Baseball card collecting isn't what it used to be- in fact, what it "used" to be wasn't even what it "used" to be, as back when I first started collecting cards (yes, we had fire & running water back then), packs cost a thin dime (yep- 10 cents) and, if you were REALLY lucky, you'd be able to find what we referred to as "accordion packs" - 3 plastic packs combined together, with more than triple the cards, for around 29 cents.
Although I started buying packs of cards in 1970, 2 years after I saw my first live game, it wasn't until 1972 that I really started "collecting" in earnest- collecting, as in attempting to put together an entire series merely by buying packs and trading for cards I didn't have. Amazing as it sounds, this was well before the existence of baseball card "stores" and the main avenues for purchasing cards came from the Ice Cream Man, the local Five & Dime Store, Woolworth's "Department Store" and a local, lower end department store, TSS (Time Square Stores) that occasionally sold cards by the - wait for it - BOX - something neither the Ice Cream Man nor the Five & Dime owner would do (something about not having cards for other kids- but who CARED about them- LOL!!) I was very fortunate, because my dad not only taught me all about the game, but also completely and totally indulged me in what became a vice for many years; I could always count on him having stopped for a cigar and a few packs of baseball cards for me (and most likely a few comic books, too!) Since my dad knew most of the players already, this was another way we could bond, and I still remember trying to stump him from questions on the back of the cards!! Of course, in a few years, he'd tell me that it was HE who could no longer stump ME...
So, in 1972, largely with dad's help, I set about collecting what amounted to the largest set (up to that point) that Topp's had ever released - 787 cards, including "Action" cards, a "Traded" series, "Boyhood Photos" cards, and lots of league leader cards. Amazingly, in spite of such a large release, Topp's never released a Rusty Staub card that season!! I kept thinking I'd find a "traded" card for Rusty, since they had one for Jim Fregosi, and their Nolan Ryan card was already on the Angels, but it was not to be (rumor was that he never signed his card contract that off-season, but who knows what the real truth was.)
The very first Met card I pulled that year, from my very first pack, coincidentally, was Mr. Mike Jorgensen- that's right, my first card was one of a handful of players who had already been traded (in the Staub deal, no less)!!! The last cards I needed to complete the Mets team were Jerry Koosman "In Action," Ray Sadecki and Jim McAndrew, all from the final two of 6 Series that were released that season. From starting that winter until this point, I had accumulated well over 2500 cards - which meant almost 1800 duplicates - minus the many Gil Hodges and Roberto Clemente cards I gave my best friend Seth (he always seemed to be losing them, or so he said- I still think they're buried somewhere in the pile on his desk!!)
As luck would have it, I happened to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins in Coney Island, Brooklyn, right across from where Keyspan Park now sits, right about the time my local stores were just about finished carrying cards that season (most store owners got them in during late January/early February, and stopped selling usually around May or so). They lived within a stone's throw of the boardwalk, Nathan's and all those great rides- but that wasn't my main focus on this particular visit. There was a great little toy store, called "Jack's," that sat parallel to the Boardwalk. My cousin Leah was all too happy to buy out whatever cards Jacks had left in stock, and they were only too happy to sell them! There were accordion packs, jumbo packs and regular packs, and sure enough, Leah bought them all for me- although I kicked in the $3 that I had, too (and while extremely generous, I think the entire shopping bag filled with cards came to a whopping $14, but that was a LOT of money for an 8 year old kid in 1972, let me tell you!!!)
Once we got back to their apartment, it was time for dinner, and my aunt was THE most amazing cook I've ever known. I could NEVER insult her by not eating when dinner was served, nor could I resist that food, so I remember eating through her Roast Beef so fast that it couldn't have made it half way down my Esophagus by the time I was back in the room attacking my unopened packages of baseball cards- well, all of them were unopened save for one, and in that pack was a Joe Morgan "Traded" card- so on the way home, I already knew that there was a better then good chance that at least one, and possibly all of the cards I was still missing might be in that bag of priceless goodies!!
After plowing through package after package of cards, including about a half dozen additional Gil Hodges cards (his last), there it was- the first of 3 cards that I needed- Ray Sadecki!! I already had his "In Action" card, and now I was 2 cards from completing my team, and about 3 dozen cards from completing the ENTIRE SET!!! (It seemed that there were still a few packs of the "older" series interspersed with the newer ones at Jack's- in later years, I sometimes wondered if my cousin and I were the ONLY ones buying cards there!!)
With about 6 packs to go (and again, about a half dozen Willie Mays cards), I finally pulled a Jerry Koosman- not once, but twice - in the same pack!! (I still have 2 of the 10 that I eventually ended up with, and they sit proudly in a display case in the wall of my office- but that's a story for another day.)
Now I was down to a mere 2 packs...the floor of my cousins' bedroom covered in wax paper and strips of cardboard gum...(and yes, that is scarily a photo of a piece of gum from an old pack of cards- it'll be around longer then all of us!!)...I almost didn't want to open the packages, but as anyone knows who has ever suffered from this disease, it would've been easier to eat a huge plate of liver then refrain from getting those darn packs open!
And then it happened...I opened up the pack, and took out the piece of gum, turning the cards over, and right on top, THIS is what I saw --->>>
That's right- the last Mets card I needed to complete the team set, pitcher Jim McAndrew, from the '69 World Champions, which now brought me 14 cards away from completing the entire set (and the ONLY way I knew this, thankfully, was from pulling a 6th Series checklist when the cards first started coming out, a few weeks prior to my Brooklyn adventure.) After pulling another Jim Fregosi "Traded" card, and opening the final pack (one more Sadecki), I stood a mere 12 cards from my final destination...one that would never quite be finished, sadly enough.
The rush was over, there were rides to go on, Nathan's Hot Dogs to be eaten, playgrounds to play in, and more great cooking to eat...and the cards went into their bags and boxes, and I could sleep comfortably, knowing that I could at least say that I had completed my 1972 Mets team!!!
The collage below doesn't feature the "In Action" cards- I just couldn't get them all onto one page, but these Peter Max-inspired cards will always be my favorites!! Enjoy- and let us know which series of baseball cards inspired YOU to collect!!!
Although I started buying packs of cards in 1970, 2 years after I saw my first live game, it wasn't until 1972 that I really started "collecting" in earnest- collecting, as in attempting to put together an entire series merely by buying packs and trading for cards I didn't have. Amazing as it sounds, this was well before the existence of baseball card "stores" and the main avenues for purchasing cards came from the Ice Cream Man, the local Five & Dime Store, Woolworth's "Department Store" and a local, lower end department store, TSS (Time Square Stores) that occasionally sold cards by the - wait for it - BOX - something neither the Ice Cream Man nor the Five & Dime owner would do (something about not having cards for other kids- but who CARED about them- LOL!!) I was very fortunate, because my dad not only taught me all about the game, but also completely and totally indulged me in what became a vice for many years; I could always count on him having stopped for a cigar and a few packs of baseball cards for me (and most likely a few comic books, too!) Since my dad knew most of the players already, this was another way we could bond, and I still remember trying to stump him from questions on the back of the cards!! Of course, in a few years, he'd tell me that it was HE who could no longer stump ME...
So, in 1972, largely with dad's help, I set about collecting what amounted to the largest set (up to that point) that Topp's had ever released - 787 cards, including "Action" cards, a "Traded" series, "Boyhood Photos" cards, and lots of league leader cards. Amazingly, in spite of such a large release, Topp's never released a Rusty Staub card that season!! I kept thinking I'd find a "traded" card for Rusty, since they had one for Jim Fregosi, and their Nolan Ryan card was already on the Angels, but it was not to be (rumor was that he never signed his card contract that off-season, but who knows what the real truth was.)
The very first Met card I pulled that year, from my very first pack, coincidentally, was Mr. Mike Jorgensen- that's right, my first card was one of a handful of players who had already been traded (in the Staub deal, no less)!!! The last cards I needed to complete the Mets team were Jerry Koosman "In Action," Ray Sadecki and Jim McAndrew, all from the final two of 6 Series that were released that season. From starting that winter until this point, I had accumulated well over 2500 cards - which meant almost 1800 duplicates - minus the many Gil Hodges and Roberto Clemente cards I gave my best friend Seth (he always seemed to be losing them, or so he said- I still think they're buried somewhere in the pile on his desk!!)
As luck would have it, I happened to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins in Coney Island, Brooklyn, right across from where Keyspan Park now sits, right about the time my local stores were just about finished carrying cards that season (most store owners got them in during late January/early February, and stopped selling usually around May or so). They lived within a stone's throw of the boardwalk, Nathan's and all those great rides- but that wasn't my main focus on this particular visit. There was a great little toy store, called "Jack's," that sat parallel to the Boardwalk. My cousin Leah was all too happy to buy out whatever cards Jacks had left in stock, and they were only too happy to sell them! There were accordion packs, jumbo packs and regular packs, and sure enough, Leah bought them all for me- although I kicked in the $3 that I had, too (and while extremely generous, I think the entire shopping bag filled with cards came to a whopping $14, but that was a LOT of money for an 8 year old kid in 1972, let me tell you!!!)
Once we got back to their apartment, it was time for dinner, and my aunt was THE most amazing cook I've ever known. I could NEVER insult her by not eating when dinner was served, nor could I resist that food, so I remember eating through her Roast Beef so fast that it couldn't have made it half way down my Esophagus by the time I was back in the room attacking my unopened packages of baseball cards- well, all of them were unopened save for one, and in that pack was a Joe Morgan "Traded" card- so on the way home, I already knew that there was a better then good chance that at least one, and possibly all of the cards I was still missing might be in that bag of priceless goodies!!
After plowing through package after package of cards, including about a half dozen additional Gil Hodges cards (his last), there it was- the first of 3 cards that I needed- Ray Sadecki!! I already had his "In Action" card, and now I was 2 cards from completing my team, and about 3 dozen cards from completing the ENTIRE SET!!! (It seemed that there were still a few packs of the "older" series interspersed with the newer ones at Jack's- in later years, I sometimes wondered if my cousin and I were the ONLY ones buying cards there!!)
With about 6 packs to go (and again, about a half dozen Willie Mays cards), I finally pulled a Jerry Koosman- not once, but twice - in the same pack!! (I still have 2 of the 10 that I eventually ended up with, and they sit proudly in a display case in the wall of my office- but that's a story for another day.)
Now I was down to a mere 2 packs...the floor of my cousins' bedroom covered in wax paper and strips of cardboard gum...(and yes, that is scarily a photo of a piece of gum from an old pack of cards- it'll be around longer then all of us!!)...I almost didn't want to open the packages, but as anyone knows who has ever suffered from this disease, it would've been easier to eat a huge plate of liver then refrain from getting those darn packs open!
And then it happened...I opened up the pack, and took out the piece of gum, turning the cards over, and right on top, THIS is what I saw --->>>
That's right- the last Mets card I needed to complete the team set, pitcher Jim McAndrew, from the '69 World Champions, which now brought me 14 cards away from completing the entire set (and the ONLY way I knew this, thankfully, was from pulling a 6th Series checklist when the cards first started coming out, a few weeks prior to my Brooklyn adventure.) After pulling another Jim Fregosi "Traded" card, and opening the final pack (one more Sadecki), I stood a mere 12 cards from my final destination...one that would never quite be finished, sadly enough.
The rush was over, there were rides to go on, Nathan's Hot Dogs to be eaten, playgrounds to play in, and more great cooking to eat...and the cards went into their bags and boxes, and I could sleep comfortably, knowing that I could at least say that I had completed my 1972 Mets team!!!
The collage below doesn't feature the "In Action" cards- I just couldn't get them all onto one page, but these Peter Max-inspired cards will always be my favorites!! Enjoy- and let us know which series of baseball cards inspired YOU to collect!!!
1 comment:
As a "post-script" to this, I had decided that for my 50th birthday, in a number of years, I want a complete set (in as good condition as possible) of the 1972 cards...IF it happens, you can BET that I'll have pics on the blog the very next day!!! In the meantime, I'll have o make "due" with a few of them (Koos, Hodges, Seaver, etc...)
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