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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
It wouldn’t be that I once pulled 6 straight Tom Paciorek “I’ma little teapot cards”, would it?
Chances are you know someone in your life that collected baseball cards. And just as likely they no longer consider it a hobby. And like a jilted lover, they blame the hobby for their lack of current participation. That’s sad, but the truly tragic part is there’s no reason for them to continue to hold a grudge.
Here are some of the most frequent reasons given by ex-baseball card collectors as to why they no longer participate in the hobby.
Graded cards - Don’t like graded cards? Then don’t collect them! I estimate my collection at around 45,000 cards, of which about 25 are graded. I’m not morally opposed to them but they just don’t interest me so I don’t collect them. I’ve got a PSA 10 Fleer Flair Alex Rodriguez rookie card which is not nearly as memorable to me as my 1966 Johnny Stephenson card with a brown stain from a punk burn which makes it look like he crapped his pants.
Instantly available statistics make cards obsolete - I loved the stats on the back of the cards and I used to have them memorized. My short-term memory may not be much, but I’ll be able to tell you that Cleon Jones batted .340 in 1969 until the day I die. That’s because I memorized that from his 1970 baseball card. I’m a stat guy, so I really don’t understand this line of thinking. The more places we can have access to baseball stats, the better off the world will be.
Repoz
Posted: May 07, 2008 at 06:11 PM | 31 comment(s)
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He really doesn't address this argument at all.
I'm married to a large-breasted woman and have fathered three children with her. By God, I ain't apologizing to anybody for liking baseball cards.
I do agree with Maher on about 75% of other stuff though. ;-)
I agree entirely. I reconnected with my Will Clark collection about two years ago, and couldn't have more fun adding to it. I don't do it because they're valuable or will ever fund my future son's college education. I do it because it makes me happy.
Check it out, if you're at all interested.
[L=Thrill22.com]www.thrill22.com[/L]
(If that doesn't work, it's www.thrill22.com)
Pics or it didn't happen.
4 or 5 of these guys are old enough to have collected the original 1959 set.
A more delighted group of middle/older-aged men you never saw.
Heck, they even have crappy gum in them.
i think he glossed over the impact of price.
Baseball card collecting starts as a kid. As a kid you can't afford to spend $4 on a 10-pack of cards. I believe in the early 80's when I collected a few sets , it was something like 10 for a quarter, or maybe 25 for 50 cents. The odds of filling out your set by purchasing packs wasn't realistic, but get enough buddies, swap the extras around, you had a shot.
Yu-gi-oh and MTG cards have taken the place of baseball cards to youngsters.
I'm married to a large-breasted woman
Hey Jose Lima, any studs in Korea we should be aware of?
Also my comic books which included the #1 Silver Surfer (a full set to that point actually ... which I think was maybe 3 :-) and the last old X-Men and the first new X-Men. Of course since I actually read the damn things, they wouldn't have been worth very much anyway. But I was much more a Marvel fanatic (DC was sooooo lame in those days) than a "must have every baseball card every year" guy.
Anyone else remember the short-lived (I assume) grouping of the Hulk, the Silver Surfer and the Sub-Mariner? Man that was weird. Or I mis-remember it.
Although the earlier combo you mention was sort of a forerunner.
You're right. Doctor Strange was added a bit later. And if you feel like dropping $50, for no good reason, Marvel releasing a hardcover of the early issues in July.
Marvel Masterworks: The Defenders
For some reason, I think "Masterworks" might be stretching the truth a little.
Also my stamp collection which included the #1 Azerbaijan (a full set to that point (pre-1935) ... which was 2)
Maybe once I get a job I'll start again...
By the way, I feel a little out of the loop, I haven't collected cards since Donruss '92, what are "Graded" Cards?
too bad he had two younger brothers go thru them like Sherman into Atlanta.
Great stuff.
Yeah, I think Hulk was an original Avenger? but he got disgruntled fast and Submariner became a temp? And then Captain America and Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver... but I digress.
Cards sent to professional grading outfits that come back with a number grade in a thick slab of plastic with a serial number/bar code on it. PSA and Beckett are the two most reputable sources, most people seem to prefer PSA. Graded cards, particularly those NM or better sometimes fetch an incredible premium. The downside is it is somewhat costly to have done and odds are good your card won't grade highly enough for you to make a killing.
Baseball card collecting starts as a kid. As a kid you can't afford to spend $4 on a 10-pack of cards.
Earlier this year my nephew went to a flea market and spent $2.50 on cards. He got 30 cards from 2008, including Jeter and David Wright and other stars for that money. Baseball cards are not available cheap in every store like they used to be, but they are out there for those that will dig just a little deeper for them.
Hey, I remember that!
Cool. I had a rumpled Poli Sci teacher in college who claimed to have the 2nd best Bosnia-Herzegovina collection in the world. (This was early 70s, so B-H only existed for a short time post-WWI at that point in time.) When we asked him why B-H, he said he picked a country that he had the best chance of having the "Greatest Collection of...". He couldn't afford anything grander on his teacher's salary. He was not a professor, taught at a PSU branch campus so he wasn't making a ton of money. He was also about 60 and lived with his mom. No word if that meant in the basement or not...
EDIT: Puberty and cigarettes killed buying baseball cards for me
Or you could spent about 1/10th of that (at least as discounted via Amazon & the like) & get about twice as many issues, albeit in black & white, via the first Essentials volume.
Of course, The Defenders didn't come until its own until Steve Gerber (RIP) took the helm & plunged the title into craziness. David Anthony Kraft's subsequent Scorpio storyline, complete with serious Blue Oyster Cult damage, kept things going nicely.
Also, Valkyrie rules.
Otherwise, the first proto-Defenders grouping occurred in Sub-Mariner #34, which is the only issue other than #1 that I lack in having a complete run of that title. Life is hard.
Anyway, yeah. Pricing. There's no way baseball cards or comics should cost any more than a coke out of a machine. Bought any $3 (or more) cokes out of machines lately? Didn't think so. If they did cost that much, would you? Didn't think so.
Actually, it was seven. Had them all along with every "Thor" and "Fantastic Four". I was going to get drafted (lucky #19), so I volunteered for the Marines.
My parents moved while I was on active duty. Rather than pack my stuff for the move, they decided to trash it all, including all my baseball cards, which I started collecting when I was around 10 (1963 or 64 season Topps, can't remember exactly which year).
At times, I still cry out at night. PTSD or nightmares of fortunes lost, I'm not sure.
EDIT: The VA has given me pretty green and yellow pills to take. I'm much better now.
It's slabbed comics that drive me nuts. For all the owner knows, the interior pages are ripped-up newspaper. How utterly stupid. But they're all over the place; a friend of mine (whom I'd met when he was a customer at the sports collectibles shop I used to work at) was oohing & aahing over the 9.8 slabbed Master of Kung Fu #19 he bought yesterday when I ran into him at the comics store nearest my house. *sigh*
Well, more like 18.
Of course there are, and lots of long-time collectors of those items will tell you the practice of slabbing killed those activities as hobbies too.
I figured so. We just never got any in at my old store. (We never got any slabbed autographs in, either, but I've seen them on eBay ... & if I wanted to have my old Roger Maris autographed index cards [that I can't find, though my Enzo Hernandezes & Richie Schleinblums & Max Alvises are easily located, yes sir] authenticated & slabbed, I'd be charged $100 for the privilege. Sheesh.)
one day in the 80s when i was living hand to mouth as a pasteup artist i decided to cash in, and got something like a lousy $100 dollars from some fat bald guy running a little bookshop/comic book store on magazine st. in new orleans. it was a trunkful of stuff, some of it in pretty good condition. oh well.
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