Do you still have the sports cards you collected as a kid?

[BillsPride12]

If you do why do you continue to hang on to them.... sentimental value or holding out hope someday they will still be worth some $$$?

 

I still have a big box of all of my sports cards from when I was a kid in my parents basement.  When I was a kid my grandpa was big on don't ever get rid of your sports cards because someday they will be worth lots of money.  That was true for his generation, and I am pretty sure he was one of those people who had some valuable cards when he was a kid that he didn't hang on to that were later on worth a lot.  But cards in the late 80s and 90s were so mass produced there just isn't that kind of value to them.  I check in with local memorabilia and collector shops to see if there's any value to these cards yet every few years or so and there really isn't.  I guess I hold out hope that maybe in another 10-15 years some of those cards might be worth something but I'm not expecting it.

 

I guess I have a little sentimental value attached to my sports cards and the players I loved as a youth but it's not like I ever go through them and the older I get I think the more the excitement of going through them lessens.  I have thought about getting rid of them but at the end of the day I really don't have any reason to as I just have a box full of stuff and my parents have allocated a little bit of space in their basement for me to keep a few things in "storage"

 

Edited Sunday at 05:35 PM by BillsPride12

[US Egg]

In the ‘60’s my brother and I had shoeboxes full of baseball cards, including ones our uncle gave us from the ‘50’s. 
 

I can’t go on….

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

1 hour ago, BillsPride12 said:

If you do why do you continue to hang on to them.... sentimental value or holding out hope someday they will still be worth some $$$?

 

I still have a big box of all of my sports cards from when I was a kid in my parents basement.  When I was a kid my grandpa was big on don't ever get rid of your sports cards because someday they will be worth lots of money.  That was true for his generation, and I am pretty sure he was one of those people who had some valuable cards when he was a kid that he didn't hang on to that were later on worth a lot.  But cards in the late 80s and 90s were so mass produced there just isn't that kind of value to them.  I check in with local memorabilia and collector shops to see if there's any value to these cards yet every few years or so and there really isn't.  I guess I hold out hope that maybe in another 10-15 years some of those cards might be worth something but I'm not expecting it.

 

I guess I have a little sentimental value attached to my sports cards and the players I loved as a youth but it's not like I ever go through them and the older I get I think the more the excitement of going through them lessens.  I have thought about getting rid of them but at the end of the day I really don't have any reason to as I just have a box full of stuff and my parents have allocated a little bit of space in their basement for me to keep a few things in "storage"

 

good topic. I hung onto all my cards, and they are all 80s and 90s junk cards, worth nothing.

 

my kids are really into sports cards now, and so it is fun to show them my old cards. 
 

I will say that at least I got a lot of fun out of my old cards, trading them all the time as a kid. I had a friend whose mom wouldn’t let him open any of his cards. He probably has boxes and boxes of season sets in his garage now, all worth nothing! 

 

[Another Fan]

About 10 years ago already (wow) I went through most of them and brought it down to the local recycle place to chuck them.

 

I saved players that were on the Bills and Mets and some of the more valuable ones.  A Derek Jeter rookie card seemed to be my most valuable card I found.

 

I did though in the last year or two buy some baseball card sets online.  The 89 Upper Deck box with rookie cards of Griffey Jr and Randy Johnson.

 

If you were a kid of the 90s that Griffey Jr card was like the hot one and iconic collector item.  So I thought it was cool in a way I make my own money now and could buy it.  

[ExiledInIllinois]

I wish.  Sadly, no.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

12 hours ago, Another Fan said:

So I thought it was cool in a way I make my own money now and could buy it.  

I thought the Treasury Department frowned upon making one's own money...🤔

[Mark80]

The 80s and 90s cards will never be worth anything except a few rare exceptions (Henderson rookie, Jordan rookie, Gretzky rookie Griffey Jr Upper Deck rookie, and other HoF rookies).  And to be worth anything, you have to get them graded by one of the top 3 grading services (Beckett, PSA, and SGC).  I threw mine away years ago except for my Rickey Henderson collection and a select few cards that I still thought were cool regardless of their value.  I never looked back.

 

We are in junk era 2.0 as we speak now.  So many parallels, so many 1/1s (Skenes must have like 200 1/1s it seems), so many inserts, so many variations, so many sets.  People are spending a fortune on them the last few years and production numbers are so high.  Unless its an auto or a very low numbered card, none of them are going to be worth anything again.  Meanwhile, Topps is just raking in the cash.  Personally, I just buy singles now instead of boxes/packs.

[EmotionallyUnstable]

I have my childhood 90s cards. Went through the a few years ago and pulled out all the bills greats. 
 

It was funny going through it with my adult lense…I have a Patrick Mahomes Sr baseball card. Something so easily passable as a child, now so obviously notable. 
 

I had a few that the online retailer I looked at were worth 10-15 bucks but nothing major. Most are garbage. I’ll hang onto them anyways, as I’d like to make a card table for the basement with them. 

[May Day 10]

3 hours ago, Mark80 said:

The 80s and 90s cards will never be worth anything except a few rare exceptions (Henderson rookie, Jordan rookie, Gretzky rookie Griffey Jr Upper Deck rookie, and other HoF rookies).  And to be worth anything, you have to get them graded by one of the top 3 grading services (Beckett, PSA, and SGC).  I threw mine away years ago except for my Rickey Henderson collection and a select few cards that I still thought were cool regardless of their value.  I never looked back.

 

We are in junk era 2.0 as we speak now.  So many parallels, so many 1/1s (Skenes must have like 200 1/1s it seems), so many inserts, so many variations, so many sets.  People are spending a fortune on them the last few years and production numbers are so high.  Unless its an auto or a very low numbered card, none of them are going to be worth anything again.  Meanwhile, Topps is just raking in the cash.  Personally, I just buy singles now instead of boxes/packs.

 

I collect vintage cards at this point.  I may grab early junk era things like Ozzie Smith/Gwynn graded rookies... Just picked up a nice Eddie Murray, but mostly really old vintage.  1950s, 1940s, 1960s, maybe some 30's.

[Augie]

6 hours ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

I thought the Treasury Department frowned upon making one's own money...🤔

 

I bet we don’t hear from Mr Meadcoin anymore because he’s in the Big House! 

 

 

I have no idea when my collection of cards got tossed. I lived in 9 houses before leaving WNY for college. (Technically 8, but I lived in one of them twice.) I don’t know how long it took for my mother to stop moving those things around WNY. I’m sure there was nothing really valuable in there, and they have no intrinsic value to me. My album collection, however, was a big deal to me. It was a sad day when I realized they had gotten too warm in storage and were destroyed. 

[PastaJoe]

I haves boxes of cards my adult son doesn’t want, so I’m tasked with going through them all to catalog and find a good home. Tall 60’s AFL (Jack Kemp), 70’s and 80’s NFL, 70’s and 80’s NHL and WHA hockey (Perreault, Orr), 70’s baseball (Clemente), some NBA (Jordan) and ABA (Rick Barry), and assorted WFL, USFL, and wrestling.

[BillsPride12]

1 hour ago, PastaJoe said:

I haves boxes of cards my adult son doesn’t want, so I’m tasked with going through them all to catalog and find a good home. Tall 60’s AFL (Jack Kemp), 70’s and 80’s NFL, 70’s and 80’s NHL and WHA hockey (Perreault, Orr), 70’s baseball (Clemente), some NBA (Jordan) and ABA (Rick Barry), and assorted WFL, USFL, and wrestling.

That actually sounds like a fun project

[BillsPride12]

Fun side bar to this conversation...although there's no real value in sports cards from the 80s-90s, last time I checked in with my local sports memorabilia/collectibles store I was talking to the guy that runs it and he was telling me how where the real value is right now are ticket stubs from sporting events and concerts, especially unused tickets can be worth a lot of money.  He had one from Thurman Thomas's first game as a rookie un-used and I guess there are only 5 of them in circulation(I have no idea how but they have ways to verify how many are out there) and it is worth like $500.  The coolest ticket stub he had though was an unused Chicago Bulls-NYK Knicks ticket stub when Michael Jordan first made his original comeback and dropped 55 on the Knicks, the ticket even has a cool hologram on it.  Think it was worth a few thousand.  Only a few of those in circulation as well.  

[Another Fan]

16 minutes ago, BillsPride12 said:

Fun side bar to this conversation...although there's no real value in sports cards from the 80s-90s, last time I checked in with my local sports memorabilia/collectibles store I was talking to the guy that runs it and he was telling me how where the real value is right now are ticket stubs from sporting events and concerts, especially unused tickets can be worth a lot of money.  He had one from Thurman Thomas's first game as a rookie un-used and I guess there are only 5 of them in circulation(I have no idea how but they have ways to verify how many are out there) and it is worth like $500.  The coolest ticket stub he had though was an unused Chicago Bulls-NYK Knicks ticket stub when Michael Jordan first made his original comeback and dropped 55 on the Knicks, the ticket even has a cool hologram on it.  Think it was worth a few thousand.  Only a few of those in circulation as well.  

Kinda makes sense as your phone more or less is your ticket these days 

[BillsPride12]

46 minutes ago, Another Fan said:

Kinda makes sense as your phone more or less is your ticket these days 

It does make sense...but as a kid who woulda thought your old ticket stubs would be worth more money than all those awesome sports cards you were collecting! 

[The Jokeman]

Just my Rickey Henderson (RIP) cards, 1933 unique cards as of last count.