Cardboard Memories

The year was 1989.  A lot was going on that year; The Berlin Wall came down, the Exxon-Valdez dumped massive amounts of oil into the ocean, Gameboy was introduced, The Simpsons first episode aired and half of my seventh grade class was doing the Buffalo Stance thanks to Neneh Cherry.  If you look a little further off into the weeds though, you’ll find me and what made that year one of the best ever.  Our sleepy little Camilla Wal-Mart introduced me to my lifelong addiction, Sports Cards.

These tiny pieces of cardboard have seen fluctuations that would rival the real estate market over time, to scale of course.  I caught them during the peak that year.  Several now Hall of Famers, or soon to be, were rookies and appearing on cards for the first time.  Names like Troy Aikman, Barry Sanders, David Robinson, Randy Johnson, Craig Biggio, Gary Sheffield and…..The Kid himself, Ken Griffey Jr.  My first big get that year was the 1989 Donruss version of this young phenom.  That was of course because our Wal-Mart carried Donruss, Topps and Score and he would only appear in one of those base sets.  Another card company would join the hobby along with me that year.  That company was Upper Deck and the card pictured above was the version that drove me nuts then and still does 27 years later.  It’s when I realized that I had a problem.  More on that card later.

It’s been quite a strange journey with cards over the years, really too much to simply blog about.  But, I have watched an industry that operated at a production level of what seems like 1,000,000+ cards each year in the early 1990’s shrink to runs as low as 1 of certain cards today.  I had not yet taken economics from Mr. Spivey in 1989 but it all made sense as I got older.  Cards from the 50’s were worth a ton of money and the country wanted to buy in.  This was a direct contradiction to the reason the cards from the 50’s were valuable.  They weren’t collected then.  They were toys that were basically played with or used as bicycle tire accessories.  So, if you could find one in good condition, you had a pretty rare item.  When everybody started buying in the late 80’s, the companies started pumping them out 24/7 and rare was not even a consideration.

Thankfully, that was never the reason I started collecting and even though my 1989 collection is worth very little in the bank, it is a treasure chest of nostalgia.  Trading baseball cards became a part time gig for me in those days and I was a shark.  I was always looking for that next deal while stocking up whenever I went to Wal-Mart or had a birthday roll around.  I had my marks too.  Shook was a Minnesota Twins fan, Coop liked Robert Parrish, Uncle Speedy liked the old guys.  I was happy to move those players for what I was after; Griffey, McGwire, Canseco, Shawn Kemp, Bo Jackson, the Ryan Express.  And if you ask any of us, we all thought we got the better of each other.  I remember hauling my collection around in a sweet binder protecting the cards in plastic sleeves.  I even took them to school once in 7th grade but Ms. Merritt interrupted one of my many deals and confiscated them. I didn’t get them back until the end of the school year in her effort to prove that she “was the captain of the ship.”  I didn’t make that mistake again.

Along with trades, I loved opening those packs.  I would take out the Beckett Monthly Price Guide and look up every single card.  At 12, value of $10-$15 for a card might as well have been $100.  Among those semi valuable cards in those days were can’t miss kids like Kevin Maas, Brien Taylor and Todd Van Poppel.  Who?  Exactly…..but those guys were exciting pulls back then.  I actually pulled a Kevin Maas Stadium Club as I opened a vintage pack I got at my friend Charlie Heinisch’s card shop in Warner Robins last weekend.  That would have been a tremendous hit back in the day but it turned out to be little more than a punchline in the photo I sent to him.  Any base cards today are of little consequence in the value department.  The hits today are jersey swatches, printing plates, short prints and autographs among other subset items.  

I’m still a purest for the most part.  I get excited about Braves, Falcons, Hawks, Bulldogs and my favorite players, regardless of rarity.  I’ve tried to pass that along to my daughter Bailey.  She has fallen in her father’s footsteps as it relates to collecting.  She has her favorite players and it really doesn’t matter what kind of card it is.  That’s what it is about to me.  A cardboard photograph of my favorite player reminds me of the days when cards came in a pack that cost about $1.00 and there weren’t 2,000 subsets and variations you had to keep up with.  I do love adding autographs and short prints to my personal collection but that’s not what our Saturday trips to Comics and Cards to see our buddy Wade is all about.  We walk around looking at all of the singles in the case and try to find our favorite player.  It’s also about us having a common interest.  She enjoys something that I enjoyed during my youth and I can understand that enthusiasm better than anyone.

I like to think of myself as being in the minority when it comes to classifying myself as a collector.  I am collecting memories and if they are worth something one day, that’s even better.  If not, I’ll always remember when Bailey pulled her first Todd Gurley from a pack.  I have met others like me over the years and have even found a home for those who share my addiction thanks to Charlie and the Middle Georgia Collector group he created on FaceBook.  The hobby has gone through countless changes and peaks and valleys but it has always been very special to me.  It’s been refreshing to find others that want to keep the hobby alive for those that remember the wonder it brought as kids.  I really still get just as excited when I am opening cards as I did at 12.  Even those 1991 Stadium Club I bought last weekend.

Back to the Griffey in the picture above. That card is arguably one of the most popular cards ever and really is a measuring stick when comparing hot cards that come and go.  The value did not hold because of the print runs of the product but it remains my white whale.  In 27 years, I have never pulled that card out of a pack.  I have 2 that are a part of the base sets I own but have never experienced the thrill of seeing one appear in a pack that I bought.  I’ve tried, believe me.  When I see 1989 Upper Deck, I pluck a few out of the box and try my luck but over time my odds have dwindled.  You see, along with the massive print runs, there was also a problem with sequence in those days.  It’s rumored that some people can predict where the cards are in the box because of that issue and the packs left in circulation are littered with left over worthless cards.  I will hold out hope that one day I will find my Griffey Upper Deck, much like Ken Forrester did on our youth trip to Helen that year.  Yes, I remember…..did I mention I had a problem?