I have a very sad story about sports collectors' cards, especially baseball cards.
Back in my youth, TOPS was the card of choice and you got some bubble gum as a bonus. I had ****** Ford, Babe Ruth, Rodger Maris, and a couple Micky Mantle rookie cards as well as his later cards.
Used some of the lesser known cards along with a clothes pin to put a card on the spokes of the bicycle.
Fast forward to a 4+ year stint in the Army, getting married, having kids, and making my own life, Mom called one day and said her and dad were going to remodel my old bedroom.
Asked if I wanted my old baseball cards, (there was a shoebox full) along with model ships, and model airplanes that I'd built over my youth. (should have saved that USS Constitution ship. Had many hours in it building the rigging thread by thread)
Nope! don't need them, don't have room for them and who keeps baseball card now?
Fast forward more years, my youngest son became interested in sports card collecting. One fall we took the kids to Kansas City to attend a KC Chiefs football game. Stayed at the Holiday Inn across the street from the parking lot of the stadium.
Just happened to be a sports card collector convention going on at that time in the hotel conference room.
When I saw what the cards I had were worth, just about passed out. The Micky Mantle rookie card was worth many thousands of dollars.
There was the original Honus Wagner on display with a couple of burly armed guards watching over it.
Wrote it off as a bad decision to get rid of them, and moved on.
Later, my youngest son became a collector. He's pretty much a sports nut. Anything OU. Big collection of signed memorabilia.
FIL passed away a few years ago, and unbeknownst to me, was also a card collector. He bought the TOPS and other collections off the internet, that really didn't have any collectors value but did have some in plastic that were bought from some store that had prices on them.
I gave them all to my son.
Back in my youth, TOPS was the card of choice and you got some bubble gum as a bonus. I had ****** Ford, Babe Ruth, Rodger Maris, and a couple Micky Mantle rookie cards as well as his later cards.
Used some of the lesser known cards along with a clothes pin to put a card on the spokes of the bicycle.
Fast forward to a 4+ year stint in the Army, getting married, having kids, and making my own life, Mom called one day and said her and dad were going to remodel my old bedroom.
Asked if I wanted my old baseball cards, (there was a shoebox full) along with model ships, and model airplanes that I'd built over my youth. (should have saved that USS Constitution ship. Had many hours in it building the rigging thread by thread)
Nope! don't need them, don't have room for them and who keeps baseball card now?
Fast forward more years, my youngest son became interested in sports card collecting. One fall we took the kids to Kansas City to attend a KC Chiefs football game. Stayed at the Holiday Inn across the street from the parking lot of the stadium.
Just happened to be a sports card collector convention going on at that time in the hotel conference room.
When I saw what the cards I had were worth, just about passed out. The Micky Mantle rookie card was worth many thousands of dollars.
There was the original Honus Wagner on display with a couple of burly armed guards watching over it.
Wrote it off as a bad decision to get rid of them, and moved on.
Later, my youngest son became a collector. He's pretty much a sports nut. Anything OU. Big collection of signed memorabilia.
FIL passed away a few years ago, and unbeknownst to me, was also a card collector. He bought the TOPS and other collections off the internet, that really didn't have any collectors value but did have some in plastic that were bought from some store that had prices on them.
I gave them all to my son.
