I was thinking about this the other day.. and I noticed how much the sport card scene has "changed" .. I didn't really get much into until the early 90's, and by mid 03 I was done. It was WAY too hard to keep up with all the auto this, game used that, etc.. Its cool to have these available, but in EVERY set?!?

REmember the first gameused? what was it, a 10 card set.. 96 Upperdeck I believe.

haha, I remember when inserts and parallels were what people looked for.. or when die-cuts and holographix were the "in" thing.. Heck, I remember pulling a 96 Select Certified mirror gold Kerry Collins out of a pack.. that card was worth something like $700 back then!!

I also remember when boxed sets were like 30 packs, 20 cards in each! MAYBE you get one auto in a box, or one numbered insert, etc..

It was just more fun back then, back when it was a hobby, not a lifestyle or a "career" ...

But alas, I return again.. but only for one reason!! to start again on my Emmitt Smith collection I had as a kid.. it was always a dream to have one of every emmitt card ever released!

I think as soon as the industry got to the point where a given star's base cards became referred to as "commons" and there was so much junk being produced that you could have "common" GU or auto cards, they went too far. Or when some no name rookie, who still hasn't played a season could have a gimmicky, super premium chrome rookie card that goes for $50+.

I was thinking about this the other day.. and I noticed how much the sport card scene has "changed" .. I didn't really get much into until the early 90's, and by mid 03 I was done. It was WAY too hard to keep up with all the auto this, game used that, etc.. Its cool to have these available, but in EVERY set?!?

REmember the first gameused? what was it, a 10 card set.. 96 Upperdeck I believe.

haha, I remember when inserts and parallels were what people looked for.. or when die-cuts and holographix were the "in" thing.. Heck, I remember pulling a 96 Select Certified mirror gold Kerry Collins out of a pack.. that card was worth something like $700 back then!!

I also remember when boxed sets were like 30 packs, 20 cards in each! MAYBE you get one auto in a box, or one numbered insert, etc..

It was just more fun back then, back when it was a hobby, not a lifestyle or a "career" ...

But alas, I return again.. but only for one reason!! to start again on my Emmitt Smith collection I had as a kid.. it was always a dream to have one of every emmitt card ever released!

Yup, I remember my first Insert card I ever got.

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o317/kpopcorn/Personal%20Collection/95Actpk24kGoldSteveYoung.jpg

Pulled it outta a Target plastic box of random football cards. I was so happy that day. Thats was 12 years ago, I can recall my first pack of 93 SP. Also back when Terral davis's Select card was $150 now its like $12.

I am on the same quest as you are with the Emmit Smiths. Good Luck!

the only reason i buy boxes now is for autos and gu lol. but thats just a typical teenager for ya. im 16. so i wasnt really collecting in the days where it was just base and inserts so i dont know what it was like. all i know is now, it seems like if you dont get a buig auto or gu, your box sucked.

Oh yes I remember the good ole days. When you pulled an insert and you were soooo happy you cried!!! Nowadays people lose their minds if they didn't get the proper placement of gu or autos per box!!! Or that they got their 2 gu and 1 auto but they are of bubba, frankie and tojohakagodzilla. So basically they we're gipped out of an entire box!!!!! I'm to the point I don't even want to pull an insert even if it serialed #'d 1/1

I like it better now, although I have only seriously been collecting for 3-4 years now, lol!

I wish they'd release some boxes with guaranteed 0 GU/AU/#'d and charge a lot less for them. I'd rather pay $1-$1.50 for a pack of Bowman Heritage, knowing I'm just going to get base cards and maybe an insert, rather than $4+ a pack on the remote chance of getting a GU or AU of Terry Mulholland.

I pre-date much of the insert era - well, that is, it wasn't anything like it is now apparently. You see, I started picking up Baseball cards in 1989. At 9 years old, I looked forward *every single weekend* to go to the baseball card shop and throw down all my money on cards. Literally every childhood memory I have, has baseball cards attached to it.

Baseball cards were my motivation. They turned an average student to a straight A student. How? My parents said they would give me $10 for every A on my semester report card and $5 for every be. Guess what? I went from making C's to STRAIGHT A's for 2 full semesters until they pulled the program. I ended up buying a LOT of wax packs that year :)

I have kind of come full circle. Where I sit, I don't care much about Baseball anymore (I don't really watch games, nor do I know many of the players around now) but I am flat out OBSESSED with collecting cards from 1980 to 1993! I don't know why I am, but I am. I just got an order in from ebay. I spent about $100 and got a 1982 fleer set, 1983 topps traded set, 1984 topps traded set, 1984 fleer set, 1986 donruss set, 1986 donruss highlights set, 1987 sportflics set + rookies set, 1989 sportflics set, 1990 donruss rookies set and 1991 donruss rookies set. 15 years ago, you could expect to easily spend $500 on those cards. It sure is fun to purchase these things at such a low dollar value.

I even made the mistake of buying multiple sets of some of these things while wearing rose colored glasses. "If I don't want them, they are so cheap, I'll just sell them", I hastily say to myself, not calculating that it would probably take an hour of my time to only make a few dollars of of the stuff.

So in short, do I miss the old days of collecting? You bet I do! You can tell I'm more than making up for it if you were to step into my office and see cards/boxes/sets/packs spilling over everywhere.

Loved the gum! Can't they at least give you something sweet when you pay $300 for a pack? :)

been in the hobby a solid 20 years, and really miss the late 80s and early/mid 90s!!

i miss the abundance of shows
i miss the great signers (with reasonable signing fees)
i miss Donruss Elite (when it was a cool baseball insert set)
i miss the Wild Card "Stat Smashers" and "1000 Stripes" - remember these???
i miss 800 card sets
i miss Pro Set and Sportflics (ok, maybe not)
i miss tacky card designs
i miss "blank backs" and "miscuts" (BAD miscuts, lol)
i miss gum stains, let alone the pink sticks themselves!!

probably sounds dumb, and i say some of that in a joking manner....but those of us that lived it loved it!!

i really miss the fun of the hobby, when it was a hobby and not all about the $$, when you actually had personal contact with other hobbiests....setting up $10 tables at the local Holiday Inn thursday nights....yeah, i miss the "old days"

I remember cracking the packs back in 1974 as a five year old. My aunt made me and the girls (my two cousins) put our initials on the front of the card so we knew what cards belonged to who. Talk about a killer when you look back but I still enjoyed them. Thing is back in the last 70's and early 80's I remember traveling to various friends and just trading cards all the time. That was when it was fun and everybody wanted the home team no matter how good or sad they were.

DON

I wish they'd release some boxes with guaranteed 0 GU/AU/#'d and charge a lot less for them. I'd rather pay $1-$1.50 for a pack of Bowman Heritage, knowing I'm just going to get base cards and maybe an insert, rather than $4+ a pack on the remote chance of getting a GU or AU of Terry Mulholland.

they still have those. its called topps lol. its basically impossible to get a gu or auto in those boxes and prices are way cheaper

i miss those times...

we used to trade at school and get all kinds of sweet deals.... my jason kidd rookie for your frank thomas 95 topps cyberstats..... those were sweet cards... got the whole set of wild card from the early ninties... with sweet insert sets featuring clyde the glide and charles barkley... the 91-92 skybox which featured about 30 different michael jordan cards.... most collectors have at least dupes of several of these if not more. I hate how it is now... i am trying to get rid of my base.. something i thought i would never do but i cant even unload them for 3 cents a card....

if you dont have the flavor of the moment good luck getting a "PC" card of dave dravecky.... dont want to was money on the shipping is the response i get.... guess im going to have to pull a nice Tim lincecum Auto and trade down a little bit to make it worth your while......

I remember! Man, it wasn't about how I could get your Peterson AU RC for 20% of value. It was about how I would trade you cards I had of players I did not want for the ones I wanted. It was about collecting not retiring off one card.
Back when you bought a pack for a nickle and that was your milk money.
The feeling you had when you opened and pulled a player from your team and then would put the rest in your spokes.
Now, you catch people feeling packs for the GU thus ripping everyone else off because they are looking to get rich.

Yeah, I remember, it used to be called a hobby!!!

But, now I am off to trade my GU/AU and hope I don't get low balled too badly.
:fighting0056:

Yup, I remember my first Insert card I ever got.

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o317/kpopcorn/Personal%20Collection/95Actpk24kGoldSteveYoung.jpg

Pulled it outta a Target plastic box of random football cards. I was so happy that day. Thats was 12 years ago, I can recall my first pack of 93 SP. Also back when Terral davis's Select card was $150 now its like $12.

I am on the same quest as you are with the Emmit Smiths. Good Luck!


haha... i remember inserts like that.. virtually the exact same card with one minor difference.. sometimes meaning a hugh jump in value!!

but hey, i have spent so much time buying emmitt lots on ebay lately, i have a TON of extras.. over 450 probabily.. a few decent inserts/parallels but mostly base, cheap inserts, etc.. they are just dupes for me, but if your interested, we might can set up a trade for some of your dups?

Im only 27, so I didnt quite exist in the "old days"
I collected in the 80s though, and had tons of stuff that i gave to charity back in 1997. Started up again on a whim in 2000, and god help me now...
Ive opted for another direction- Ive shifted to the "old days" of collecting
I still do the modern stuff, and have some players that I collect, and I still buy some new stuff, but the thrill for me is building vintage sets, and trading with people who view the hobby as a hobby, not as a business- guys i can send stuff to without expecting a return envelope, and guys who do the same thing for me- its fun that way
Here, there are some great people, dont get me wrong, but too many people are concerned only about BV and how much they can sell the cards for...
Ok, rant over
Ed

I am 41 so I do remember the old days..I still remember when I was in 5th, 6th grade and going to the corner store when I was home for lunch and getting packs of Topps cards for .15 or.20 a pack..

As a kid I was happy to get a card of my favorite teams , if I got any Steelers or Pirates there were two brothers who lived around the corner who would trade me for anything I got of those two teams..Back then the trading was fun, it was their Cowboys or Yankees for my Steelers or Pirates, card for card, no care about bv or no care about someone getting the better deal out of the trade..Of course back then we didn't know anything about bv we were just kids..

Too many people now days take the fun out of the hobby because they either think their cards are better than yours or they are thinking of how they can get full bv for their cards or I will trade you these five $20 cards for your $100 rc/auto..

I have a few good trading relationships with people I have met over the years who will send me a box full of the teams I collect in trade for what I have of what they collect..Those are the people you will always remember trading with as they also love the hobby..

Thanks Ed

I think i'm one of the youngest collectors in this discussion (18 years old). But I remember collecting the 2002 topps set I think i was 12. I had a bast going to the store with 10 bucks and buying 5 packs. and was stoked when I got a card I needed for my set. I was did'nt know much about bv i didnt know anything of gu/autos.

Now, I feel I wasted my money if I don't get somthing I can trade. I think I enjoy trading here more then buying packs. I buy packs to trade, Trading is the real fun for me.
-John

they still have those. its called topps lol. its basically impossible to get a gu or auto in those boxes and prices are way cheaper

Nah, Topps are all foil-stamped, teflon coated and run $1.50-$2 for a pack of 5-6 cards. That's still over-priced and over-fancy. Overly glossy cards don't shuffle well in my hands, they either want to stick, or all slide around and out of my hand. If I can't rifle thru a stack of 50 cards in about 5 seconds, they're too fancy.

The closest anyone has come lately are the various "heritage" releases, but those are all over priced as if something more "primative" should cost MORE.

i recently saw a post where a guy felt cheated out of a box because his best pull was a larry bird auto.... i would kill for a bird auto.... there arent a ton of guys better than him and i cant think of a lot of autos that in the long run would hold more value but to be "cheated" and upset with the box.... you have got to be kidding me

I am still a pretty basic collector. It's FUN this way.

Your right on that one. I don't want to feel I need to make money back on a product iI just want to open stuff for fun and get some cards to trade. I can't ever see myself buying a high end product, in fact I have only busted 2 boxes. One was a 06 topps finest football I got for christmas and the other was 2005 donruss baseball retail I got for free for helping out the card shop owner for a few hours.

I agree with the people that would love a product to be put out that didnt include all the gu/autos. If I pull those I trade them as quick as I can for rookies and base of guys that I collect. I would love to be able to build a set with packs I could actually afford. A high end product for me is like topps chrome or bowman chrome; it may sound stupid but all I want is my base rookies. I think the card companies really need to look at the card market and see that high end is not for everyone. I recently purchased a box of 1991 UD football at a card show for $10. I didnt pull any favre but its still cool to open a pack and get bo jackson and joe montana.

Interesting thread...

I collected from the mid 80's to 93ish and baically stopped because of the glut of cards that came on the market then. I will always remember the huge card shows back then and building some great relationships with other collectors because we enjoyed it, not because we were trying to make money.

I kept my collection and have just recently started collecting again and I'm having a blast with it. While I like the inserts etc. I've always been more of the complete set collector so I like how I have all this extra trade bait to use in filling out my sets. Obviously I'm a noob to all the insert stuff so I'm sure I wont get full valve for everything but I'm okay with that. For me it's a hobby that I always loved and I'm happy to be able to have the time and spare cash to get into it again.

37 years old here and I do miss the "old days". My first recollection of collecting was in 1978. I had some cards from 1977 but don't really remember where they came from but I can vividly remember cracking open 1978 Rack, Wax and Cello packs right before little league practice. I also remember going to Burger King to get the 3 card cello packs of the Yankees. My sister used to collect the Dodgers and Orioles because of the colors of the team name(LOL) I probably traded her a bunch of Eddie Murray RC's that year for my Yankee cards. My other sister only wanted the Bucky Dent cards. Topps issued their cards around March of every year. After that it was looking forward to football cards and then next year's baseball cards. Loved to be the first one to build the 726 card set and chewing that gum! It wasn't until 1984 that I became aware of the $ value associated with collecting.

I don't buy Topps regular set anymore because to me they really don't seem like cards anymore with the shiny finish and lack of gum. Heritage is a nice change of pace but the whole card industry has evolved into something entirely different than what I grew up on. Kind of depressing for us "old" timers.

Something to be said for buying a box, and actually being able to build a base set from that one box...6 cards in an OPC pack?? The set is 600 cards and that's great, but to have the slimmest hope of the 500 card base set I've got to buy a minimum of 3 boxes??

I wish they'd just offer complete factory sets again for those sets...

Give me your unwashed, your poor, your parallels, and your inserts.