What is your favorite baseball card memory?

[All The Hype]

There are so many great things about this hobby and so many different ways for people to engage, let's hear your favorites. Which memory stands above the rest?

 

[BunchOBull]

1995 Leaf Limited brought with it one of the finest looking insert sets that, for the time, had ever been created; Leaf Limited Lumberjacks, the first wooden baseball card. As an 11 year old Frank Thomas collector, the Thomas was extremely high on my priority list and when the local hobby shop had one on display it was the most beautiful card I had ever seen in person (I had never seen a '95 Leaf Statistical Standouts in person, it would later become rival the Lumberjacks in my mind.). Sadly, the Thomas carried a $100 sticker in the display, well beyond my spending limitations. However, I did have enough money to buy 3 packs of Limited, and wouldn't you know...

 

[predatorkj]

I have many but going to K-Mart in high school and buying like $15 or so worth of Pacific packs and pulling a Big Mac Paramount Fielder's Choice was hellified! Also when I was like 8 my grandmother purchased a 1958 Topps Chuck Tanner for me. Man, that was awesome.

Also, another experience that was weird was my folks never took me to card or comic book shops when I was younger. Best I could do is be relegated to whatever they had at Walgreens, Eckerds, Circle-K, or K-Mart. Maybe even Fiesta. So one day they got a wild hair on their ass and took me to like a slew of places that sold cards. They got me a Will Clark RC from 87 topps, a 91 UD Bagwell RC, and a handful of Nolan Ryan and Bo Jackson cards. God that day was cool but it sure the hell was weird too.

 

[notjomommasclint]

My grandma buying me 87 topps for doing my chores. She used to make a huge production out of it. She got me hooked on the large 86 donruss all star cards the year before but the 87 topps stands out.

 

[cubfanbudman]

Getting an 85 topps set for Christmas in 85 from my mom and the next year she bought me a 1956 Koufax because he was her favorite player when she was growing up. Both of these are still in my collection

 

[ripken2131_8]

When my buddy Jeremy (cubuffs13) pulled the 1997 green Cramer's Choice Griffey. I was 11, so he was probably like 13. Yeah, we both pretty much sh*t our pants over that one.

 

[leatherman]

My first "break"

I had just gotten $10 from my grandmother for my July birthday, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Packs of 1979 Topps cards were 25 cents each at Safeway, and they had a bunch of packs. I knew that I could get 40 packs with $10, and my dad agreed to pay the 40 cents sales tax. I was 8 years old, and as most 8 year old kids do, I pressed the soda machine on my way out to see if I could get a free soda. For the first time in my life, I got one. Having failed on every previous attempt to get a free soda, I no longer took the time to contemplate which free soda I might want should I get one, so I had pressed the one at the easiest height and got a Diet Rite. I was so stoked. Now I had a soda to drink while I busted my packs.

As we drove home from the Safeway, I started busting the packs in the back seat of our 1978 Monte Carlo. I probably opened 10 or so packs by the time I got home, and I just stayed in the car and continued to bust all of them right there. Dad put the windows down in the car and I sat there in the July heat and had a blast. I was very unhappy to not pull George Brett. I was certain that 40 packs would have assured me one. I didn't get an Ozzie Smith either, but I had no idea who he was at the time anyway. I did get a Thurman Munson, who would happen to die a few weeks later. I remember putting the Munson in a special place after his death, but it is lost now. I got a Jim Palmer too, which had the All Star banner, and I loved it because his stats showed four 20 win seasons in a row, followed by a losing season, and then four more 20 win seasons in a row. This was awesome. Later in the packs, I got Orioles pitcher Nelson Briles and thought I had hit another Palmer. Briles's numbers weren't nearly as impressive as Palmer's, and Briles became my card in the spokes of my bicycle. I also got a Rod Carew (his last card on the Twins), and it too had the All Star banner. I always loved his batting stance on that card. A couple of years later, I would find that I had a Pedro Guerrero rookie card from that break, on one of the triple Future Stars cards. The Mets Future Stars card was good too, because it had Juan Berenguer, Dwight Bernard, and Dan Norman, all players I knew from the local Tidewater Tides. Not a bad haul for an 8 year old kid with a ten dollar bill.

 

[TwinsWin]

Once a week I would be able to get a pack of cards from pamida. Nothing was better then 95 topps. I also got a box of hockey cards for Christmas one year it was 95-96 and I remember opening that box seemed to take me like an hour. Sorting all the cards in to order ad pulling out my favorite players messier Gretzky. And I had gotten a Black Ice messier and I thought I had hit the jack pot

 

[TwinsWin]

Once a week I would be able to get a pack of cards from pamida. Nothing was better then 95 topps. I also got a box of hockey cards for Christmas one year it was 95-96 and I remember opening that box seemed to take me like an hour. Sorting all the cards in to order ad pulling out my favorite players messier Gretzky. And I had gotten a Black Ice messier and I thought I had hit the jack pot

It was a box of 95-96 Score!!! I still have my complete set of that and I have an unopened box somewhere too

 

[csmtampa]

When my old step dad beat my ass for opening up Fruit of the Loom underwear for the Fleer cards at Wal Mart.

 

[Austin]

When my Dad got me into collecting in 1985. He made a list of the great players and I went to a card shop called "First Base" in Dallas and told the dealer I wanted cards of those players.
The collecting bug bit me hard that summer, and soon, I was building the '85 sets and trading cards with my friends. Those were the best times. There were lots of card shops in the Dallas area and everything was incredibly cheap (in hindsight). Later that year, I bought 1956 Topps cards of Ted Williams for $15 and Jackie Robinson for $12 (about VG condition), which I still have.
I built an outstanding collection rapidly. But my favorite thing was building sets.

Then the next year in 1986, I was blown away when the National came to Arlington, Texas. It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen, and I bought so many amazing cards and autographs. Many legends like Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Ernie Banks and tons more were signing autographs for super cheap prices. Mays was the most expensive at $15, and a few Hall of Famers, like Bob Gibson and Lou Brock, were free with admission.

The National returned to Arlington in 1990 and it was great, but everything was much more expensive.
The promo fad was big that year and the lines were long for those cards. I still have those promos of cards from sets like Pro Set Football and Golf and Score Hockey. They were worth a lot then, but worthless now.

The '80s were an incredible time to collect. The baseball card boom had hit, card shops were everywhere and there were multiple card shows every weekend in Dallas. Of course, all of that gluttony is what led to the hobby's crash a few years later, but it was so much fun while it lasted.

I still have a flyer from a winter 1990 show that pictures Mickey Mantle and Rickey Henderson as autograph guests.
Mantle was $30 (a ridiculous amount!) and Rickey, just after his MVP '90 season, was $25.
Rickey was my favorite player and I got two of his autographs, but I only had enough money for one Mantle! I wish I could go back in a time machine.

 

[predatorkj]

When my old step dad beat my ass for opening up Fruit of the Loom underwear for the Fleer cards at Wal Mart.

Nice! Lol!

 

[predatorkj]

Austin, don't feel bad. In 1992 my mom took me to a Tristar show and then promptly ****** me out of the mantle line because his auto price was $50.

 

[TBTwinsFan]

Just getting those 500 card packs at Target just for the Pacific Sosa cards on the front.

 

[matfanofold]

There is a young, mentally handicapped kid that his mom sometimes brings to my LCS. Whenever he comes in the owner gives him some cheap packs and/or a box of cards. Nothing major, but to the kid it's like christmas day. He sits there with his mom is heaven busting the packs and announcing each and every card he picks off. The joy he has while there and the moments he shares with his mom are simply wonderful. It's everything I remember of collecting as a kid, just the joy of spending time and enjoying the hobby one card at a time...

 

[AK11]

In 1996, I could only afford buying packs at the local Target or Wal-Mart, so when Ultra Series 2 came out with gold medallions and inserts in every pack, I probably could have bought a case with the number packs bought at different times. I absolutely loved the Thunderclap inserts and knowing the gold medallion versions were out there made the chase ever more appealing. One day I bought 12 packs out of a box at Target and got home and in pack #7 pulled a Griffey Thunderclap gold medallion inserted at 1:720 odds which blew my mind and I shouted among the tree tops. I went to the local card shop just to look at the new Beckett for pricing and watched it climb to $360 in 6 months after release. Griffey was far and away my favorite athlete at the time, so I still have that card in my pc for sentimental value.

Also, on a second story, my grandpa and grandma used to drive me to card shops when I was in junior high and high school, and when 99/00 UD HoloGrFx basketball came out, they made an insert set called NBA Shoetime with gu shoe pieces and I pulled a David Robinson one from one pack bought. Before decoy cards, I was wondering why the pack the owner gave me was so gosh darn thick. Anyways, when I pulled that card, or for that matter, any player I liked from packs back in those days, my grandpa would always tell me, "You're livin' up today, aren't ya?" Those are definitely precious memories since my grandpa passed away when I was still in high school.

 

[archiebunkerjr]

Opened a box of 2000 SP Authentic on the day my first child was born. Got this.

 

[cgilmo]

when cardcop shut down donruss


that was so cash

 

[bigpapiMA32]

Opening packs on 1999 Topps on my way to Red Sox games with my dad. Was 8 years old.