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Like it or not, it's here now. I don't want to argue it's merits, but I want your story, behind it.
I want to hear the story behind when you started doing it or first noticed others doing it.
Through the late 70's to 1980, myself and all the collectors I knew, bought all the packs we could and tried to put sets together. We never thought about how many we had of certain players or tried to get more of a certain guy. In fact, if you had 3 sets and were 10 cards short, of a 4th, you may trade an extra Rickey Henderson rookie, for the cards you needed, to get number 4 done. I had always been a Carew fan and was collecting all his cards. All that mattered to me was having one of each. Looking back, I should have been grabbing all his rookie cards I could find, but at the time a nice 1978, was just as important.
The change happened for me in 1982, A friend of mine, with the backing of his dad, was buying every pack of Donruss he could find in our city, in hopes of pulling the Ripken rookie. I remember thinking he was nuts. Until I saw how many he had and he explained, they were all rookies and would be worth a lot more someday.
Once I thought that through, everything changed. It wasn't just the money, while, to an 11 year, it sounded nice, but it was collecting more of the guy you liked instead of multiple sets. And it was typically, your one main player, for me Carew , and then a few rookies you liked. We all started going crazy for Rickey, Marcus Allen, Montana. A year later it was buy all the packs you could, build a set and go after Gwynn, Boggs, and Sandberg. Normally we would pick, 1 or 2 players and trade the others for our guy/guys.
Some could read this and think, it was just for money, but you have to know or remember, we are talking about values on these of 3-5 bucks, the money wasn't big enough yet, to be the drug it has become today.
During this time and for the next few years, heading into Mattingly, Straw, Gooden, Clemens, Puckett, Canseco and Big Mac, we would try to get 10+ of our guys, plus put the set together. In 1989, the UD Griffey Jr, just added fuel to the fire and it has grown from there to what we see today.
A side note, it was 1988 when I first heard about sets being short printed. My Local store owner, and still friend, told me to buy a few 88 score traded sets and put them away. He said they didn't make as many and he thought they were a great buy. He ended up being correct and this really changed my thinking again. Now it was all about rookies and rarer cards in my circle. Adding the scarcity factor to the hoarding of rookies, was a big shift from just buying Topps. Looking back, I guess this happened going back to the 84 update set.
Sadly, in 1992, I had a party at my house and some of my sisters friends, walked out with all my 88 score traded sets and who knows what else. I know it was them, because we ran the music out of my room and I let them up there for a bit, to play some music. It was a few days later, I noticed stuff missing. I never bought another one of those sets, it just killed me. Looking back, one of them knew something, because years later, I still had the 88 topps traded set, that was right with them.
So, when did you or your circle of collectors, start prospecting or noticing the change? Did you hop into it, or stick to the sets or strict player/team collecting?
I want to hear the story behind when you started doing it or first noticed others doing it.
Through the late 70's to 1980, myself and all the collectors I knew, bought all the packs we could and tried to put sets together. We never thought about how many we had of certain players or tried to get more of a certain guy. In fact, if you had 3 sets and were 10 cards short, of a 4th, you may trade an extra Rickey Henderson rookie, for the cards you needed, to get number 4 done. I had always been a Carew fan and was collecting all his cards. All that mattered to me was having one of each. Looking back, I should have been grabbing all his rookie cards I could find, but at the time a nice 1978, was just as important.
The change happened for me in 1982, A friend of mine, with the backing of his dad, was buying every pack of Donruss he could find in our city, in hopes of pulling the Ripken rookie. I remember thinking he was nuts. Until I saw how many he had and he explained, they were all rookies and would be worth a lot more someday.
Once I thought that through, everything changed. It wasn't just the money, while, to an 11 year, it sounded nice, but it was collecting more of the guy you liked instead of multiple sets. And it was typically, your one main player, for me Carew , and then a few rookies you liked. We all started going crazy for Rickey, Marcus Allen, Montana. A year later it was buy all the packs you could, build a set and go after Gwynn, Boggs, and Sandberg. Normally we would pick, 1 or 2 players and trade the others for our guy/guys.
Some could read this and think, it was just for money, but you have to know or remember, we are talking about values on these of 3-5 bucks, the money wasn't big enough yet, to be the drug it has become today.
During this time and for the next few years, heading into Mattingly, Straw, Gooden, Clemens, Puckett, Canseco and Big Mac, we would try to get 10+ of our guys, plus put the set together. In 1989, the UD Griffey Jr, just added fuel to the fire and it has grown from there to what we see today.
A side note, it was 1988 when I first heard about sets being short printed. My Local store owner, and still friend, told me to buy a few 88 score traded sets and put them away. He said they didn't make as many and he thought they were a great buy. He ended up being correct and this really changed my thinking again. Now it was all about rookies and rarer cards in my circle. Adding the scarcity factor to the hoarding of rookies, was a big shift from just buying Topps. Looking back, I guess this happened going back to the 84 update set.
Sadly, in 1992, I had a party at my house and some of my sisters friends, walked out with all my 88 score traded sets and who knows what else. I know it was them, because we ran the music out of my room and I let them up there for a bit, to play some music. It was a few days later, I noticed stuff missing. I never bought another one of those sets, it just killed me. Looking back, one of them knew something, because years later, I still had the 88 topps traded set, that was right with them.
So, when did you or your circle of collectors, start prospecting or noticing the change? Did you hop into it, or stick to the sets or strict player/team collecting?
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