Mid-day talker: Your sports card treasures
Posted on January 7th, 2009 – 1:39 PMBy Michael Rand
The Fresno Bee has a remarkable story about a woman who discovered she had a 139-year-old baseball card featuring the Cincinnati Red Stockings. The card is believed to be among the first ever produced; she tried to sell it on eBay for $10 before realizing what she had; estimates say it could be worth six figures. Crazy stuff. It reminded us of the days, oh, 20-25 years ago when our uncles turned us loose on all the old cards sitting in my grandparents’ basement. The rule was simple: anytime there were “doubles” (two or more of the same card), we got to keep one of them. That rule produced what was, for many years, our most prized possession: a Mike Schmidt rookie card. We’d like to say it was because of Schmidt’s tough stance against hard narcotics. Really, though, it was the fact that it was worth, for a while, several hundreds of dollars. Alas, all our cards were lost in the North Dakota flood of 1997. All we have to show now are memories and a question: were you a collector, and if so what was your prized sports card growing up?
28 Responses to "Mid-day talker: Your sports card treasures"
1. Yes.
2. I had a ton of cards, but can’t for the life of me remember what the most valuable one was. George Brett’s rookie card, maybe? I know I had a sentimental attachment to Rod Carew’s last Minnesota Twins card.
Still am a collector, somewhat. Most valuable card is an autographed David Wright rookie card–has been as high as $600 or so, but less now.
Most prized card…got some cool Hrbek cards, including autographs. A couple cool AP rookies. Handful of Tommy Kramer autos. Not sure what would be considered my most prized.
1. Yes.
2. Most years I collected like a madman until I got a Kent Hrbek card, which as far as I was concerned completed my set no matter how many cards I had.
An autographed Shane Mack card. What?! I was an even bigger homer then than I am now.
Collecting baseball cards? You people are nerds.
/Heads back to game of Pogs.
Do Charlie’s Angels cards count? I think I had some Dukes of Hazards, too.
Used to collect until Upper Deck came out and it was (gasp!) now $1 for a whole pack - and no gum. My favorite is a Sparky Anderson rookie card that I got from my cousin who found it in an old house or barn. It’s missing one whole corner though, but I don’t think it’s worth much regardless.
The 89 Upper Deck Griffey Jr. was always a personal treasure. Also the 84 Puckett Rookie with a slim Puck in a teal Twin Uni is a classic
Growing up, I loved the ‘87 Topps Kirby Puckett I had pinned to my wall.
I recently got back into cards (thanks a lot, Allen & Ginter!), and my favorites now include Ron Gardenhire’s rookie card and a 1975 Topps Herb Washington (only card to ever list Pinch Runner as the player’s position).
Not that either of these have any monetary value, I just like ‘em.
Mark McGwire, Griffey Jr., and Sammy Sosa’s rookie cards.
And Archibald “Moonlight” Graham’s card.
Do they have to be baseball cards? A limited edition Michael Jordan rookie card and a Shaq rookie card with some weird hologram were my favorites.
I also had some sweet Jim McMahon cards.
Last summer at a Hickory Crawdad’s minor league game in Hickory, NC, picked up 3 Joe Mauer rookie cards for $2 apiece, from a guy with a card table and no idea what he had. Even had them in the plastic. Are these worth anything?
Alas, all our cards were lost in the North Dakota flood of 1997.
A likely story, RandMom.
Other things claimed lost in the flood of 1997:
- Half-built model airplane collection, which Rand was planning to complete next time he visited home.
- RandDad’s favorite arm chair.
- Combined contents of “junk drawer”, “junk closet”, and “attic”.
- Signed picture from Rand’s totally hot 6th grade girlfriend, who lived in Canada.
Did Rand’s 6th grade girlfriend turn into an international pop star? Was Jagged Little Pill written because of Rand?
*No I don’t find Alanis Morissette the least bit attractive.
I have a Fran Tarkington rookie card. Probably my most prized card. I also have a 1972 Topps set in Football, which includes the rare upper series cards. My most sentimental cards, however, are worthless. They are the late 70’s early 80’s cards that I bought by the pack, sifted through, sorted. They are all dog-eared and rough looking. But only because I handled them so much.
I had a Dale Murphy rookie card and the 1985 Topps set with the Mark McGwire rookie card. That card was worth alot of money at one time.
I always liked the Bo Jackson card in his shoulder pads holding a bat. I should go as that next Halloween. Is there still enough time for the roids to kick in so I can fill out the football pads?
I’ve got a 2-player Mickey Mantle/Ken Boyer card, some old Yogi Berra cards, Karl Yustremski (sp?), one Willie Mays in horrible shape, a Michael Jordan rookie baseball card, Jim Kaat, and a whole bunch of others that I can’t remember.
I got them all in a big miscellaneous box of cards at a neighbor’s garage sale that was about $20 for the whole thing. My Beckett book pinned the total value of the box right around 2 grand.
U of M: That’s quite a haul, though it becomes devalued by 40 percent just for butchering Carl Yastrzemski’s name so badly.
Oh wow, I wasn’t even close. And yeah, I can thank my idiot neighbor for all of that. They’d have some seriously excellent ball cards at every garage sale, to the point where I’d get up early in junior high/high school just to be the first person at their house. Always thought they might catch on, but nope!
Legends edition Dragons or Revised Shivan Dragon, Lord of the Pit or Vesuvean Doppleganger. Wait, what? I mean Kirby Pucket ‘84 rookie card or Griffey Upper Deck rookie. Also think I had a Bonds 1986 Topps but I didn’t think much of it at the time.
Dungeons & Dragons Gamer < Sports Card Collector. And by < of course I mean less likely to fornicate with a real life girl.
I am/was both. Sigh.
Favorite All-Time Sports Cards:
1) Charles Barkley 1986-87 Fleer rookie card
2) Herschel Walker New Jersey Generals 1985 Topps USFL rookie card
3) Fred Lynn 1975 Topps rookie card (other rookie outfielders featured: Terry Whitfield, Tom Poquette and Ed Armbrister).
Beckett book value of a couple grand now means you might get a few hundred for them on Ebay.
Oh, did I mention I also have a Football Card Blog? http://www.thefootballcardblog.com
I know I’m REALLY late to this post, but I just had to throw my 2 cents in. (And latte, right there with you, plus a video gamer on top.)
My favorite card is my Jr. Griffey Upper Deck RC.
My most valuable card (I’m guessing) is a Cal Ripken Jr. card that has a piece of game used jersey, a piece of game used bat, is autographed with the annotation “Iron Man” under his signature, and is indivdually #’d 5/5. No idea what it’s worth, I’ve never tried selling it.
And Halfling Druid gets my COW vote, b/c I sadly understood his entire name AND post.
Good night.
1. not really
2. ken griffey junior rookie card with no games played, but i don’t remember which baseball card brand. i do remember at the time that my uncle wanted to give me $5 for it and i said no.
wish i knew where that card is now. could use the five bucks given state of economy.
Lee Roy Jackson, Minnesota Twins, ‘87 Topps.
Other than that, all my cards from the late 80’s and early 90’s aren’t worth anything now thanks to overproduction.
yeah, even that Griffey Jr. Upper Deck Rookie Card.
I once traded a McDonald’s McChicken Sandwich for a Daryl Strawberry RC
