Who here as prospected for over ten years?

[011873]

Man, I can think back to when I was propecting the likes of Joey Meyer, Mike Campbell, Ben Grieve, Ty Griffin, Brad Pounders, Alex Sanchez and Roger Salkeld to name just a few.

And Im still doing it.......AND LOVE IT.

I guess 2002 BCDP "officially" ushered in the modern day prospector and no doubt Pujols has everyone thinking maybe one of their guys will turn into another Pujols.

But Ive been reading over the last year or so of many one time prospectors getting out.

So who here has been proepcting for at least a decade?

 

[brouthercard]

I had a stash of 25 1987 fleer Ruben Sierras back in the day- does that count? Oh yah, and 25 1988 fleer gracies as well.

 

[Mudcatsfan]

10 years ago it was the bowman chrome exclusives. (cards not in regular bowman) like

Juan Silvestre, Jason Hart, Carlos Urquiola (sp?), and Chin Hui Tsao Not Zambrano or Oswalt

2000 Topps Traded autos were all about Christian Guerrero and JR House (not that Miguel Cabrera kid)

UD Rookie update was the bomb, 4-6 numbered rookies in a box WITH 3/4 boxes having a RC auto from SPX. WOW
(imagine the complaints now to customer service).

20 years ago it was Eric Anthony, John Olerud (WTF is up with the helmet?) Ben McDonald (reverse negative, HOLLA), Greg Vaughn, Joey Belle, not that skinny Sosa kid

 

[beefycheddar]

20 years ago it was Eric Anthony, John Olerud (WTF is up with the helmet?) Ben McDonald (reverse negative, HOLLA), Greg Vaughn, Joey Belle, not that skinny Sosa kid

Biggest day ever was in the Cape League was when Ben McDonald came to the Cape for a day and played.

 

[200lbhockeyplayer]

Who can forget the "can't miss" prospect from 1999 - Sean Burroughs. Everything indicated that he was going to be the second coming of George Brett. Instead, Burroughs became the second coming of George Canale.

2000 was a big "prospecting" year for me. Not "big" as in hits, but as in misses.

I gobbled up some stellar players like Bobby Bradley, Ryan Christianson, BJ Garbe and the comical thing was I (seriously) kept pulling Johan Santana singles from Fleer Mystique and Finest. At one point I had 5 of the gold parallels and 3 of the numbered parallels from Mystique and a couple Finest Gold Refractors. Boy am I glad I let those go for nothing.

What did I care, I wanted the Angels' Johan Santana at the time (now known as Ervin Santana).

Or what about Chin-Feng Chen? Two huge years in a row and his Bowman's Best card was pulling $120 in auctions. Wait, is this a bad time to bring up what Alex Rios' Elite rookies were pulling?

 

[Messier2]

I've prospected 6 years and enjoyed every moment of it!

 

[brianga26]

I am in that boat!! Been propsecting since the days of Dean Palmer, Travis Fryman, the GREAT Eric Anthony, and of course JUAN GONE Gonzalez... Eeeesh. I am OLD

::facepalm::

 

[1995BBRefractorGuy]

I am over 10 years old...

 

[Crash Davis]

Prospecting really originated in 1989 with the reintroduction of the Bowman brand. Before that, prospecting was really limited to minor league team sets and the assorted prospect cards that Topps put out in their products.

It's hard to call the hoarding of the mid-to-late-1980s as "prospecting" because most players who appeared on cards had some major league experience. Look no further than the early Topps Traded and Fleer Update sets and who could forget the "loaded" 1987 Topps, Fleer and Donruss offerings.

Back then, guys were dealing 100-ct "bricks" of Will Clark, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Ruben Sierra and the like.

Boy was that fun!

 

[Jaypers]

Since 1995 for me.

Bowman and Bowman's Best were spectacular products, especially the BBest Blue Refractors.

And Topps hasn't put out a BBest product worth buying since, with the possible exception of 2003's offering.

 

[phillyfan0417]

I think I finally gave up on Stanley Jefferson last year...

 

[011873]

Yes sir, it was different 20 years ago. No flashy Refs, just 100 count bricks of someone.

I never got into the "brick scene", but if I had 20 or so of a guy, that was a lot for my age.

I even bought, and still have, the 1989 BBA propspect book.

I remember buying a nice stash of 1989 T Ty Griffins at the White Plains show and thinking I was going to make some nice money. Still have them.

My friend and I opened so many 1989 Donruss boxes and for some reason I pulled a million Alex Sanchez cards. Im not kidding. He was my guy. I later found out I wasnt alone because that card was double printed.

 

[uniquebaseballcards]

Couldn't you buy 'bricks' of any player back then, particularly star players? I think I remember seeing this in some old Becketts and other publications.

Yes sir, it was different 20 years ago. No flashy Refs, just 100 count bricks of someone.

I never got into the "brick scene", but if I had 20 or so of a guy, that was a lot for my age.

I even bought, and still have, the 1989 BBA propspect book.

I remember buying a nice stash of 1989 T Ty Griffins at the White Plains show and thinking I was going to make some nice money. Still have them.

My friend and I opened so many 1989 Donruss boxes and for some reason I pulled a million Alex Sanchez cards. Im not kidding. He was my guy. I later found out I wasnt alone because that card was double printed.

 

[notjomommasclint]

eric anthony, phil hiatt, gary thurman, luis del los santos, pete rose jr, jeff king, pat listach... just off of the top of my head. of course it was more collecting rookie cards of players that i thought were going to be great! i got rid of these in 00 during my vacation from cardboard. i really wish i had my hiatts back i had met him a few dozen times at rosenblatt and he was a great guy!

 

[Bob Loblaw]

I started with 1984 Fleer and Topps Traded Juan Samuels. Then moved on to 1989 Ricky Jordans and 1991 Wes Chamberlains.

Despite these monumental failures, I still kept going.

 

[yanksfan4eva]

About to show the age
I started collecting in 1986! Back then sets came out in the beginning of the year and only had rookie cards of players who played in the MLB (with the exception of Donruss Rated Rookies and Fleer Dual Prospects). At the end of the year was the greatest time : Donruss "The Rookies", Fleer "Update" and Topps "Traded" were released right around the holidays and were full of "prospects". In '86 when I first started I was trying to fill 9 pocket pages with all these young up and comers like Bo Jackson, Will Clark, Pete Incaviglia, Wally Joyner, Billy Jo Robidoux, Danny Tartabull, Kurt Stillwell, Franklin Stubbs, etc. After doing my first couple of shows in 1997, and flipping these, I started to get into 100 ct lots of BJ Surhoff, Cory Snyder, Kevin Elster, etc, saving them and selling them during the off season or during spring training.

It was fun and the prospect game grew in 1988 when Topps included Olympic cards in Topps Traded, Score came onto the scene and had a Prospect subset highlighted by the biggest and most sought after player GREGG JEFFERIES.

Prospecting wasn't so much the science and analyzing that it is now, but it was fun and a similar investing process. And if anyone needs 100 ct lots of Tim Pyrzinski, Sil Campusano, or Chris James send me a pm ::facepalm::

thanks
ryan

 

[yanksfan4eva]

I started with 1984 Fleer and Topps Traded Juan Samuels. Then moved on to 1989 Ricky Jordans and 1991 Wes Chamberlains.

Despite these monumental failures, I still kept going.

can't say Ricky Jordan without including Ron Jones

 

[leatherman]

I just recently sold a lot of 400+ 1984 Topps #182 Darryl Strawberry RCs.

I still have about 400-500 1988 Donruss Gregg Jefferies. Dude is going to be huge.



David

 

[subpop77]

not me always player collected Todd Van Poppel, Ben McDonald, PatListach ::facepalm:: :lol: :lol:

 

[Philip J. Fry]

My first and only attempt at prospecting.