I collected baseball cards, some might say fanatically, as a kid. Over the course of about 4-5 years, my brother and I amassed a collection that easily exceeded 100,000 cards. When I was in 4th or 5th grade, we started to rent a table at a local card show 3-4 times a year, and between the 2 of us, we would make enough money to continue to feed the habit.
Then came the disastrous 1991 card season. We had already started to struggle to keep up with the expansion of brands - managing to conquer Score in 1988, UpperDeck in 1989, and Leaf in 1990, but obtaining just a smattering of Stadium Club and Studio. But in late winter of 1991, we decided to go big-time; we had the money (and parental approval) to buy a case. After what I feel now was a lot of research for a 12- and 14-year old, we made our choice. An apocalyptically horrible choice - 1991 Donruss. Lest you forget, this was the first year Donruss decided to split their issue into two series. Well, my 3 monster boxes full of 1991 Donruss Series 1, which did include about 30+ Ken Griffey Jr cards,
pretty much doomed the finances of this collector, and over the next year, we slowly but surely gave up the ghost. The dozens of monster boxes that represented our collection moved from my parents' basement to the attic, and at some point, my now-adult brother renounced his interest in his collection. So, in 2012, much to my wife's chagrin, we moved the collection to our house, and having a baseball-obsessed 8-year old boy at the time, it seemed only proper to dip our toes back into the baseball card pool. Lucky for us, we moved in 2014, so the cards got to be relocated again!
My son and I have become...ahem... fanatical again, enjoying the process of collecting the modern cards. Yes, I did in the past year finally give up on most of the cards I had from the late 80s and early 90s, and got a small measure of satisfaction from dumping those thousands of blue-bordered nightmares into the trash.
Now to the blog. Here, you'll find my musings about the baseball cards of today, perhaps some nostalgia looks back to the baseball cards of my youth, some periodic box breaks, and whatever else happens to come up. Should be busting open a Jumbo 2016 Topps Series 2 box tonight (great price from Blowout Cards), and we'll go ahead and post the break from that later on this evening or tomorrow morning.
Blessings,
Todd
Then came the disastrous 1991 card season. We had already started to struggle to keep up with the expansion of brands - managing to conquer Score in 1988, UpperDeck in 1989, and Leaf in 1990, but obtaining just a smattering of Stadium Club and Studio. But in late winter of 1991, we decided to go big-time; we had the money (and parental approval) to buy a case. After what I feel now was a lot of research for a 12- and 14-year old, we made our choice. An apocalyptically horrible choice - 1991 Donruss. Lest you forget, this was the first year Donruss decided to split their issue into two series. Well, my 3 monster boxes full of 1991 Donruss Series 1, which did include about 30+ Ken Griffey Jr cards,
My son and I have become...ahem... fanatical again, enjoying the process of collecting the modern cards. Yes, I did in the past year finally give up on most of the cards I had from the late 80s and early 90s, and got a small measure of satisfaction from dumping those thousands of blue-bordered nightmares into the trash.
Now to the blog. Here, you'll find my musings about the baseball cards of today, perhaps some nostalgia looks back to the baseball cards of my youth, some periodic box breaks, and whatever else happens to come up. Should be busting open a Jumbo 2016 Topps Series 2 box tonight (great price from Blowout Cards), and we'll go ahead and post the break from that later on this evening or tomorrow morning.
Blessings,
Todd
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