Good bye old friend

Early this year, I walked into my local card shop for the last time, not because of anything the owner did, but because my local card shop was closing, I walked in and he was packing everything up, a couple days later it was gone, 23 years of visiting, buying and trading, gone in the blink of an eye.  I never told the owner this but when I got home I cried like a little school girl, another piece of my childhood gone.  There are still shops around, but not like his, this guy had everything you could have ever wanted, and if you needed something if you looked hard enough it was there.  I started my visits in 1993, and out of his shop I pulled many, many beautiful cards, in 1993 a first day production of Mike Piazza, in 1997 a Tony Gywnn game jersey, in 2000 a Ty Cobb bat, but the real enjoyment if you need a set any year he had them.  If you needed commons he had them, old odd wax he had them, uncut sheet yes those too.   The industry did get a little expensive and I can only think that the over head plus product was a reflection of the hobby, I have always dreamed about opening my own hobby shop, what he had was my dream.   So if you have a local shop take the time to visit them,  because one day they will be gone, and my son's will never know what it was like to have that experience of buying a pack from a brick and mortar store like I did for 23 years.

Pack searching my thoughs

I have been collecting cards for about 28 years, and in the old days sights like this were never there.  But because the hobby has added a lot of colorful aspects to packs, going to Wal mart or Target your going to see this at least once,  a guy in mid 20's to 30's handling packs like he should to his wife or girlfriend to find that big hit.  Now I have noticed that over the past 3 years big hits have been coming out of retail packs from a Abe Lincoln cut autograph, to limited patch cards #ed to 10, but I don't blame the searchers I blame the companies who produce the cards.  Topps, Upper Deck, and Panni should have gone with the plain white or so so auto's for these packs, and left the big hits to the hobby products, but they had to give the collector something to chase, I for one will not ever EVER buy loose retail packs, I only collect Topps sets so it would not be an issue, but I think this has turned a lot of people off to the hobby.  I once saw someone in a Target doing this, asked security to do something, they basically said they can't, but it goes farther there are dealers that pay the employees to do this not only with packs, but the Mcfarlane chase figures as well.  So my solution, there is no solution the only thing you can do is just watch.  Thankfully I'm not that desperate to fondle packs,  PACK searching is not a crime, but I will never lower my standards.

What if in 91 he was Strasburg

In 1991 Topps had this one of a kind idea make a gold set exclusive but make it 793 cards and make the # 1 prospect 793 with an auto, collectors will go nuts,  they did when he broke his arm and never pitched a game in the majors.  This card was once valued at $100.00, that's not including the rest of the 792 card, today they range any where from $10.00-$15.00,  but what if this bust was in fact the first Steven Strasburg of the hobby, lets just say for giggles Taylor had Nolan Ryan #'s at the end of his career, would the 1992 Topps auto have propelled the autograph age for future sets.  93 Piazza, 92 maybe a Chipper, it would be a few more years before prospect autos would appear, but I would think if Taylor panned out, the 90's would have produced the first autograph prospect cards.

The last of a great idea for Topps

When you think of the 60 plus years that Topps has been in the hobby most collectors think about all the new and exciting things that can be pulled from jerseys to autographs even that one of one card that you think is rare, but from 1984 to 1991 Topps would put out what I consider the best premium set for your bucks Topps Tiffany.  Released in limited quantities these sets even today still command tops dollar, try finding any year listed under $150.00 I never really paid any attention to these sets until recently I saw a Gem Mint single going for $50.00 at a show.  I wish that Topps would make these again, or use these as the gimick subset to the base set,  I think many collectors agree Gold is played out. 

Would the hobby have died

Over the course of my collecting years one card has begged me to ask the question if this really existed would the hobby have collapsed.  Yes during the decade of the 1990's it was common to have all types of inserts, but during the 1980's you really had no flash, no frills, there might have been that unwanted subset, but nothing with auto's, relics and definitely not Chrome.  In the late 80's Canseco was the the big thing, remember when his 1986 Donruss RR was selling over $100.00 so just imagine if Canseco had a Topps Chrome RC in 1986 would the price tag exceeded collectors wallets enough to say is it worth me to stay in the hobby.  I look at the 2001 Pujols RC auto, a nice one will usually run $3000.00+,  so in 1987, 1988, or 1989 what would this card have listed for, there was no Ebay, no internet just your local hobby store and Beckett.  SO the question is if this was listed in 1987 as a $2500.00 would you have still collected.

Remember when these were special

I remember the summer of 1991 when I just bought a new Beckett
price guide and I just happened to look at the prices of the 1991 Donruss cards, and below the column was something called the Elite Series, and most if not all at that time were listed between $150.00 and $500.00.  I knew nothing about them, I did not even know that they were released in packs, but I do remember is taking that 5000 count box, and if your a true collector you know you had tons of 1991 cards, and searched each and every card just to see if I had one of these hidden gems in my treasure.  Well I did not find one, and until 1998 I never pulled one out of a pack, but being is how each card was numbered to 10,000 at that time this was a rare treat if you were lucky to pull one.  The local card shop that I used to buy my cards from seemed to have all the luck as I went in and in his show case there were not one, not two, but over 10 of these beauties sitting in the case, obviously I did not put two and two together later in my collecting life to realize he was a pack searcher who just took the fun out.  My first Elite card was Jose Canseco and it took me a lot in trade to obtain that card, but for 10 years it was
something I treasured, my last Elite was a Tony Gywnn in 1998 pulled out of
a pack.  I look today and see all the number inserts and often ask
did Donruss make hobby history with the Elite cards and Serial numbers
because without this set, I think the 90's would have been nothing more than just cardboard.

Whats a set condition worth

Last night as I was doing my weekly Ebay search on some vintage sets from the 70's I came across a Ebay auction for a complete 1975 Topps set starting at a bid of $75.00 with some of the cards with condition issues,  but does condition really count in collecting or is it just for the resale value.  For me to own a set like 1975 I would not care about the condition, holding a Brett, Yount, and even a Carter RC all Hall of Fame players, it would be the joy of just showing off the fact I have this complete set in my hand.  At this moment there are 5 bids with 2 days left and someone has put a bid of $81.00 on it.  I do think it will top the $115.00 mark, but I got to believe that somewhere out there, there are some collectors that don't consider condition a big factor.

Why 1972 Topps

Why I started collecting the 1972 Topps set,  it is a very unheard of why to say hey this is something I want to do.  About a month ago I had a customer come in to my office, I work in storage, and he and I struck up a conversation about old time baseball and how I was trying to get my daughters to start collecting the older vintage stuff, when this customer said you collect cards hold on I'll be right back.  About 5 minutes later he comes back with a shoe box, and inside, about 450 1972 cards.  I thought wow,  now I'm expecting nothing, WRONG all the stars, Fisk, Rose the traded set, and 2 Nolan Ryan cards it had everything a starter set should have,  his price for the shoe box $20.00.  I'm 64 cards way all high # cards but looking at this set for years I though it would be something I would never have,  but for $20.00 I think it paid off to make this 72 set possible.

Card shops my view

Have you ever walked into a card shop looked at the person behind the counter and wondered why is this person still in business,  well over the past couple of months I have run into this situation.  For the better part of 2012 I have been working on a 1972 Topps set, which I will later explain how this came about, and I'm almost complete except for 64 high number cards.  I have been all over card shows, flea markets, and this one shop that sells vintage cards.  Keep in mind I have been going to his shop off and on for about 10 years, but more recent since my local shop has closed down.  If you ask the owner to see a specific set or loose cards he has them, it's when you want to purchase is where my issue comes in.  At local flea markets, you can pick up these cards as little as 4.00-5.00 a piece, but at this shop what does the owner do, grabs the bible ( beckett ) and actually looks up the value, and deducts 20%, sounds ok if he wasn't over valuing the cards.  I look in his shop and there are cards valued at book value, but there is rarely anyone in the store,  you would think with Ebay and other avenues card shop owners would try and keep customers, sometimes I just don't think the brick and morter stores understand anymore, they are not longer the king of the hobby....