Baseball Cards

[Ironman92]

I'm going to ask...

Who here has put a piece of old Topps' gum in their mouth only to discover that it dissolves?

I know I did.

My son and I enjoyed some last Christmas from his unopened 1986 Topps

Yummy

[reds1869]

I'm going to ask...

Who here has put a piece of old Topps' gum in their mouth only to discover that it dissolves?

I know I did.

Guilty as charged.

[Kingspoint]

My son and I enjoyed some last Christmas from his unopened 1986 Topps

Yummy

Was that particular piece on the back of a quality card? The '86 Larkin had a lot of gum attached to them.

Attachment 7571

[mdccclxix]

I hope this isn't too off topic, but comics are a pretty big deal in Portland. Don't know anything about the market. Is there a decent market, with ebay, of course, being the main distributor, as dougdirt mentioned?

I don't know, my impression is that when I was in comics in the early 90's there was a similar bubble going on. I haven't collected stuff of any kind since 94 so I don't know what it's like now. I look at a lot of the inspiration for the Marvel movies and it was written or referenced a lot in the early 90's. I'm sure it's got to do with the income demographics you mentioned. Now we're all older with adult incomes, we want to see stuff about what we read when we were kids. Anyway, the comic shops I go to feature a surprising amount of books that I specifically remember reading. Sometimes it feels like very few comics were written since then! The prices are all cheaper than I'd expect to the point I've thought about repurchasing my old collection. I also don't spot the "behind the counter" big bucks books like I used to. Not sure what's up with that. Anymore there are a lot of well drawn adult comics, borderline art, that bring in a good price per book. Overall, I couldn't tell you where the value is in comics these days.

[bucksfan2]

Was that particular piece on the back of a quality card? The '86 Larkin had a lot of gum attached to them.

Attachment 7571

Barry Larkin was my favorite player growing up. I collected cards as a youngster growing up but never seemed to get the Larkin RC. It was one of my crowning achievements when I was able to trade for the Topps Barry Larkin and then was able to amass the entire Larkin RC collection. Years later in college I was on ebay with a roommate looking at what it had to offer. He noticed an Andre Dawson lot of cards and bought them. Based upon that I started to look for Barry Larkin lots and buy them up. Granted I could now buy 50 of those cards above for a couple of dollars but I still did. I think I have amassed every single Barry Larkin card that was mass produced in this country. Combined it may be worth about $10 but every once in a while I will look through my old cards to see what they are and bring back the fun times of collecting them. For some reason I have a couple of my better ones in a safe, mainly a couple Mickey Mantles and a select few rookie cards that probably hold more value to me than they are wroth. Oh and there is that 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr.

[Kingspoint]

Barry Larkin was my favorite player growing up. I collected cards as a youngster growing up but never seemed to get the Larkin RC. It was one of my crowning achievements when I was able to trade for the Topps Barry Larkin and then was able to amass the entire Larkin RC collection. Years later in college I was on ebay with a roommate looking at what it had to offer. He noticed an Andre Dawson lot of cards and bought them. Based upon that I started to look for Barry Larkin lots and buy them up. Granted I could now buy 50 of those cards above for a couple of dollars but I still did. I think I have amassed every single Barry Larkin card that was mass produced in this country. Combined it may be worth about $10 but every once in a while I will look through my old cards to see what they are and bring back the fun times of collecting them. For some reason I have a couple of my better ones in a safe, mainly a couple Mickey Mantles and a select few rookie cards that probably hold more value to me than they are wroth. Oh and there is that 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr.

Then you would know what I'm talking about. A lot of the backs of those '86 Topps Larkin cards have the gum imprint on them. It seemed like about half of them did at the time. I'm sure people tried to rub it off, but you could still see the imprint usually.

I thought it was a good looking set. I liked the wood-grain border.

[Kingspoint]

I don't know, my impression is that when I was in comics in the early 90's there was a similar bubble going on. I haven't collected stuff of any kind since 94 so I don't know what it's like now. I look at a lot of the inspiration for the Marvel movies and it was written or referenced a lot in the early 90's. I'm sure it's got to do with the income demographics you mentioned. Now we're all older with adult incomes, we want to see stuff about what we read when we were kids. Anyway, the comic shops I go to feature a surprising amount of books that I specifically remember reading. Sometimes it feels like very few comics were written since then! The prices are all cheaper than I'd expect to the point I've thought about repurchasing my old collection. I also don't spot the "behind the counter" big bucks books like I used to. Not sure what's up with that. Anymore there are a lot of well drawn adult comics, borderline art, that bring in a good price per book. Overall, I couldn't tell you where the value is in comics these days.

Our daughter was given this in a glass frame last weekend by their cousin...just a gift. So, she has that to put on her wall along with the Orphan Annie she was given years ago.

Attachment 7573

[Larkin Fan]

Was that particular piece on the back of a quality card? The '86 Larkin had a lot of gum attached to them.

Attachment 7571

That's actually an '87 Larkin, but definitely his rookie card.

[Kingspoint]

Barry Larkin was my favorite player growing up. I collected cards as a youngster growing up but never seemed to get the Larkin RC. It was one of my crowning achievements when I was able to trade for the Topps Barry Larkin and then was able to amass the entire Larkin RC collection. Years later in college I was on ebay with a roommate looking at what it had to offer. He noticed an Andre Dawson lot of cards and bought them. Based upon that I started to look for Barry Larkin lots and buy them up. Granted I could now buy 50 of those cards above for a couple of dollars but I still did. I think I have amassed every single Barry Larkin card that was mass produced in this country. Combined it may be worth about $10 but every once in a while I will look through my old cards to see what they are and bring back the fun times of collecting them. For some reason I have a couple of my better ones in a safe, mainly a couple Mickey Mantles and a select few rookie cards that probably hold more value to me than they are wroth. Oh and there is that 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr.

Yeah, that '89 UD Junior card was a hot commodity (as was the '87 Bellingham card) in our Vancouver, Wa. shop.

Here's someone's list of the Top-10 Junior cards.

[Kingspoint]

That's actually an '87 Larkin, but definitely his rookie card.

Right. Thanks. Going by memory here. Larkin had the '86 Donruss, right? And, of course, my favorite, the '87 Fleer Glossy.

edit...looked it up. Most of his Rookie cards were '87 versions. The Donruss was '87, and there were too many of them.

OK. Just went to ebay and saw them selling the '87 Fleer Glossy for $150 and the '87 Topps for $50. I must have had 30 of the Larkins at one time in my personal collection and seven of the Larkin glossy's, and 15 of the non-glossy's. I sold them a long, long time ago.

But, then here's someone selling for a total of $50, ten Larkin Glossy's AND twenty non-glossy's.

[BluegrassRedleg]

That sounds like a lot of fun.

One day a guy brought in a lot of old cards from the 1890's (they weren't cigarette boxes, but of the same size...I want to say they were from soap, or something else, but I can't remember...I had never seen them before, so they were hard to price, while the conditions varied) along with autographed baseballs (two of them) from the 1954 World Series with autographs of every Cleveland Indian. Included were photographs, some signed of most of about 15 Indians. Portland was a retirement spot for a couple of their players, and I imagine that's how it made it's way to the area. That was a lot of fun going through that. Really had to guess on their values, and then I made some calls. Had all the stuff sold within a month. Basic rule of thumb: avoid sitting on anything on the retail side. Turn quickly. I would personally buy things for myself (such as Eric Davis rookie cards and put them away for years...two and three in the case of Davis) and hold them, but not for the shop. If I didn't believe I could turn something within 30 days, then there was no need to purchase it. There's where your 30-50% rule falls in. If a dealer believes they can turn something within 30 days, they're foolish not to pay 30-50% depending on the surety that they can turn the item, while assuming, of course, they don't already have too many identical ones already in stock that will turn first, pushing the new purchase to the back of the line and beyond the 30 days.

Had several sets of these cards in the shop.

Attachment 7572

Couldn't give them away, so with the wheel I made, they became part of "mystery packs" that guaranteed at least one card worth $1 Beckett High, up to $10 Beckett High for the "investment" of $1. The average mystery pack had between $5-$8 in Beckett High value. It was a way to get rid of the '81-'83 Fleer/Donruss excess cards with the guaranteed '87 Fleer quality card as the enticer.

The urge to purchase the first posters cards is still there. There was always a lot of fun opening a box of cards.

I used to ravage the snacks/cereal isle at our local IGA looking for Reds on the back of those Hostess boxes. I bet the manager and stockboys hated me.

Daggone Kelloggs got wise and put 'em inside the box.

[Ironman92]

Was that particular piece on the back of a quality card? The '86 Larkin had a lot of gum attached to them.

Attachment 7571

That's an 87....86 stats

[Ironman92]

Was that particular piece on the back of a quality card? The '86 Larkin had a lot of gum attached to them.

Attachment 7571

Have a good 10 of those and all from the packs. So many of that dumb year.

[Kingspoint]

I used to ravage the snacks/cereal isle at our local IGA looking for Reds on the back of those Hostess boxes. I bet the manager and stockboys hated me.

Daggone Kelloggs got wise and put 'em inside the box.

When I was a kid, I used to go to stores and take the Chiquita NFL stickers off of the bananas of the ones I didn't have. Going through and picking up every bunch to look through them. I'm sure I accomplished the same thing that you did with those Hostess boxes.

- - - Updated - - -

Have a good 10 of those and all from the packs. So many of that dumb year.

If you ever get a chance to look at them, I bet at least three of them have bubblegum marks on the back of them.

[dougdirt]

Yeah, that '89 UD Junior card was a hot commodity (as was the '87 Bellingham card) in our Vancouver, Wa. shop.

Here's someone's list of the Top-10 Junior cards.

Not a bad list. A few of them were never in my thoughts though as someone who has over 300 different Griffey Jr cards. I've still, to this day, never held in my hands, even another persons version of it, the Finest Refractor of Griffey.

The Upper Deck Rookie is my favorite card of all time. These are my other two favorite Griffey cards that I own (The Junior/Mantle auto is the holy grail that I will never own, but will always dream about):

Attachment 7574

They were my first two Griffey game used cards. The design of the bat cards is still one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I'd love to see a display with the entire set up. Gorgeous. The batting glove cards were still a newer thing at the time, not many sets were going there with most sticking to bat/jerseys, so it was a unique addition to my collection. They still stick out as two of my favorites along with the UD Rookie.