Tell him what you love about the game and what baseball cards meant to you as a youth, how they connected you to the game.

Realize that things have changed drastically since the days of one Topps set a year. Realize that your collecting can go in many different ways. And most importantly, realize you can't collect everything these days. Those days are gone. It's too expensive and frustrating to think you can collect everything. The happiest collectors I know focus their collections around a specific and narrow goal. It can be a team, player, set, year, brand, rookie cards, HOFers, autographs, etc. Find out what is important to your grandson if your main goal is to leave the collection to him. Try to narrow the focus as much as you can to make it special to you and your grandson. Get him involved in what you ultimately decide to collect. A narrow focus will help you prioritize your spending and keep you from having to store 1000's of cards you don't really care about. Oh, and realize that buying the cards you really want online is much more cost effective than busting boxes, although opening the occasional box together could be a very rewarding experience.

Good luck. Stay within a budget. Collect some things that bring back your childhood memories and pass those stories onto your grandson. Collect some things from today's game that can build your grandson's own memories and love for the game. Whatever you decide, you can't go wrong if you do it together.
 

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