Wax Pack Memories: My Love For Old Baseball Cards Has Never Faded
Like a lot of kids in he 1980s, I collected baseball cards. My love of collecting, and the thrill of the chase started in 1982.
I remember it like it was yesterday, my dad took my brother and I into his office, he said that he wanted to show us something. As a 7 year old kid, I didn’t know what to expect. He pulled out two blue rectangular boxes filled with baseball cards. He said that it was the complete 1982 Topps baseball set. I didn’t know what to think. I wasn’t much of a sports fan, but I proceeded to start laying out all the cards on the family room floor and sorting all the cards by team. I’d ask my dad what he though of this player, or that player — he usually had an answer. My mom always had rubber bands, so I could put them around each team when I was done sorting. The only players I knew were the Milwaukee Brewers, and I thought Pete Rose had a funny haircut.
This tradition continued each spring. My dad would present my brother and I with the complete Topps baseball set. I sorted them, put rubber bands around the cards and asked my dad what he though of this player or that player.
When I was 10 or so, I walked into the WaldenBooks, which was located at our local mall. They had this HUGE hardcover book called “Topps Baseball Cards: The Complete Picture Collection”. I opened it up and saw all these old baseball cards with weird designs, familiar faces and ghosts of the past. Names like Mickey Mantle, Duke Snider and Willie Mays. This book had a picture of every baseball card that Topps ever produced. Needless to say, I must have gone into that WaldenBooks fifty times, I would sit in the aisle and look at all the pictures and read about each season. My parents presented me with the book on one of our annual trips to Florida. I still have the book to this day.
Seeing all the old cards and players officially opened me eyes to the world of baseball cards collecting. My dad pointed out cards in the book that he remembered having as a kid. He collected cards in the early 1950s and remembers selling his baseball cards when he sold his paper route.
Baseball cards were a pretty hot thing in the 1980s, as everyone was trying to get the latest Don Mattingly, Daryl Strawberry or Dwight Gooden and assuming they were going to be worth as much as a Mickey Mantle rookie. That never manifested, and most of those cards from the 80s aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.
The player I was obsessed with was speedster Vince Coleman. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals and was a stolen base machine. He was the epitome of the 1980s. Lots of style, but little substance. I must have opened 100 packs of 1986 Topps cards and never pulled that elusive Vince Coleman rookie card. My dad still got the complete set for me though.
Backing up a little bit, I was really drawn to the “old stuff”. They weren’t “vintage” back then. They were just old cards. I would go to card shows with my dad, and we would look for “old cards” at fair prices. One of my prized cards was a 1954 Topps Willie Mays. I paid a pretty fair price as a 14 year old kid, and I sold it many years later, when I got married, but it was a gem.
One Christmas, I got a 1958 Topps Mickey Mantle All Star. I went through the roof. It was totally unexpected. It was a gift from my mom. I’ve hung on to that one, as it was a Christmas gift and retains sentimental value.
As I grew older, my love of baseball cards faded. The products started getting too expensive, I got my drivers license and discovered girls. What I loved most about collecting in the in the mid to late 1980s was the bonding experience with family and friends. We traded cards with each other, I think my dad enjoyed it as much as I did, and loved to read about them and look at them. I even made a great trade with a local store owner, when I was a young teen. I traded a new card that was in hot demand for some really cool older cards — I hung on to those too, because I was so proud of that trade.
In closing, my love of collecting has never really died, it just changed. I still pick up a pack or two every year, just to see what the cards look like. I slowly but surely sell off my childhood cards on eBay, my parents still have a lot of the cards I had when I was a kid stored at their house, and I have a shoebox of “old cards” under the bed. I like to take them out and look at them from time to time; I still feel like that 12 year kid when I do.
Prologue: One of my favorite baseball cards is the 1972 Topps Roberto Clemente. Clemente died in 1972, while on a charity mission to help Nicaraguan earthquake victims. His last hit was his 3000th hit. This is one baseball card that I purchased as an adult. There is just something about the image, and the man; and the photograph on this card says it all…
