I was born in 65 so the Big Red Machine was on fire when I was growing up. I started buying packs in the store. Then it became more fun and went to another level when I would work, save my money and buy a really good card at a collector's show. I remembering cleaning up my dad's garden, running into a snake, so I could buy a 56 Jackie Robinson card. My good friend Jimmy Murray, who I miss dearly, loved to collect baseball cards as well. We spent several summer days between the ages of 11 & 15 trading cards. We both had around 10,000. We would stack up our doubles and go through year by year, box by box, team by team. Great memories.

 

Smoke, not only were we both born in '65 but we probably would have been good friends as well because everything you described above, me and my friends did. I'll throw something else at you and see if you remember. I had a friend in first grade that wore a jacket to school that had all the patches of the all the MLB teams on it. Do you remember those? Man I wanted one of those jackets.:lol2:

Nah, just wondering how many hundred-dollar cards you ruined by affixing them to your bicycle spokes.

I would love to have some of the ones from multiple boxes when I was young ....60'S, Early 70s. I put a lot of them in spokes of a bicycle wheel to make it sound like a motorcycle, never even thinking they may be worth something one day.

Players like Clemente, Rose, Bench (All of the Reds), Bob Gibson, Hank Aaron, W. Stargell, to name just a few.

Smoke, not only were we both born in '65 but we probably would have been good friends as well because everything you described above, me and my friends did. I'll throw something else at you and see if you remember. I had a friend in first grade that wore a jacket to school that had all the patches of the all the MLB teams on it. Do you remember those? Man I wanted one of those jackets.:lol2:

 

I was born in the 70s but I had one of those jackets when I was little.

While not a baseball card, I always thought the 1960 Johnny Unitas Topps card was one of the more unflattering portraits in the history of sports cards.

 

I was born in 65 so the Big Red Machine was on fire when I was growing up. I started buying packs in the store. Then it became more fun and went to another level when I would work, save my money and buy a really good card at a collector's show. I remembering cleaning up my dad's garden, running into a snake, so I could buy a 56 Jackie Robinson card. My good friend Jimmy Murray, who I miss dearly, loved to collect baseball cards as well. We spent several summer days between the ages of 11 & 15 trading cards. We both had around 10,000. We would stack up our doubles and go through year by year, box by box, team by team. Great memories.

I have similar memories. was born in 1957 so all of the Reds building through the 60's to the BRM. I graduated high school in 1975.

While not a baseball card, I always thought the 1960 Johnny Unitas Topps card was one of the more unflattering portraits in the history of sports cards.

 

 

You're sure right about that being unflattering...but I always thought this Kruk card was pretty unflattering as well.

 

I guess I am really old but I remember flipping baseball cards in the bathroom at our grade school, trying to get other guys best cards . We would line x number of cards along the wall and if you could knock their cards down you got to keep them or force them to trade you to get them back. There were lots of days we had 6 or 8 guys playing. It was exciting to go to the local stores every week when they got new stock in to buy the packs of cards and hope you'd get a star player. We always asked for the empty boxes at the store to keep our cards in. The bubble gum was nice too. I can remember having stacks of gum in the card boxes. Wasn't good for your teeth but it sure tasted good. I think mom threw most of my cards I had as a boy away when I moved out. I still have a lot from my son's collection though. Actually have an uncut board of cards that is probably 3' by 4' somewhere. It came from one of the printers that printed the cards before they were cut. I don't believe there are any real star names on that board.

I was born in 65 so the Big Red Machine was on fire when I was growing up. I started buying packs in the store. Then it became more fun and went to another level when I would work, save my money and buy a really good card at a collector's show. I remembering cleaning up my dad's garden, running into a snake, so I could buy a 56 Jackie Robinson card. My good friend Jimmy Murray, who I miss dearly, loved to collect baseball cards as well. We spent several summer days between the ages of 11 & 15 trading cards. We both had around 10,000. We would stack up our doubles and go through year by year, box by box, team by team. Great memories.

 

Rook.

Smoke, not only were we both born in '65 but we probably would have been good friends as well because everything you described above, me and my friends did. I'll throw something else at you and see if you remember. I had a friend in first grade that wore a jacket to school that had all the patches of the all the MLB teams on it. Do you remember those? Man I wanted one of those jackets.:lol2:

 

Rook.

I have similar memories. was born in 1957 so all of the Reds building through the 60's to the BRM. I graduated high school in 1975.

 

 

Rook.

I still have all of my old baseball cards in my dad's loft in the garage. Hopefully they don't ever take any water damage. I'm sure my whole collection isn't worth much anymore. Used to love finding random Michael Jordan cards.

I have boxes upon boxes in my parents basement that are filled with baseball cards. I probably have anywhere from 30,000 - 50,000 of them. My most prized individual card is my 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. Rookie Card. I also kept a binder that I put all my Griffey Jr. cards in to keep them separate. Had a couple hundred if I recall correctly.

 

My favorite memory of collecting is from family vacations. We would go to the beach or Disney or somewhere south and to help us pass the time in the car my parents would buy each of us a box of cards. Every half hour or so on the trip they would let us open a pack if we were good. Toughest part was once we got there and had half the box left that we weren't allowed to open until the return trip.

I guess I am really old but I remember flipping baseball cards in the bathroom at our grade school, trying to get other guys best cards . We would line x number of cards along the wall and if you could knock their cards down you got to keep them or force them to trade you to get them back. There were lots of days we had 6 or 8 guys playing. It was exciting to go to the local stores every week when they got new stock in to buy the packs of cards and hope you'd get a star player. We always asked for the empty boxes at the store to keep our cards in. The bubble gum was nice too. I can remember having stacks of gum in the card boxes. Wasn't good for your teeth but it sure tasted good. I think mom threw most of my cards I had as a boy away when I moved out. I still have a lot from my son's collection though. Actually have an uncut board of cards that is probably 3' by 4' somewhere. It came from one of the printers that printed the cards before they were cut. I don't believe there are any real star names on that board.

 

We flipped baseball cards all the time but we just flipped heads up. If your card landed face up and theirs face down, you got to keep their card and vice versa. If they both landed up or down, you took two new cards and flipped for the entire pot.

I remember having a binder of the Cardinals, Reds and Indians full 25-man roster and the players were in order of the lineup and pitchers in order of the rotation. The best was the trade deadline and finding who they got an inserting them in.

 

I frequented Hometown Sports a lot as a kid. Ride my bike up there, grab some cards then hit up Ameristop before heading back.

 

Most prized card is an Albert Pujols signed rookie card. The signature is fading but I could care less because I would never sell it. Honestly one of the most exciting memories of my childhood was finally getting Pujols to sign that card.

Best friend I ever had was an avid collector. Had complete sets from 1953 on and about 2/3 of the iconic 1952 set.

 

Stored them in oak library card catalog files. Instead of simply ordering them by number, he had an interesting "historical system". Arranged them by team order of finish for the year, by position - starters, then bench. So you could locate the 1966 set, for example, see that the Dodgers and the Orioles won the NL and the AL; see the starting lineup, etc.