baseball cards

I have a big box of baseball cards from the mid- to late-80's - Topps, Flear, Donruss. I have no desire to go through them, but my boys do. Would there possibly be anything in there worth two craps I should dig up and save from certain destruction? I know I had some that would have been somewhat decent prior to the 'roids issue.

Without researching, my impression is that the ship had sailed by the time I got involved.

There are some valuable rookies from those times.... Good way to teach the kids responsibility. Maybe get a beckett guide, and tell them a few of these cards are woth 100$ or more. Treat them all like they are.
I used to put mine in team then player alphabetical order. But maybe your kids aren't as nerdy as I was.

Ditto getting the guide and make them go through and look each one up. I have several cards from the 80's that are worth a couple hundred each. Sad part is, when I left home years and years ago most of my collection "disappeared" there weer rookie cards from the 50's in there that were worth a few grand each.

This is an excellent idea. I'll pick up a Beckett today:rockin:

BrewBrain said:

This is an excellent idea. I'll pick up a Beckett today:rockin:

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This is a good idea, but mostly just to teach them about the cards and looking things up. I think you're right about the missing the boat on this one. At that time, cards got really popular and the market was flooded with baseball cards. Not to mention, several more companies started printing cards too. I think even the Hall of Famers from then (Griffey Jr.) cards aren't worth that much.

Yeah, that was really the time that baseball cards really exploded in popularity. Still worth being careful, but I wouldn't get your hopes up. I have a complete box of Topps cards from one year that, last I saw, was still worth less than it cost originally.

Sounds like fun! You might find out you have a great Opp to spend some quality time with the kids.

the_bird said:

Yeah, that was really the time that baseball cards really exploded in popularity. Still worth being careful, but I wouldn't get your hopes up. I have a complete box of Topps cards from one year that, last I saw, was still worth less than it cost originally.

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Yep, I have a bunch of stuff from the late 80's/early 90's, and I gotta concur with Bird. I read an article last year about what happened to the card market, and it was a very interesting read. Essentially, the companies kept pumping out more "rare" (notice the quotations) cards, gold foils, special editions, offshoot collections, junk, junk, junk, just flooding the market with 'em, and pretty soon they got to a breaking point where card shops were going out of business and suddenly your boyhood card collection was worth less than you paid for it.

If I had to guess, I'd say your cards are worth pretty much nada, just like mine. Beckett's might give you a dollar amount, but the harder part would be finding an actual buyer. But it would be something fun for the kids, regardless.

I went through my cards a month or two ago to give some to The Bean, knowing that the ones I gave her were worth exactly their value as pulp. Hoping that maybe having some pictures of ballplayers (she loves having pictures of her friends) might plant a seed for her to love the game. Alas, hasn't stuck yet...

There could be a few decent cards in there that are worth some money. It's probably worth the time to go through them and dig out the valuable ones, then pass the rest on to the kids.

I need to do this myself. I have millions of cards from 82-93.

Is this thread making anyone else feel nostalgic? I remember the days of collecting baseball cards and chewing the rock-hard piece of gum that was included .......

You remember getting a pack of cards, putting the gum in your mouth, and having it just dissolve in a mix of dust and sharp little pieces because it was so old? It was like someone had mixed sawdust and broken glass into a vaguely sweet pink rectangle.

JustDave said:

Is this thread making anyone else feel nostalgic? I remember the days of collecting baseball cards and chewing the rock-hard piece of gum that was included .......

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the_bird said:

You remember getting a pack of cards, putting the gum in your mouth, and having it just dissolve in a mix of dust and sharp little pieces because it was so old? It was like someone had mixed sawdust and broken glass into a vaguely sweet pink rectangle.

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hahaha, very true.

man... i should call up my parents and have them bring up my old collection (probably could fit into a large tote) I bet there is all kinds of cards in there worth money.

I never liked trading cards with friends, I used to just collect them and put them in order by team... man, what a dork.

the_bird said:

Yeah, that was really the time that baseball cards really exploded in popularity. Still worth being careful, but I wouldn't get your hopes up. I have a complete box of Topps cards from one year that, last I saw, was still worth less than it cost originally.

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I'm pretty positive this is the case. I think I started with '86 and definitely got big into it in '87. Not much real good from those years forward.

JustDave said:

Is this thread making anyone else feel nostalgic? I remember the days of collecting baseball cards and chewing the rock-hard piece of gum that was included .......

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Hmmm. I still have some unopened Topps Wax Packs from '87. I bet the gum is still just as good as ever...

BraeHaus said:

hahaha, very true.

man... i should call up my parents and have them bring up my old collection (probably could fit into a large tote) I bet there is all kinds of cards in there worth money.

I never liked trading cards with friends, I used to just collect them and put them in order by team... man, what a dork.

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Haha. No kidding. I don't want to know how much time I wasted sorting common cards of nobodies into alphabetical order by team.

I never collected baseball cards, I was more into the Garbage Pail Kids. I swear they must have used the same gum as baseball cards. It was like chewing bubblegum flavored stained glass windows.