Shattered Baseball Dreams
Growing up on a farm without a television or a radio, I never got into baseball, or sports in general for that matter. But for a time, an uncle (I think) would buy my brother and I each a case of baseball cards for either our birthday or Christmas or possibly both. We both ended up with several cases of them. I opened mine and sorted them so that they were neatly organized by name and team categories both in alphabetical order. Sometime after college when I was cleaning out my room of personal items, I boxed up all those cards, sealed the box with tape and it has stayed with me through many moves. It now resides in the basement of this house, unopened for the last 30 years.
One day awhile back, I was taking some items out of the farm house basement to sort through and dispose of and found a nearly unopened case (one pack of 36 has been opened) of baseball cards. I'm assuming they belong to my brother but he isn't interested in them. I put them in a plastic storage tote to deal with later but have occasionally fancied that they might be worth something. Perhaps I'm sitting on a gold mind all these years and didn't know it.
With a few minutes of free time, I finally decided to answer that question and typed the relevant details into google and quickly found others selling their unopened and still shrink wrapped cases of the same baseball cards online for $15. Meaning, their actual value is probably quite a ways south of that number. Another site said that there were cards with value, I think a Ken Griffey Jr. card topped that list at $30 IF it was graded by a reputable company and deemed in MINT condition. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing in order to obtain those things, I might have to spend $30 or more.
So my dreams are dashed and I have this case and probably a few thousand more opened cards in a sealed up box elsewhere, all in mint condition (to my eyes) that are essentially worthless. I'm not sure what to do with them since my immediate family is completely uninterested in the sport of baseball. I suppose I could use them to tender fires in the fireplace this winter. I will probably just hang onto them and gift them to someone who has an interest in baseball card collecting. Is it even a thing anymore?
Ed, at one time I collected Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica cards (thus dating myself, I guess). I sold them 15 years ago or more. I have no idea of their value now, and in fact have consciously not looked lest I depress myself unnecessarily - but after all, even if I still owned them they would just be in a box somewhere, not doing anything.
ReplyDeleteWhich is essentially the point I'm at now. They're sitting in a box somewhere not doing anything. One of my goals for this winter besides physical therapy, is to find homes for a lot of this stuff probably through social media platforms. I'm not looking forward to it but it is probably better than just tossing them in the garbage can.
DeleteMy brother and I both had quite a collection back in the late 1950's early 1960's Mom tossed them away. I had Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris...you get the drift.
ReplyDeleteMoms!
DeleteIt's that "mint condition" that seems to always get in the way of "sitting on a gold mine" (a popular phrase in our family). Some things are meant to be enjoyed rather than collected, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteMy husband's best friend still thinks about his collection from the 50s that probably WAS worth a fortune, that his mom threw away.
That was the thing for me, I never enjoyed them. I enjoyed arranging them alphabetically by team and then alphabetical name order but beyond that, I never really looked at them. I got a lot more enjoyment out of Garbage Pail Kids which we also were given around the same time frame.
DeleteThey could make a great gift for someone's baseball loving child--perhaps offer them on your local Buy Nothing site? My dad had some very old baseball cards like Ty Cobb. My brother has them now and I have no idea what they're worth. Probably something but like you, I'm not interested in them.
ReplyDeleteThese days, I would pay someone $15 to not have to go to the post office. So selling them makes it very tough. I will try to give them away probably later this winter if nobody else is interested in them.
DeleteWe have a sealed box from ~1990. The cards aren’t sealed but the box is. Technically, they are my daughter’s but she lives far away, and I doubt if she’ll ever see them again. Me too for that matter.
ReplyDeleteLike me, you have cards from the era they were mass produced and thus not worth much.
DeleteAs you know, I am a baseball fan but never got into baseball cards. It seems one often hears about the guy (like Kelly's husband's friend) who had baseball cards that his mother allegedly threw away that would now be worth a fortune. My brother made the same claim. Call me skeptical but I'm not buying it. As your research indicates, there might be some here or there with some significant worth, but they are few and far between and most are worth perhaps the value of the paper they are printed on.
ReplyDeleteI've never priced out grading a card, but considering mailing it twice, probably insuring it along the way, plus someone's time to inspect it and seal it in a special case with the proper stickers on it, I imagine there are very few cards worth all that. Not to mention the element of risk in sending out an ungraded card that in mint condition might be worth it but in a lesser grade not.
DeleteI have been a collector almost all my life - but not baseball cards, although I really liked Jose Canseco because I thought he was cute. I have bins of pogs from the 90's that were a rage in Hawaii, much too much Hawaiiana such as old music sheets and ephemera, fabric, beads, and too many hobbies. I will not have enough time left to use all those supplies up but I still enjoy having such a stash. My poor kids will have to deal with it when I am gone - and hopefully they will actually like some of it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not much of a collector. I have tried a few times but just never got into it past the initial stages. Perhaps family history is one of the few things I have collected and stuck with.
DeleteI think you will have a pretty easy time finding someone interested in those cards, Ed. There are still quite a few folks that collect cards and an ad on Facebook will probably get you plenty of interest. I used to organize my cards like you did as well. I also remember that terrible gum that used to come in those packs. It had flavor for about two seconds.
ReplyDeleteI don't think these were the ones with gum, at least I hope not. I can't imagine what it is like after all these years. Probably exactly the same!
DeleteWhy collect baseball cards since we can now collect Trump cards! I wish I had some of the cards of my youth--I'm sure Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax, and the like might be worth a bit more (or I could frame them). I thought when you could buy every card in a. pack (instead of getting them in bubble gum), the idea of collecting cards was at the end.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the baseball cards have almost no value to me, they have a lot more value than Trump cards would!
DeleteWell, that's a bummer! I have no idea whether people still collect baseball cards. I wouldn't throw them out -- I bet you could sell them, maybe not for a whole lot of money but enough to make it worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm fortunate. I would have to come out more than just a little ahead for me to want to attempt to sell them. Otherwise, I have a long list of other hobbies I would much rather pursue.
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