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Favorite year collecting?

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Austin

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
5,706
41
Dallas, Texas
1987

I turned 14 that summer and had been collecting seriously for two years.
1987 is when the hobby went nuclear and card shops popped up everywhere.
Baseball cards exploded so much that Beckett Monthly removed the up arrows on prices in one issue (Kevin Seitzer on the cover) because as the editor explained, they raised the price of nearly every card in the magazine.

I collected everything that year. Topps, Donruss, Fleer, Sportflics, all the boxed sets and year-end sets and oddball sets, in which there were dozens.

1987 Fleer is probably my favorite set ever, and 1987 Topps is up there. I just love the weird oddball sets from that year and era. Pins and coins and stickers and tattoos and minis and so many cards that came in packages of cereal and granola bars and sunflower seeds and almost any food product you can imagine.

1987 was heaven for a young baseball card collector.
I still have every card and product I bought.
 

jflan702

Member
Sep 25, 2008
721
10
outside of Boston
2005 for me. Sad that MLB and MLBPA did what they did with the licenses, but man, Donruss stuffed Auto and GU in some of those late year releases. Wasn't that about when we heard the term Hot Boxes? Well, termed towards cards anyway. LOL
 

rebelpawn

Active member
Aug 7, 2008
2,666
10
La Jolla. CA
2001, the year I got back into collecting. I was a broke college student, so I couldn't afford much so I really enjoy going back and picking up stuff now that I couldn't afford then.
 

bstanwood

Well-known member
Sep 24, 2016
3,666
332
Mystic, CT
Toss up for me, I probably hit my peak as a kid in 96, the inserts were starting to get amazing but before super limited stuff made most things out of my range for a bit. 2009 is when I made a "serious" return and started my Tim Wakefield collection. That year was a lot of fun for many reasons but mostly starting that collection was awesome and catching up on everything I missed was crazy.
 

smapdi

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
4,397
221
For just 1 year, 1999 was probably it. The number of sets released was building up drastically, which was a turn-off for some, but it just meant a lot more variety for me. BGS was taking off and Bowman Chrome was really good that year, so I made a fair amount just flipping slabs. Game-used stuff was breaking out, back when it was still new, and you'd get excited to see all these names, including OMG HoFers!, and autos were becoming common enough to pull regularly but nowhere near "so-what" level, it was all pretty exciting in this very narrow, nerdish way.
 

domino2012

Well-known member
Aug 17, 2008
1,581
134
Mourmelon le Grand, France
1990... had been collecting for about 2 years as a kid with my allowance money... my biggest "pull" was the Frank Thomas Leaf Rc... still have it.
Then I left the US and didn't start collecting again until 2005... that was a nice year for autos and GUed. (ok, lots of sticker autos).
Now that I'm older, I like more and more vintage... the 50s I like I lot!
 

K34PuckettAddict

Well-known member
May 28, 2009
667
276
1998 for me, it’s the year I first signed up and used eBay. I heard about them on a commercial in my car. It opened my eyes to lots of new Puckett cards.

I loved the releases in 2005 though. Donruss brands were killing it, some of my favorite sets are from that year though.
 

barongan

Member
Aug 6, 2018
38
1
2005 for me
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Letch77

Well-known member
Jan 28, 2018
1,608
353
Midwest
Probably 1993. Topps Finest had just been introduced and I remember tagging along with my grandma to antique shops and flea markets, then getting to stop at a card shop on the way home and buying a pack of Finest...(did they debut at $5/pack or $10/pack? I don't remember, only that they were expensive!)
 

Austin

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
5,706
41
Dallas, Texas
Probably 1993. Topps Finest had just been introduced and I remember tagging along with my grandma to antique shops and flea markets, then getting to stop at a card shop on the way home and buying a pack of Finest...
(did they debut at $5/pack or $10/pack? I don't remember, only that they were expensive!)
They debuted at $3.99 a pack.

http://www.baseballcardpedia.com/index.php/1993_Finest

That was the suggest retail price.
Of course dealers quickly jacked up the prices.
 

joesoper

New member
I gotta go with 89', I remember getting the call from the card shop owner to tell me that he finally got Upper Deck. I was on my bike and at the shop in like 10 minutes. I'd been saving for about a month for when they came out, I wasnt making much but had just enough for a box. Pulled the Griffey out of the third pack. 89 was also year I started hitting antique stores and yard sales and actually started to make money with cards. take a chance at the yard sale for 5dollar shoebox, hope for the best, then flip whatever I could for new stuff. I did OK with it, but looking back I would have been better off keeping all the stuff I sold off. the best was getting to know a couple of the antique dealers, they regularly got boxes of cards from estate sales and I had two that would offer me first refusal, they didnt sell cards and didnt know much about them so would offer them to me for next to nothing. I did get tons of early to mid 80's commons, but every once in while there would be a great haul. Best one by far.. 2 68' Ryan Rookies, a 55' Koufax, 55'clemente, 54'aaron and several 50's mantles and mays. it was the dream haul of about 300 cards. I paid 20$ for the box and book Value then was 15K. Sadly, I sold or traded most, with exception of one of the Ryans, the Koufax and the Aaron cards. but by far that was the best year I ever had collecting cards....
 

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