My very first pack of cards was a 1985 fleer rack pack, and I was on the hunt for Dwight Gooden's rookie. I really didn't even know who Roger Clemens was at the time and even if I did I would have I still wanted the Gooden. I thought it was a great pack because I got the Dwight Gooden/Juan Samuel, N.L. Rookie Phenoms card. Also in the 1985 fleer they had those two cards that you could put together and make one picture. Those were pretty cool to an 8 year old. Anyways I love those 80's cards, and I love that they don't break the bank today. It was fun to pick up all the cards i ever wanted as a kid. I also liked those fleer sticker books, does anyone remeber those? I bought countless packs of stickers trying to complete my book. I wish they made those today I'd try and complete a sticker book again.
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Welcome to the 1980's Baseball Card Appreciation Thread.
- Thread starter ThoseBackPages
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My favorite 80's card.
Imagine if Topps quietly brought back topps tiffany factory sets for a year or 2. Limited the print run to 5000 and randomly inserted as redemptions in topps series 1 2 and update. The redemptions could be unadveritised, never expire and include free shipping. Shhyyyyyt!!!
Imagine if Topps quietly brought back topps tiffany factory sets for a year or 2. Limited the print run to 5000 and randomly inserted as redemptions in topps series 1 2 and update. The redemptions could be unadveritised, never expire and include free shipping. Shhyyyyyt!!!
shayscards79
New member
I remember going to friend's birthday party when I was kid, maybe 8 or 9 and busting a pinata and seeing candy and packs of 1987 Donruss coming out if it. That's when I pulled my first Greg Maddux rookie.
I remember buying a lot of 1989 Fleer and Donruss at the local Convenient store trying to pull a Ken Griffey Jr. rookie and it never happened. I ended up buying a Fleer RC a year later at a card shop in Houston while visiting my aunt. I still have that card.
I did buy an almost full box of 1989 Fleer cello packs a couple of years ago from a card shop and pulled two Griffey RCs. Talk about redemption 20 years later.
I remember buying a lot of 1989 Fleer and Donruss at the local Convenient store trying to pull a Ken Griffey Jr. rookie and it never happened. I ended up buying a Fleer RC a year later at a card shop in Houston while visiting my aunt. I still have that card.
I did buy an almost full box of 1989 Fleer cello packs a couple of years ago from a card shop and pulled two Griffey RCs. Talk about redemption 20 years later.
shayscards79
New member
stu said:
We can always dream....
My collecting hay day ran from 83 to like 91. I bought busted multiple box of each product and made sets of each. My mom made me printouts at work numbered to 800 or so as a checklist. Didn't want to write on the real checklists and nobody had a home computer so she did on company time. 
I had pages set up for all my favorite players. 3 to a row x 3. You could 3 years worth of base cards to a page. Pete Incaviglia, Ruben Sierra, Charlie Hough, Eric Davis, Boggs, Gwynn, Clemens, Gooden, Strawberry and Bonds plus several more. Unless the insert was really nice(and there were very few inserts at all) they did not go into a binder, they went into a box. If my parents were in town, I would always bring me a couple packs of cards and they almost always did. You really got to know the cards and players back then. There wasn't 80 different parallels to keep up with. 84 Fleer was one of my favorites. I was tired of Topps and Donruss was usually only available at bigger card shops. Every time we went to Revco Drug Store I would get 2 or 3 cello packs. Except on Sunday because of blue laws you couldn't buy 'toys'.
As I got older and Donruss and Fleer got better, I refrained from buying Topps in 86. They were ugly as hell IMO. 1987 wasn't much better but it had a great checklist. I always had a few friends who collected so every other week we would get together for trade days. Everybody had a Beckett at their side just to make sure the trade was fair. There was never any selling. Always scheduled a trip to the card shop on the day when the new Beckett would be out.
I can remember rushing to the store usually in late August(if I remember right) for Donruss Rookies. It was agonizing to have to wait throughout the season before you could get a card of your favorite rookie that wasn't featured in an earlier release. Topps Traded and Fleer Update usually came after the season so I would ask for those for Christmas.
One of my favorite things was going to card shows in Dallas. There was usually a big one atleast every month and they always had Rangers signing for free. The night before I would be picking through my cards to find just the right one to have signed. If available, 1984 Donruss usually was the best choice. The players were always friendly and I would not get rid of those cards for nothing. They all were eventually stolen from me several years ago. Cleaned out all my albums with the good stuff in it. Left the monster boxes of commons. I still miss my 1984 Donruss Pete O'brien auto.
Towards the end of the 80's I started getting into 'vintage'. I had Yount and Brett rookies, 69 Bench and a couple of other nice cards. My grandfather bought me a lot of 54-56 Topps cards that a friend of his owned. Jackie Robinson, Clemente, Aaron and Berra. No Mantles. He paid 150 for a big shoebox of 400-500 of them because he thought I would like them. They weren't in the greatest shape but I never would have been able afford them by myself. One of my favorite memories of him was him telling me about all the players I didn't know from those cards. Those cards would be stolen as well.
Eventually I discovered girls and alcohol and college. I totally dropped out of the scene. But I never stopped loving baseball. I started collecting again about 2 years ago. Picking up new stuff and rebuying old cards that had slipped away.The 80's cards might not be the most expensive, hottest or loved but they are the ones that got me started in this hobby and will always have a special meaning to me.
Sorry to be so long winded :lol:
I had pages set up for all my favorite players. 3 to a row x 3. You could 3 years worth of base cards to a page. Pete Incaviglia, Ruben Sierra, Charlie Hough, Eric Davis, Boggs, Gwynn, Clemens, Gooden, Strawberry and Bonds plus several more. Unless the insert was really nice(and there were very few inserts at all) they did not go into a binder, they went into a box. If my parents were in town, I would always bring me a couple packs of cards and they almost always did. You really got to know the cards and players back then. There wasn't 80 different parallels to keep up with. 84 Fleer was one of my favorites. I was tired of Topps and Donruss was usually only available at bigger card shops. Every time we went to Revco Drug Store I would get 2 or 3 cello packs. Except on Sunday because of blue laws you couldn't buy 'toys'.As I got older and Donruss and Fleer got better, I refrained from buying Topps in 86. They were ugly as hell IMO. 1987 wasn't much better but it had a great checklist. I always had a few friends who collected so every other week we would get together for trade days. Everybody had a Beckett at their side just to make sure the trade was fair. There was never any selling. Always scheduled a trip to the card shop on the day when the new Beckett would be out.
I can remember rushing to the store usually in late August(if I remember right) for Donruss Rookies. It was agonizing to have to wait throughout the season before you could get a card of your favorite rookie that wasn't featured in an earlier release. Topps Traded and Fleer Update usually came after the season so I would ask for those for Christmas.
One of my favorite things was going to card shows in Dallas. There was usually a big one atleast every month and they always had Rangers signing for free. The night before I would be picking through my cards to find just the right one to have signed. If available, 1984 Donruss usually was the best choice. The players were always friendly and I would not get rid of those cards for nothing. They all were eventually stolen from me several years ago. Cleaned out all my albums with the good stuff in it. Left the monster boxes of commons. I still miss my 1984 Donruss Pete O'brien auto.
Towards the end of the 80's I started getting into 'vintage'. I had Yount and Brett rookies, 69 Bench and a couple of other nice cards. My grandfather bought me a lot of 54-56 Topps cards that a friend of his owned. Jackie Robinson, Clemente, Aaron and Berra. No Mantles. He paid 150 for a big shoebox of 400-500 of them because he thought I would like them. They weren't in the greatest shape but I never would have been able afford them by myself. One of my favorite memories of him was him telling me about all the players I didn't know from those cards. Those cards would be stolen as well.
Eventually I discovered girls and alcohol and college. I totally dropped out of the scene. But I never stopped loving baseball. I started collecting again about 2 years ago. Picking up new stuff and rebuying old cards that had slipped away.The 80's cards might not be the most expensive, hottest or loved but they are the ones that got me started in this hobby and will always have a special meaning to me.
Sorry to be so long winded :lol:
- Thread starter
- #27
ThoseBackPages
New member
SamHell said:
Thank you so much for your awesome story, this is what this thread is about and it brought a smile to my face.
Brewer Andy
Active member
- Aug 10, 2008
- 9,634
- 21
'87 Topps was my first taste of cards as well (busted a rack box yesterday for funsies). I remember my mom randomly came back from the store one day with about 4 packs. I didn't even really like baseball at the time. She loved baseball and was a bit of a tomboy. Maybe she was trying to get me interested in baseball or maybe she had heard fluff stories on the local news about cards being worth actual money someday who knows. I pulled a Bo Jackson and a BJ Surhoff future stars. She was excited about the Surhoff, he was a Brewer after all and hey, Milwaukee passed on Will Clark to draft him! I poured over the cards and stats and 2 days later the cards already looked 80 years old. A friend at school taught me the ins and outs of collecting and "mint" condition. The rest is pretty much history. '87 Donruss and Fleer are still probably my favorite releases ever. They looked so much cooler than Topps and Topps I could buy anywhere but in '87 we actually had to drive 45 minutes to a card shop and pay a premium for these "mysterious" brands.
'89 Upper Deck: iconic? Yes, but even at the tender age of 12 with 2 whole years of collecting under my belt I remember being angry that cards costed so much! $1 a pack was ridiculous at the time. My mom "splurged" for 3 packs when they released and I pulled a Griffey from the first pack I ever opened. She said to hang on to that one but it was Milwaukee in 1989 so I instead traded it even up for a 1989 Sportflics Gary Sheffield to complete my Sheffield Rookie "rainbow". I've been making bad trades ever since. Cheers!
'89 Upper Deck: iconic? Yes, but even at the tender age of 12 with 2 whole years of collecting under my belt I remember being angry that cards costed so much! $1 a pack was ridiculous at the time. My mom "splurged" for 3 packs when they released and I pulled a Griffey from the first pack I ever opened. She said to hang on to that one but it was Milwaukee in 1989 so I instead traded it even up for a 1989 Sportflics Gary Sheffield to complete my Sheffield Rookie "rainbow". I've been making bad trades ever since. Cheers!
KC37
New member
Eric, yet another terrific thread.
I, too, bought boatloads of 87 Topps, chasing Bo Jackson rookies.
But my story of hoarding involves my two best friends at the time, where we were constantly trading and hunting for each other, to get pages and pages of our binders filled of our target players:
My friend, Rich, went with a player from the hometown team, Jody Reed. Ironically, of the three players in the story, he was the "hottest", as an up-and-coming rookie for the Red Sox - gee, imagine that, a Sox rookie getting buzz in the collecting world. But, at an average value of a quarter each, these babies were trading like oil futures.
My other friend, Shawn, went with a player who was born locally, Tom Glavine. According to my parents, when I was born, we lived in the same apartment building as his family (I don't know how accurate that is), but he was just a couple towns over, and being in Massachusetts, it's still somewhat rare for local kids to go pro given the limited amount of warm weather around here - besides, he was a better hockey player by all accounts. Glavine had some collecting interest locally, but Shawn's aunt and uncle actually lived near Glavine in Atlanta, so there was a connection there as well. I think at one point he had about two dozen autographed items. I sent two RCs TTM, and got them back in no time (I still have one, and gave the other to the board member that was working on the 88 Donruss autographed set).
Me? I was a visionary. I focused on a Pirates outfielder - one that had shown a little bit of power, good speed, and an above average glove. He looked like he played with the joy of a child, and that once he grew his lanky frame, he could be an institution in a market like Pittsburgh. Of the three of us, I managed to amass the highest total of his cards, over 300, including nearly 75 rookie cards. That player was...
..Andy Van Slyke.
So, I sucked as a prospector even then.
I, too, bought boatloads of 87 Topps, chasing Bo Jackson rookies.
But my story of hoarding involves my two best friends at the time, where we were constantly trading and hunting for each other, to get pages and pages of our binders filled of our target players:
My friend, Rich, went with a player from the hometown team, Jody Reed. Ironically, of the three players in the story, he was the "hottest", as an up-and-coming rookie for the Red Sox - gee, imagine that, a Sox rookie getting buzz in the collecting world. But, at an average value of a quarter each, these babies were trading like oil futures.
My other friend, Shawn, went with a player who was born locally, Tom Glavine. According to my parents, when I was born, we lived in the same apartment building as his family (I don't know how accurate that is), but he was just a couple towns over, and being in Massachusetts, it's still somewhat rare for local kids to go pro given the limited amount of warm weather around here - besides, he was a better hockey player by all accounts. Glavine had some collecting interest locally, but Shawn's aunt and uncle actually lived near Glavine in Atlanta, so there was a connection there as well. I think at one point he had about two dozen autographed items. I sent two RCs TTM, and got them back in no time (I still have one, and gave the other to the board member that was working on the 88 Donruss autographed set).
Me? I was a visionary. I focused on a Pirates outfielder - one that had shown a little bit of power, good speed, and an above average glove. He looked like he played with the joy of a child, and that once he grew his lanky frame, he could be an institution in a market like Pittsburgh. Of the three of us, I managed to amass the highest total of his cards, over 300, including nearly 75 rookie cards. That player was...
..Andy Van Slyke.
So, I sucked as a prospector even then.
Brewer Andy
Active member
- Aug 10, 2008
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I've still got that signed Donruss Glavine!
BunchOBull
Active member
I was born in '83 and this had to have one unopened pack from every company/sport. I've included a lot of the '83 Non-Sport packs since then.
Included is the '83 Topps Baseball Michigan Test pack.
Included is the '83 Topps Baseball Michigan Test pack.
MojoDan
Active member
- Aug 22, 2008
- 30,348
- 1
This might be the best stroll down hobby memory lane ever when its all said and done 
.
.BunchOBull
Active member
I still have the Puckett RC I pulled when I was 4 or 5.
I love the 80's! I remember my mom buyig me the 85 Topps set which was my first cards of any kind. We had a baseball card store that I would ride my bike to almost every day after school and trade my Cubs common cards for Andre Dawson cards. They used to have some autograph signings there and I can remember awaiting in line forever for Billy Williams, Tony Gwynn, Dawson, Ernie Banks and even players like Mike Bielecki, Jerome Walton and Dwight Smith.
I grew up with about 7 other kids on my block all the same age and we always traded among each other and always had a Beckett at our side. I remember saving all the old Beckett covers because of the photo on the cover and that was also half the fun. Finding out who was on the front and back covers.
This is when collecting was fun and people didn't worry about paying 70$ or more for a box and not getting back the price of the box.
Great thread Eric
I grew up with about 7 other kids on my block all the same age and we always traded among each other and always had a Beckett at our side. I remember saving all the old Beckett covers because of the photo on the cover and that was also half the fun. Finding out who was on the front and back covers.
This is when collecting was fun and people didn't worry about paying 70$ or more for a box and not getting back the price of the box.
Great thread Eric
Brewer Andy
Active member
- Aug 10, 2008
- 9,634
- 21
ahill1 said:
I remember wanting an '89 Upper Deck High # Jerome Walton so bad! I think I ended up buying some Stadium Club packs instead
Mozzie22
Well-known member
- Aug 7, 2008
- 1,657
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Sweetness said:My favorite 80's card.
Imagine if Topps quietly brought back topps tiffany factory sets for a year or 2. Limited the print run to 5000 and randomly inserted as redemptions in topps series 1 2 and update. The redemptions could be unadveritised, never expire and include free shipping. Shhyyyyyt!!!
This card was insanely hot in the spring of 86. This and the Pete Rose rookie were going crazy. Good memories
Mozzie22
Well-known member
- Aug 7, 2008
- 1,657
- 30
Started really buying packs in 1986 and this is my favorite card from the 1980's. I even love the back:
