Vintage, an appeal that todays youth(mostly) dont appreciate

[ThoseBackPages]

Vintage Cards have a true history. I was talking about this with a card friend of mine,
and thought that iy would make for a good chat thread.

Think about HOW those vintage cards got "damaged", flipped against the wall, bike spokes,
trading, laying them out on the floor while a kid listened to the game on
the radio (when TVs werent around, or too expensive for most families to own)

Todays collector (myself included) is so programmed to think about what shape
the card is in.

a lot of people nowadays rip new wax with cotton gloves on, for fear of "ruining"
the cards in the pack.

Also, cards are so much better produced now, verses the old days, when a kid
wanted gum, and happened to get some cardboard pics of ball players with it.

I'd love to hear any stories that anyone would like to share.

 

[jeff550]

when i was younger i would set up 4 bins. one for 1b,2b,3b, and HR and you tried to get the card in the bucket. well there was a door behind it and the corners got destroyed.so i have some very beat up cards

 

[ThoseBackPages]

when i was younger i would set up 4 bins. one for 1b,2b,3b, and HR and you tried to get the card in the bucket. well there was a door behind it and the corners got destroyed.so i have some very beat up cards

Great Story!

 

[ThoseBackPages]

i remember being 9 years old (1980) and using my (non Mets, have you lol) 1980 Topps cards
to practice sliding in the hallway

 

[MaineMule]

My brother and I use to "flip" cards (circa 1978-1981). You had to match the card that was flipped or you lost the pile. Either "heads" or "tails." I remember I had a certain technique of just snapping my wrist spinning the card to the ground. I am sure I was smart enough to not ever use any big names in this game.

 

[jay1065]

I remember making card castles with '86 and '87 Topps. Some of them were huge!

 

[justinmandawg]

My parents didn't make much money but dad bought a case of 1987 donruss for me to open on rainy days and something for us to do together. we got it so cheap that we bought several and still made enough to break a case and then more to open etc. Anyhow we had a big jar on the counter in the kitchen that had packs. if i was good or did something wonderful etc i would get a pack. We had a lot of fun w/ it. I still have a couple of the sets. he died march 6, 1998. we had a blast with it.

 

[jeff550]

My parents didn't make much money but dad bought a case of 1987 donruss for me to open on rainy days and something for us to do together. we got it so cheap that we bought several and still made enough to break a case and then more to open etc. Anyhow we had a big jar on the counter in the kitchen that had packs. if i was good or did something wonderful etc i would get a pack. We had a lot of fun w/ it. I still have a couple of the sets. he died march 6, 1998. we had a blast with it.

that is a great story right there. ill bet you have alot of great memories from that

 

[ThoseBackPages]

My parents didn't make much money but dad bought a case of 1987 donruss for me to open on rainy days and something for us to do together. we got it so cheap that we bought several and still made enough to break a case and then more to open etc. Anyhow we had a big jar on the counter in the kitchen that had packs. if i was good or did something wonderful etc i would get a pack. We had a lot of fun w/ it. I still have a couple of the sets. he died march 6, 1998. we had a blast with it.

That is a fantastic story! Those Memories will last forever.

 

[imac220]

I honestly never care what condition a vintage card is in. And I am 15

For example, this pass weekend I went to a card show and bought a 1961 Roger Maris Card. It is all stained, and has tape marks on it...but do I care? NO!

It is strictly staying in the PC for the rest of my life.

EDIT: For $2 BTW

 

[Nate Colbert 17]

1. I make no apologies for my craptacular T206 set.

2. It is easy to see that someone got some use out of this card.

Sharp corners and no creases are nice, but this card has some "history" to it.

 

[Mighty Bombjack]

One of my favorites from my HOF auto collection. I think I actually prefer it to one that had sharp corners, because this one seems to have a story. Plus, it's the auto that I really want anyway.

As for a story: when I used to get a report card in junior high, my dad would bring me to the card shop and buy me a vintage card to reward me. I learned a lot about the history of the game that way, and have some nice cards now to show for it. This was in the mid-to-late 80s, and vintage was pretty cheap (looking back, we should have bought so much more!). Most of those cards go unscanned, but I will get around to showing them off someday.

 

[dano7]

I put cards on my spokes maybe once. I thought the trouble of them falling off wasn't worth it. Of course, a lot of kids in my neighborhood did use them on their spokes, mostly from my dupes, which I gave away. I was a set builder by 1960, though my first completed set was in 1961.
What I used a lot of my extras for was setting them up in the basement and using them for targets for my BB gun.
I have neither the sets or shot up cards from my childhood, though. I sold all while in college. Fortunately, the buyer didn't know I had football and non-sports cards, so I have all of those from my childhood. Many of my 1960 football cards have an A or N on them, as I was impressed with the Army-Navy game and decided to put my players on one of those teams.
DANNY

 

[17ROCKIES12]

As long as the card isn't cut, I don't really care what kind of condition its in. When I go to stores or shows I always try to pick up some cheap vintage. I actually think it's kind of cool when cards have stuff written on them by the original owner.

I bought a card a few years ago, sent it off to get signed ttm. When I got it back noticed that "Sam" was written on the back in black ink, Sam must have been the original owner. I got a black pen out and wrote my name on it. I'll probably forget that I did that, but maybe someday when someone else owns the card they'll notice and maybe even write their name on it.

 

[Bornagaincollector]

In the early 80's,i had a friend whos dad collected cards.He gave me like 400-500 commons from the 80-81 topps set that were in decent shape.And one day he went into the attic bought these 2 big boards out,we didn't have a clue to what it was.

He had taken his cards from when he was a kid and stapled them to these boards.I would say maybe 100+ cards on each board.And i'm talking late 50's-early 60's and decent players also.

In 1989 he sold both boards with cards still intact at a Church Yardsale for 300.00.

 

[nolan34ryan]

I think there is one reason that kids today don't appreciate vintage cards. If you grew up in the 70's and 80's you were about the numbers in baseball. And those numbers were Hank's, Mickey's, and Willie's. When you bought a pack of 1987 Topps you were hoping Will Clark was the new Ted Williams and Bo Jackson was the new Reggie Jackson. Plus look at the prices on those vintage cards. Back in 87 I dreamed of owning just one card from the 1958 Topps set (now I have the entire thing) but there was a richness and a mystique to them. Because they were the legends they were very popular with the older collectors driving the price up. And we were close enough in age to the older collectors that sports broadcasters still would talk about them.

Fast forward to today. Those same 50's and 60's cards would be like a 70's or 80's card for the kids of today maybe even early 90's. Most of those cards were over produced. That same 87 set I bought pack after pack to complete I just bought at a garage sale for $5.00. Those players didn't become legendary. They came up short Bo Jackson and Will Clark, or they came up cheaters Roger Clemens and Jose Canseco. How can this generation have that same reverence for the players of yester year when they simply don't measure up in ability or collectability. Now I'm the older collector and to tell you the truth I don't see a bunch of people driving the price up like crazy on 1988 Donruss Reben Sierra cards, like we saw 1968 Orlando Cepeda cards jump 25 years ago.


I think Steroids and the ruining of the numbers has so much to do with the decline in vintage interest. I just bought a 1976 Topps set for 86.00 Think about that. Talk about no respect.