My dad and I started to invest into sports cards when I was about 12. Two of my younger brothers joined in with us on our monthly trips to local card shops. Back then, my brothers and I had a paper route. We would save our money and enjoy finding cards of players we watched on television.
![](https://images.hive.blog/768x0/https://i.postimg.cc/s2YYzWw1/C70-F1243-AB36-4-A35-93-FD-75-E34471-C433.jpg)
When we first started, I was not interested in buying vintage sports cards. Generally, these are cards that came out in 1970 or before. For me, I was more intrigued to buy cards of players that were alive and I could emulate on the basketball court or in our backyard. However, about 2 decades later, my preference is buying vintage cards.
![](https://images.hive.blog/768x0/https://i.postimg.cc/Y06jVc7P/8-D046036-669-A-445-C-A262-7-F6875-C925-D1.jpg)
One of the reasons I buy vintage is the uniqueness and rarity of the items. If you look at a sports collectors price guide, cards that existed in the 1800’s to about 1985 requires 3-4 pages to look through. From 1985 to present day takes 30-40 pages to account for modern sports cards. This is true for all American sports, Football, Hockey, Basketball, and Baseball. Back in 1955, there was only 1 Harmon Killebrew rookie card you could buy. Most players in the modern era have well over 50 rookie cards to choose from.
![](https://images.hive.blog/768x0/https://i.postimg.cc/C1vcq2XW/23940783-6906-4-E84-BDEB-0-BC1-F26-E7-D8-F.jpg)
While I do prefer the designs of a lot of modern cards compared to vintage, the overproduction reminds me of the times we are in - flashy, shallow, fading over time, and forgettable. One could say that people who played a sport 50-60 years ago are forgettable too. However, I often find folks my age searching for vintage things after the dopamine of modernity wears off.
![](https://images.hive.blog/768x0/https://i.postimg.cc/LXT8BtVd/F476-B9-E5-948-F-4742-9-DD4-6-D9287326346.jpg)
Maybe it is the circles I walk in, maybe not. I do think it is something innate in the human experience. We want to feel connected. For grandparents, or ancestors that we only recall through stories and pictures that can be tough.
Sports cards have been a way for me and my dad to connect with people he grew up emulating in his backyard. Seeing a card that he or his dad collected triggers stories that it’s unlikely we would have enjoyed without the visual memory of art in our hands. Are all vintage cards valuable? It depends on your definition. Yes, some of the cards we have could sell for thousands of dollars. Others, well, the memories they hold are too precious for a dollar bill.
![](https://images.hive.blog/768x0/https://i.postimg.cc/ZYX5P585/4-F69-C296-513-B-45-A8-80-D4-3136-A931-B414.jpg)
“Things don’t fall apart. Things hold. Lines connect in thin ways that last and last and lives become generations made out of pictures and words just kept.” -Lucille Clifton
Yay! 🤗
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Wow!
Speaking of triggering stories...🤔
I used to buy and trade and even do a little gambling with baseball cards when I was a kid...
Mickey Mantle was inevitably one of my heroes, as (at the time) I lived on Long Island in the state of New York, home of the Yankees. My, oh my, has that state degenerated since those days; but looking back, I can see the seeds of that decline, though they were totally invisible to me at the time.
The "gambling" was something that I was very bad at... it typically involved one of two methods (of which I've forgotten certain details, but may still be able to describe in a general fashion) :
Each party to the bet would hold a card (landscape mode) between thumb and fingers, palm up, and then rapidly pull the hand backwards while releasing the thumb from the top edge of the card. This would cause the card to flutter to the floor, rotating fairly rapidly and somewhat randomly around its long axis. The bet somehow involved how the two cards landed on the floor, whether face up or down.
Alternatively, each party would grasp a card between index and pointer fingers and flip it, Frisbee style, through the air toward a wall. The card would spin rapidly around its center of gravity; at times, it would remain in more or less the same plane on its way toward the wall; at other times, it would spiral one or more times between the player and the wall. Upon hitting the wall, it would then flutter randomly to the floor where, once again, the bet depended on which face ended up.
Ah, I've found this write-up that better describes the rules and the outcome, as well as a variant of the "against the wall" version of the game...
Lydon, thanks for stimulating these childhood memories! And when, God willing, we roll through your neighborhood one day and are blessed with the opportunity to meet your family in person, won't you please show me your fine baseball card collection?🙏😃
😄😇😉
![@creatr](https://images.hive.blog/DQmY6ZCaqzHVKzABt8RX4rQ8ojC5ygLHmEmxWDovcEnx46A/creatr_ap.gif)
Now there is a game I’ve not heard of. Here I thought baseball cards mainly went into bicycle spokes. 😄
I would be thrilled to share my collection at that given time.
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